I like The Band. I think their eponymous record and Music From Big Pink are both brilliant. Stage Fright is really good. The live record with Dylan is GREAT. The rest is hit or miss. Even The Last Waltz works better as a movie than as a record.
The cliche is that even back then they sounded like a band out of time. I am not sure I totally agree with that. They were building on what they did with Dylan. The Byrds had dipped into what we wind up calling roots rock or Americana or Cosmic American Music, as Gram called it. I really like the way they put their harmonies together: Levon along with Rick and Richard have very distinctive voices and they melded them to great effect. They were also wise to let Robbie Robertson just play guitar and keep his singing to a minimum.
The songs Levon sung are the most recognizable. "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up On Cripple Creek." UoCC has one of my most favorite bass lines. I just love the thick groove Danko gets going on there. It's thick and sexy yet very understated to me. I love TNTDODD because it tells a great story and has a ton of emotion packed in it. Levon, in the guise of Virgil Cain, sounds like a beaten down rebel unclear of why he's been fighting, why his brother had to die. Robbie is a hell of an under-rated songwriter.
One of my favorite tracks is a lesser known one: Jemima Surrender. Enjoy. And rest in peace, Levon.
"I like The Band. I think their eponymous record and Music From Big Pink are both brilliant. Stage Fright is really good. The live record with Dylan is GREAT. The rest is hit or miss. Even The Last Waltz works better as a movie than as a record."
ReplyDeleteJust like to say I agree with that statement 100%.