The Band Guestbook, August 2014

Entered at Sun Aug 31 22:46:30 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Brill Bruisers - The New Pornographers

In the spirit of sharing good music, I again alert all to The New Pornographers- "Brill Bruisers" - with the talents of A.C. Newman, Dan Bejar, Neko Case, and Kathryn Calder among others. From Vancouver, all of their work has been great. This may be the best yet. They are on tour all over. Check out the site and if you get a chance to hear them, don't miss it. Seattle early next month.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 22:01:40 CEST 2014 from (67.83.171.31)

Ray

Good Day All.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 21:58:39 CEST 2014 from (67.83.171.31)

Ray

Entered at Sun Aug 31 21:51:37 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Sun Aug 31 21:21:44 CEST 2014 from (67.83.171.31)

Ray

My guess is that any live recordings of the guys from the early 60's would probably be "acceptable" quality after cleaning up... unless some shows were purposely and properly recorded? Wishful thinking on my part here. The recording quality on the bootlegs I have would be something like one star out of five. Once again I have to say that they performed so well that even if the recordings were improved to say two and a half stars after sprucing up it would be welcomed by me.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 21:10:28 CEST 2014 from (67.84.78.134)

Jeff A.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 20:26:00 CEST 2014 from (24.114.71.211)

Kevin J

Fine letter, by the way Jerry.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 20:25:39 CEST 2014 from (184.145.65.238)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sun Aug 31 19:40:52 CEST 2014 from (99.244.8.134)

John D

Yes Mike they are one in the same.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 19:13:34 CEST 2014 from (184.145.65.238)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sun Aug 31 19:11:43 CEST 2014 from (184.145.65.238)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sun Aug 31 18:50:35 CEST 2014 from (24.114.71.211)

Kevin J

Entered at Sun Aug 31 18:30:30 CEST 2014 from (184.145.65.238)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sun Aug 31 18:27:20 CEST 2014 from (99.244.8.134)

John D

Entered at Sun Aug 31 18:26:01 CEST 2014 from (184.145.65.238)

Mike Nomad

The Basement Tapes are a welcome addition and I agree that this release should be taken as a documentation of the evolution of Bob Dylan after a meteoric rise to fame. Of more significance is the sudden emergence of a fine musical quintet from the bars of Toronto to Big Pink. Levon and the Hawks ( Levon Helm,Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson), rose from a backing band for Ronnie Hawkins to a tight rock/R&B group on Yonge St. and Bloor St to the stages of North America, Europe an Australia and ultimately found themselves in the basement and in the Red Room of Dylan's home. Some of the music from those earlier performances by Levon and the Hawks have been released. There are recordings of Levon and the Hawks from shows around Toronto and Ontario and some from USA that should now find their way to the public to document this evolution to The Band. I understand these are in process and now would be an ideal time to release these recordings as a testament to what Dylan saw in 1965 to identify these five as worthy of what followed.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 17:31:38 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Sun Aug 31 14:32:23 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Write letters

Please read the letter in 'comments' for Sakomoto's Toronto Star article and write to other newspapers and magazines. I've written to NYTimes, Uncut and Toronto Star and Ray has written to Rolling Stone. Stimulating interest in the LaTH release is the goal so it may soon see the light of day.

Entered at Sun Aug 31 04:42:22 CEST 2014 from (68.171.246.138)

Bill M

Entered at Sun Aug 31 01:17:33 CEST 2014 from (50.100.254.255)

brown eyed girl

Of ‘The Basement Tapes’ and impossible expectations

John Sakamoto

Aug 29 2014

Entered at Sat Aug 30 20:33:16 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Sat Aug 30 20:15:31 CEST 2014 from (24.114.71.211)

Kevin J

Entered at Sat Aug 30 19:59:18 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Superb, Ray!

Ray: Superb!!!

Entered at Sat Aug 30 19:46:09 CEST 2014 from (74.108.29.164)

Joan

Subject: Ghost of Richard Manuel

Ray , great letter

Wallsend great link to the Lonestar concert. That led to this link the ghost of Richard Manuel in bluegrass. I've not seen it before

Entered at Sat Aug 30 19:06:01 CEST 2014 from (67.83.171.31)

Ray

Dear Editor,

I would like to congratulate Jan Haust and Garth Hudson (of The Band) along with all others involved in compiling the upcoming release of "the Basement Tapes" by Bob Dylan and The Band. It will be nice to finally have a complete and restored version. As a few fans of The Band already know and many would not know, prior to "the Basement Tapes" project musical archivist/producer, Jan Haust, along with Garth Hudson had been working on a compilation called Levon and the Hawks "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day." This compilation was to consist of mostly live recordings of The Band when they were known as Levon and the Hawks in the period after they had left Ronnie Hawkins and prior to their signing on with Bob Dylan. "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day was announced as early as 2009 and appears to have been "Shelved" or put "On Hold."

Having heard live recordings of Levon and the Hawks from their Barn/Bar Storming Days I can say that the Hawks were on fire as a unit and likely one of the best performing bands in the United States at the time. Bob Dylan was quoted as telling Keith Richards that "the Hawks" were "the best band in the world" when Dylan's first Electric Tour had reached England. The live recordings of the Hawks from 1962 to 1965 that are currently available are bootleg recordings. Although the performances by the Hawks are stellar the recordings themselves are of poor quality and probably late generation recordings (copies of copies of copies of the source recordings which I gather had been recorded on early hand held recording devices.)

I feel that all the multiple generations of tape hiss and muted recording quality are worth suffering as "the Hawks" were playing for all they were worth as individuals and as a unit. Richard Manuel equals James Brown's own vocal on Please, Please, Please. Levon Helm belts out a rendition of Little Richard's Lucille that would give Little Richard himself a run for his money and his "ragged but righteous" drumming style is completely developed at this point. Rick Danko takes on Sam Cooke with an amazing conviction that few can top. Garth Hudson's keyboard work and saxophone work is, by standards of the day, far ahead of it's time and his subtle touches add volumes of texture to the music. Robbie Robertson plays his guitar ferociously and I dare say that he would have given Roy Buchanan something to think about.

"From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day" is extremely important in a historical sense as The Band is one of THE most important and influential Rock and Roll units ever to grace the stage both as their own entity and as sidemen for the likes of Bob Dylan and Ronnie Hawkins. "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day" would bring this seldom heard period of The Band's development to the forefront and just plain make for good listening for those who appreciate The Band and/or 'fired up" yet "well honed" Rock and Roll played from the heart. I truly hope that "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day" sees daylight sometime in the near future and I would encourage Mr. Haust to re-ignite this project as it NEEDS TO BE HEARD by any who appreciates the development of modern popular music!!!

Many thanks,

Entered at Sat Aug 30 15:48:13 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Subject: Wallsend's link

Wallsend, to me it 's new anyway. The sound quality is rather poor, Levon's voice is dearly missed, Rick and Richard sing passionately at times but not vocally adequate, Jorma Kaukonen and Jaco Pastorius do a proper job albeit not up to Robertson/Helm standards, Garth is reliable as ever, seems to handle a vibraphone (if it's him) in the final part... well, I like it... just a little bit... not for a repeated hearing...

Entered at Sat Aug 30 15:45:18 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Mr. Haust

I hope Mr. Haust can somehow accelerate the process and that he can see this project to its release. It would be a fine accompanying documentation of the rise of the quintet and show why Dylan and his people saw them as worthy to be his first backup band for a world tour. It fills the cultural void for the musically interested, letting all hear why this was the best bar band around and shows how Toronto's Levon and the Hawks spawned an era of music that impacted the international scene for years thereafter.

Entered at Sat Aug 30 15:12:14 CEST 2014 from (99.244.8.134)

John D

I saw Jan Haust; at a party his summer and asked again. He did not have a release date.

Entered at Sat Aug 30 14:14:59 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: The time is ripe to release "Bacon Fat..."

I have written letters in the comments section of newspapers which have published on The Basement Tapes in the past few days to try to encourage the release of the Levon and The Hawks compilation as an accompanying recording this year. I suggest others do the same and maybe the groundswell of support will encourage those in charge to realize that the time is ripe for this release.

Entered at Sat Aug 30 01:11:22 CEST 2014 from (58.104.16.209)

Wallsend

I don't know enough about the re-formed Band to know if the linked audio is something new or not but it may be of interest.

Entered at Fri Aug 29 19:59:29 CEST 2014 from (74.78.166.213)

Far East Man

Subject: Ain't No More Cain

Downloaded "Aint No More Cain" from ITunes. It's georgeous. Very excited about upcoming release. It's still unbelievable....

Entered at Fri Aug 29 18:29:23 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: Blue River

A pretty Eric Andersen tune . . . Danko / Fjeld / Andersen, Italy, 1994.

Entered at Fri Aug 29 09:38:30 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

While anything up to December 1962 went out of copyright, they then re-set the clock, rightly I think. It is now 75 I believe. While it means floods of pre 1962 compilations including early Motown reissues are around, the free for all is halted for a while at December 1962. Oh, what a night.

Entered at Fri Aug 29 09:21:37 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Bo Diddley

Link to the Toppermost Bo Diddley … do comment over there if inclined!

Entered at Thu Aug 28 21:26:37 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Subject: a fine example of the Robertson style, ca '64

Though with Fred Keeler on guitar instead of Robbie.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 20:47:20 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

JT and Ray: I'm sure that a positive response to the appearance of the BT set - by the buying public, and not just the chattering classes - will hasten the appearance of "Bacon Fat to Judgment Day" / "Levon and the Hawks: From Toronto to Big Pink". The profit motive, you know.

Kevin J: Thanks for the Montreal research. When the Motley Crew first played Canada in 1955, they played at the Holiday in Toronto (and were held over for six weeks) and then the Esquire in Montreal (for six months!) The only surviving member of that original aggregation, pianist / vocalist Curley Bridges, now 80, is booked to play on September 5 at the Southside Shuffle in Port Credit. (Jackie Shane's likely still alive too, but he didn't join the group until '62.)

Entered at Thu Aug 28 20:40:53 CEST 2014 from (63.142.158.9)

JQ

All these years later and I've never tired of hearing the Bo Diddley beat. Especially when done by him and his - wasnt it just a small group with a full-time maracas shaker?

I liked Quicksilver's Happy Trails at the time but less so R Hawkins' take; except for JRR's arrangement and licks, on Who Do You Love -

Entered at Thu Aug 28 19:54:43 CEST 2014 from (184.66.164.212)

JT

Subject: NYT letter re Levon and the Hawks

I have written to NYT in comments suggesting that they release (I believe I created this title: I have not seen it elsewhere) : Levon and the Hawks: From Toronto to Big Pink. The tile tells precisely what the music will entail. The NYT just now have published that letter. Hopefully, something will come of it and we will see this work sooner than expected?

Entered at Thu Aug 28 19:52:26 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Thanks for the comment, Kevin J. From research done long ago, I know that some of the venues in the city (and beyond) advertised in the Entertainment section of the MONTREAL STAR.

For example, at the end of June 1962, Cafe Andre ("2077 Victoria near Eaton's") presented "The Drunkard", whilst Ellis Hall (across the border in Newport, Vermont) advertised a Louis Armstrong concert on 3 July 1962. And there appears to have been a Thurber Festival at La Poudriere. These are based on very poor microfilm or microfiche copies from years back.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 19:08:53 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: mo' Bo

And one more - look for the 27 Aug 9:12 pm post from Monty in London . . . .

Entered at Thu Aug 28 19:04:25 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: Le bo Montréal

Ian W: here's a review . . . of sorts.
This is 2008, but maybe Mr. Bronstein is still around . . . .

Entered at Thu Aug 28 18:52:01 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Bonk.......Loved that story of ear to the door stuff in 64...great memories for you and there are many around TO that loved The Hawks that also were shocked at MFBP......Ronnie Hawkins first among them.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 18:20:15 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Thank you Bill…….I thought of you yesterday as I spent about an hour doing some research on the Esquire Show Bar in Montreal…………while the Esquire was well before my time, its legend was considerable…..and I have spent some time at a club of ill repute that now stands at almost the same location…..Chez Parée………….anyhow, I checked out the Montreal Gazette archives, Montreal Star, CFCF radio, Sir George and McGill newspaper archives……………….found all kinds of wonderful stories about Lili St. Cyr, Norm Silver, and a bunch of ads for jazz and blues performers….but alas no Bo………………..There were references to him playing the Esquire but later in the 60’s – not 62 and no exact dates were available………….the original Motley Crew were prominent in some of the clippings I saw!

Entered at Thu Aug 28 18:14:30 CEST 2014 from (184.66.164.212)

JT

Subject: Eh Jeff A..

Jeff A.. - 'eh': Starting to sound like a Canadian. I'm only speculating but I don't know. Anode and cathode: two sides of the coin.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 18:07:46 CEST 2014 from (67.87.216.188)

Jeff A..

Entered at Thu Aug 28 17:03:27 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: The planets have aligned: Release Levon and the Hawks now

Not to mention the sad (because of his departure) but continued interest in Levon Helm. The name 'Levon" is immediately recognizable. This is an opportune time to take advantage of all these factors. Where are the business geniuses? Do they not recognize that the planets have aligned? Release Levon and the Hawks now!

