The Band - The Band
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Free Music Notes for The Band
Free Music Review: History as Mystery: The Band's time-defying masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
Some albums are declared "dated" or "timeless" based on particular qualities (lyrics, instrumentation, production gimmickry) that either trap them in cultural amber or leave them curiously unscathed by musical faddishness. But The Band's eponymous second LP (now reissued with greatly improved sound, penetrating liner notes, and some decent but inessential bonus tracks) is that rarest of things: an album that exists OUTSIDE of time, or rather *in* but not *of* it.
Let me explain. This disc was written, recorded and released in 1969, but could just as plausibly have come from 1869. The songs (gorgeously played slices of Americana, all) do indeed speak of certain historical events - Stoneman's raids and a visit from General Robert E. Lee near the end of the Civil War in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to name one, the coming of rural trade unionism in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" to name another - but the music and performance stands eerily outside the continuum of actual CHRONOLOGICAL time, and instead gestures towards a permanent, idealized near-mythical imagining of American history.
It's rather amazing, really: Robbie Robertson and his cohorts, having fully absorbed the American folk tradition, have reorganized it as an impressionistic snapshot history of the United States in sepia-tone. Given the preternatural way in which every single song on the album fully and flawlessly evokes American folk images and myths while simultaneously remaining effortlessly modern - again, a product of its times but still not of them - it's either deeply ironic or perfectly predictable that this most American of albums was written and performed by four Canadians (plus one Razorback). I'm still not sure which.
What IS beyond doubt, however, is that The Band is a landmark in the history of modern American music, and one which the group themselves could never live up to in later years. It is one of the very few albums I've ever owned that has a palpable aura and mystique; absorb it in all of its impossible perfection and you will feel like a magic spell is being worked upon you. To embrace the sweet cadences of "Rockin' Chair," to join in singing the ragged communal harmonies of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," or to plunge into the darting guitar figures which represent the deceptive moral choice posited by "King Harvest"...to do these things is to delve into the joyful enigmas of the United States' own founding myths.
History as mystery. Not bad for an 11-song piece of vinyl, really.
Free Music Review: A Brilliant Backwoods Americana Amidst the Swinging 60s
Hit: 5 Stars
"The Brown Album" is no "Music From Big Pink." But then again, "Music From Big Pink" is no Brown Album. The Band followed their brilliant, acclaimed debut without missing a beat in the heart of their flowing creativity. The sound of "Big Pink" had been so unique that it was impossible to attach it to a specific era, while "The Brown Album" is a distinct musical vision of an electrified "old days" matched with an acoustic backwoods accent. Each of the original twelve songs on the album seem as if they originated from an innocent jam session from the 1800's era Appalachian Mountains, and whisked away into a modern studio in 1969."The Brown Album" was officially titled simply "The Band" (like the Beatles' "White Album" is also called "The Beatles" and Metallica's "Black Album" is also called "Metallica"; but neither of those albums deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as this accomplishment). From the moment they cross the Great Divide, The Band harps from their own land of Americana, but the feelings they proclaim on the album are still applicable to the times, as genuine as a bottle of moonshine that could have been brewed in 1969 or 1869. Rick Danko's fiddle on 'Rag Mama Rag' sounds as if he travelled back in time with a tape recorder, while Levon Helm's distinctly Southern voice punctuates this song and several others. 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' is an emotion-stirring portrait from the Civil War, while the "drunkard's dream" 'Up On Cripple Creek' portrays a funky Delta epoch, with Garth Hudson taking a turn at the clavinette, with brilliantly quirky results. Richard Manuel meanwhile gives a typically astounding vocal on 'King Harvest,' a character study of determination and hardship, capped off by a sonic "minimalism" guitar solo from Robbie Robertson. It's nothing short of amazing that a group could make such a solid, believable statement during the swinging 60s with songs like 'Jemima Surrender,' 'Whispering Pines,' or 'Rockin' Chair.'
Aside from becoming one of The Band's most acclaimed pieces of work, "The Brown Album" also proved the group was strong and creative even without former employer Bob Dylan in front of them (though "Music From Big Pink" had already done much to prove that fact). No other band in history has painted such a stirring vision of the past to contradict an overbearing modern grain.
Free Music Review: Endlessly Fascinating
Hit: 5 Stars
I purchsed this album when it 1st came out -- and as I was first coming over to rock from symphonic and early folk music. Since that time, among the thousands of albums in my collection, this has always been my very favorite, most beloved music. It has amazed me that whenever this music comes on -- whatever the mood or setting -- I am *always* happy to hear it. I feel similarly about The Band's other 2 initial albums -- Music from Big Pink and Stage Fright -- but this one's even finer. Each voice is powerful, resonant and evocative. Each composition is strong. Each line, each instrument played is "just right" harmonically and rhythmically, and the ensemble is as tight as any music I know. At the same time, each player's work -- especially the bewilderingly wonderful Garth Hudson keboards -- is so complex and well conceived that new discoveries within each song still reveal themsleves to me, even after thousands of listenings. How can that be true?! It can be so only with the very finest of all music.
