And The Basement Tapes proved to be the nexus of it all.
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.
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For some context, I’m hitting 70 (or is it hitting me?!) in October. I, like some others here, had the great fortune to see/hear some of the amazing bands of that time; Hendrix, Cream, Spirit, Electric Flag, etc., before the rigors of the music business and "unauthorized chemical research" took their toll. I had started playing drums and was enamored with Mitch Mitchell, Ginger Baker, etc. In 1970 or 71 a friend who was into "Americana" (before that term existed) took me to a show at the Pasadena Civic put on by local radio station KPPC 106.7. For what amounted to chump change we saw/heard Captain Beefheart, Little Feat and Ry Cooder. It was the most impactful musical night of my life, sending me on a new trajectory as both a listener and a player! Richie Hayward with LF and Jim Keltner with Ry Cooder played with such unique style and feel serving to completely reroute my neural pathways devoted to rhythmic perception aka blew my mind! Also, the Band’s first two albums are absolute masterpieces! We got to see them at the Hollywood Bowl with the Miles Davis Bitches Brew era band opening the show. Whew! |
@bdp24 - Hah! You are right - I am not a musician, though I am teaching myself piano these days. But I think that matters not a jot! And it would serve no purpose listening to Dylan and the Dead after Dylan and the Band, as I would have zero expectations that the Grateful Dead would sound like the Band, and I'm sure that the Dead had no intention of replicating the Band. The Band covered Dylan well. The Dead covered Dylan well. Jerry covered Dylan well. So did the Byrds. It's all good! |
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. |
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