Entered at Thu Aug 28 16:49:07 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Capture the moment: Release Levon and the Hawks now

Now that Rolling Stone and NY Times have reminded the world of the excellent work in the basement, the time is ripe to release "Levon and the Hawks - From the Bars". This document of the growth of a premier band would be of prime interest to those who admire the musicianship of the quintet. If that work is near ready, now is the time to get it out - on the heels of what will be a very successful release of the BT recordings. Capturing the moment! Do it now.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 16:21:39 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

Not to mention, if I'm given a choice between Bill's speculation vs Dylan telling an interviewer what he was thinking while writing songs in 1967...I'd gently suggest they are at least equally plausible. :-)

Entered at Thu Aug 28 16:07:35 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Interpretation of lyrics

It is clear to me from reading again the discussion by Bill M about lyrics that he made it crystal clear up front that this was an interpretation. Bill did not break any rules. He is right up front with his discussion. I have absolutely no problem with this. People speculate and interpret lyrics all the time. When they say so, we get to share ideas. It is an enjoyable part of the exercise when abstract lyrics are presented to us by excellent songwriters. Roll on, Bill.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 15:44:54 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

First, thanks to Kerrin and Kevin J (and NwC)for weighing in positively on my BT post, and speculation in general, though that's an expensive word to apply to simply reconnecting existing data points in a non-traditional way. Still, I'll use another expensive word and say that I don't trust the feudal approach of leaving the thinking to designated others.

Ian W: It's funny that you're trying to confirm whether Bob saw Bo at the Esquire, as I was going to go there in my Amos 'n' Bob dialogue but my smartphone crapped out and I couldn't be bother recreating the thought when it came back to life. I can't see why it wouldn't have happened, and it may have happened in Toronto too (or instead), as Bo's touring route of the day included the Edison on the Yonge Street strip.

As for Smitty's days with Billy Martin, I don't know if he stuck around long enough to have appeared on one of Martin's six or eight albums, and there are almost no musician credits on any of them. I do remember thinking that the organ on one was particularly strong, and the date would be about right ('65ish), but he wasn't the only gifted keyboardist to pass through the band. His immediate replacement was, I believe, Joe Sealy, now a jazz heavyweight up here. For the record, Smitty arrived in Canada as part of Jewel Brynner's band and jumped ship, as did drummer Mouse Johnson. Both joined Billy Martin, and both moved on to Toronto and into the Soul Searchers with Eric Mercury and Dianne Brooks.

Kerrin: It was Sid Griffin's book that went into which of three Woodstock locations the BTs were recorded - Bob's house, Big Pink and the house that Rick and Levon rented when the latter rejoined the gang.

Kevin J: Nice to know that you've found Garfield on CD. As for "Song For Canada", I agree that it's not all that hot, but if you've read John Einarson's worthy I&S biography, "Four Strong Winds", you'll know that Dylan admired and in some ways emulated Ian (if Suze Rotolo is to be believed). I sometimes wonder which records Dylan pulled from his (presumably) large collection to play for the Hawks. "Four Strong Winds", "Royal Canal" and "Spanish Is A Loving Tongue" are all on I&S's second LP - but not "Song For Canada", and I can't see it making it onto an I&S best-of comp.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 14:52:37 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: advice to budding musicians

Jimmy Thudpucker in conversation with Bob.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 12:58:14 CEST 2014 from (58.104.26.243)

Wallsend

Clash: One of the songs that is most redolent of cotton fields or plantations or prison camps is the traditional ‘Ain’t No More Cane’, which you covered early before The Band’s first album. Levon said that when you recorded that song, that’s when The Band found its voice. Firstly, what are your recollections of doing that song, and secondly, is it because of the song’s nostalgic roots that The Band were able to capture it so perfectly?

Robbie: Well, I have a different recollection of that song. That comes from when we were doing ‘The Basement Tapes’, so there was new songs, and Bob Dylan knows all of this stuff about folk music that we didn’t know. So every once in a while he would pull out one of these songs that we’d never heard of or heard before, and a couple of them that stuck out to me were ‘Spanish Is The Loving Tongue’ and ‘Ain’t No More Cane On The Brazos’. And when he sang that song, ‘Ain’t No More Cane On The Brazos’, I said, ‘Wait a minute, teach that song to me. There’s something special in that.’ And then I took what he was doing and I put it in another time figure, and then The Band were able to play that like it was one of our songs, and it fit in with other stuff that we were doing seamlessly. It was like, ‘Hmm, that’s an interesting thing’. Because it’s an old river song - a very old song - and there was something about making this feel timeless: “You should have been on the river in Nineteen and Ten / They were running the women just like they were running the men”. It didn’t matter that it was 1910. It was beautiful story telling, and it was an inspiration for that time.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 12:51:29 CEST 2014 from (68.171.246.136)

Bill M

Entered at Thu Aug 28 09:46:07 CEST 2014 from (83.249.132.27)

NorthWestCoaster

Subject: Bill's speculations

I found Bill's speculation refreshing. First I believed that he made fun of speculative literature criticism... or did he? Now, if Bill asks Dylan, and Dylan remembers and is in good mood and tells him how it was and then says "...and Billy, do post this to gb immediately..." the question still is: Would _Bill_ do that.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 09:15:19 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Do you remember Robbie's story about playing a gig with Bo Diddley and waking up with a lady friend to see Bo at the end of the bed sharpening his shiv? Is it on a radio interview?

Entered at Thu Aug 28 09:10:26 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Thanks, Bill M.

I didn't know that "Smitty" had played in the Esquire Show Bar resident band. I'll try to tuck that away in the memory cells somewhere.

I'm trying to tie down the Bob Diddley dates at the Esquire in order to check a newspaper report that Dylan went there. If I can confirm the date(s) of Bo's appearance there (preferably with something like an advert or review), then that would further my research.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 04:41:02 CEST 2014 from (67.87.216.188)

Jeff A

Subject: Tips from Leland Sklar

One of the great bass players gives advice to musicians. Worth reading.....

Entered at Thu Aug 28 03:54:04 CEST 2014 from (68.171.246.128)

Bill M

Entered at Thu Aug 28 03:31:37 CEST 2014 from (67.87.216.188)

Jeff A.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 03:21:04 CEST 2014 from (24.108.1.255)

BONK

Subject: The Hawks.

When I first heard/watched that Yonge Street special from a couple of years ago it instantly took me back to the early sixties in Toronto and the Hawks. Robbies guitar playing and that high echo twangy thing that he had going on defines the Toronto scene. But the rest of the guys brought it all home. My absolute favorite Hawks song is Honky Tonk sung by Richard and carried home by the rest of the boys. Just incredible and defines the time for me. This was the boys doing their roots!

Entered at Thu Aug 28 02:45:07 CEST 2014 from (24.108.1.255)

BONK

Subject: Keven J

I was only 12 years old in 1964 so I was never a paying customer that got to see the boys back then. Besides seeing some of them at my old mans booze can on numerous occasions we would just quietly sneak up the stairs at Le Coq Dor and watch them until we would get caught by whoever and told to fuck off. All we knew was that they were the hottest band in Toronto because the older crowd told us so. Then something happened. The Beatles! We lost track of Levon and the boys and really didn't give it much thought until Big Pink which I heard in some Church basement in 1969 while listening to a group called Bo B Jackson/Zarathrustra practicing. I have to be honest here and say I was not impressed. These were not the same guys who I remembered as rocking your socks off from just a few years earlier. I could not understand what they were trying to do. Life is funny but as I matured, and with the passing of Rick Danko and my first foray into this site I really never followed the boys any more. Then all of a sudden I went hold on, these guys were totally before their time. This music is bad ass. What was I thinking. Youth I guess.

Entered at Thu Aug 28 01:35:00 CEST 2014 from (99.244.8.134)

John

Saw Joe Tex there.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 23:39:23 CEST 2014 from (100.33.95.254)

Jed

Exciting news about release of Basement Tapes and now the Fall USA tour.Hope to catch a show or more!

Entered at Wed Aug 27 22:21:03 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

For reasons too lengthy to go into, I'm seeking anything about Bo Diddley's visit to Montreal in 1962.

As I understand it, he played the Esquire Show Bar (1224 Rue Stanley/Stanley street) in late June 1962 and/or early July 1962.

In particular, I seek the precise dates of his stand there but something like an advert or a review would be wonderful.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 21:54:46 CEST 2014 from (99.244.8.134)

John D

I have an older model of iPhone. The iPhone 4. The other day; while at my aunts funeral I was asked to share pictures of my Grandchildren. Out came the iPhone. It said 258 pictures in Photo Stream. I started to move through them and after 90 pictures? Nothing but grey boxes with the word jpeg in the middle. I west to an Apple site and was told, "How long do you think they were supposed to stay on your phone?" Uhhhh? For a very long time. Ah the glorious Cloud....... Maybe I'll rethink iPhone 6.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 21:53:26 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

…and if Bill M manages to pick himself up and dust himself off ( and I quite like his attention to/curiosity with lyrics, btw ) then perhaps he can ask a few questions of his good friends and contacts in the Toronto music scene………..in addition to the “FROM BACON FAT TO JUDGEMENT DAY” question from Ray, I am still wondering when the “Yonge Street” tv series will be released to dvd ? In all seriousness, these answers would be really nice to know……….and Bill, I just got word on Garfield French’s first two lp’s being available on cd!!!! The 10 year search is over.

PutEmUp(Friend0: Forgot to mention that while the $250,000 is going elsewhere, I have added a codicil to my will and you've got.....Nazareth's "Greatest Hits" ....just thought you might wanna know........shipping and postage is covered.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 21:29:07 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

… as it was called. Truman Capote (In Cold Blood), Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe (Electric Kood-Aid Acid test) defined the style, and it is a form that has great virtues in bringing things to life, and Greil Marcus fits it. Kinda.

I have an issue with his more recent books getting very convoluted and difficult to find a thread, in spite of flashes of brilliance. I think Greil needs a powerful, non-syncophantic editor. Maybe we all do. But in his case it has become a screaming need.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 20:20:32 CEST 2014 from (67.87.216.188)

Jeff A.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 19:44:50 CEST 2014 from (184.66.164.212)

JT

Subject: Speculation

I absolutely agree. If you are a writer and are speculating or supposing or opining, it is important to say so up front. That is my problem as well with journalists and people who write as if they know when they are only speculating. There is no fine line here. If he spoke to the songwriter, he should say so and frame his words in that context. If it is speculation, it should begin with something like ..." I suppose that what he meant was... etc.' Its a very slippery slope when fact drifts into speculation and supposition without confirmation.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 19:10:51 CEST 2014 from (222.158.161.172)

Kerrin

Not questioning Greil Marcus' knowledge or sincerity at all. Bill M got a mild slap here for speculating. Don't know why, most legitimate research is the result of speculation. Anyway, the way I read it he did qualify up front that it was just his supposition, whereas Greil Marcus tends to present his suppositions as facts. He can't know what songwriters like Dylan were thinking on a summers afternoon in 1967, but he tells us what they were thinking anyway, as though his writing gift is somehow divine. Rather like those biographies that recount conversations word-for-word,when the only people present are long gone. When you catch yourself reading something you know to be false it kind of puts you off the book.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 18:35:33 CEST 2014 from (67.83.171.31)

Ray

You have to hear it to really and truly appreciate it... it's worth all the generations of tape hiss and muted recording quality... cleaned up it'd be, like you say, heaven.

Hoping for the best but not counting on it.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 18:24:43 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

I too hold out hope that something a whole lot better than what we have heard is out there somewhere that can be transferred to allow those of us that were too young or too far away from Yonge Street to have heard The Hawks in all their tremendous glory. As a guitar player, to have heard Robbie when he really was out of this world on fire on the instrument would be great but I think the real beauty would be to hear Richard Manuel at what I understand to have been his peak………Interestingly, I think Levon and Rick might have both been at their heights as singers in 1976…………..imagine walking into a Yonge street bar or NJ club 10:00pm on a hot Saturday night 1964 and seeing “Levon &The Hawks” blast through a few hours of music…….heaven! JT and Mike Nomad and Bonk (?)are part of a small group here that can actually lay claim to that.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 17:54:47 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Entered at Wed Aug 27 17:49:42 CEST 2014 from (67.83.171.31)

Ray

Subject: Basemnt Tapes - Levon & the Hawks - Jan Haust

To Jan Haust and any involved on the outside chance that he/they may come across this. I attempted to send this message through the opm66.com website but the contact/dialogue function seems to have a problem and the message would not go through.

Congrats on the upcoming release of "the Basement Tapes!" It's cool that we'll finally get a complete and restored version. I just want to mention that there are many dedicated fans of The Band that still would absolutely LOVE to hear the "Levon and the Hawks" project that Garth had been assisting you with.

Many feel that "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day" is also very important in a historical sense. Having heard various live bootleg recordings of "Levon and the Hawks" I can say that they were altogether ON FIRE as a live band. Problem is the recordings I've heard are probably late generation copies of recordings that weren't that good to start with.

I truly hope that "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day" sees daylight sometime in the near future. Many of us would truly appreciate it!!!

Thanks very much.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 17:04:07 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: BT locations and dates again

Kerrin: Thanks: I forgot about that book. It is on my shelves in Toronto. I'll get it out when I'm back there. As for Mr. Marcus, I have met him (briefly) after a talk and I found him to be informative and sincere. I'd be interested to know from you where you find problems with what he has (recently} written in terms what could not be known.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 16:53:34 CEST 2014 from (222.158.161.172)

Kerrin

JT, although I don't have access to my copy, there is a book called Million Dollar Bash by Sid Griffin that covers the BT sessions in great detail. I'm pretty sure that was where I first read that not all the recordings were done at Big Pink, early efforts were at Dylan's own house (in the "Red Room"). Someone here may have a copy handy. It was either that or Greil Marcus' Invisible Republic. Both books are probably worth grabbing, if they are available, as companions to your new box set, although I find Mr Marcus' books a bit tiresome. He has a knack for asserting things that cannot possibly be known.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 16:04:28 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Locations where and dates when 'BT' songs were recorded

Can someone clarify for me the different locations where the songs which comprise what has been called 'The Basement Tapes' were played and recorded? A number of locations have been noted. Is there enough information to compile a list of which song was played and recorded where and on what dates perhaps?

Entered at Wed Aug 27 16:04:06 CEST 2014 from (67.87.216.188)

Jeff A.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 14:13:03 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

This is what I have (is it on the site somewhere?} A collector’s tape circulates (including a DAT version, no less) though it has never been issued on CD. It is said to be the planned The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol. 6. Dylan may be singing backing and adding second guitar on some tracks, but probably not many. Robbie Robertson told Greil Marcus that none of The Band tracks on the official release were cut in the basement.

