The Band - The Band
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Free Music Notes for The Band
Free Music Review: Simply A Masterpiece!
Hit: 5 Stars
My dad got me into The Band many years ago when I was a kid, and though many groups have come and gone in my cd collection since then, I have never got tired of this legendary group. Robbie Robertson and the boys were not only great musicians, they were also some of the best songwriters ever. "King Harvest" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" are more than just songs, they are incredible stories inspired by American history. "Unfaithful Servant", perhaps Rick Danko's finest vocal performance, is very moving as well. This is timeless music that set the standard high for all rock music that has come afterwards. Free Music Review: They must have played at Lincoln's Inaugural
Hit: 5 Stars
When I say that this is the most thoroughly American
album I ever heard, I am very much aware that The
Band is 80% Canadian.And it doesn't matter, there
is a combination of twangy anglo harmonies, energetic
playing and make-your-feet-move energy that's just
pure Americana.
Best yet, it's an American sound that's undiluted by
a lot of 'virtuoso' solos on guitar or drums or a bunch
of electronic gimrackery. The subject matter helps too.
Rag, Mama, Rag just sounds like it belongs in some
low-ceilinged country joint on a Saturday night. The
Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down and King Harvest almost
sound like history lessons.
I seem to remember that this album and the equally
luscious Big Pink didn't get a whole lot of air
play. Too offbeat, I guess. But everybody I knew back
then had these two albums and the covers were the ones
with the most wear and tear and the disks had the
most turntable-induced hiss.
Stand the test of time? Well, my, yes. And next to the
blues, there's nothing more home-grown.
--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN 9781601640005
Free Music Review: It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This
Hit: 5 Stars
One of the other reviews on this site calls this recording the greatest album ever made. I avow that it is for me. It is the disc to which I isten the most often and have for close to forty years. Few bands have the three key elements: songwriting, virtuousity, and and rock. The Band always did. This album, in particular does. Free Music Review: Great album that appeals across the spectrum
Hit: 5 Stars
One reviewer questions whether The Band can be appreciated by people born not in the 50's and 60's. That is absurd. I was born in 1950 and enjoyed the Band immensely in the early 70's, attending 9 concerts in several different locations in Southern California, including the storied outdoor bowl in Santa Barabara where they started their concert before the sun went down; it was an unseasonably hot day in Santa Barbara, but an unforgettable one because of the music blowing up Santa Barbara's rather steep outdoor bowl and careening out into the evening sky.
I have played their music continually and frequently for the past 35 years, even though my tastes have changed dramatically to classical music. The Band persists.
My 18 year-old son and a couple of his local pals love their music and he even tries to interest his college friends in their music. Timeless music is a cliche, but when the Band was recording albums and playing live, it was very unique, especially in that era of rock n roll--it is unique in any era, I would argue.
I have this album, but since I also own To Kingdom Come, the ultimate Band album, and Stage Fright (and all their other albums) I play this album infrequently, but still enjoy it. It is interesting to read about other listener's favorite Band songs, some of which I like a lot, others seem second or third tier. It just shows you how universal their music is.
The tragedy is that they broke up too soon, a fact that R. Robertson finally acknowledged sometime in the 90's, since he broke up the group. Nevertheless, we are left with many great songs from one of the several essential rock n roll bands of all time.
Free Music Review: The Band's Magnum Opus
Hit: 5 Stars
Perhaps no musical group exemplified an anti-counter cultural approach to music better than The Band did in various ways. They influenced many people who were influential in their own right either at the time (Eric Clapton and George Harrison's approach to music) or would be in years to come (i.e. Roger Waters' approach to concept album writing with Pink Floyd) not to mention being one of the begetters of 1970's style "folk country." And while more could be said about them than that, there is plenty to say about this album and that is where the review will be focused.
