After having been around for ten years and playing with early rock and roller Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan respectively, the Band released their debut album in 1967. Big Pink, as the original liner notes state, was an actual pink coloured house in upstate New York in which these four Canadians and one American composed and recorded the tracks heard here. The album stands as much as a cultural and social force, as a fiercely assured debut album. Hippie purists and old school rock critics have no doubt championed the originality behind holing up in a house in the rural countryside and praised this decision as a true statement of the 1960's aesthetic. As countless pastoral poets, writers, and musicians have done before, obviously, retreating to the country for artistic inspiration is not a new idea. Goodness knows what happened to the hippies. Did they snort coke in the 70's? Lose their hair in the 80s? Become record company A & R reps or stockbrokers in the 90s? Generational mudslinging aside, there is also something distinctly Canadian about the Band which I again know nothing about apart from what I've read. Having formed in Toronto, they apparently paid their dues on the club circuit, or I guess back then was considered the "coffeehouse" circuit, and frequented the same establishments as their country's peers Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Talk to any older Canadian hippie who saw the Band back in the 1960s and he will tell you that their songs bring him back to Royal Canadian Legion beer halls and scummy taverns along Queen St. in Toronto. Living in that same city, I can sort of imagine how the music would bring a tear to our hippie's eye, even though the Queen St. I know now houses The Gap and HMV, as well as other designer stores. But let's discuss the songs, which are lovely, melancholy and soulful all at once.

It was clear that although they started as rock and roll purists, their deepest roots were in country and early R and B. The Richard Manuel/Dylan penned opener "Tears of Rage" certainly demonstrated that Richard Manuel was a more soulful singer than Dylan, and subtle touches such as the horn section does evoke images of smoky beer halls, or perhaps the start of a New Orleans funeral march. "To Kingdom Come" and "The Weight", both Robertson songs, manage to convey funkiness and countryish tendencies; imagine a country band covering old soul songs. I actually heard "The Weight" recently in the adolescent angst film "Igby Goes Down", which puzzled me, as it seemed out of place in that rather cold film. Manuel's songs "In A Station" and "We Can Talk" are considerably poppier, with deft piano plunking and harmonized background vocals. "Chest Fever" opens with a cool organ riff (when was the last time you heard a cool organ riff?), then rocks out in the chorus, stopping only with a brief horn interlude. Everything is closed off with a low-key version of Dylan's "I Shall Be Released", and at the album's end, we are left with the afterglow of the music's warmth, because I believe it is a very complex and soulful album. The music's best moments reveal themselves after each consecutive listen.

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Arguably their finest hour, The Band's self titled second album continued where Big Pink left off, but built on the debut with an astonishing addition of instrumental colour and boasted a tighter production. I don't have the remastered copy, but my c.d. still comes bounding out of the speakers with incredible clarity - not one sound renders this album dated. If anything, we can hear traces of the album in Wilco, Ron Sexsmith, Ryan Adams and other folk-rock alt/country soulsters in the current music world. The seemingly one-man band Garth Hudson controls all the instruments which make the album sound so special: organ, clavinette, piano, accordion, soprano, tenor and baritone sax, slide trumpet, etc. Robertson at this point took full control of the songwriting, penning eight of the tracks himself, and collaborating on the others. For all the critical praise this album has received, I've never been able to understand the description of the group's "musical complexity". The Rolling Stone Album Guide states "nearly all the songs boasted tricky metrical changes and shifts in style..." but I don't hear any wanking guitar solos or showboat drumming, and regardless of the certain style they attempted, the country, folk and soul influences were still there. Plus, the Band has always been a collective affair; everything that one member does compliments the other. Brotherhood, camraderie, hippie love! The songs, while direct and immediate, are all written within the limits of pop structures and are almost all in 4/4 time. Perhaps Rolling Stone's writers fried their brains with too much much acid at this point and hence anything beyond three chords was "complex".

Anyway, we first hear "Across The Great Divide" come out swinging, all anthemic and marching along like a commerical for the Canadian tourism industry. Everytime I hear it, I want to raise my glass of Algonquin ale and belch loudly and proudly. Ah but wait..."Rag Mama Rag" sends us down south! We're suddenly jamming with the guys at a corn roast! "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was a hit for Linda Ronstadt and frankly, her version makes me want to blow chunks. Although, I'm not really a fan of "cleaned up" versions of songs by "serious" songwriters. I have equal contempt for say, Peter Paul and Mary's demolition of Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind", but I suppose this is open for discussion elsewhere. "Up On Cripple Creek" is downright funky - probably as funky as these guys ever got. Not James Brown funky mind you, but kind of shake-your-rump-around-the-campfire funky. "Whispering Pines" sounds like Harvest-era Neil Young.So this is an important album. Whether you love or hate The Band, there's just no denying how everything comes together here: the production, playing and songwriting. Perhaps it is better listened to followed by a spin of Van Morrison's "Moondance", or maybe listen to Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde" beforehand. Whatever you do, bring a case of Canadian ale and enjoy this classic swan song.