Yazoo Street Scandal #1

You Say You Love Me #1

You Say You Love Me #2

Sonny Boy With Tiny Tim

Assorted instrumental fragments

Orange Juice Blues Instrumental version

Ferdinand the Imposter (cut)

version on Basement tapes CD - sounds like basement recording

Instrumental Garth & Richard lead

Be My Baby With Tiny Tim

breaks, then instrumental

I Got You Babe With Tiny Tim

Memphis, Tennessee With Tiny Tim

Instrumental Trombone bits

Gloria in Excelsis / Banana Boat Song

Trombone bit

Ruben Remus (guitar instrumental)

Beautiful Thing #1

Beautiful Thing #2

Orange Juice Blues #1

Katie’s Been Gone

Ruben Remus

Orange Juice Blues #2

Yazoo Street Scandal #2

Instrumental second version

Instrumental Garth leads. Could be backing track.

Ferdinand The Imposter Full version. Sounds like a demo - not basement

Let Me Lose (If I Lose, Let Me Lose)

Bacon Fat (cut) Tantalizing - clearly a demo, not basement. Why is it cut so short?

Long Distance Operator

Speech + avant garde piano

Sax instrumental

Banana Boat Song #2

Poem + instrumental (cut) Presumably the rumoured Allan Ginsberg bit

Entered at Wed Aug 27 13:25:20 CEST 2014 from (24.199.71.83)

Jon Lyness

Peter mentioned earlier "the instrumental Ruben Remus, Ferdinand, Beautiful Thing, You say You Love Me, Even If It's A Pig plus the Tiny Tim stuff." Is that a comprehensive list of the Hawks-only tracks left off?

It does bug me too that the classic Band 'Basement Tapes' tracks like Bessie Smith, Katie's Been Gone, Ain't No More Cane etc will now be adrift from the revised BT release, even if they were all from later sessions and it made sense to omit them. In a perfect world (I know, I know), would love to see some kind of 'Odds and Ends' Band release that covers everything here.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 11:59:29 CEST 2014 from (122.59.251.42)

Rod

Entered at Wed Aug 27 10:56:25 CEST 2014 from (58.104.13.200)

Wallsend

Entered at Wed Aug 27 10:37:54 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Wed Aug 27 10:35:15 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

The Hawks material was supposedly going to be “The Genuine Basement Tapes Vol 6” but the bootleg never appeared because of lack of demand, apparently. It runs to a CD and a bit, but while the Tiny Tim tracks have curiosity and humour value, they are pretty awful and not really part of the fit. What’s already about would go on one CD then, but judging by the new 6 CD set, there may well be, as always suggested, more than escaped. The quality of some of it awful with severe print-through but who knows what the originals are like, especially with modern technology to rescue them.

Another thought is that the “Hawks only” material may not all be “without Bob” … some of it might be “without Bob singing” as it would be hard to know whether he was present on guitar or piano.

I think the trouble with them not being included is that they may never emerge … I can’t see that they’re hugely commercially viable without Bob’s name near them.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 05:54:53 CEST 2014 from (108.88.110.210)

Pat B

Entered at Wed Aug 27 04:19:31 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: BT - really complete would be nice

I agree with Peter V on this one. Once those who prepared this release of BT (and don't get me wrong - I'm impressed with what has been done and delighted with what we are getting) but, if it were my choice, I would have gone 'all the way' and put everything in at least one version (the 'big one' - it would have taken maybe a couple more cds) and finally have the definitive version.

Entered at Wed Aug 27 00:53:48 CEST 2014 from (58.104.13.200)

Wallsend

Does anybody know anything about this video from the Rolling Thunder Review? Bob sounds more like he did at the Bangladesh concert than the voice I associate with Rolling Thunder.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 23:24:39 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Tue Aug 26 20:17:35 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Clouds so swift, rain won't lift
Gate won't close, railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain't goin' nowhere

I don't care how many letters they sent
Morning came and morning went
Pick up your money and pack up your tent
You ain't goin' nowhere

Buy me a flute and a gun that shoots
Tailgate some substitutes
Strap yourself to the tree with roots
You ain't goin' nowhere

Genghis Khan, he could not keep
All his kings supplied with sleep
We'll climb that hill no matter how steep
When we come up to it

By themselves, the verses seem to be about the bonds between the Dylan and the four perma-Hawks – the weather, touring, their days together threatening European civilisation. Dylan's not talking about the others leaving, he's suggesting they're welcome to stay with him, their "tree with roots", meeting further challenges together. That line of thinking makes the song a sensible place for Dylan to wander off script (in Take 2), to assure the others that they're not "a bunch of basement noise" and that he sees them going out and making a name for themselves.

If you do the same thing with "This Wheel's On Fire" and separate the chorus from the verses, you're left with a totally non-apocalyptic relationship song (love, disappointment, betrayal) and a chorus that says, " This wheel's on fire, rolling down the road / Best notify my next of kin, this wheel shall explode". Maybe Rick was thinking of Fats Domino's hit, "I'm Going To Be A Wheel Someday"; in any case, the next of kin were duly notified – and turned up for the Big Pink cover photo.

For me, the last verse is the interesting one because the words "You'll remember that you're the one who called on them to call on me to get you your favours done" seems to echo the role of Miss Fanny in "the Weight" – "you know she's the only one, who sent me here with her regards for everyone".

Entered at Tue Aug 26 19:14:20 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Thank you Ian……..that basement sure is a gift that keeps giving….just amazing how that mystery seems like it will never be solved….imagine 20 years from now when Adam and Ari are the only two O200 posters left here and they will be wondering if Garth really did have 5-10 songs locked away somewhere on tape that no one has ever heard.

While I am all for bridges and highways being named in Levon Helm’s honour in and around Woodstock, NY….it really would be nice for the town – when the time is right ( as in when the latest owners decide to sell ) – to do something appropriate with Big Pink to honour its legend.

LINKED: Bob Dylan on TV 1975....nothing to do with the BT.......but this clip is interesting in that 1. I didn't know RR went to the penitentiary with Bob and 2. Very funny to know that while Bob may well have been big in 1975....he sure wasn't popular with convicts - pulling less than half the pop for a free show!

Entered at Tue Aug 26 19:13:24 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

Subject: Odds and Ends (alt version)

Sounds terrific...

Entered at Tue Aug 26 18:59:10 CEST 2014 from (108.90.18.26)

Pat B

Entered at Tue Aug 26 18:39:02 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Just got an e-mail from Columbia marketing but it doesn't say anything new, other than indicating that tomorrow's item on bobdylan.com will be about the Fall tour.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 18:18:48 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Back home, I've now seen the press release, which has a number of interesting points.

1. Yes, the set includes the songs with Dylan on lead vocals, as suggested earlier.

2. As well as the 6-CD set that is complete, there will be a 2-CD version that obviously will not be, though it's not too clear whether they will amend the title. Maybe The Basement Tapes Raw. (The Basement Tapes Incomplete, anybody?)

3. There will be a 3-LP 180 gm vinyl version of the 2-CD version.

4. There will be something about the release on the bobdylan.com website tomorrow

5. The press release confirms the rumour that Bob will be touring in the States this "fall".

6. The track list of the 2-CD version is as follows:-

BOB DYLAN- THE BASEMENT TAPES RAW: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 11 (all songs written by Bob Dylan unless otherwise noted)

CD 1

1. Open the Door, Homer (Restored version) 2. Odds and Ends (Alternate version) 3. Million Dollar Bash (Alternate version) 4. One Too Many Mornings (Unreleased) 5. I Don't Hurt Anymore (Unreleased) (written by Donald I Robertson and Walter E Rollins) 6. Ain't No More Cane (Alternate version) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan) 7. Crash on the Levee (Restored version) 8. Tears of Rage (Without overdubs) (written by Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel) 9. Dress it up, Better Have it All (Unreleased) 10. I'm Not There (Previously released) 11. Johnny Todd (Unreleased) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan) 12. Too Much of Nothing (Alternate version) 13. Quinn the Eskimo (Restored version) 14. Get Your Rocks Off (Unreleased) 15. Santa-Fe (Previously released) 16. Silent Weekend (Unreleased) 17. Clothes Line Saga (Restored version) 18. Please, Mrs. Henry (Restored version) 19. I Shall be Released (Restored version)

CD 2

1. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Alternate version) 2. Lo and Behold! (Alternate version) 3. Minstrel Boy (Previously released) 4. Tiny Montgomery (Without overdubs) 5. All You Have to do is Dream (Unreleased) 6. Goin' to Acapulco (Without overdubs) 7. 900 Miles from My Home (Unreleased) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan) 8. One for the Road (Unreleased) 9. I'm Alright (Unreleased) 10. Blowin' in the Wind (Unreleased) 11. Apple Suckling Tree (Restored version) 12. Nothing Was Delivered (Restored version) 13. Folsom Prison Blues (Unreleased) (written by Johnny Cash) 14. This Wheel's on Fire (Without overdubs) (written by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko) 15. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread (Restored version) 16. Don't Ya Tell Henry (Alternate version) 17. Baby, Won't You be My Baby (Unreleased) 18. Sign on the Cross (Unreleased) 19. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Without overdubs)

Entered at Tue Aug 26 17:42:25 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

Subject: (Even More) Cane

Ian, that made my day. Thanks!

Had no idea this song existed with Dylan lead vocals. Astonishing.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 16:07:24 CEST 2014 from (70.66.250.161)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Is he or isn't he???

Well Peter, from your writing I've tried to figure it out. Are you a Jacobite or a Whig? -:)-:)

Entered at Tue Aug 26 15:32:04 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Entered at Tue Aug 26 15:28:25 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Got about 10 minutes to spare before I go out.

http://www.alanhfraser.webspace.virginmedia.com/AintNoMoreCaneAlternateVersionTake2.mp3

The person who sent me this is not contactable at present, so I don't know where he got this from.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 14:54:14 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Two tunes that don't seem to fit: "Blowin' in the Wind" and "It Ain't Me, Babe" (both disc 5).

Entered at Tue Aug 26 14:45:40 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Ian W: An even bigger thanks for the posts about the BT set. As Peter V says, "At Last"! Very exciting and totally legitimate news. I wouldn't have expected to see Hawks-only material there, for the obvious reason you noted, but I would expect to see it rolled into "From Bacon Fat to Judgement Day", the arrival of which will surely be hastened by a rapturous response to this one. I'm pleased and relieved they've gone with multiple takes where multiple takes exist. Garth numbered the boxes, so may well have numbered the songs too.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 14:29:39 CEST 2014 from (24.199.71.83)

Jon Lyness

Looks like there are tons of unfamiliar tracks... very exciting.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 14:11:25 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

I gather there are some samples on the amazon website. I haven't had the time to check these yet but, if you're interested, you should be able to track these down, I guess.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 12:01:55 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

I assume that the omission of any material recorded by The Band in the basement is simply because it is the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series and that anything he didn't contribute to is ineligible.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 11:17:33 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Amazon.co.uk is only listing MP3s at present, but they list two versions. A standard price set "Raw" then the full 6 volume "Complete."

Entered at Tue Aug 26 11:15:02 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

In the words of Etta James, AT LAST indeed.

No Band "extra sessions" then. I don't mean the fake studio stuff like Bessie Smith, but the stuff claimed to be "The Genuine Basement Tapes Volume 6" a few years ago, with the instrumental Ruben Remus, Ferdinand, Beautiful Thing, You say You Love Me, Even If It's A Pig plus the Tiny Tim stuff.

Minstrel Boy? If I Were A Carpenter?

This is the release I've been waiting for since I first held Great White Wonder. Will peruse list in more detail.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 10:57:01 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Bootleg Series Vol 11: The Basement Tapes Complete to be released later this year:

http://www.amazon.com/Basement-Tapes-Complete-Bootleg-Deluxe/dp/B00MXILU3S/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8%20%3Chttp://www.amazon.com/Basement-Tapes-Complete-Bootleg-Deluxe/dp/B00MXILU3S/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409033615&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=bob%20dylan%20botleg%20

Here's the track listing:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Basement-Tapes-Complete-Bootleg/dp/tracks/B00MXILU3S/ref=dp_tracks_all_full#disc_1

I recall no mention of "Garth Hudson's numbering system" before.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 08:54:02 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Tue Aug 26 05:39:15 CEST 2014 from (182.249.244.34)

Kerrin

Ian, I'm seriously interested in the 76 tour info, especially the review (is it in digital form?) and the change of dates for the Greek Theater. There seems to have been a 2 or 3 week break in the tour during the first half of August, not sure if there were reasons for that. Earliest August show I know of is the 20th in Santa Cruz.

Entered at Tue Aug 26 01:03:59 CEST 2014 from (58.104.19.34)

Wallsend

Peter, thanks for the Bellowhead links. This is a band I am not familiar with but I see that they have been around for a while. My kind of music! I see there is a Steeleye span connection.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 23:42:27 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: New York Girls

Steeleye Span version linked. It was on Commoners Crown. The ukulele was a mistake, but all in all, it's a pretty feeble version in comparison. Bass guitar and uke dominated.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 23:41:45 CEST 2014 from (58.104.19.34)

Wallsend

This may be of interest to people who post here.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 22:07:19 CEST 2014 from (58.104.19.34)

Wallsend

Entered at Mon Aug 25 20:15:41 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

(1) The Band in 1976

I was doing a bit of digging in my files arounfd mid-1976 and came across three things that may be of interest.

(a) In late June 1976, The Band was rehearsing at Studio Instrument Rental on Santa Monica Boulevard.

(b) The dates of the shows at the Greek Theatre were put back from 13-15 August to 23-25 August 1976.

(c) There is a review of the Santa Barbara County Bowl show that kicked off the tour.

