The Band - The Band
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Free Music Notes for The Band
Free Music Review: The Best non-British Rock Record Ever Made
Hit: 5 Stars
I wasn't born in this country. Although I've lived here most of my life, there are still times when I feel like an outsider, as when someone tries to tell me that American football is a better game than soccer. Whenever I get hit with such an absurdity, there's always one route through which I can reconnect with this country, and start to understand it.
The Band's self-titled second album encapsules everything you need to know about America. No one has ever described the American psyche more perfectly. No roots or Americana act of the past decade comes close to approaching its cohesiveness or down home feel. It's undoubtedly the best non-British rock album ever made; it may be the best one by anyone other than the Beatles. Few records have ever worked on so many levels - musically, lyrically, and most importantly, the ambience.
Quick history lesson: By the time the Band released their first album in 1968, they had spent many years as a backup act, most notably for Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan. All that time on the road gave them an almost telepathic ability to interact, and though they were a rock band, they integrated American music in all of its forms, from Dixieland to folk. With three lead vocalists, and the ability to play a multitude of instruments, they had an arsenal of weapons from which to choose. They were four-fifths Canadian, a fact which makes their ability to nail American culture so perfectly even more amazing.
Although not a concept album, the songs that guitarist Robbie Robertson wrote for 1969's "The Band" seem to take place mostly in the American South and West, sometime between the Civil War and the Great Depression - the time of Pax Americana, when the nation was struggling to find its identity. The characters in the songs - retired sailors sitting on their front porch, defeated Confederate soldiers, farm workers, petty thieves - all seem to be part of events over which they have no control. If this is history, it's history told by those who lived through it, not by those who made the decisions.
The best-known song here, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," illustrates the point. The song is told in the voice of a Confederate soldier involved in a little-known, but historically accurate, action. A series of riveting images, it conveys as much in three-and-a-half minutes as Ken Burns' entire PBS mini-series. Significantly, it's sung by Levon Helm, the Band's only American member, and a Southerner to boot.
If "Dixie" is the heart of "The Band", the last two songs take the album to another level. "The Unfaithful Servant" may be the saddest song I've ever heard. Intentionally ambiguous, (the time, place, and exact offense are never specified), it's the story of a once-trusted servant dismissed from his job. Rick Danko enunciates each lyric as if his life depends on it, wringing emotion from every line. Garth Hudson's saxophone solo is appropriately mournful, and Robertson picks his strings like a buzzard attacking a carcass.
"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" closes the record, Richard Manuel's vocal relating tales of desperate farmers trapped in the Great Depression. It's full of stunning images ("I'm glad to pay those union dues - just don't judge me by my shoes"), and when Hudson's organ illustrates the line "Listen to the rice when the wind blows 'cross the water," you honestly hear it. The song ends with one of Robertson's most expressive electric guitar solos, a masterpiece of restraint that suddenly explodes.
"The Band" may have more packed into it than most history theses, but it's hardly bland. There's a playful sexuality running through many of the songs that somehow comes across as naive, not lewd. Consciously or not, the back cover photo makes the Band look like they're from 1929, not 1969. The record is that timeless.
Free Music Review: Outstanding
Hit: 5 Stars
Having just "gotten into" The Band, two things stand out:
1) Robbie Robertson was absolutely right in breaking the group up when they did. Drug addiction was tearing them apart physically, ultimately leading to the deaths of Richard Manuel and Rick Danko. Levon Helm was, and still is bitter about it, but he was wrong.
2) Robertson did not solely compose these songs. While the original chord progressions and perhaps even the lyrics were his, the intrumentation and varied sounds were absolutely not. These songs should have been credited to the entire group. Robbie was an opportunist and took advantage of the situation. Still, it's very obvious that these songs were a group effort.
Buy this record.
Free Music Review: a fantastic band cd
Hit: 5 Stars
though i may not agree with mr john on a lot of reviews, he is bang on target on this one.this is a great album from robbie robertson and his talented canadian rock band.this superb album contains classics like the night they drove old dixie down,rag mama rag and up on cripple creek.i would ask you to get TO KINGDOM COME a double cd album of greatest hits from this same great band which i own,which gives a more thorough overview of this great canadian band.highly recommended.five stars.Free Music Review: Real
Hit: 5 Stars
When the sixties were bogging themselves down musically, with feedback,and acid-imagery, this record by this band reminded us all of what it is really about.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.