The bonus tracks here include rehearsals which show the arrangements in mid-form, some steps leading to the synthesis as ultimately recorded.
Best known of this classic ensemble, Robbie Robertson with his guitar contrasts some with the rest. His playing is spare, tighter than anything I've heard, and always incisive. Yet for me, the other instruments and vocals are more central to the full presentations. This said, it is clear Roberston's role in it all was crucial, and not only as guitarist. After he left The Band, some of the fire dropped away. Robertson had contributed beyond anything tangible he brought. Their later albums, recorded after a very long hiatus, are excellent but nowhere near the level of the 1st 3.
When I've seen these folks in person, I have been astonished to see that they switch instruments with each other during the set, and each player is excellent playing any instrument!
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is the best known in this colletion, having been covered by many other artists -- notably Joan Baez, in a 'nice' track, but completely outshone by the original. Yet this Band track -- wonderful as it is -- must for me bow to the even more stunning yet varied tracks: King Harvest, When You Awake, Look Out Cleveland, Rockin Chair...and, yes, Rag Mama Rag and Up on Cripple Creek. The great Little Feat cover Rag Mama Rag on their Down Upon the Suwannee River, and do it well. But any cover of this music is simply superfluous.
Free Music Review: An American Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
The brown album is one of the quintessential pieces of music made during the rock era. It is a study in underplaying and doesn't evoke the same pretentious feeling that most records from the same time do. In doing this, these four Canadians and one American managed to create the classic American album. It is almost impossible to define or categorize this record. It is not exactly country, it isn't really blues, not particularly dixieland, nor is it predominately rock music. It is, in fact, a stew of all these influences, with various other "old-timey" type genres thrown in the pot. It is the music of The Band, a category unto itself.
"The Band" is one of the few records that I can listen to all the way through, there is not one cut that isn't wonderful.
The record begins with "Across The Great Divide", sung by Richard Manuel. The song is a glorious opener complete with The Band horn section, and Manuel's trademark triplet piano playing.
"Rag Mama Rag", a raucious dixieland style send up with some tongue-in-cheek lyrics, is another classic. The whole album is loaded with classics. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which unfortunately most people know from the terrible Joan Baez version, is heartbreaking tale of a confederate soldier, sung convincingly by Levon, the lone American in the group. "Up on Cripple Creek" is a terrific piece of hillbilly-funk and was a hit here in 1969. The thing that makes The Band what they are is the musical interplay between each member. The bass player and the drummer feed off each other like few do. The create this bottom end that can be as funky as James Brown or as stately as church music. Robertson's shrilling guitar is the ultimate in understatment, but he manages to squeeze out more emotion in those four notes than most musicians could in a thousand. Manuel is THE voice, he has one of the most delicate and heartfelt voices I have ever heard in rock music. The secret weapon, as Robertson puts it, is Garth Hudson the keyboard player. The man does things with organs that are unholy!
The rest of the record is unforgettable too. From the heartbreaking hymn "Unfaithful Servant" to the rocking "Look Out Cleavland" each cut is golden. If you want to see what i mean about the bass-and-drum interplay, you need only listen to "King Harvest"....amazing.
This album is a must have for anyone who considers themselves a music lover, absolutely essential.
Free Music Review: A profound and important work of art
Hit: 5 Stars
What follows is a re-write of an earlier review of an OOP edition of this classic album:As crucial and important as any work by the great American composers Virgil Thompson, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, these four Canadians and one Arkansas farm boy created a perfect piece of musical Americana.
Actually, for that matter, "The Brown Album" ranks right up there with John Steinbeck, Thomas Hart Benton, the films of John Ford and the plays of William Inge in terms of capturing North American mythology, legend and character.
Working succesfully like a collection of short stories, "The Brown Album" celebrates the rich tapestry that is the land, the people and the music of Canada and America fusing both cultures into one brilliant pot. Just like those two countries, the music is filled with heartache, rich optimism, adventure, passion, sentimentality, nostalgia (without resorting to maudlin posings), recklessness (just listen to Richard Manuel's drumming on "Rag Mama Rag"!)and utter romance.
Levon Helm's voice rings through the ages like a finely aged and tempered oak cask holding a fine whiskey. Rick Danko and Richard Manuel with their respective fragile yet boyish desires lend depth and scope to the albums rich and epic sweep.
One the finest creations ever to come out of Rock Music, this album actually transcends the genre and, like the equally great Van Morrison work "Moondance", probably is beyond labelling.
Along with the equally great "Music From The Big Pink", The Band created with this work of art an unrealistic expectation that they admittedly never reached as consistently again in an entire album.
Although written in 1969, the music is timeless in the truest sense: it could have been written today as easily as one hundred and fifty years ago. All five original Band members were superb musicians and this work is a testament to that fact. There is not a false note or misstep to be heard on this work of art. An indespensable 10 out of 5!