@bkeske: The night before! Upon hearing the news, I for the first, last, and only time cried at the passing of a musician or singer. I'm tearing up now; I loved Richard SO much. So did Clapton. |
@tomcy6: Because at the time of The Last Waltz, the plan was to take some time off, then later regroup to recommence recording. Robertson wanted to get off the record/tour/record/tour merry-go-round, which he thought was an unhealthy lifestyle. In his book Testify, Robertson says for some reason that just never materialized. I don't think it could have, given Levon's feelings toward Robertson.
Also, while in '68 Clapton wanted to be in The Band in the worst way, by November 25th of 1976 he had established his own "brand", and had a healthy career that he liked going.
As for The Band, they brought in Jim Weider on Telecaster guitar to replace Robertson, a better player in my estimation. But Weider isn't a songwriter, and I don't think Clapton's writing would have fit The Band. And then there is the fact that Levon didn't want to be a backing band for a frontman, which would certainly have been the public's perception had Clapton joined.
It was their lack of new material (both Rick Danko and Richard Manuel never again writing as they had for Music From Big Pink and to a lesser extent the brown album) that crippled The Band Mk.2. And then Richard Manuel committed suicide, a fatal blow. One of the best singers in the history of Rock 'n' Roll, impossible to replace.
As either Clapton or Springsteen said in one of the clips I referenced in the op, The Band were "A miracle". |
Yeah @roxy54, I think of The Band (and others like them) as the counter-Counter Culture ;-). The movement they were spearheading was definitely swimming against the tide, and was almost on a cult level. Though their albums did actually sell pretty well, the masses were far more into Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and soon Black Sabbath, ELP and all the other UK Prog bands.
But your inclusion of The Byrds in the Psychedelia movement is a coupla years behind their timeline. In '68 they were actually a big part of the move into Country, their landmark Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album coming out that year. About as far from Psych as one can get!
The Seatrain album I like most is the second, s/t one. It contains my favorite version of the Lowell George Song "I'm Willin'". Speaking of them, just earlier today I picked up Peter Rowan's album The First Wippoorwill on Sugar Hill (the great Bluegrass label). |
@onhwy61: No disrespect taken! Roger Hawkins is one of my three favorite drummers, about who Jim Keltner says he wishes he played more like. Don’t we all!. I have studied the drumming of Hawkins for years, and benefited greatly from his musical wisdom. Jim also said he would give up his technical abilities in exchange for Levon’s musical sensibilities.
Another real good band were The Dominos, Clapton’s band on Layla. Their drummer was Jim Gordon, as good a drummer as I’ve ever heard. Too bad about his mental and emotional problems, a real tragedy.
The Dominos singer/organist/songwriter Bobby Whitlock is making and frequently posting on YouTube videos recorded in his home, wherein he discusses his entire musical history, beginning with Delaney & Bonnie. He’s very charming and entertaining, and a fountain of information. |
@sgreg1: Can’t disagree with ya, mate! I had tuned out contemporary Rock ’n’ Roll by the time Born To Run was released, but all the noise about that album sparked my curiosity. I got the LP, and found it to echo (no pun intended ;-) Shakespeare: All sound and fury, signifying nothing. Bruce said his idea for the BTR album was Roy Orbison produced by Phil Spector. Speaking of Roy: have you seen the film A Black & White Night? Bruce’s performance is unintentionally funny; I was actually embarrassed for him.
Bruce’s singing on BTR (and many other albums) exhibits far too much "bluster", Bruce trying waaay too hard. Reminds me of seeing Albert King at The Fillmore; he didn’t have to "try" to sound soulful, it just came out that way. I borrowed Bruce’s previous two albums from a friend, and had to at least give Bruce props for firing his drummer on those albums. Terr-i-ble. What a sloppy, disjointed, awkward mess, the drummer waaay over-playing. He obviously never studied Roger Hawkins (The Swampers), Al Jackson (Booker T & The MG’s), and Earl Palmer (Little Richard), and did not understand the role drums play in Rock ’n’ Roll. It’s great that Bruce finally fired him, but why did he hire him in the first place? His playing ruins those two albums, butchering the songs.
