Roger Waters and Graham Nash on The Band.

@jafant: Clapton put a carton of Music From Big Pink LP's in the boot (sorry, trunk ;-) of his car, giving a copy to every friend his visited in the summer of '68. That of course included George Harrison. George and Ringo became huge fans, and Ringo and Levon Helm very good friends. When I went to the book release of Levon's autobiography at Book Soup on Sunset Blvd. (across the street from Tower Records), Ringo showed up to have his copy of the book signed. He took cuts in line ;-) . 

So true @larsman. At Rockfield Edmunds was able to replicate the sound of the 1950's Sun Records Rockabilly "slap-back" sound, as well as Spectors' Wall Of Sound, using a reverb plate to simulate the echo chamber Gold Star Studios had installed under Santa Monica Blvd.!

@lloydc: Wrong. You really shouldn't believe and then mindlessly regurgitate everything you read.

When The Beatles were introduced the crowd went insane, rushing the stage and in the process knocking over all the folding chairs that filled the floor of the Cow Palace. I ended up right in front of Lennon, about 10 yards from the stage. On that edge of the stage (stage left) sat a PA speaker cabinet. I could hear them just fine, both though the PA and coming directly from their Vox amps and Ringo’s drums. I could clearly hear how Ringo had changed his part in "Ticket To Ride", his live part improving on the recorded one.

They sounded pretty good, but not great. By the time I saw them (summer of '65) I had already started going to shows of local bands, and had seen The Beach Boys the previous summer (with Brian playing bass and singing falsetto). I actually was more impressed by The Beatles opening act: Sounds, Inc., an instrumental UK band. But then I was long-time fan of The Ventures.

It's amazing that is was only two years later that I was going to The Fillmore to see and hear Cream, Hendrix, The Who, and all the rest. Things moved fast back then; bands now take more time between two subsequent albums than the time it took The Beatles to record their entire catalog!

@larsman: Very cool! I didn’t learn of Dave until reading about him by Greg Shaw in his Bomp! Magazine, around the time Get It was released---early ’77. Another life-changing moment! I made my way back to the first and second albums, being gobsmacked by "I Hear You Knocking" on the first---absolutely brilliant!

I too saw Rockpile live---in 1980, and then Edmunds solo with his great band in ’82 (in NYC) and ’83 (back in L.A.). Fantastic! My ex’s all-time favorite live shows. And I also saw him on one of his literally solo (unaccompanied) tours, He performed in a guitar shop in L.A., playing a Telecaster (he toured with Rockpile playing his 1958 Gibson dot-neck ES335, not knowing how much those guitars are worth!) plugged into a small combo amp (so not literally acoustic). He closed the show with "Saber Dance", his "show-off" song" ;-) .

Dave was my favorite 1970’s-80’s producer, of his albums of course, as well for Carlene Carter, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Everly Brothers, The Fab T-Birds, Dion, a few others. Oh yeah, The Stray Cats. Hey, a girl’s gotta eat ;-) .

Speaking of songs given to him to record: Hank DeVito gave Dave (look out Dylan ;-) his "Playing With Queen Of Hearts" to record (DeVito had already appeared on Dave's albums), and it is way better than the version by Juice Newton.

@tostadosunidos: I have a couple of Brinsley Schwarz recommendation for you, one being Dave Edmunds’ second album, Subtle As A flying Mallet. The last song on each album side is Edmunds backed by the BS band, performing a pair of Chuck Berry songs live in a pub in Wales. Very cool versions imo.

The album is also great in other ways. Edmunds is not a songwriter, and on his first two albums chose to record (mostlly) old songs, on some of them his ambition being nothing more than to reproduce them all by himself (he sings and plays almost all the parts).

That changed somewhat on his third album---Get It (maybe his best). On that album the songs are a mix of old (a dreamy version of Rogers & Harts’ "Where Or When") and new, with songs by contemporary songwriters such as Bob Seger (a killer version of "Get Out Of Denver"), Graham Parker, and Nick Lowe. Some members of Brinsley Schwarz play on the album.