(2) Sea shanties

The acknowledged expert on sea shanties was Stan Hugill, who wrote a book on the subject (which may be the standard tome on the subject). He also contributed a series of articles on the subject to a UK folk magazine called SPIN (not to be mixed up with the more recent US magazine of the same name). The SPIN to which I refer was a small 1960s' magazine put out by the UK folk group called The Spinners, who came from Liverpool where, I believe, Stan Hugill lived. I have quite a few issues with his articles, if anyone should be interested.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 16:28:16 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

So much of their stuff is actually from working sea shanties (as is so much English folk music). Then New York Girls sees the singer press-ganged on a ship around Cape Horn. All nautical, Norm!

Entered at Mon Aug 25 15:51:38 CEST 2014 from (70.66.250.161)

Rockin Chair

Subject: What's happening!!!

Just slipped in for a glance. Love the Bellow Head stuff Peter. Hoping to get the Rockin Chair launched today after major refit. Stay cool y'all.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 15:08:17 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Sorry, me again. I hope those who don't know them can see The Band connection in Bellowhead, in exploring musical heritage in an updated and highly-accomplished way. They're also very accessible. We were standing a yard away from Jon Boden eating his sandwich at Larmer Tree Festival last Year, having lined up with everyone else at the stand. On the Spiers and Boden tours they stand and chat at the CD stall with all comers. Very unassuming people.

Final link to the song they end every show with, New York Girls. A fabulous folk lyric too … listen to the words.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 15:01:35 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Let Her Run

Another Bellowhead track to brighten up a typically wet August Bank Holiday Monday. "Let Her Run" from the new album also, and recorded on stage in Glasgow at the beginning of this month.

You can see why they keep getting voted "Best British Live Act."

Entered at Mon Aug 25 14:52:34 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: About Time

A lot of the fun is the stellar cameos Richard Curtis can command (apart from Jon Boden). In the "play within a play" the lawyers are Richard Griffiths and Richard E. Grant … both uncredited. Then Tom Hughes, the star of Cemetery Junction, gets the small part of Jimmy, the nasty boyfriend. Tom Hollander is the irascible playwright. Joshua McGuire is Rory, and he has been starring as Mozart in Amadeus where we saw him last month (see link).

And of course, the incomparable Bill Nighy … also reviewed on my blog this month in "Skylight" on stage.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 13:59:35 CEST 2014 from (81.107.236.227)

Roger

Subject: About time and the Alabam

Loved the bellow head Peter. I wish they'd sung all the verses but it's a great track. And I loved How Long Will I Love You from 'About Time'. When we saw it I thought it was a highlight of a disappointing film but having watched the trailer play with Spiers and Sweeney I'm moved to give it another go - it looks great! I'd go anywhere for a Bill Nighy appearance.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 10:14:15 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Roll Alabama

On Bellowhead, the new album “Revive” is flat out takes-no-prisoners. they’ve gone for the raucous stuff, with a highly accented (rhythmically) version of I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, showing an interest after the Mike Scott track with contemporary songwriters for a change. But the standout for me is Roll Alabama. That rocks along so well that my grandkids love to fill the floor with cushions and charge around dancing to it at high speed. It’s very exciting.

The LINK above goes to a recent live TV version.

It’s also one for you Civil war enthusiasts out there, the song is about the CSS Alabama, the Confederate commerce raider built secretly in Birkenhead near Liverpool. The ship roamed far and wide and apparently its controversial release after building to the CSA was encouraged by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria against the wishes of much of the country. It was sunk off Cherbourg in 1864. As with so many Bellowhead songs, interest in it traces back to folklorist Peter Bellamy.

FROM REVIVE SLEEVE NOTES (which are online, thankfully):

This is a traditional halyard (i.e. rope-hauling) shanty. It tells the true story of the sinking of the Mersey-built Confederate sloop-of-war CSS Alabama by the Yankee USS Kearsarge on June 19, 1864 just outside of Cherbourg harbour. It's perhaps not surprising that a song about a ship involved in the American Civil War became part of the English folksong tradition as with the ship having been built in secrecy in Birkenhead, many of the crew were British being enticed to join the Confederate Navy by the lure of double pay and prize money. There was presumably plenty of the latter as by the time she met her end just two years later, she'd captured or burnt 65 Union merchant ships. Incidentally the shipyard referred to in the song, ‘Jonathan Laird” became famous in the 20th century as Cammell Laird's and still operates in the present day.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 10:00:28 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: How Long Will I Love You?

While we're about the Ellie Goulding version from "BBC Children In Need" is lovely. Linked.

Entered at Mon Aug 25 09:59:11 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: How Long Will I Love You?

About Time: Last night we watched the Richard Curtis film “About Time” and in the London Underground sequence the strains of that lovely Waterboys’ song “How Will I Love You” rang out and lo and behold, the buskers were Jon Boden and Sam Sweeney of Bellowhead with Ben Coleman. A testament to the quality of London buskers? Well, in your dreams.

Anyway, I bought the track on iTunes right afterwards. LINKED ABOVE. Then I looked it up on YouTube … the Jon Boden version has had TWO MILLION HITS.

Ellie Goulding’s version of the song was also on the OST album, so I followed that to YouTube. The original video from her single has TWENTY-FIVE MILLION hits (sorry, I’m shouting here). I recalled it from the BBC Children in Need broadcast, where she had a full string section … just 11 hits short of ONE POINT FIVE million hits. I was astonished. The Waterboys original track gets just 337,000, with a couple of live versions getting over 110,000.

So let’s add the versions, and it would seem that Mike Scott’s song has had 30 million YouTube hits. To compare, the version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down from The Last Waltz hits 1.8 million.

Does Mike Scott earn anything at all from this? It seems terribly unjust if he doesn’t.

Anyone else seen “About Time”? Odd movie. Right up to the wedding scene we thought it was extremely good and highly entertaining, then the plot seemed to dissipate and shoot off in several directions, and it faltered and stumbled its way to the end.

Entered at Sun Aug 24 12:26:15 CEST 2014 from (83.249.138.56)

NorthWestCoaster

Subject: Gb prehistorical times

Conratulations Ragtime for your retairement and welcome back. You have missed a lot of shoot out in china town here during the years.

I'd like to recommmend even another decent site, Toppermost. Usually gentlemen from the British Commonwealth Of Nations post there. - And thanks for misspelling my handle correctly.

Entered at Sat Aug 23 23:21:12 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Subject: NorthWestCoaster

The old man is a bit slow (I'm a pensioner since last Wednesday), but now I realize who you are, NorthWestCoaster... How's your dog lately, old friend...?

Entered at Sat Aug 23 19:35:26 CEST 2014 from (83.249.138.56)

NorthWestCoaster

Subject: Chuck Berry

Polar Prize Jury has announced that Chuck Berry is unable to come to Stockholm to Prize ceremony due to health reasons. "Krya pa dig, Chucken" like the Swedes use to say.

Entered at Sat Aug 23 00:18:18 CEST 2014 from (58.104.19.139)

Wallsend

Another Robbie interview - this one is more interesting than the previous one I posted.

Entered at Fri Aug 22 23:42:17 CEST 2014 from (58.104.19.139)

Wallsend

Instructional videos one how to play some of Robbie's more famous guitar solos.

Entered at Fri Aug 22 21:03:00 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Burton Cummings/Steve Miller: Yes, that clip did have some of that beautiful Rick Danko vibe to it….didn’t it? Not sure I have ever watched anything on YouTube that made me feel better…and .not sure I could explain why…..something about how BC cared enough even at that stage of his career to go back and do a little rehearsal before the walk-on.

Entered at Fri Aug 22 19:32:04 CEST 2014 from (74.108.29.164)

Joan

Entered at Fri Aug 22 17:52:46 CEST 2014 from (148.163.125.59)

Willam

A fine website and an excellent tribute to the very best "Band" that Canada ever produced. I still listen to their timeless recordings quite regularly. An awesome group of guys!

Entered at Fri Aug 22 17:36:39 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Lovely. Went straight to iTunes and bought it. I have the LP somewhere, but it's faster than finding it and transferring it!

Entered at Fri Aug 22 17:25:00 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

...and a beauty from the late great Gene Clark.....a note at "Expecting Rain" today of a documentary film on his life that is set for release.

Entered at Fri Aug 22 17:20:57 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

LINKED: Linda Ronstadt and “Willin”……….She was such a beauty back in the 70’s. I had not seen this before.

Entered at Fri Aug 22 13:42:19 CEST 2014 from (58.104.19.139)

Wallsend

A long interview with Robbie from 2005 that I don't recall seeing before. All well trodden ground however.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 21:51:56 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

LINKED: A genuine peek behind the scenes at what it can be like to be invited on stage......and proof that even if by remote chance that you can sing as well as Burton Cummings - you will still sound off with an ipod in your ears! Love Steve Miller more after watching this.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 19:36:33 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

sadavid: Thanks for the table of contents. What are some of the songs in Greil's 10?

Entered at Thu Aug 21 17:58:17 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: Greil's 10

"My editor Steve Wasserman wondered if I’d write a history of rock ’n’ roll. I thought it was a terrible idea, that it had been done to death, well and poorly, that there was a finished and accepted narrative that rendered any retelling of the story redundant and pointless. But, then I thought: What if the book was nonchronological, discontinuous, and left out almost everyone who couldn’t be left out (Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, the Sex Pistols, Michael Jackson)? What if it neglected the well-known, iconic moments (the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, Bob Dylan going electric), and centered instead on a small number of songs, each of which in its own unique way embodied rock ’n’ roll? That interested me—and the idea became this book."

Entered at Thu Aug 21 17:50:23 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Subject: Chuck Berry & RR

LINKED: The history of rock n roll in 14 minutes.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 16:10:34 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

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Peter V

Greil Marcus is doing it in Ten songs?

Exactly the same number of songs it took The Band on Moondog Matinee, then.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 16:04:59 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

First was ANYONE ever fooled by "The Wonder Who" doing Don't Think Twice? But it really is fun, especially to hear the many vocal additions to Queen Jane Approximately, Like A Rolling Stone and Blowing In The Wind.

It's hard to see why Dylan had never thought of a chorus chanting "Take me on a trip Take me on a trip" behind Queen Jane Approximately for instance.Then there's "Janie, get to me! Janie, get to me!" … how could Bob have missed that?

Or the spoken bit "And you're sick, yes, so sick, of all of that confusion! That's the time, that's the time to come see me, Queen Jane."

Mr Tambourine Man is surely improved by "Ooh ooh ooh, Tambourine Man! One little song! Mr Tambourine Man! One little song, Tambourine Man!" on the fade out.

(But Bob Crewe's production is crisp and excellent)

Entered at Thu Aug 21 15:32:39 CEST 2014 from (158.39.165.130)

jh

Just had to post this one... her next single will be featuring you-know-who. And we'll be monitoring the Billboard Hot 100 closely over the next weeks.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 15:32:31 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Subject: The History of Rock 'N' Roll in 1 Song

A holidaying friend sent me this interesting article. Great choice of THE song, though I wish the writer'd made more of its most excellent line: "I stand up next to a mountain, chop it down with the edge of my hand". The ultimate in macho, so the ultimate in rock (like it or not).

Entered at Thu Aug 21 12:44:12 CEST 2014 from (86.178.165.7)

Frank

Subject: Gerry Anderson

Former member of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks Gerry Anderson passed away today..UK based forum members will be familiar with Gerry Anderson via his work on BBC Radio.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 12:29:55 CEST 2014 from (86.178.165.7)

Frank

Subject: Gerry Anderson

Former member of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks Gerry Anderson passed away today...UK based members may have been familiar with Gerry Anderson via his work on BBC Radio

Entered at Thu Aug 21 03:37:44 CEST 2014 from (24.114.59.216)

Kevin J

I liked the production as well, just the lyric that didn't immediatley take hold......I've moved locations since first hearing this and am unable to hear more right now......very much looking forward to hearing the whole LP.

Entered at Thu Aug 21 02:57:35 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter v

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Kevin J

JT: Understood.

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Wallsend

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Ian W

Subject: New Leonard Cohen

Entered at Wed Aug 20 21:25:37 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

I had heard of this proposal a while back and while it seemed outrageous…….a second thought revealed that radio stations have been messing with original recordings forever….3 minute versions of longer songs were the norm…….and guitar was often the victim of the cuts made for radio…………the best part of the Guns N' Roses song “Sweet Child O' Mine” was the Slash guitar and the radio version had almost all of it removed………so this is nothing new – really.

Spell Casters......The FM ones go 2-3 paragraphs but the GB friendly folks really have been trying to get all that intrigue and wife/husband stealing into just one paragraph.....and yet they continue to find it tough going here....pity.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 21:05:23 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: longer playlists

Do you find you don't have the time to listen to all the music you want? -- Watch for this exciting new format!!!

Entered at Wed Aug 20 18:52:16 CEST 2014 from (100.34.37.27)

Peter M.

Subject: "New Basement Tapes"

Today I didn't start reading the GB from the place where I left off a couple of days ago... so, as I scrolled down from the top I saw "New Basement Tapes" and got overly excited needlessly. My first thought upon hearing it was, "I didn't know that Freddie & the Dreamers were guests at Big Pink". Then I finished the GB from where I left off and realized what it truly was. I'm unimpressed. I'd actually prefer if it were Freddie and company.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 18:43:25 CEST 2014 from (184.66.164.212)

JT

Subject: Same page

No problem. Just making sure the naysayers all over know that there is another opinion.. We're on the same page here. My view: This is welcome but of course, keep the Dylan current coming!! Not a criticism aimed at anyone. Just a comment on creativity raised by some of the stuff I've been reading elsewhere.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 18:05:40 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Also, if this GB is to rise again as Jon predicted some weeks back, I sure hope the Spell Casters are along for the ride. Just my opinion but last night’s installment might have been the most entertaining of them all.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 17:17:02 CEST 2014 from (83.249.132.204)

NorthWestCoaster

Subject: Nothing To It

Jon Lyness posted about "echoing the early Band in the guitar sound and harmonies". I like it a lot, too. I found Tamla Motown style bass very pleasant to listen, as always. The first 1/10 second of this song is a classic way to do a kickstart. - It was not like Rick Danko's playing which was like a former guitar player's. Pleasant to listen, too.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 16:07:25 CEST 2014 from (100.33.95.254)

Jed

An official release of the entire Basement Tapes would be most welcome.This "New" stuff-ugh.Not my taste,although I'll be interested to read the lyrics.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 16:03:20 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Creativity (again) threatened

It is again an example of -Don't try anything new or different. Don't besmirch what is with something new . Do NOT create! What was was. Leave it alone.

