- 5 years 5 months ago
- Posts: 709
How many of you here remember the Canadian-American group, The Band?
The Band we knew and loved consisted of Arkansas-born singer/drummer/mandolinist Levon Helm, and the Canucks in the group are guitarist/singer Jaime Robert "Robbie" Robertson, bassist/fiddler Rick Danko (1942-99), and keyboardists Richard Manuel (1943-86) and Garth Hudson.
They were notorious for having played with Bob Dylan twice in their career; they'd first backed him during 1965-66, for which the sessions resulted in his Basement Tapes release in the mid 1970s. They played with him again in 1973-74, on his Planet Waves album and its corresponding live release, Before the Flood.
The group's first release was 1968's Music from Big Pink, which featured the future Staple Singers live staple "The Weight." This was followed in late 1969 by a self-titled album, which featured "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek." Other releases included Stage Fright (1970), Cahoots (1971), a live album titled Rock of Ages (1972), and a covers album Moondog Matinee (1973). Their fifth proper album was 1975's Northern Light - Southern Cross (which featured the melancholic song "It Makes No Difference," with bassist Rick Danko singing lead; this was featured in the film, The Last Waltz).
A greatest-hits album was released in 1976, at which point the band literally had broken up due in part to exhaustion, which was the result of playing a series of concerts featuring numerous guest musicians ranging from Muddy Waters to Ronnie Wood, which were documented in the 1978 Martin Scorsese-directed film, The Last Waltz. The group's final release with all five original members (Richard Manuel had hung himself in 1986, while Rick Danko's heart gave out in his sleep towards the end of 1999), intended as nothing more than a going-away present to their record company, was 1977's Islands.
~Ben"I am such a purist for old information on anything '70s and '80s."Are you sure you want to delete this post? Yes | No
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