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is everything people say about it, but "The Weight" is the one that still chokes me up. It is---along with "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", " God Only Knows", and "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", all masterpieces of songwriting---the most "majestic" song I’ve ever heard. Makes one thrilled to be alive.
@onhwy61: I love the debut by The Electric Flag, and was fortunate in being able to see and hear them live in the Summer of ’68. They were fantastic, one of the best bands I’ve ever seen. The commencement of their set was delayed, Mike Bloomfield nowhere to be found (probably scoring ;-). He finally showed up, jumped on stage, and the band (which included four sax players: two baritone, two bass!) kicked into "Killing Floor", the Howlin’ Wolf song which opens the album. OMG, they were on fire! Unfortunate for the doors, who had to follow them on stage. To characterize them as sounding underwhelming is to be generous.
The only band which comes close to The Band for me are NRBQ, very under-appreciated and acknowledged imo. Their fans include Bonnie Raitt, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, and Elvis Costello, all also huge Band fans. But in saying that, I'm ignoring for the sake of this discussion the great studio bands: The Swampers, The Wrecking Crew, The Motown house band, the Nashville A-list players, Booker T & The MG's (the house band at Stax Records, heard on many recordings). That's another thing that made The Band so unique: a self-contained unit whose musicianship was as good as that of studio players. |
A lot of fair points, and I fully expected to see @onhwy61’s argument made. Sweetheart Of The Rodeo was big in my small circle of friends (my senior year band included a coupla songs from that album in our repertoire, as well as some Buffalo Springfield songs), as was Dylan’s John Wesley Harding and The Flying Burrito Brothers’ debut.
As for The Band coming out of nowhere with a unique sound, well, not to be argumentative, but they actually did. I have numerous times reminded everyone that Dylan began recording in Nashville in ’65, but that was not because he was "going Country", it was because that’s where the musician’s he wanted to record with were. In 1965 the members of The Band had no idea who Bob Dylan was, nor did they care (their idea of a singer was Bobby Blue Bland, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Hank Williams, and The Louvin Brothers). While the other groups mentioned above had some of their same influences, none shared The Band’s deep Rockabilly, R & B, Gospel, and 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll roots. Springfield had three singers---as did The Byrds and Moby Grape---but none had a singer of Richard Manuel’s caliber. IMO, of course. And none had a musician of the caliber of Garth Hudson.
Whereas the Sweetheart album was deliberately, overtly Country, in Music From Big Pink and the brown album, The Band wove the thread of their Hillbilly influence into the entire tapestry they wove. It didn’t obviously stick out (though they did include Lefty Frizzell’s hit "Long Black Veil" on MFBP), but their music was subtly infused with that influence. Levon Helm was listening to KDIA out of Memphis, Rick Danko The Grand Old Opry, and their playing and singing absolutely reflects that. The other groups has far less character in their voices than did Levon, Richard, and Rick.
But ya’ll are STILL missing my point! Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen (and Nick Lowe) were all very aware of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and anyone else you care to mention. And yet it was Music From Big Pink that knocked them on their asses, not those other’s albums. You may agree or disagree with Eric and Bruce, but that’s beside the point.
Clapton didn’t disband Cream and think "It changed my life" in reaction to hearing the Sweetheart album, The Flying Burrito Brothers’ debut, or any other album you can name, but rather because of MFBP. Springsteen didn’t react to hearing any album but MFBP by thinking to himself "and everything changes".
For anyone who didn’t (or doesn’t) react to Music From Big Pink in the way that Clapton and Springsteen did, so be it. And you can agree or disagree with me (and Clapton and Springsteen) if you wish, but I’m here testifying to the truth of the cataclysmic effect MFBP had on the 1968 Rock ’n’ Roll community. George Harrison flew from England to San Francisco to attend The Band’s 1969 debut show at Winterland. He did not come to America to see and hear Buffalo Springfield---or anyone else, only The Band.