I admire this gang for (presumably) responding to Dylan and his camp with melodies to accompany found lyrics. Of course, it may not appeal to the ears and sensibilities of some, but I presume that for some, accepting something 'different' is unacceptable. Criticisms range from - no talent Mumford (not true) to -cashing in (when was that ever a crime?). I still recall "What is this s**t?)" from someone who should have known better. Take a deep breath and let those who have the ability to create, create. Good on T-Bone and the gang for taking this on, whatever the outcome. And my advice.. if you don't like it for its merits to your ears, do better with the lyrics. This may be a new approach? The lyricist writes and puts the lyrics out for other artists to put music to it. I'd be into seeing what transpires from that. In fact, it has been done sporadically in the past with poems put to music. Maybe Leonard could write some new poems and ask Dan Bejar or Beck to put music to them. That would be of great interest to those who welcome novel approaches.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 15:28:17 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

Man, tough crowd! I'm surprised at the pushback on the New Basement Tapes. I thought Nothing To It was excellent, and it's been playing in my head since yesterday (I prefer listening without the animated video, as it takes me further away from the BT feel, but to each their own). A strong catchy arrangement, very much echoing the early Band in the guitar sound and harmonies, and Dylan's lyrics are teasingly abstract a la the classic BTs we know and love. This track certainly has me interested to hear more. (And great news about the new Leonard Cohen release; I'll eagerly await that as well.)

Entered at Wed Aug 20 14:29:22 CEST 2014 from (158.39.165.130)

jh

hm...

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Wallsend

I cannot say I have any real interest in this Basement Tapes project but it was interesting to see the use of Bob's hand written lyrics in the video clip. I came across this online collection of Dylan interviews the other day. I am sure this is well known to hard core Dylan fans but I hadn't seen it before.

Entered at Wed Aug 20 03:08:57 CEST 2014 from (24.114.59.216)

Kevin J

Subject: Almost Like The Blues

While I really couldn't care less about this silly "Basement Tapes" release, I am looking forward to the new Leonard Cohen - see LINK.

Must say though that the Basement Tapes scam may well be the future of rock n roll..........2050 and onward as sharp young record exec's breathlessly announce the finding of "lost Wings" tapes and assemble a toothless Jack White and a balding Slash to add lyrics and music to a series of new Beatles releases....May God have taken us all by then.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 23:29:22 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

The writing in the "Nothing To It" video looks very like Dylan's own handwriting.

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Wallsend

The New Basement Tapes promo video.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 22:21:59 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

Subject: The New Basement Tapes -- Nov 11 release

Entered at Tue Aug 19 16:25:37 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Jersey Boys

Peter V: We saw the stage play 'The Jersey Boys' twice: once in San Francisco and once in Toronto. Excellent both times. I was surprised by some of the negative reviews of the Eastwood film. Based on your review and comments, we will definitely see the film. Thank you.

I was always a big fan of 4 Seasons and in fact it was my first LP purchase (Sherry etc). When I heard the Dylan interpretations a few years later, I began to understand something about the music business. Those were relatively early times for Dylan covers.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 15:24:12 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Subject: rock efectivo

Rod and Wallsend: A case in point is my Auckland-bought Rhinoceros LP, which came with no gatefold. If it's any consolation, the Mexicans did the same thing - or at least they did with Big Brown (aka Rock efectivo - see link).

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Peter V

BTW, just noticed the Four seasons Box Set … 18 albums in card sleeves for £28 on amazon. That's £1.55 an album. OK, a lot are original 60s length, but it's still a bargain.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 10:27:16 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Sixpence a year? Luxury! We used to have to pay to be allowed to go into work. We raised the money by selling our kidneys.

After posting my "Jersey Boys" review last night, I woke up and remembered that Timothy White had a long article on Frankie Valli in "Rock Lives." He interviewed him in 1976 and quotes explain why Bob Crewe was portrayed as he was in the film. Yes, there was a "feud" of Robertson-Helm or Lennon-McCartney proportions over credits. I've added the quotes to the review which is now about 30% longer for those interested. The 1976 interview also gave more info all round which I added.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 10:14:09 CEST 2014 from (58.104.15.226)

Wallsend

Rod, I am sure they were printed locally because we never used to get the nice gatefold sleeves. When my pay finally increased from threepence to sixpence a year I actually used to import the records just to get the nice sleeves.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 06:44:35 CEST 2014 from (99.115.145.68)

Pat B

From the 78 tour.

Entered at Tue Aug 19 01:35:21 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter Viney

Subject: The Four Seasons / Jersey Boys

My review of the Clint Eastwood-directed movie version is now up on my blog. I thought it was great!

Entered at Mon Aug 18 14:49:04 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Entered at Mon Aug 18 11:55:36 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

In the Southampton area of the UK quite a lot of New Zealand, Australian and South African 45s turn up in the secondhand vinyl stores. Apparently, the crews of passenger ships used to buy a lot, and Southampton was the home port. South African ones are most common as they were apparently worth bringing back in quantity to resell at UK prices. Anyway, I did notice that New Zealand 45 sleeves list a large number of distributed labels from different British and American conglomerates which is a sign of pressing in smaller quantities … you get them from The Netherlands and Belgium too.

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Cory Anthony

Subject: Subscribe

Thank You!!

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Rod

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Pat B

Actually, just Chris Robinson.

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Pat B

I should have linked the whole boot. It's the brothers from Black Crowes doing a club show under another name.

Entered at Sat Aug 16 14:48:22 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

I listened to your link, but who are these people... it only says Jeremiah Surrender... lol...

Jeremiah who?

You can change your name... ;)

Entered at Fri Aug 15 23:55:01 CEST 2014 from (108.90.18.26)

Pat B

Here's something you don't hear live very often.

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Bill M

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Mike C

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Bill M

Hats off to RtO for posting about the great Spirit at Toppermost the other day. Years ago - 10?, 15? - someone here asked who the best American band was (this was after the Canadians wouldn't allow our guys to be claimed as an American band), and Spirit was my nominee.

While at Toppermost I was very happily surprised to see that Bob Carpenter had been honoured with a post - by someone named Kasper Nijsen. (See link.)

Rockin' Chair: And farther down the list at Toppermost is the Poppy Family from your part of the world. Trashed at the time, but worthy for a number of reasons.

Wallsend: Even in '81, when I spent six months in NZ, LPs were very expensive - nor was there all that much to choose from. The only ones I bought, a believe, were from a store I found in Auckland on my last day or so in the country - and of those the only ones I recall were an excellent comp of US Columbia stuff called "Aquarius Rising" (which I've hung onto because it contains an absolutely brilliant cut by the Rising Sons (i.e., Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal in '65), "Candy Man") and an Australian pressing of the third LP by Rhinoceros (whose lead singer, John Finley, was offered the spot as Levon and the Hawks spot shortly after they left Hawkins). For me, the best Love album is "Out Here" on Blue Thumb.

Entered at Fri Aug 15 14:46:01 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Subject: Sex & drugs & rock'n roll

Rumours said that our guys were not on drugs like all other rock heroes and that groupies had a day off when The Band came playing... this bunch of hard working musicians was far too busy rehearsing, improving their performances and studying their musical roots to be involved with banalities like drugs, alcohol or women... but when the truth came out they appeared to be just like anybody else... it's fair to say that four of the five members were users and that two of them were heavily addicted... which doesn't make them less great as musicians or less lovable as persons... it was a bit of a disappointment yeah... but I wouldn't say I should never "forgive them"... who are we to judge...?

Entered at Fri Aug 15 13:21:29 CEST 2014 from (58.104.17.1)

Wallsend

Entered at Fri Aug 15 12:34:58 CEST 2014 from (83.249.130.183)

NorthWestCoaster

Subject: Fan history

I heard 'The Weight' in the public service radio in Grandma's kitchen. She cooked heavenly Russian pastries. The connotations were just perfect from the beginning. In our school boy band I had the chance to play solo harmonica in two numbers: 'The Weight' and John Mayall's 'Room To Move'. You know: "chack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-chaack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-taaaaaa / chack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-chaack ta-ta-chack-ta-ta-taaaaaa / Ooooh-weeeee- Room To Move!!!!" I wasn't that good so they let me do it for just to be friendly, I guess.

I listened to avant-garde jazz ( Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler...well, Calvin must know this all) and The Band was a relief in their down-to-the-earth approach. I was not into the drugs (I haven't even tasted to this very date) so I believed that The Band was free from the drugs in their rural in non-complexity. Unfortunately, I can never forgive some of the memebers for their behaviour. As a son of the parents who killed themselves in drug and alcohol abuse when I was young I can understand the reasons, maybe. But forgive, never!

Entered at Fri Aug 15 11:29:46 CEST 2014 from (83.249.130.183)

NorthWestCoaster

There is this new bitterly humorious movie with the name "The Grump" which makes fun of old Finnish men who are posting in forums...not that I know any. I read the book but haven't seen the film because the premiere will take place in _TORONTO_ - of all places (Toronto International Film Festival, cathegory: Contemporary World Movies). The Torontonian gb menopause community should go and see this film and _BOO_, for solidaricy to old men posting in forums!

Especially to PETER M: The DVD would be a perfect birthday present to Mr. Dener :-)

Entered at Fri Aug 15 11:27:38 CEST 2014 from (58.104.17.1)

Wallsend

Well, if we are really going to get in to it... I grew up in New Zealand and the first job I got I earned $20 a week and an LP was $5. It was really hard to get a lot of music in NZ. The first Band album I bought was Stage Fright because you just could't get the first two, at least not when I was trying to buy them. With regard to Love, I later bought Da Capo and Forever changes and few others. I much preferred them over the Doors. I read that Electra dumped Love because they didn't want to travel and put their efforts in to supporting the Doors. The song Signed DC is an incredibly powerful anti-drug song.

Entered at Fri Aug 15 09:44:47 CEST 2014 from (31.53.169.124)

Dunc

Subject: Rag Mamma Rag

For a Brit, Peter's right. Rag Mamma Rag took me into the Band, but not collecting their albums. It was singles I bought because of fashion as well as price. (I regret giving them away because they all had covers, Peter.) I then bought the Brown album around 1972 and by 1976 had only four albums. I saw many bands from 1971 to 1975. I had bought about 200 albums on cassette and vinyl.

I started to play albums again about 1990 and the work of certain bands and solo artists seemed ageless, including the Band. So I began to collect the Band albums I never had and replaced the ones I had with CD copies. There are other bands/artists I collect, including Beatles, Byrds, Stones, Tom Waits, Dylan, Lenoard Cohen, John Martyn, AWB, Paul Simon

This site has been a catalyst for me in that I made an effort to become complete on certain artists and I have been introduced to new music for example the excellent Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.

Entered at Fri Aug 15 09:19:20 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Wallsend, lacking disposable income! Luxury. We were impecunious where I grew up.

Impecunious! We dreamed of being impecunious. Luxury! we were poor.

Poor! I’d have given my right arm to be poor … etc

I know what you mean. At university, I was on a full grant of £360 a year. It covered 36 weeks of term. You worked Christmas delivering post and through the summer, but Easter was the cruellest holiday … three weeks with no chance of getting work, so the grant had to cover it too. Accommodation was £5 a week … new rooms with sinks, two showers, a bath, two WCs and a kitchen for nine people on a floor, a single room … constant hot water, central heating. A cleaner on week days, weekly change of bed linen. A free Laundromat in the basement. It was way more luxurious than either home or any hotel I’d stayed in. Thank you, Harold Wilson! My kids’ generation moan that we had free education, while they have loans. It is unjust, but in 1967 only 4% were at university so it was affordable and they assumed we’d pay it back in taxes by earning more … in 1967 tax went up to 85% if you were a brain surgeon or a Beatle. With ten times as many students it’s hard to add up.

Anyway, that meant a disposable income of around £5 a week to cover food, books, transport, clothes, in days when an LP cost about £1.70. There wasn’t much money for records (I’ve compensated for the lack since the day I started work).

We looked forward every year to W.H. Smith’s January sale when lots of cutout new LPs were 30p. Not with notched sleeves or drilled holes either. CBS (Columbia) Elektra and Pye seemed to have disposed of the largest quantities. I remember getting The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Dr Byrds and Mr Hyde and Miles Davis’ Nefertiti in one purchase … all CBS, and for me too buying three LPs really was extreme luxury. East-West, The Electric Flag, Filles de Kilimanjaro … others I immediately remember from W.H. Smith’s sale.

Entered at Fri Aug 15 07:26:13 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

Wallsend, I have Love's Da Capo - an earlier album with a different lineup in the band.

The thing about that record is that it has the most amazing sound. It is so crisp and clear and immediate, as though they're right in the room with you.

Entered at Fri Aug 15 06:43:10 CEST 2014 from (74.58.171.179)

Nathan

Mus friend caught Don Felder at City Winery last night. Said the show was stellar. 90 minutes of Eagle songs and that Felder sounds eerily like Henley,& his 5 piece band was killer. The person reporting is a singer, and a stickler type of guy. So, i kinda respect his judgment. I had intended to go, get tickets at the door, but stuff interfered. the show wasn't sold out...

