The Band - The Band
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Free Music Notes for The Band
Free Music Review: Perfection
Hit: 5 Stars
As good as Music From Big Pink is, this is The Band's masterpiece. They took the same sound from Big Pink and expanded on it using more complicated arrangements and instrumentation, giving it a much deeper sound. Robbie Robertsons songs weave together stories of varius southern characters and Maunuels contributions are just plain beautiful. Instruemnt wise, there is much more guitar on this album then Big Pink, yet it is still sparse by mainstream rock standards which is a good thing. Robertsons guitar never seems out of place and doesn't draw attention to itself, there are no extended solos and it always fits in with the other instruments. The feeling I get when listening to this album is one of sitting on my back porch with The Band and just listening to them play. Levon Helm's role is much more prominent on this album, as he sings the most well known songs, and his drumming is superb. Hudsons organ blends even deeper into the music, and Manuel bangs away on his piano balancing everything out. Danko keeps the beat in a way only he can. My favorite from this album is Whispering Pines, but every song is nothing short of brilliant. The remastered version is even better, one of the most noticable things is the acoustic guitar work, and their use of horns, both have been brought forward in this new mix. The bonus tracks provide alternate takes of many of the tracks on the album and a version of Get up Jake. Once again the music is atypical of its time, and each muscian is an equal part of the sound. This album is perfection, and is one of the greatest in the history of rock.Free Music Review: Don't Miss This Album!
Hit: 5 Stars
"The Band" was the Band's second album, and probably their most consistent and influential. At the time of its release in 1969 nothing quite like it was heard before; apart from, of course, their first album "Music From Big Pink", which is as close as it gets to being an equally strong release.
What makes the Band's early album so great is the simple fact that they have it all. Great songs, concerned lyrics, 3 outstanding lead-singers, brilliant musicians, inventive arrangements and tight playing.
All songs on this album are very memorable, many of them classics like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Across the Great Divide" and "Up On Cripple Creek".
Some of the quieter song that may not hit you the first times you listen to them, may grow to be favourites like they did for me. "When You Awake" and "Rockin' Chair" belong to that category. A shame the Richard Manuel eventually lost faith in himself as a songwriter, but on this album he still contributes to the song-writing on songs like "Whispering Pines", "Jawbone" and "When You Awake".
He may have felt it too burdening to live up to Robertson's prolific songwriting.
The bonus track features the great outtake "Get Up Jake", known from the "Rock of Ages" live album.
The other bonus songs are alternate versions of songs on the original; all interesting and most of them almost as good as the originally released versions.
A highly recommended album!
Free Music Review: The Band's greatest album
Hit: 5 Stars
A whole pile of great albums came out in 1969, and this is up there with every one of them. A bunch of powerful slices of Americana like the trucker's anthem Up on Cripple Creek (which is damned FUNKY - listen to that synthesizer! It's so cool!! AND it's my pick for the best Band song), the gentle, swaying anthem The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, with an enormously catchy sing-along chorus and very vivid imagery; the down-and-out Great Depression worker's anthem King Harvest (Has Surely Come), which is an awesome folk song; and the backwoods jam Rag Mama Rag, which is just pure, joyous, unbridled fun. You know what else is fun? I'll tell you. Across the Great Divide, Jemima Surrender and Look Out Cleveland. Great, GREAT songs with great, GREAT vocals, solid melodies, and fun piano parts. Love 'em both. They also tackle weightier songs quite well, with two unbeatable ballads: the haunting classic Whispering Pines and more underrated When You Awake. I've seen the latter of the two criticized a bit, but I like it very much - it's not one of the album's absolute highs, but it's not an unbearable piece of crap either. And the vocals are very strong, very chilling, etc. Now, it's not without its tiny little faults - I'm not a fan of Rocking Chair, its nostalgic lyrics strike me as being close to parody ("Ragtime Willie"? Come now, Robbie, you can write some GREAT lyrics, but this isn't an example...). But that's one loser out of a bunch of winners. Easily my favorite Band album. Easily.Free Music Review: This is why they are called "The Band"
Hit: 5 Stars
Maybe they knew. Or maybe it was a simple twist of fate. But never a band was named more appropriately. Probably they thought they were just being generic because of their history as a back-up band for the Hawk and Dylan. The truth, as this album proves, is that they were THE Band, as in the quintessential American Band. Listen to Levon Helm's southern voice. It is the ultimate american male voice. It bends like a river, but it has the depth of a canyon and the strength of a mountain. Listen to how loose and tight at the same time this album is. The harmonies are perfect (check out the "yodeling" on "Up on Cripple Creek"). Every single instrument is in the right spot in the mix. And yet you feel as if you were sitting in the basement with them, singing and jamming along. Everything, from the sound of the snare to Robbie Robertson's guitar has a "classic" tone, a tone you have heard in thousands of albums recorded afterwards. And of course there are the songs. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Unfaithful Servant", "King Harvest". Songs from and about the heartland. It could be a Steinbeck novel. To me, the magic of the Band is that they really summarize american music. They sound absolutely unique, and yet it could be any band that has set foot on a stage. It is "classic" rock in the true sense of the word. And this is why they are called "The Band."Free Music Review: The Band
Hit: 5 Stars
The Band's first album, Music From Big Pink, seemed to come out of nowhere, with its ramshackle musical blend and songs of rural tragedy. The Band, the group's second album, was a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort, partially because the players had become a more cohesive unit and partially because guitarist Robbie Robertson had taken over the songwriting, writing or co-writing all 12 songs. Though a Canadian, Robertson focused on a series of American archetypes from the union worker in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and the retired sailor in "Rockin' Chair" to, most famously, the Confederate Civil War observer Virgil Cane in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The album effectively mixed the kind of mournful songs that had dominated Music From Big Pink, here including "Whispering Pines" and "When You Awake", with rollicking uptempo numbers like "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek". As had been true of the first album, it was the Band's sound that stood out the most, from Helm's propulsive drumming to Robertson's distinctive guitar fills and the endlessly inventive keyboard textures of Garth Hudson, all topped by the rough, expressive singing of Manuel, Helm, and Rick Danko that mixed leads with harmonies. The arrangements were simultaneously loose and assured, giving the songs a timeless appeal, while the lyrics continued to paint portraits of 19th century rural life, its sometimes less savory aspects treated with warmth and humor.