The last two posts by @winnardt and @2ndliner (great name!) perfectly encapsulate the reaction The Band evokes. Mine of course eventually (it didn’t happen at first) became exactly as that of 2ndliner: The Band were life-changing. For those to whom The Band’s allure remains a mystery (hype?!), I can empathize. They are like the Rorschach test ;-) .

2ndliner: I too considered Mitch Mitchell and Ginger Baker (as well as Keith Moon) my drumming role models in 1967-8 (I saw each of them live three times in those two years). By the time The Band’s second s/t (brown) album came out that was no longer the case. I didn’t see Keltner live until he was with Little Village, and never (unfortunately) saw Richie Hayward. Are you hip to Roger Hawkins? Fantastic! How about Jim Gordon? Harry Stinson? He’s in Marty Stuart’s band The Fabulous Superlatives. Best band in the world, and that’s not hype ;-) . Harry is also a 1st-call session singer in the Nashville studios.

The Band were given carte blanche to choose the opening act for their 1970 Hollywood Bowl show. What other Rock ’n’ Roll band would have gone with Miles Davis? Now THAT takes balls!

One last point: Up above @edcyn opines that the singing voices of The Band sound "choked and forced." Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; here is that of well-known Rock critic and writer Greil Marcus on The Band’s 1969 performance at Winterland : "Richard Manuel’s vocal on ’Tears Of Rage’ was probably the finest singing that has ever been heard at Winterland." And of drummer Jim Keltner: "Such a sweet soulful voice (referring to Levon). And Richard Manuel was the voice that sounded like it was coming straight from heaven."

How can the voices of Levon and Richard sound so different to edcyn than they do to Greil Marcus and Jim Keltner? That is a question for which I have no answer.

Prior to 1967, The Hawks were "just" a Rockabilly/Rock 'n' Roll/R & B band. But as wolf_garcia testified above, a REALLY good one. That all changed in 1967. The Hawks (minus Levon) spent that entire year in the basement of Big Pink, being tutored in American Roots music by Bob Dylan. They emerged the best band in the world, were offered a recording contract by Capitol Records, recorded Music From Big Pink, changed their name to The Band, and redirected the course of Rock 'n' Roll. 

@larsman: No task involved in playing with Bob Dylan? You must not be a musician. ;-) I WILL concede that The Dead have the depth and breadth required to navigate Dylan’s waters. TP & The Heartbreakers? Nope, ’fraid not.

Have you heard Dylan & The Band’s Before The Flood live album from the ’74 tour? Play it immediately after the Dylan & The Dead album to see how the two compare.

Dylan also employed The Grateful Dead and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers as his live band, neither of which were up to THAT task.

Think about all the people The Band provided accompaniment for in the Last Waltz. Very few musical ensembles are capable of doing that. Good as they are at their own thing, being a backing band is a whole 'nother matter. Perhaps because they started life as Ronnie Hawkins band did they learn how to do that better than anyone else.

Howard Johnson was (he passed away last year) a tuba player John Simon (producer of the first and second Band albums, as well as the first Blood, Sweat & Tears, Cheap Thrills, and Songs Of Leonard Cohen albums) met when they were both members of Taj Mahal's band. Howard had previously worked with Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk, Gil Evans, Hank Crawford, and Archie Shepp. Damn ;-).

John hired Howard for the Rock Of Ages (The Band's fantastic 1971 2-LP live album) and Last Waltz concerts. Here's what Howard had to say about The Band:

"With Taj Mahal on that Fillmore circuit, we played with so many bands who were well known and had hits but who could not play by any standards I had. Yeah, they could get in the studio and make stuff perfect, but they weren't performers. And I wasn't trying to be some kind of elitist jazzhead, either."

"The Band were just so good. I don't know many guys who are that proficient who are not jazz players. These guys had a lot of flexibility. They didn't play the same thing over and over again. There was always some kind of excitement to it. Being an old jazzer, I always appreciated that. They were innovators. I think it appealed to people on a level that they didn't quite even understand."