Entered at Fri Aug 15 06:11:53 CEST 2014 from (73.47.239.0)

haso

Subject: collections/ beginnings

Peter V: you're ok dude. I know plenty of people here in New England w/ way more serious cases of collectivitus. And for some amazing perspective, check out Monte Reel's article in the NY Times magazine from Sunday, 8.10.14. His subject, Zero Freitas of Sao Paolo, Brazil... now that's got to be an illness. As an old work colleague would say "oh, my friggin' word, Myrtle".

As for particular tunes, others having mentioned some; I think it was TNTDODD and King Harvest. I remember carrying around snippets of lyrics and poems and stuff in high school (thought I was poetic, I guess); you could never do better than "just don't judge me by my shoes". That always seemed to capture the tenor of those times in 1969. The way they played and the way Levon sang, you could just hear "the wind blows 'cross the water" w/out ever seeing a deep South rice paddie in real life.

Entered at Fri Aug 15 05:11:21 CEST 2014 from (58.104.17.1)

Wallsend

Entered at Fri Aug 15 03:59:45 CEST 2014 from (68.171.246.136)

Bill M

Entered at Fri Aug 15 02:20:11 CEST 2014 from (74.176.226.233)

Mike C

Thanks to Lisa for the topic & to Jan for the platform. Apologies in advance to all for I'm sure to be repeating myself here.

It's late summer 1968 & I'm hearing three songs on the radio which I really like. Thought they were by three separate bands because the songs were each so different from each other ("The Weight", "I Shall Be Released", & "Chest Fever"). Soon of course I learn that they are all by the same band & get myself a copy of MFBP. Knocked me out then, as it still does today. Not only that but the record was so mysterious. Their names were listed & there was a photo, but no way to put names to the faces. Or to figure out who sang (seemed to me to be a lot of different voices) or who played what. More than one songwriter, plus collaborations with Zimmy. Well I packed away my new mysterious record with the rest of my albums & toted them to the Univ of S Carolina, where I spent my freshman year trying to make Big Pink converts of anyone who came into my dorm room, much to the chagrin of my roommate.

Sophomore year in the fall of '69 & I'm hanging out at a record store located in an old house just off campus. There were several new releases in the window, one of which was "The Band". I added "Abbey Road" & "Songs For A Tailor" to it, gave the guy behind the counter $10 for the three & even got enough change back to buy myself a couple of brews at The Opus on my way back to the dorm. A finer vinyl purchase day I've never had.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 22:17:42 CEST 2014 from (199.233.178.254)

Ignatius

Subject: Starting Up with The Band

I had been a big Johnny Horton fan as a little boy. I loved any song that referred to history, so I suppose the Night They Drove Old Dixie Down must have caught my attention. I do not remember for sure.

I do remember that in the attic bedroom where me and three brothers slept, we had a record player set up. Among the stalwarts was the The Brown Album, which we would play and play. We peered into the pictures to try to get into the life depicted, guys with instruments all over the house, playing together in a brotherly fashion.

A few years later, I am playing piano on TNTDODD, Up on Cripple Creek and Jemimah Surrender with a hippie band called the Ogden Edsl. But then came a lapse.

Until the Last Waltz I had forgotten about these guys. My mind was officially blown again. I learned It Makes No Difference on the piano, have been playing it regularly since.

At some point it dawned on me that this five person collective ensemble was, in so many ways, my ideal of how a band should operate. I am lucky to be playing in a couple of groups that agree with that - no front person, everybody plays and most sing, trading lead parts, harmonizing in a rough and ready but highly musical way, looking for soulful songs that mean something to us.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 18:19:58 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Rag Mama Rag was The Band's biggest UK hit (#16), and therefore the most common secondhand single. A few years ago, BBC Radio Two had a "premium list" of 1000 classic singles, and Rag Mama Rag was the only Band track on it. It is still the Band song most likely to be heard on British radio.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 17:50:37 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Subject: addendum

I meant to add that my first Band record was the "Rag Mama Rag" / "Unfaithful Servant" 45, which I bought in a three-for-a-quarter bin at the Sayvette store in Ajax, where we went to do the weekly shopping. This would have been later in '70, by which time Capitol had given up on the thing, deleted it from the catalogue and dumped its unsold copies. Nice to know it sold better in Australia.

Speaking of which ... A couple days ago a friend reported seeing and being very impressed by a multi-generational local band, the Sinners Choirs, "Sort of a mix of the Band and Little Feat" (see link). The guy on the left, bassist Terry Wilkins, washed ashore here in '71 as part of Flying Circus, a pop-rock band from Sydney Australia. I think the others had all returned to Oz by the end of the decade, but Terry's still here. Along the way he's backed at least Levon and Rick (and Richard Bell, John Hammond, Colin Linden, Amos Garrett et numerous al).

Entered at Thu Aug 14 16:32:53 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: a different sort of record collection

1000-plus "White Albums" at a "shop" in Liverpool.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 16:16:52 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

This DVD was in the HMV "£2.99 with any other purchase" bit by the cash register and I picked it up, as it looked like an Australian version of "Dreamgirls" AND it starred Chris O'Dowd. We really enjoyed the film, which is like a cross between Dreamgirls, The Commitments and The Blues Brothers. But the soul soundtrack is exceptionally well done, so much so that I bought the album too, for Jessica Mauboy's lead vocals on classic soul covers.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 16:05:13 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

How did I get to the Band? I don't know, really. Certainly it was a gradual thing. I grew up in the country; while Toronto was very close geographically, it was socially and emotionally on the other side of the moon for me at the time. Although I did start listening to top-40 radio towards then end of '68, I had no idea of what was going on, and it wasn't until very early '70, when my father started to bring home the CHUM chart each week, that I even started to put things together. By then I would have heard the Band on the soundtrack of "Easy Rider", which I'd seen playing in the highschool gym one morning. (That was the year that all highschools elected 'hip' student councils that were able to cow principals into putting up with this kind of thing.) But "The Weight" certainly failed to register for me at the time. "Up On Cripple Creek" I did like, though, and was happy to watch it progress into the top 10. And I likely gleaned some of the their story from the weekly "After Four" teen section of the "Toronto Telegram", which I was by now devouring. And then there was Joan Baez's TNTDODD, which seemed wonderful at the time. And then there was the "Time" cover story, which blew the doors open. Canadians were used to the idea of seeing one of us in a successful group (Mamas and Papas, Lovin' Spoonful, Moby Grape, Rascals, Mountain), but four fifths of a group that mattered - now that deserved serious attention!

Entered at Thu Aug 14 14:55:46 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Blind Faith and Jimi Hendrix

While we are remembering what we did back then, let me tell you that I saw and heard Blind Faith in the summer of 1969 at Varsity Stadium at UofT in an open air concert on a very sunny day. The 'Clapton is God' stickers were everywhere. My friend, Howie, from camp had heard that a new supergroup had formed and he got the tickets. We got into my car and drove the 150 km from the north Muskoka area to Toronto to hear the remnants of Cream play with Winwood and Gretch. We did not know the songs in the main yet because we didn't yet have the album. But, let me tell you, it was something!

And while I'm at it, I went to New York City for the first time in my life when I finished grade 13 during the summer of 1967. My friend and I tried to get tickets to Hair but it was sold out and we couldn't afford scalper's prices. What we did get were tickets to hear the Jimi Hendrix experience play Madison Square Garden just after the first album was released and just as Axis, Bold As Love was coming out.

Both shows were memorable and though short, they were stunning. And the performers virtually never spoke to the audience. They just played.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 14:45:07 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: . . . but he looks like a Crowe . . . .

Here's one you don't see covered too often -- "Jemima Surrender" by the Black Crowes.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 08:10:02 CEST 2014 from (100.34.37.27)

Peter M.

Subject: How did I become a The Band fan?

In high school I had a friend who had taped ALL of Music From Big Pink, in mono, on a cassette player, off the radio (WMMR). He was intrigued. "Who is the lead singer?", "How about on THAT song?". I listened and was hit by the bus. Had to get more. I made a bad copy, putting my tape recorder's mike in front of his tape recorder's speaker. And I wore that sucker out. Later captured The Brown Album similarly and then went to see Easy Rider. Another friend bought the soundtrack album and we were horrified to hear that The Weight was done by a competent band called "Smith", NOT by The Band. Interestingly, Craig Harris credited Smith as "The Smith" in his recent book that remains hungry for a proofreader/editor. This soundtrack led me to a pursuit of "The Real Thang" that has carried me through the next 45+ years. In 1972, on my way to a college class, a guy showed me the Rock of Ages LP he'd just bought. We ended up in the University of Tulsa library, cutting class and listening to this magnificent audio document on headphones in listening cubicles. That sealed it... Band fan for life. During the next 40 years I've enjoyed all the permutations of The Band I could get. Saw the TonyMarts reunion show in the early 80's. Caught shows with the Cates, Max Weinberg Blondie Chaplin, Rick and Levon duo shows (among the best musical moments in my life). Garth, Rick & Richard gigs, Barnburners shows, and on and on. The best (maybe) was at a Howlin' for Hubert show I took my 14 year old son and his two cousins to at BB King's in NYC in 2004 (?), when Levon sang a verse in "Gonna Take You Downtown" after Little Sammy and David Johansen had done most of the heavy lifting, I cheered and screamed for joy. And then there were the times that Danko was good to me 100 miles from home. Yeah, these cats were The Real Deal. With at least 4 Rambles per year and quite a few LHB road shows under my belt, I feel like the luckiest dog on the planet. And Butch made a few miracles happen too.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 03:45:34 CEST 2014 from (203.10.111.131)

Doug

Subject: becoming a band fan

My first taste was when Rag Mama Rag was a minor top 40 song in Australia. As a 16 year old, something in it caught my ear, and a few months later I had saved enough money from part time jobs to buy an LP - a big event. So I fronted up to the Tyrrell's shop in Newcastle intending to buy the brown album, but by then there was a new lp called Stage Fright, so being at an age when newer is automatically better I bought that instead. As soon as I heard the first track, Strawberry Wine, I was hooked. It had the same voice and a similar feel to Rag Mama Rag. To this day, I'm puzzled whenever I see something that says Stage Fright is a lesser album, it remains a masterpiece to my ears.

Entered at Thu Aug 14 01:50:00 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

This is my memory (maybe a touch faulty given the passage of time) but first a bit of background.

When I was in my teens, we never had a record player at home. Music was mainly on the radio and live and I didn't get a record player of my own until I was well out of my teens. I did, however, read the music press.

In 1967, there was mention of these "secret" recordings that Dylan had made. That year and in 1968, a few singles came out featuring these songs (Manfred Mann's "Mighty Quinn", Julie Driscoll's "Wheel's On Fire" and so on). There were more press reports of the "secret" recordings. Then ROLLING STONE ran an article about MUSIC FROM BIG PINK, which sounded intriguing, even if George Harrison complained that EMI UK had ruined the cover art.

Around this time, in Colletts record shop, I bought the issue of SING OUT! magazine that had the Bob Dylan interview and one of songs he chose was "The Weight" ("My good friend Jaime Robbie Robertson wrote this song", he said). That issue also had a review of the album by Happy Traum.

I went to the old HMV record shop on Oxford Street where you could play records in listening booths before buying or not. I played the album there and bought it - the UK mono version.

A few years later, on a trip abroad, I bought the stereo gatefold edition. Back home, I sold the UK mono LP (keeping its sleeve, strangely). This was, of course, in the days when record collecting and the value of records were things that didn't even cross my mind.

And just to illustrate the changing perspective of time, I cut up my copy of SING OUT! magazine to retain just the Dylan interview (now sadly the worse for wear in my files, though I have since been given two copies of the said item - both in good condition).

Entered at Wed Aug 13 23:32:55 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

A funny thing is Dylan & The Band are under-valued (monetarily). It's odd because it doesn't appear in great quantities either, and I reckon people who have it hang on to it. You can still pick up Dylan 45s at very low prices … last week I found a mint Jokerman and a mint Lay Lady Lay at £1 each. I already had both, but something tells me they will be worth a lot more than that one day and I rescued both for about the price of an espresso. Band singles in excellent condition rarely cross the £2 to £3 level. The only expensive Band album is Big Pink, and the only LP by them in Rare Record Guide, which starts listing LPs over £12 mint. Big Pink mono is valued at £50, stereo at £35 and then only if it has the black rainbow label … my very early copy is light green. However, I don't think I've ever seen a copy at more than £30 and that was a US import with gatefold sleeve … British copies didn't have the gatefold with "Next of Kin." I think a shop would put it out at £12 to £20 at most.

The trouble is, Mrs V collects children's books at a similar rate.

Entered at Wed Aug 13 22:12:27 CEST 2014 from (58.104.15.82)

Wallsend

Entered at Wed Aug 13 20:56:20 CEST 2014 from (184.66.163.29)

JT

Subject: Soul/R&B

Peter V: Though I am not a major fan of R8B and soul, I have a space in my musical interest brain reserved for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Aretha, Sam and Dave early material (which I heard on CKEY with Big G. Walters (right, Bill M?) and Little Stevie Wonder ( I bought Fingertips Pt 1 and 2 single). I was always impressed with Smokie Robinson and the Miracles and The 4 Tops. Sharon Jones put on perhaps the best overall SHOW I have see in years this past April 2014 in Victoria when we got up to dance with her on stage. We met with her after and she is a queen of elegance. I also love many of the Rolling Stones interpretations of R&B material

Entered at Wed Aug 13 20:08:13 CEST 2014 from (68.70.61.190)

carmen

Subject: How I Found the Band

I always knew The Weight, TNTDODD, and Up On Cripple Creek from airplay on Philadelphia radio stations like WMMR. They also Played the Shape Im In as an intro to a daily show. I really came to know the BAND, however, via RR. I read about his new Solo CD getting released in Rolling Stone. I was in college and purchased this as one of my very first CD's. TLW was next and then I bought everything (Twice and in some cases three times now)

Entered at Wed Aug 13 19:53:21 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

And I still have quite a few of my original records. I never got rid of them, though I lost quite a few when I moved out and left some at my parents' house for storage. One of my little brothers going through a mercenary stage SOLD all my records (including a pressing of the Beatles' press conference in Vancouver in 1964 that I won in a contest) and Beatle magazines. The magazines I bought from this dear little old man who ran a tiny, hole-in-the-wall magazine shop right behind my bus stop. He saved all the Beatle magazines for me, including the British ones, so I had quite a stack.

