My Recent Obssession with The Band

I've recently started coming down off of my obssession with The Band, so I figure it might be safe to write a review. If I had done this in the peak of my mania, I may have sounded like a crazed lunatic. Therefore, I think I will be able to avoid phrases like "totally blows my mind" or "if The Band is not the most important and influential band of the past century then it should be". Oops, I already said it.

It all started when I watched Festival Express. I finally had faces to go with the voices I heard on The Weight. Hmm, the drummer sings the lead vocal. You don't see that much. And the bass player sings that fun fourth verse (Crazy Chester followed me...). The funny thing about the guys in The Band is that none of them are particularly gifted singers. But each voice has so much character. And then when you see that drunken bass player, Rick Danko, wailing with Janis and Jerry on the train in the middle of the night, you know you've got some characters.

So after that, I picked up a copy of Music From Big Pink. This is the album that has The Weight on it. The Dylan tune, I Shall Be Released is sublime and caught me on the first listen. Richard Manuel sings it so high, but it works. Another song that caught my ear on one of the first listens was Long Black Veil, a song that Johnny Cash made famous. Danko does a wonderful job with the vocals.

Other than those songs, however, Music From Pig Pink didn't impress me on the first few listens. It sounded a bit too loose, like the tracks were outtakes from a variety of jam sessions. But the more I listened the more calculated the music sounded. After the album started to sink in, songs like the opening track, Tears of Rage (written by Dylan and Manuel) start to resonate. It's really strange how it happened. Before long, the album starts to sound perfect, where you anticipate the opening notes of the next track as one track ends.

This eponymous album is often called The Brown Album. It's their second album after Music From Big Pink and it features a more developed sound. First of all, Robbie Robertson has written more of the songs, including the masterpieces: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Up On Cripple Creek, and King Harvest. What is interesting is that each of these songs is a narrative, almost like a dramatic monologue. I like to think of Robertson as the Robert Browning of rock. For example, Levon Helm sings The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down in the persona of Virgil Caine. Robertson also takes on more of the production duties. I should point out that Robertson (who is the guitar player) doesn't sing any songs.

Another element of this more developed sound is Garth Hudson's keyboard sounds. He tinkered with his sounds a lot, and was very particular about having different sounds for each song. They add a lot to the songs. Who can forget the funky clavinet sound in Up On Cripple Creek?

I get the sense that The Band took a more song-centric approach to this album, back when the trend among other groups was to take a more album centric approach. Each song is mixed a little differently. Sounds and instrumentation differ. For example, in Rag Mama Rag, Danko forgoes his bass for a fiddle, while a tuba fills in the bass parts. The effect is a more Dixieland sound that totally works.

Another interesting fact is that The Band liked to record together as a group, rather than to dub in the instruments.

Like Music From Big Pink, The Brown Album just gets better with every listen. I think it represents them at their peak.

By the way, I highly recommend this website if you want to learn more about The Band, its members, and their music. It has some great articles. In particular, this article discusses the meaning of the lyrics to The Weight while this one gives some of the historical background to The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.