The album opens with "Across the Great Divide" and it sets the tone for the very down home Americana feel of this album full of uniformly excellent songs. The latter song contains the story of a man who tries to explain himself to his woman and recounts to some extent the recklessness of his "younger days" as he tries to persuade her to not kill herself. It is not as grim as it sounds in words I assure you.
The second song is "Rag Mama Rag" which is a fun quirky song with fiddles, an offbeat drum pattern, a mandolin, a fiddle instead of bass, and the bass parts played on a tuba. The lyrics of the song were about a woman who only wants to play ragtime music...there may be a sly message in that but whatever. That brings us to one of the best songs on the album.
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is musically and lyrically a masterpiece. It is ironic a Canadian songwriter (Jaime Robbie Robertson) could write such an empathetic tune about the old South but it the power of the song cannot be denied. It was delivered with conviction by the only American in the group (the southerner Levon Helm). Garth Hudson gets some very textural sounds with a melodica overdubbed via his Lowrey organ, which sounds like a harmonica starting with the second verse of the song. It is an example of the multifaceted talents of the Band's members -all of whom except Robbie Robertson played multiple instruments. I never get tired of hearing this song, singing it, or playing it on guitar. It is followed by "When You Awake", a song with lyrics are about family and remembering with grandfatherly advice being given.
From there the album moves to "Up on Cripple Creek" which is a song with a very "back porch" feel which is (I must say it) deliciously sleazy in a way. Garth Hudson is playing a clavinet through a wah wah pedal to create the sound of a jew's harp. When mixed with Danko's bass playing, it gives a significantly low range to the tune about a narrative of a man who wants to lookup an old girlfriend for "assistance" if you will and how in many areas she completes him. "Whispering Pines" follows, which Robertson co-wrote with Richard Manuel. The song has a completely different tempo than the one preceding it and Manuel delivers a very wrenching vocal performance vocally and on piano.
Following "Whispering Pines" is "Jemima Surrender" which has a heavier tempo with boogie-woogie piano (played not by Manuel but by Hudson), Manuel on drums, Levon Helm not on drums but rhythm guitar, and Robertson on lead guitar. (The alternate take --half the songs on the album have an alternative take on this CD- has the members on their usual instruments for a completely different approach to the song.) The song is about the singer wanting a girl named Jemima to give in and...well...that is all I will tell you about it.
"Rocking Chair" is possibly my favourite song on the album. It is unconventional musically for the group in that there is no drums (Helm is on mandolin on this tune), Hudson plays accordion, Robertson is on acoustic guitar, and the timekeeping is done solely by Danko's bass and that is adequate. The lyrics I find to be quite haunting now in the wake of having lost my childhood best friend last year and for other reasons not to be mentioned here.
"Look Out Cleveland" is a up tempo rocker sung by Danko with some aggressive lead fills by Robertson backed by Danko's equally aggressive bass picking and is about "a storm coming through" which ends up devastating everything. (Compared to everything else on the album, this song stands out in its strident phrasing.)
From there the next song is "Jawbone" and it opens with a very slow start and alternates time signatures from verses to the pre-chorus to the chorus and back again with lyrics about a thief who is unrepentant. The album next moves into "Unfaithful Servant" which is sung by Danko and is a slow creeper about...well...exactly what the title says and the narrator tries to examine the reason for the faithlessness involved.
The album ends officially with "King Harvest" which is a frantic tune sung by Manuel. The song has an unusual sound even for an album of songs many of which are distinctive in that sense. The shifting tempos from verse to verse gives a distinctive sound as does Robertson's stinging lead playing which shows a pleasing restraint to it. The lyrics show the tensions of paradoxical attachments (city and country, past and present, etc) and is a tale about a union man who is feeling the pinch ala Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" and wraps up the album quite strongly.
There are also alternate takes of six of the songs on the CD release as well as an outtake of a song that would appear on future albums (referring to "Get Up Jake"). But the twelve songs on the album as originally released are the focus of this review and they all cohere well making this album a must have for anyone who likes good music.