Peter, where on earth do you keep all your collection? You must have an enormous amount by now. And a very understanding spouse?

Entered at Wed Aug 13 11:57:54 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Subject: Band Fan History

Actually I am a classical music buff... and a reviewer of classical concerts, operas and recordings for two Dutch music magazines and a website. But when I was a schoolkid in the 60s I listened occassionally to rock & pop & soul music as well without giving it much attention. At one evening a radio station revealed some new mysterious Bob Dylan recordings, apparently made in a basement... and at once I was struck by these unique, absolutely fabulous sounds. And when I enrolled into university shortly afterwards there was this boy who sold an elpee set Little White Wonder to a select group of fellow students. He wanted to be approached by a password as if we were in the resistance movement, and then he handed his merchandise over looking very solemnly... ;)

Anyway, when Music from Big Pink came out I was one of the first buyers... and then I met this girl who shared my passion for The Band. Within weeks we were living together in her very small student appartment. Now she is my wife for more than 40 years... And I am proud to tell you that our dear daughters, both in their 30s now, play The Band's music all their lives...

Entered at Wed Aug 13 10:54:09 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

My soul box of 45s … it included:

It’s Growing – The Temptations

Tramp – Otis Redding & Carla Thomas

Mercy Mercy – Don Covay

Private Number – William Bell & Judy Clay

Uptight- Stevie Wonder

Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops

Ain’t Too Proud To Beg – The Temptations

Ain’t It Peculiar – Marvin Gaye

Rescue Me – Fontella Bass

Ride Your Pony- Lee Dorsey

Let’s Go Baby (Where The Action Is) / Barefootin’ – Robert Parker

Um Um Um Um Um Um – Major Lance

Hold On, I’m Comin’ – Sam & Dave

Respect – Otis Redding

Respect- Aretha Franklin

Keep On Running – Spencer Davis Group

Mockingbird – Inezz and Charlie Fox

How Sweet It Is – Marvin Gaye

Going To A Go Go – The Miracles

Come See About Me – The Supremes

I intended to list ten, but it just grew into twenty. All essential. The one white one deserves its place.

Entered at Wed Aug 13 10:41:30 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

On Lisa’s fandom history project …

The Band didn’t become an “obsession” until 1970 in spite of my early listening. I went to Norwich from Hull in 1969 and met a whole new set of people. I took just one LP portable box with me and a box of soul 45s. I am still just as heavily into soul 45s and these were the best of the best. The LPs were influenced by my friends from home and Hull. I was the only one of them at this point who was not a professional musician. So I had Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago II, Blood Sweat and Tears II, Traffic, Blossom Toes, Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Bookends plus a few select blues LPs (Sonny Boy Williamson, Mose Allison).

So. January 1970. If I had had to save three LPs from the proverbial fire, they would have been Bookends, Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road. Though I owned Big Pink.

I fell in with a new crowd. One guy had the biggest record collection I had ever seen … hundreds of LPs, very rare then. We spent most evenings listening to his albums … he had a large flat too. We compared sizes … hippies do it with record collections which is much healthier than jocks comparing sizes in the showers in my opinion. He had Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Steve Miller, Mothers of Invention, Country Joe & The Fish, The Doors, with The Byrds in pride of place. His favourite band.

I still remember proudly placing “If Only For A Moment” by Blossom Toes on the turntable, right after Crown of Creation. I have just looked in Rare Record Guide and fallen off my chair. Blossom Toes LP is rated at £600 mint! But that evening it sounded like a heap of shite next to Steve Miller Band and JA.

The only point of shared reference was The Band. So whenever asked ‘You choose the next one’ The Band went on. Admiration and liking deepened into an obsession. By March 1970, the three albums to save in a fire were Big Pink, The Band and Bookends. I still really like Bookends.

And it was in those evenings that I learned to loathe The Doors. As I have often said, I like Hello I Love You. I like Light My Fire. That was about it until last year when I bought Soul Kitchen on Record Store Day. I like that too.

Entered at Wed Aug 13 10:24:16 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

NANCY KERR … though I saw her with The Full English last year, I haven't followed her career. One to look for. I have tickets for Seth Lakeman and also for Bellowhead in the autumn… both in Southampton coincidentally.

Entered at Wed Aug 13 09:08:51 CEST 2014 from (222.158.182.36)

Kerrin

Of course, anyone attempting to be neutral or objective is clearly "pro Robbie".

Entered at Wed Aug 13 05:10:13 CEST 2014 from (73.47.239.0)

haso

Subject: finding the Band

I agree, good idea Lisa. I have to admit to not being a daily reader, and only an occasional contributor. Nor would I ever pretend to be that knowledgeable about any music, rock or otherwise. I'll leave that to Mr. Viney and others. As you imply that you did, I spent a looong time reading everything that Jan has in the library... a lot of good stuff. And curiously, I enjoy Greil Marcus's comments and writing, although he certainly doesn't come off as the most humble soul when I listen to him (TLW and BBC docu etc.).

I related once my story, while it's not earth-shattering, here's the basics. As a newly-arrived high school student in what is now labeled "flyover country", southern Illinois and Mississippi River/Missouri, I found the brown album in our prep school bookstore... fall 1969. At least that's how I recall it. It could have been later that school year. I didn't particular feel out of my element there, but frankly the jacket photos were enough for me. They just seemed to connect w/ my sensibilities and then the music turned out to be all-of-a-piece, I would say now in retrospect. Perhaps it was a reaction to moving, because although I had lived the prevoius 5 years in So Cal, I never was definitely "of that place". Other than getting tough-enough feet to walk anywhere barefoot, de riguer in those California days, a simpler, slower pace was more my speed; no one better touched that nerve than The Band.

While a friend thoroughly indoctrinated me in the blues a couple years on (I remember listening to Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bummer Road" in his dorm room, for instance) and another pal, in college, opened the door wide for the Allman Bros and all of southern rock, I never lost my affinity for our guys. I recall taking RofA into a music prof I had for an intro course and playing him Stage Fright and Life is a Carnival. It was a sort of after hours sharing. Although my Allman Bros friend never did "get it" or share my positon, this prof loved the complexity and musicality of The Band's offerings. It may be heretical in some circles, but I maintain that Dylan learned as much about playing music from our guys as they did from him about writing songs/lyrics. Not that he would admit that, if it's true.

I have to say I'm glad for the GB and this website. It's one place anyway where Garth, Levon, Richard, Robbie and Rick are not under-appreciated.

Entered at Wed Aug 13 00:15:45 CEST 2014 from (108.90.18.26)

Pat B

Entered at Tue Aug 12 23:42:39 CEST 2014 from (70.66.250.161)

Rockin Chair

Subject: GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!

Son -of-a -bitch when a man gets so depressed he has to do that......brings back memories of Richard.

Kevin.....the truth is, in the last six weeks I've been home about three days. I got home about noon today and have to leave again tomorrow morning for another week. It has been very busy......crazy actually.

I've got the ship yard in Campbell River doing a lot of refit on the Rockin Chair. Hopefully after the 20th, Susan and I can get out for a cruise and relax. I might have to go down to that little hippie island where Bonk and all the old musicians hang out and raise a little hell, raise a little hell, raise a little hell. Maybe I can find JT and get him drunk on red wine.

So I haven't been around the condo enough to enjoy it. Wish Lars was here. It's been so hot there are people by the hundreds floating down the river here on tubes and just about anything that floats. I've been so eager to get out my pellet gun and do some target practise on those tubes. Susan put her foot down and won't allow it..........oh well.....

Entered at Tue Aug 12 23:06:07 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

Re Irish radio review - well, at least she admitted her biases. Sounded like there were a few inaccuracies there as well as in the book.

Has anyone read it? I had it on order, but when I read PSB's post I cancelled the order.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 22:45:24 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

From Garth's Facebook page, August 6:
"We have returned from the weekend's Birthday Sessions at Clubhouse in Rhinebeck. It won't be long before it's finished, packaged and ready for release. Thank you for the many birthday messages and kind words about my three broken ribs, They have begun to heal without complication. Sorry we must reschedule my trip to Banff. We will update when a date is known."

Very glad to hear he is healing. But I'm lost... what are the sessions that he is referring to? A new release coming out?

Entered at Tue Aug 12 22:39:06 CEST 2014 from (74.203.77.122)

Jon Lyness

Bill, LOL @ Louie Bunwell. Well done. :)

Entered at Tue Aug 12 22:05:12 CEST 2014 from (99.97.3.117)

PutEmUp(Friend0

I hope you can adjust to this better than my old man did...I actually changed my last name legally in the late 70s.... it pissed off my father to the point that about 35 years later, still pissed off, he cut me out of a inheritance he received - gave my half brother and half sister, both younger than I, over a quarter a million bucks a piece........me, he was using my supposed and theoretical equal share of the money to beat me up, so after dealing with it for a good while, and not liking it, i told him to shove the money and said a few other things..........Woulda been nice to have, but, i wasn't taking the beating required...

Intro to The Band- radio, the Weight was on some of the great NYC radio stations. I was 10 or so,,, then Dixie, both The Band and Joan's versions....... my cousin and his friends were 5, 6, 7 years older,all musicians on their way up,and i had some good influences.... I was 12 or 13 when i bought The Band, Deja Vu, and Deliverin, by Poco, at Alexander's Department store , in the record department...IT was great back then, to be able to walk in, get 3, or 5 or 6 GREAT lps, yet leave wishing that you had the dough to buy another 27 or 47 you wanted to have,,,,

Entered at Tue Aug 12 21:43:14 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

“Good morning Sunshine.”

“Ah, morning John. Things well with you?”

“OK mate. Got some snippets on the go for Mr Martin – ‘Polythene Pam’, ‘Mr Mustard’ … You?”

“Just two so far, but they’re hand-in-glove. You know that song “The Weight” by the Band?”

“Not those Woodstock wankers again, Paul! Christ, someone saw you singing that blood song on American TV.”

“No, no, no! Just the “Take a load off Fannie line” at the end of ‘Hey Jude’.

“So, what are you up to now with that song now? What was the title again, ‘The Ballad Of Easy Rider’?”

“No, same movie but that was the Byrds. The Band one is ‘The Weight’, and now it’s really bugging me."

“Always was.”

“No, now it’s different. I saw something where the guy who wrote it was talking about some bloody American filmmaker, Louie Bunwell, whose thing was the impossibility of sainthood. And here’s this poor bastard coming into town to do a favour for a friend and he gets caught up in all this endless shit. And then it fucking well ends with no good karma coming back at him.”

“Christ, sounds like me and Yoko – go here to get shat on, go there to get shat on. You know it ain’t easy; the way things are going they're going to crucify me.”

“Too right mate. But you’re going to get something back, but this guy in the song – well, I’m going to write a little add-on that gives him some love in return.”

“Nice Paul, very nice. Keep carrying that weight boy – and I’ll get to work on a new one that’s forming in me mind.”

Entered at Tue Aug 12 18:53:51 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

JT, I'm totally awed by your stories of hearing the guys early in their careers. You are so lucky! Your story reminded me of a 1968 story of my own: that year I was a second-year student at Vancouver Art School (now Emily Carr School of Art), and often stayed into the evening to work on paintings, as the classrooms were left open for anyone who wanted to work after hours.

There was a record player in our studio, and on this particular day I had brought Blonde on Blonde with me. I was the only person in the room, and put on Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, and started to paint. When it came to the end I put it on again, and continued painting dreamily away to that lovely dirge ... the third time round, an agonized "Nooooooo" wailed out from the next room over. I quickly took it off - one man's music, etc. etc.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 17:59:07 CEST 2014 from (92.18.190.121)

Solomon

Subject: Interview

Irish radio book review: "The Band: Pioneers of Americana Music" by Craig Harris. I thought Robin Williams was at his best in the film One Hour Photo. I couldn't listen to more than five minutes of his manic comedy stand-up routine.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 17:13:09 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Nancy Kerr

Peter V: Tell us more about Nancy Kerr, who has had an illustrious career and now has her own album 'Sweet Visitor'. Lots of collaboration and now emerges on her own.

There is an entire musical universe in the UK that requires investigation.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 17:04:00 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Neil Diamond shines more as time goes by

As for Neil Diamond - a tunesmith in the pop vernacular. In the tradition of the Brill Bldg and others. And he could sing and you knew it was him. I've always been an admirer and recently have been listening again.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 16:27:51 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Another Side of Big Pink

Another memory: 1968. I was a second year student at UofT and I was in the UofT book store. It was a time when you didn't get daily servings in the media of where people were or what they were doing. You didn't get much about where Dylan was or what his cohorts might be up to. Woodstock, NY and its environs was not on the horizon for most of us. There was an emerging record bin at the book store. My usual source for LPs was Sam The Record Man on Yonge St. Flipping through the small group of records at the UofT book store I came upon a record without any name on it but with an unusual painting on it. I had no idea! I asked. Someone who worked in the area said it was a new album by a group that used to work in the Toronto area in the bars. I didn't know much about the newly emerging music magazines and certainly know nothing about The Band. So, I purchased something I had never heard about or even heard. I took it home and listened and it was like something I had never encountered. There are no words to explain how an early 20something responded to the emotional outpourings on that album. It was 'otherworldly'. I was hooked. When I realized that these were the same boys who played the Concord only 4 years earlier, I had my first understanding of what creativity meant. I already knew Dylan but this was the start for me of a journey that has enriched every part of me. And as good as The Brown Album was and as good as everything that came after was, the impact of 'Big Pink' is profound and unmatched in my emotional consciousness. UofT - where music lives in many places.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 15:32:25 CEST 2014 from (184.66.134.56)

JT

Subject: Electric Soil (correction)

Whoops. That was 'Early Jan. 1974' but you all knew that. Anyway, MLG was a great venue for hockey but it did not have great acoustics. But Dylan and the Band created an energy that overcame that problem and it was a surprisingly potent concert and cemented a sound that was repeated at TLW. I miss that sound and it haunts me in a good wayl

Entered at Tue Aug 12 15:28:14 CEST 2014 from (77.102.201.158)

Al Edge

...though I am a mite preoccupied elsewhere as it's the nail biting time of pre-season ie the bit where it hasn't begun and we're sweating on signing the final piece of our 2014/15 jigsaw - one who somewhat bizzarely doesn't hail from PV's neck of the woods.