@skyscraper: For a couple of shows I attended I was in the best seat in the house: the drummers throne ;-) . One was with Don & Dewey (Specialty Records label-mates of Little Richard, Sam Cooke, John lee Hooker, Lloyd Price, and Larry Williams) at The Continental Club (a Rockabilly joint in L.A.), another in the band backing Emitt Rhodes for his first live appearance in a quarter century, at the 1997 Poptopia Festival, itself a quarter century ago. Don, Dewey, and Emitt are all now gone, but their music lives on. As do, for now ;-), I.

Mike, I also saw Albert King and Big Joe Turner. And Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. But no Elvis, Roy Orbison, or Jerry Lee Lewis. Jerry Lee's still alive---the last (Sun Records) man standing.

@skyscraper: Nice to use real names Mike ;-) .

The first time I heard Bloomfield was the same as for most people: on the 1965 Paul Butterfield Blues Band debut album on Elektra Records. That was the first exposure to real Blues (as opposed to the imitation Blues of the UK bands like The Yardbirds) for myself and my fellow white suburban teenagers. Blew our Minds! I think every band in the Santa Clara Valley (home to San Jose) played "Born In Chicago" in 1966, including mine. That song, by the way, was written by Nick Gravenites, later the singer in The Electric Flag. Playing bass and drums on the album are Jerome Arnold and Sam Lay from Howlin’ Wolf’s band. It don’t get more Blues than that!

Around the same time, Dylan heard Bloomfield play, and brought him into some recording sessions. And on his 1965 album So Many Roads, John Hammond Jr. had Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm of The Hawks playing guitar and drums, as well as Charlie Musselwhite blowing harp. Bloomfield has recounted the story of showing up at a Hammond session, intending to play guitar. Already doing just that was Robertson. Bloomfield says when he heard Robbie’s playing, he decided to move over to piano ;-) .

Anyway.....in the summer of 1968 I attended the Santa Clara County Folk/Rock Festival, held on the County Fairgrounds property. The 12 noon opening band that day was a local one: Fritz. Two members of Fritz were guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks. Just another San Jose Garage Band ;-). The Electric Flag were scheduled to go on in the late afternoon (5 or 6 iirc), and as their time slot approached all band members---including drummer Buddy Miles, who at 19 years of age was playing in Wilson Pickett’s band!, bassist the mighty Harvey Brooks, and pianist Mark Naftalin---were onstage, milling around. Also on stage were four black guys holding saxes---two baritone, two bass. Have you ever seen a bass sax? It’s HUGE!

Conspicuously absent was Mike Bloomfield. Gravenites walked up to his mic and apologized for the delay, saying Mike was on his way. After about fifteen minutes (during which time we all took a "cigarette" break ;-) I heard clapping starting behind me (I always sit close to the stage, so as to be able to clearly see what the musicians are doing), and running through the audience towards the stage was a barefoot Bloomfield, holding his uncased Strat. He bounded up on stage and plugged his guitar into his Fender Twin Reverb, Buddy counted off 1-2-3-4, and the band kicked into "Killing Floor" (a Howlin’ Wolf Song), just like the album opens. Just writing that sentence has the hair on the back of my neck standing up like a dog in a fight. They sounded in-f*cking-credible! My still-fresh memory of having recently seen Cream and Hendrix paled in comparison. The most exhilarating musical experience of my life. That is, until I heard Ry Cooder play his guitar solo in John Hiatt’s "Lipstick Sunset" on stage with Little Village, during which time seemed to stand still. I consider myself very fortunate ;-).

Wanna hear the ending to the story? The poor Doors had to follow The Electric Flag on stage ;-). To say they sounded anticlamactic is a gross understatement. The Doors never sounded the same to me after that day. Like little boys, not men---Eric.

I agree @larsman. My invitation for other Audiogon to voice THEIR opinion does not conflict with that position.