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Readers Comments Logan Boss hlboss@gdph.state.ga.us The shitty (albeit hit)version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was by Joan Baez -- not Linda Ronstadt. For what it's worth, this wonderful song, which I was fortunate to hear The Band perform a number of times, is lousy for karakoe. After winning over the crowd with an awesome performance of Johnny Horton's "North To Alaska" sevral years ago in a Colorado Springs bar, a paddling buddy and I were jeered off the stage attempting to sing this one. Frederic Saniette saniette@hotmail.com While it's nice to see The Band reviewed on this site, the reviews are kind of lightweight and don't discuss the actual music in very much detail. Plus, the rankings should be a lot higher - a 9 or 9 and 1/2 for "Big Pink", a 10 for "The Band" (truly one of the greatest albums of all time), and an 8 or 8 and 1/2 for "Stage Fright," a very underrated record. The reviews themselves don't really contain any negative comments, so I wonder why the rating is so low compared to the uniform praise of the review. As for The Band being firmly placed within the pop structure, a song like "Unfaithful Servant" is clearly outside it, unlike any pop song I've ever heard. Unlike most pop, The Band frequently employs softer choruses than verses as on "King Harvest." And, by the way, "The Band" is an embracing of American roots music not a "commercial for the Canadian tourist industry." It is difficult to tell The Band is Canadian so expertly do they evoke Americana, and I think the rev! iews focused too much on their Canadian roots, which are not all that obvious in their music. Anyway, Levon Helm is from Arkansas, and a good deal of their authenticity stems from him.

Stage Fright 7½ ( 1970 )
Strawberry Wine / Sleeping / Time To Kill / Just Another Whistle Stop / All La Glory / The Shape I'm In / The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show / Daniel and The Sacred Harp / Stage Fright / The Rumor

The Band's third album contained songs that were more direct and catchy than tracks on the first two records. It also found the band in a more jovial mood than its previous, more sombre offerings. Enlisting a very young Todd Rundgren to engineer the session, they soon found this troubling, and much artistic conflict ensued, resulting in one incident in which Levon Helm chased Rundgren around the studio threatening to kick his ass. What the group was looking for was someone who could capture the band's live sound and not only was Rundgren fast in those days, but he apparently was a minimalist kind of producer as well. The album's subsequent production does have a more "live" feel to it, showcasing the straightahead guitar/bass/drums/piano lineup of the group's bar band past, ironic for an album entitled "Stage Fright". Perhaps they just wanted to cut loose with a fun album of countrified rave ups, as Robertson had said in interviews after the second album that he wanted to dispel the group's "serious" image. They were, after all, a rock and roll band at heart.

"Strawberry Wine" kicks things off quite nicely, all jumpy and bouncy. The first impression I received from listening to the first few songs was that they sounded like Neil Young and Crazy Horse without the monstrous feedback. "Sleeping" is a pleasant ballad, and "Time To Kill" rocks the house with a great hook at the bridge. "Just Another Whistle Stop" is my personal highlight from the album. It's the ultimate driving or road trip song, and also a great guitar solo thrown in. "All La Glory" is a kind of blah lament on the perils of fame, as I suppose they were superstars at this point, showered with the cliched money and drugs which fame brings. "The Shape I'm In" continues the Crazy Horse rockers and I suppose is the song most famous for kicking off the legendary "Last Waltz" live set. "W.S. Walcott Medicine Show" is a funky return to the style of the previous album and "Daniel and the Sacred Harp" is another storytelling narrative in a kind of corny folky style. "Stage Fright" and "The Rumor" close the set and are also highlights for me, the former song containing more memorable hooks.

For an album this short and sweet, I'm surprised the group even put it out at all what with the Rundgren conflict and all the drugs the band supposedly took during its recording. But it remains if anything an underrated triumph.

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Readers Comments DLo1787@aol.com Hi. Enjoyed reading the review of the first 3 Band albums. This comment, by the reviewer, brought me up short though... "All La Glory" is a kind of blah lament on the perils of fame, as I suppose they were superstars at this point, showered with the cliched money and drugs which fame brings. -- It's no big deal, but "All La Glory" is just Robbie Robertson writing a lullaby for his daughter. Nothing to do with the tribulations of fame. I used to sing my own daughter to sleep with it. Lovely melody, but too wide a vocal range for a perfect lullaby. moco635 moco635@yahoo.com Perhaps my favorite song on Stage Fright is "ALL La Glory"...to label it as a "blah lament on the perils of fame" is soooo wrong. robbie did write it for his daughter and I too, have sung it at one point or another to all my kids when they were real young....other than that, you did a good job.. Moco Phantom Gtowner phantomgtowner@hotmail.com To think that most reviews in 1970 were lukewarm is somewhat outrageous. Maybe that demonstrates just how good the first two records were and how much was expected. from "Stage Fright". This LP is, in my view, a true masterpiece. It all went south from here.