The Band

[RangeRoverA1]

The Band, just like CSNY, is the band in which I don't like any singer. Songwriting & sound doesn't impress either.

[JK]

I find it interesting that everybody likes the first 2 albums, and not much after that. I never got into "Big Pink" that much. Let's take the opener, "Tears of Rage", for starters. I compare it side by side with Dylan's version on "Basement tapes", and there's no comparison, Bob's version wins hands down. There are a few performances i like on "Big Pink", but a lot of those songs they did better live. I love the second album, though. Strong from start to finish. Second favorite album of theirs is "Northern Lights Southern Cross". That contains my all time favorite song of theirs, "It Makes No Difference". If that isn't the best song ever about heartbreak, i don't know what is.

Silly maybe, but my beef about the second album is the cover, a bunch of wet guys. Once I've got past that, I agree, it's fantastically strong all the way through. One of the greatest albums ever. But for better or for worse I have more of a soft spot for Big Pink.

Stage Fright is another big favourite of mine. The vocal interplay is thinner on the ground but once again every track is a winner. And the title is most apt----they sound scared shitless.

Good to see you bring up NLSC. "Late" albums often fall flat for one or other reason but not this one. Agreed about "TMND", 100%. And what about "Acadian Driftwood"? Like much of NLSC, it benefits from Garth's late-night sweetening sessions. His way of setting the scene with just a touch of military flute, bagpipes etc is sheer genius. "Jupiter Hollow" is another----that long high synth note towards the end!

Not to forget Rock of Ages, for me the greatest live album ever recorded...

You were saying, RangeRover?    

   

[JK]

How about this cool US TV performance of "Forty Days" by Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks from 1959?

The music begins at 1:36. That's a 17-year-old Levon Helm manning the drums! Will "Pop" Jones is on piano and Jimmy Ray Paulman on guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVqu2vXgXN8

[JK]

And to get back to The Band when they were The Band...

The best live performance of "Don't Do It" (infuriatingly not to be found on YT) is surely the one they did for The Last Waltz. Seen at the beginning of the film, I believe it was the last song they recorded that day and they were shattered--although you wouldn't know from this shattering performance. When I saw this film in the cinema in the '70s, I jigged around to this song so much that my partner moved to another row.  

Edit: I tell a lie. It's here (at 1:30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-iW1-xgLEY