Okay members, on one side we have Roger Waters, Graham Nash, Ringo Starr and George Harrison (both big fans), Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, The Staples, Muddy Maters, Dr. John, Jim Keltner, Elton John and Bernie Taupin (Bernie says Tumbleweed Connection was Elton and his attempt to make an album like the s/t brown album), Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Los Lobos, etc., as well as tostadosunidos, wolf_garcia, bdgregory, stevewarton, skyscraper, and myself on one side.

And edcyn, boxcarman and tonix on the other.

Cast your vote!

@skyscraper: I saw The Band live only once, at The Berkeley Community Theater on the tour in support of the s/t ("brown") album. I sent for the lottery tickets Bill Graham was selling for the Dylan/Band Before The Flood tour in ’74, but missed out. Then I moved away from the Bay Area just before The Last Waltz show was announced. Damnit!

But I did manage to see Levon and his Barn Burners at the House Of Blues on Sunset Blvd. in the late-90’s. He was recovering from his throat cancer, and could barely speak, let alone sing. But he had daughter Amy with him on stage, along with some band members who could sing.

Levon was playing drums better than ever (he sounded REALLY good). Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward joined Levon for a song, and you could see the mutual respect each had for the other. The drummers of two of America’s greatest bands, on stage together! Richie could keep up with Levon, unlike poor ol’ Ringo Starr, whose playing at the end of The Last Waltz movie is really sad.

So @boxcarman, are you asking people to put more stock in your opinion than that of Graham Nash? And Roger Waters? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or as my momma useta say, "Each to her own said the lady as she kissed the cow." A very old expression.

@skyscraper: There's a great video on YouTube, in which the current owner of the Big Pink house is visited by Garth Hudson. I gotta go there before I die.

An old friend (one of the guys who saw Dylan & The Hawks) and I were in the early stage of planning a trip to Levon's barn to attend a Midnight Ramble, but Levon past away before we made the pilgrimage. Damnit.

@stevewarton: And shortly after that Dylan learned Grossman had cut himself into Bob's songwriting publishing. That was the end of Grossman. Greedy bastard!

@tostadosunidos and @wolf_garcia: Love Procol Harum! With organist Matthew Fisher at least. Those first three albums are astoundingly good. I didn’t see them live until the Home album tour, after Matthew had departed. I didn’t like that album at all; gone were Matthew’s majestic classically-influenced organ parts, replaced by Robin Trowers blues-based guitar parts. Live Gary Brooker was in fine voice, and drummer B.J. Wilson was of course just fantastic.

Beside both The Band and Procol harum having identical line-ups (drums, bass, piano, organ, one guitar), each had an organist with a classical music education, singers owing a great debt to Ray Charles (Richard Manuel of course), and a history of playing R & B music.

I somehow missed out on Little Feat, but did see The Electric Flag in ’68, with Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles (and four sax players!). Awesome! I also feel very fortunate in having seen Big Joe Turner backed by The Blasters, mid-80’s. Big Joe Turner---now THAT’S a man! In The Blasters at that time were Lee Allen (a member of Little Richard’s 50’s band) on tenor sax and Steve Berlin (soon thereafter to leave to join Los Lobos---another great band!) on baritone. I just saw Steve live with NRBQ, both sounding fantastic. NRBQ, one of my favorite live bands.

I have two friends who saw Dylan & The Hawks at The San Jose Civic Auditorium, a show I would kill to have been at (though in ’65-6 Dylan was way too odd for my suburban teenage mind to comprehend). I also somehow never saw Moby Grape or The Byrds. Can’t see ’em all!

@crustycoot: My intent in mentioning Abbey Road was not to diminish that album, but rather to draw a distinction between The Beatles and The Band, relating back to Graham Nashes holding those two bands up as the two best in the world.

Prior to eventually getting The Band (it wasn’t until the s/t "brown" album. I had to work backwards to Music From Big Pink), I too may have considered The Beatles about as good as it gets. By the time Abbey Road appeared, that was no longer the case. They sounded like the past to me, I had moved on. Everyone is free to disagree with that sentiment, of course.

