(5) "The Band" - The Band

And so we come to the first album that I can confidently say, without a shadow of a doubt, is in my Top 5. What the other five are, we will have to wait and see, because I am not sure. I bet "Blood on the Tracks" will be in there, but other than that, I'll probably be as pleasantly surprised as the next fellow (or whatever the term for a female fellow is, if I have any female readers). But to get back on track, The Band's self titled second album is pretty much as close to a perfect piece of music as you can get. That is how good it is. If the only people reading this blog are my friends, that you probably know this album pretty well, and you probably agree. For those of you who are not familiar with this album, I recommend you buy it. I have only met one person who didn't like it when I played it, and she was an idiot who thought Disturbed where the best band of all time. Clearly we were not dealing with someone with a brain. So other than less than clever ex girlfriends, I think it's safe to say that this CD is on a lot of people's top 5. Or at least 10. But why? Well, lets find out together, shall we?



The album starts out strong with a rag-time feeling tune "Across the Great Divide" which is, as I said, very old timey. But here is where I depart with some people when they talk about this album. Like "Music from Big Pink" before it, "The Band" is an album that went against musical currents when it was released, abstaining from all the pomp and bombast of psychedelia etc etc, and if you want to read about this, see my last post about The Band. What they did on this record to an even greater extent was hearken back to old timey music, bringing that Appalachian, back-woods pure American music feeling to what is still, in essence, a rock record. And this is that company parting I was talking about earlier. While most people are content to call it an "old-timey" record, I think of "The Band" as more of a "timeless" record. It isn't pure bluegrass or hillbilly music, or Appalachian gospel or traditional folk record. It's all of those things, and because of this, it becomes it's own thing. A record made at the end of the '60's, shortly after Martin Luther King was assassinated, the ant-Vietnam protests were in full swing, student radicalism and all that other '60's bullshit that my generation has had to hear about endlessly (did you know that until the '60's, nothing ever actually happened? The baby boomers are the first generation that did anything other than eat, work, poop and die, dontcha know) and the most political it gets is in a song that paints a sympathetic portrait of a Confederate soldier putting his life back together after losing the civil war. This was not a band caught up in the fads of the day, but a band that really and truly could capture the essence of good music, plain and simple. The fact that it's got an "old timey" sound could be incidental. If The Band existed today, they probably would sound much different, but i think that they could still create music as powerful as the music they created.



To get specific for a moment, why not break down a few songs? The above mentioned "The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down" may be one of the best songs ever put to tape. It is pretty much a gut wrenching study of how well a group of musicians, firring on all cylinders, can make a piece of music as moving as any movie or book or painting, and just as real. No wonder there have been rumors of a movie based on the life of Virgil Cane (god I hope they never make this, it will be bad) since the song came out. Then of course there is "Up On Cripple Creek," which may be the funkiest song a group of entirely white people ever created. Actually, it definitely is the funkiest song white people ever wrote. Period. I could probably talk about every song on this album. "Unfaithful Servant" has possibly one of the best guitar solos ever, one that if you are listening, you can actually hear Robbie Robertson exhale after he is finished. Its such a well played, delicate solo that he had to hold his breath to execute it. Obviously, I could go on and may even be putting some people off with my endless praise, but is that good of an album. If for some reason you don't own, or haven't heard it, do so. I realize that much of my musical taste does not suite everyone, but The Band's self titled album is easily one of the most accessible albums I own. And the reason for this accessibility is the point of the second part of this little write up, which I know is running on. But bear with me.

The second point I wanted to make about The Band is the danger of flattery. The Band are easily one of the most influential groups of all time, a group whose influence far outstripped their actual record sales (though they were still a pretty marquis rock group in their day). And the problem with this is thus: you can't control who you influence, and music has the ability to take on Frankenstein levels of uncontrolability. For every decent act your influence brings into being, you will probably get ten more who take your musical philosophy and re-interpret it without any knowledge of what you are actually doing. So for every Uncle Tupelo, or Ryan Adams (to name two modern day artists with huge debts to The Band) you get, oh, I don't know, The Eagles. The fucking Eagles. To this day, every band with some sort of country pretense, or throw back to an "old time" sound, owes some of it to The Band. For better or worse. (And for the record, I definitely think the Eagles and all new country are for the worse. That's just where I stand.)

So that in a long winded nutshell is "The Band" to me. One of my all time favorites, a band whose influence for better or worse can be heard in almost all forms of rock and roll and country music to this day. So go out and buy "The Band" and listen to it straight through, without any interruptions, or without doing anything but listening. I guarantee you wont be disappointed.


(Note: I realize that in my desire to capture my thoughts on the Band, I probably used the expression "old-timey" far too many times, but fuck me if you can find a better way to describe such a sound. Also, I do in fact realize that I am prone to making up words. Lets just consider it one of my many charms and not a reflection of my lack of vocabulary. Sound good? Excellent, now lets all listen to "Rag Momma, Rag.")