For Clapton, Springsteen, myself, and a lot of musicians I know, there is a musical dividing line as dramatic as B.C / A.D.: Before The Band / everything that followed in their wake. |
Speaking of the influence the brown album had on The Band's contemporaries:
I went to my local Barnes & Noble this afternoon to return the copy of the new John Hiatt/Jerry Douglas LP I received in the mail yesterday. Even before opening the flimsy shipping carton I could see there was a problem: the carton exhibited a severe dish-warp, so bad that there was no way the LP could be flat.
But I of course opened the carton, and not only was the LP warped, but whomever pulled the album from the rack in the B & N warehouse grabbed it by the corner of the cover, causing the cover to bend and crease around the perimeter of the LP. Cretin!
I intended to have the store order me a replacement copy (it's a B & N exclusive version of the LP: the cover is signed by John and Jerry, and the LP is pressed of black and charcoal vinyl, kinda cool), but it just so happens they had a copy in their small LP island rack, in perfect condition.
Anyway, back to The Band. After exchanging LP's, I went over to the magazine racks to see what was new. There was a new issue of Uncut with Dylan on the cover, and a bunch of pages inside devoted to him. There was also a new Mojo Magazine with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young on the cover, the story on them inside devoted to the 50th anniversary of the Deja Vu album.
I for some reason never much cared for the album, and hadn't seen a pic of them in years. This picture really caught my attention: it was sepia-hued, and Stills was wearing a Confederate soldier uniform. That reminded me that the original album had a brown textured cover, very reminiscent of The Band's brown album cover, released a year before Deja Vu. A Confederate soldier uniform, like that Virgin Caine of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" would certainly have worn? What a coincidence!
Another UK band who mimicked The Band was Brinsley Schwartz; Nick Lowe has stated they were trying to be the UK The Band, failing miserably in that effort. Everybody musician I knew completely changed his approach to making music in the wake of the brown album. Guitarists ditched their Les Paul's and Marshall stacks, replacing them with Telecasters and small combo amps (the Fender black-face Deluxe Reverb being a favorite, along with the 1950's tweed Bassman), Drummers sold their second bass drum and extra toms---returning to playing a simple 4-pc kit, and tuned the drums low and dead, to get Levon's "thumpy" sound. Being English and having the "Rock Star" look was out, being American (or Canadian ;-) and looking working-class was now cool.
Of course, this was all happening on an underground, cult level. In the real world Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were what normal people were listening to, along with all the Progressive bands my kind had no use for or interest in. |
The brown album contains more of what we think of as The Band "sound" and style. I complete understand preferring it to MFBP (I myself did for years), but the point of this thread is to celebrate the impact MFBP had on the musical community in 1968. And it’s not an exaggeration to say that in 1969 the brown album revolutionized Rock ’n’ Roll music, and in a more accessible way than had MFBP. MFBP is very sneaky! ;-)
Jim Keltner still marvels at Levon Helm’s drumming on MFBP, which is absolutely brilliant. The drumming on the brown album is also marvelous, about half the songs featuring pianist Richard Manuel on Levon’s Gretsch kit. Richard is a fantastically musical drummer, and a very witty, creative one. Yes, there is such a thing an witty musicianship.
I was completely consumed by the first two albums of both Cream and Hendrix at the time of MFBP’s release (June, 1968), and didn’t "get" The Band AT ALL. It wasn’t until a year after it’s release that I had evolved to the point where I was finally capable of doing so. When the brown album came out I was ready for it, and listened to it constantly for a coupla years, absorbing not just it's music and lyrics, but the lessons they had to teach.
The brown album made almost everything else irrelevant to me, including Cream and Hendrix. Clapton was so shaken by MFBP he told Jack & Ginger that he was done with Cream, traveled to West Saugerties (the town in which the Big Pink house is located), hanging out with The Band as he tried to get up the courage to ask them to invite him to join. In the film Eric says "I thought maybe they could use a rhythm guitarist or something." ;-) |