When I saw and heard The New Buffalo Springfield live in the summer of ’69 (see my above post), I had already seen and heard live The Beach Boys (my first concert, summer of ’64), The Beatles (summer of ’65), Cream (twice), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (twice), The Who (twice), The Jeff Beck Group, Procol Harum, The Kinks, Them (with Van Morrison), The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Fritz (the local San Jose Garage Band whose members included Lindsey Buckingham and little Stevie Nicks) and maybe a hundred more (including San Jose’s own Chocolate Watchband, The Syndicate Of Sound, Stained Glass, People, a bunch more you’ve never heard of.). By the time TNBS had finished their set, I considered them "better" than all the above. Well, except for The Kinks ;-) .

I had become a man ;-) .

Yeah @edcyn, The Band really separates the men from the boys ;-) . I didn’t get Music From Big Pink at all when it was released. I was confused (and perturbed) that many of the people who shared my musical taste loved it, and I couldn’t relate to it in the slightest. I was still into Cream, Hendrix, The Who, Jeff Beck, etc. Power Trios.

Then in the Summer of ’69 my teen combo (an old term for a young band that I still enjoy using) got the gig of opening for The New Buffalo Springfield at a local San Jose high school. We played our set, and then The NBS took the stage. The only remaining Buffalo Springfield member was drummer Dewey Martin, and on bass and harmony vocals was Randy Fuller, Bobby’s brother. I loved The Bobby Fuller 4, so that was cool!

They started their set, and as they played one song and then another, I became mystified. None of them seemed to be doing much, but they sounded SO good. Well, before their set ended I had experienced my first epiphany. I suddenly understood what The Band was all about: ensemble playing! Dewey’s drum parts were designed to serve the song, not impress other drummers. When the lead guitarist took a solo (thankfully, fairly short ;-), the bass player stayed with the bass drum, not also soloing ala Jack Bruce. Great 3-part harmonies (which were not a thing in power trios), songs with great chord progressions, including bridges.

There are other musical ensembles who understand and play in ensemble fashion, but when The Band appeared that style was certainly not common. That’s why when Clapton heard MFBP he realized (and has stated numerous times) that "music had been heading in the wrong direction for a long time" (an exact quote), a direction he himself had been leading! His reaction to hearing MFBP was to disband Cream.

As for The Band’s vocals "sounding choked and forced": Wow. Richard Manuel is one of the greatest singers I’ve ever heard, and Levon’s vocals are a joy to hear. I am far from alone in that opinion, and truly pity anyone who doesn’t get it. But I understand; I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now ;-) .

Interesting @larsman. As we all know, ya gotta play the hand you're dealt. Not everyone can be a John Prine or Robbie Robertson (or John Hiatt, Rodney Crowell, Iris DeMent, etc.), so has to be content being in a Stadium Rock Band. Waters---even with his modest talent---has done pretty well for himself. For those who don't recognize humour when they see it, that was a joke. Waters' talent is slightly more than modest ;-) .

Yup @bdgregory, Testimony is a surprisingly (to me) great book, probably the overall best I’ve read on The Band. I love the scene Robertson recounts, in which Dylan is listening to the test pressing of MFBP, and when "The Weight" ends he asked who wrote the song. When Robbie responds "I did", he says Dylan stopped dead in his tracks, just staring at him. Dylan’s view of Robbie had been permanently elevated.

Seeing accolades for The Band is not at all unusual (Nick Lowe stated The Brinsley Schwarz Band---of which he was a member---was a UK band trying to be The Band, and failing miserably.), but I wouldn’t expect it from one such as Roger Waters, whose own music couldn’t be more dissimilar from theirs. Though he rightly acknowledges the effect Music From Big Pink had on the musical community (including himself), it doesn’t appear to have in any way influenced the music he himself has made.

I think the second s/t album may be even more influential, and a virtual template for how to be a Rock ’n Roll band. MFPB is impossible to imitate or duplicate, but I hear the s/t album in a LOT of the music coming out of the Americana bands and artists. Those first two Band albums cast a really long shadow.