2. music
  3. 179765-2248

Roger Waters and Graham Nash on The Band.

I’ve just started reading the new book Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble; The Inside Story Of The Man, The Music, and The Midnight Ramble by John W. Barry (with a forward by Ringo Starr). I’m only on page 25 of the first chapter, and already I have read something I found very surprising:

Roger Waters: "Big Pink changed everything, overnight." (What have I been telling ya’ll? ;-). He continues: "It was sonic. It was the sound that they made all playing together. It was what they created. It was just completely different than anything I had heard before and it was remarkable. They (sic) were great songs as well. When I heard the record I went ’Wow, what was that?’ What a great band they were." No sh*t Sherlock.

Not as surprising is what I read in the paragraphs immediately preceding that of Waters, that being:

"When they served as opening act for the 1974 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young stadium tour, said Graham Nash: ’I would watch their set with great interest, of course.’

"But even though The Band was opening for CSNY, Nash remained in awe of them and, as a result, was too shy to approach any of the guys or chat them up."

’I should have, of course. I’m not particularly un-famous myself. But I was just too shy. They were too incredible a band in my mind...I mean holy sh*t, they were The Band...they were incredible. They were the best band in the world apart from The Beatles, as far as I was concerned. I was just a fan.’

Every good musician I knew felt just as did Roger and Graham, and still do. The best self-contained band (writing, singing, and playing) in the entire history of Rock ’n’ Roll. You see, Graham had the order reversed ;-) . When Abbey Road came out, it sounded like yesterdays news to me. The Band’s first two albums had completely changed the rules of the game. Those two albums still sound fresh, like they were recorded today. Abbey Road sounded dated to me on release day.

bdp24

Showing 5 responses by skyscraper

skyscraper
832 posts
 

Great story Eric. You've been to some terrific shows. You're lucky to have seen Hendrix too before he passed. 

Mike

 

skyscraper
832 posts
 

Here’s some miscellaneous, not so close encounters with The Band and The Byrds both. I attended the upstate NY State University College at New Paltz in the early seventies. My girlfriend and I had a friend then who commuted to school from Woodstock, not too far away. She invited us up to visit one weekend, and while there drove us right past the Big Pink house. There was nobody there, but still.

That summer, ’71, my girlfriend got a job working as a TWA ground hostess at Kennedy Airport in Queens. I stayed up at school that summer working, while she stayed with her folks. She called one day to say she met The Byrds, who were boarding a flight back to Los Angeles. And not only that, Roger McGuinn had propositioned her, asking her go back to L.A. with him.

I’ve borne McGuinn a grudge ever since, even though my she declined his entreaties. and missed her chance at becoming a groupie. Now that I’m thinking about this fifty years later, I’d still like to punch him in nose.

Mike

.

skyscraper
832 posts
 

Bdp24, sorry you missed your chance to see Levon at his Midnight Ramble. Levon’s passing was a great loss. The Band, when together, put on a terrific show. I was lucky enough to have caught a concert of theirs at C.W. Post College on Long Island back in 1970 or thereabouts.

I’ll look for that Garth Hudson YouTube video you mentioned.

Mike

 

skyscraper
832 posts
 

One other thing bdp4. I’m jealous you got to see Mike Bloomfield and the Electric Flag. How was that Electric Flag show. What a fabulous and original blues guitarist. to have seen. His Live at Bill Graham’s Filmore West album is an all time favorite. It’s a terrible shame he self destructed the way he did.?

If you’re ever near Roanoke stop by and you can listen to some fairly obscure Bloomfield albums from in his heyday that I’ve collected over the years. I don’t have his later stuff, when he must of have been drugged out, as his decline too painful to listen to. He was cookin’ when he was playing with the Electric Flag though.

Sorry I missed seeing him. Missed a chance in my high school years to see Cream too. I didn’t have the eight bucks to go with some friends to see Clapton and company when they played the Fillmore East in NYC. Caught him later on a bill with Dylan in the late 1970's Clapton’s playing was pretty bad at that point though, due to substance abuse too.

Mike

skyscraper
832 posts
 

Larsman, that’s off Nick Gravenites "My Labors " album. Is one of a few cuts from Mike Bloomfield’s Fillmore concerts with his vocals that didn’t make the "Live at Bill Grahams Fillmore West" album. Some duplicates too on the CD version. A few other cuts from those Bloomfield concerts are available on the Wolfgang’s Vault site.

Eric, my late wife, as a youngster, got to see the young Elvis perform at a concert he did in Seattle. We can both eat our hearts out on that. She recalled a lot of girl’s screaming and dancing in the aisles.

Mike

More to discover