:-0)

As it is I can't resist Lisa's invitation to churn out my original splurge on discovering the Guest Book some 14 years ago

THE BAND AND SPLENDID ISOLATION

All this reflection on what we all know was simply the ultimate of all groups is wheedling out little snatches from the memory banks of just how totally insular was my devotion to them yet just how hard I really did try to spread the word.

Incidentally, it might help with these reminiscences if our more - shall we say - 'fortunate' North American friends could appreciate the background to any singular Band devotion within the UK back in the sixties. Just how desolate it really was in those early days. I mean us Brits could not simply hop in Bruce Springsteen's Cadillac and whizz up to the Catskills at the drop of a hat to watch Garth preening his mighty organ, you know. No sirree!

THE WATERLOO CONNECTION

As far as I'm aware only one national British disc jockey - the inimitable Kenny Everett who hailed from my own Waterloo home [that's the Liverpool one not the Band connected Ontario one] - ever featured the Band on a prime time British radio show.

Other than that - Zilch.

"Rockin Chair" and "When you Awake" were the two songs played on Kenny's show one momentous Saturday morning as I lay soaking in the bath, entirely unawares and unprepared, scarcely a Stone That I Throw distance from the pub juke box that had first introduced me to the unforgettable clipped acoustic intro to The Weight some 12 months earlier.

'Christ on a bike… The Band on the fuckin radio…!!!!'

I was overcome with exhilaration of the occasion. I sat bolt upright splashing about like some demented frog on heat. Arms flailing. Completely bonkers. Water everywhere. Certainly the last I remember of my faithful rubber duck was it flying south no doubt searching out calmer waters.

Old Virginny perhaps?

SEVENTEEN AND IN LOVE?

I recall my first really serious relationship. The sheer physical and emotional intensity. All that fevered moaning and groaning. No not what you're thinking. Merely her reaction as I'd take Big Pink out of its sleeve for the umpteenth time that particular night and and stick it on the dansette. Ooo er. She was into Tom Jones at the time and could never really handle my unbridled enthusiasm for what she termed hillbillies.

Seem to remember we were once kissing and petting so passionately as the strains of Richard crooning - "...life seems so little to give" - wafted across from the dansette. Needless to say I broke off to ponder what Richard meant. She went home. Maybe, on reflection that's what Richard did mean.

THE VICTORIA HOTEL, WATERLOO

In the ale house 1969. 'The Vic' where I'd heard the boys for the very first time. Juke box bust. No music. Groans from the patrons. Bright idea. Dash home and get my trusty dansette replete with both albums. All of a quivver as the anticipation of capturing an entire pubful of potential Band converts zings thro my system. YES!! Too good to be true. I'm like some manic Jesuit encountering a tribe of mad headhunters. Missionary zeal I think they term it. Mission Impossible more like.

Ever wondered what's the quickest way to empty a Liverpool pub at nine o’clock at night?

Stick on 'Tears of Rage' at full blast and, man, just watch those headhunters disappear like they've just spotted 'Predator'.

"Er, we'll, er see yer tomorra night then Al lad"

"But fellas, what about Kingdom Come?" n"Another friggin dirge like that last one and you'll be entering it tonight pal!"

Maybe I should have started with something a little lighter. Lonesome Suzie, perhaps?

ME AND KATHERINE ROSS

That same year. Dudley College in Brum. Doing me Dustin Hoffman Graduate bit with the nearest I was ever to get to Katherine Ross. The lovely Marian from Consett County Durham.

She had ditched me by letter that day and come hell or high water I was going to woo her back. Train to Dudley. Stopped her in her tracks outside the College. Into the Student's Union. It was going well. She was warming to my heartfelt pleas; seeking reassurances -

"...and you promise - no more of that blessed Band stuff?"

Sharp intake of breath - fingers, toes and small intestines crossed - "Yeah, I promise". The cock crows thrice [Thank God I never knew about Daniel and his Harp by then otherwise I might have disappeared without trace like a whippoorwill]

Just then, the juke box blares out. "When I get offa this mountAIN...".

Well, I'm up like a shot, arent I? Across to the juke box to embrace the guy who's just put it on. It was a beautiful communion. I mean, what else can a fella do in such circumstances? I guess desperation and isolation make you that way. So that was it. Bye bye Miss Katherine Ross. Up Cripple Creek without a paddle!

"I'll try and intercept you at the church, Marian. Promise!"

Entered at Tue Aug 12 11:29:07 CEST 2014 from (122.59.251.42)

Rod

And I still have a soft spot for early Neil Diamond.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 07:59:06 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

There is still stuff to write about … but it means “music liked by people who like The Band” which is wide.

Yes, Side Two of Abbey Road is as good as any album gets. Side one has Come Together, Something as a one-two punch, but then it has Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Octopussy’s Garden, Oh, Darling, and I Want You. Not their finest hour. I only finally got to love “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” when it was used for the musical film “Across The Universe” … a hugely under-rated must-see film. But Side Two of Abbey Road is a sheer joy throughout.

It’s funny looking at heartfelt inscriptions from 45 years ago and looking at the handwriting. Sigh. Thank goodness it wasn’t that increasingly rare red and white one-off inner sleeve of an original Sergeant Pepper, might be the Record Collectors’ thought. The inscription on my copy of A Man And A Woman OST (same year, birthday) is so fulsome and intimate that I’d be embarrassed if any family member were to take it off the shelf and pull the sleeve out. Actually, a fine OST too. I haven't seen the film in years … I vaguely look for it when a shop (like The British Film Institute) has a large French section. I wonder if the awful American version with overdubbed voices has been confined to the bins years ago?

Another repeat post. In the film, the woman leaves at the station. Jean Louis Trintingant shrugs and mutters "Les femmes …" in the original French version. Then a year later they released the over-dubbed American version. His lips mouth "Les femmes" but a Jerry Lewis soundalike says "Oh, boy! I guess you'll never understand women if you live to be a hundred!!!" At least in the anecdote I've been telling for 45 years that's what he says. An actual copy would prove my memory either heavily embroidered (I suspect I've "improved" it) or more surprisingly, accurate.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 05:21:27 CEST 2014 from (68.171.246.142)

Bill M

Entered at Tue Aug 12 03:59:11 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

Thanks to everyone who is writing about their discovery of The Band. I'm really enjoying all of them. And for people like Ragtime, Bones, JT et all - I'm familiar with you all through the archives. And I know you're right about everything having been hashed over many times, but I'm hoping there's still something left to write about.

Peter, that was so funny about your Christmas present. In your defence though, Abbey Road is a terrific album, one of the best. I just was reacquainted with it when I discovered The Fab Faux's recording of Side 2 of Abbey Road on YouTube (with Jimmy Vivino and Will Lee, among others). Well worth a listen if you haven't already found it.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 02:58:25 CEST 2014 from (108.217.93.87)

Glenn T

So long Robin Williams....thanks for all the laughs.

one afternoon my brother came to my room and urged me to listen to a new album he'd bought. He played the title track "Stage Fright." I was not impressed. But something about the drumming kept coming to me, so that evening (when my brother was away), I went into his room and played the track again. Loved it. Thank you Levon.!

I didn't follow through on this new discovery at that time; didn't start purchasing LPs for a few years, but was completely captivated the afternoon he played the Rock of Ages album straight through as we worked to remove a tree stump in the backyard. That was it; I was hooked!

Little by little I bought all the records. I finally saw them live at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in 1976, a few months before their Last Waltz farewell. I saw Rick after his first solo album was released, and The Band again during the Jericho tour.

So grateful for all the great music these guys gave to us...and to Jan for hosting this site where we can share our love for their musical talent, and music in general.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 01:04:03 CEST 2014 from (50.144.1.7)

Carmen

Subject: Robin Williams

Just heard Robin Williams found dead of apparent suicide

Entered at Tue Aug 12 01:02:33 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Lisa, great idea. Great story too. I’ve told lots of this, but repeating is my forte.

I heard about Dylan 66 and these Canadians who had played so badly behind him, but of course this was 1966 and we had no bootlegs. Then in 1968 I was in W.H. Smith in Bournemouth looking through the new release albums, actually having money because it was summer and I was working. And I picked up this one with no title and a crude amateurish painting and thought “What is this?” and I turned it over and someone said the painting was by Bob Dylan. “Can’t sing?” I’d always disagreed, but I thought, “Well he surely can’t paint.”

Then I thought, “Is this the Canadian bar band I read about?” and I didn’t buy it then, but I was intrigued because not only were there three new Dylan songs, but two were CO-WRITTEN. Hmm, I thought. He must like these guys. So when I got back to university, The Weight was on the jukebox, and it became my daily habit to go in and read the free papers every morning in the common room, and I always put the same “3 Plays for One Shilling: on the box: The Weight, White Rabbit, I Shall Be Released. You had to put them in that order, or the machine would screw up if you chose both sides of one record without something in between. Did it every day, and I bought the album.

Then Christmas 1969, freezing cold, outside HMV in Oxford Street. Three LPs filled the display: Abbey Road, Let It Bleed, The Band. My girlfriend squeezed my arm and said “Choose your Christmas present!” That was a true Sophie’s Choice moment. I agonized. I picked them up and studied them. And … my Abbey Road still has “Happy Christmas! XXX” on the inner sleeve. I had to wait a few weeks to get the brown album, I think.

From “Stage Fright” on they were all day of release. The 45s too.

Kevin – great post too. The fun should be there! We got a lot of people censoring anything that was not arse licking basically. So people clammed up.

Toppermost and my blog are distractions … but because they’re Wordpress powered there’s always a delay for “Approved” to be pressed. Kills conversation.

Entered at Tue Aug 12 00:58:35 CEST 2014 from (174.237.37.247)

Bones

Entered at Tue Aug 12 00:21:39 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Subject: Lisa's comment

Hey Lisa,

In the late 20th century I used to be a regular contributor to these pages and added my two cents to any discussion that I came across. But after some years I came to the conclusion that everything about The Band had been said. So I drifted away from the GB, but of course I kept lurking at the What's New? page and listening to their immortal music. And from time to time I dropped by in the GB (since it was a place where I had felt at home), saying hello to the old friends, who never responded BTW because most of them had left too...

So when you tell us now it's rather quiet in the GB, well, I think that most people decided that there's no need to invent the wheel once more...

But still I am glad that this GB still exists, thanks to Jan the Man of course... but even Uncle Hangover doesn't pop up here anymore... ;)

Entered at Tue Aug 12 00:15:57 CEST 2014 from (184.66.164.212)

JT

Subject: Levon and the Hawks provide Electric soil for Dylan

Lisa: Too good to be true! What a good idea.

My story is known to all but I'll put it in here for those who missed it. 1963 and Levon and the Hawks are tearing up Yonge St (having done their internship with Rompin' Ronnie) and putting in some time on Bloor St at the Concord Tavern, my dad's place. So they rehearse Saturday afternoons and the kids come to eat french fries and drink coca cola. I'm a kid with a rock and roll habit from the juke boxes of Jackson's Point and the guitar of Chuck Berry and the sounds of Philadelphia. My dad tells me about these kids who he admires for their poise and professionalism and they are Levon and the Hawks. So I go down on a Saturday and I go back and I go back and I go back...etc. And the next thing I hear is they are going to play with Dylan at Massey Hall so I get tickets for Nov. 15 1965 and they play Stones that I Throw and then back up Dylan. Next time I see them is early Jan 1964 Maple Leaf Gardens in one of the greatest shows I have ever seen. That's my story and I'm luck to be able to have done it and to tell it.

Entered at Mon Aug 11 23:08:24 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

So, in an effort to spur things on a bit, I'll ask you all a question which is so basic probably no one will want to answer: How did you find The Band?

In my case, I came to The Band quite late in life, around 1989. I'm not exactly a fountain of information about rock music, as my background is more in classical music, but in a way that's how it came about.

I had recorded "Carny" to watch off a local TV station, and that movie really hooked me in from the start. After a watch or two, I couldn't help noticing the same name cropping up all over the credits, and you all can guess whose name that was. He really intrigued me, so after a little research I discovered he was part of this group The Band I vaguely remembered from the past, so went out and bought a tape (remember those?), "The Best of The Band", which was the only thing I could find at the time. I brought it home, put it on for a listen, and I have to admit that at first I was a little taken aback - what was this weird, moany music? (The first track was "Tears of Rage".) But I was hooked in from the start, because I thought they were simply better musicians than most. And their music was very complex. The more I listened, the better it sounded, and off I went on a quest to find more. Bit by bit I accumulated their albums, and fell right in love. I also realized early on that the unnamed guitarist who had impressed me so much at the 1966 Bob Dylan concert all those years ago was the same Robbie Robertson.

By this time, The Band had become a bit of an obsession, and I love doing research, so I spent lots of time in the library gleaning any information I could find, books, back issues of music magazines, etc. It was lovely - I had such a great time, and it was so much fun. Now, of course, I could find practically everything it took me a couple years to find at the click of a mouse button, but I don't regret it a bit. It was way more exciting making discoveries a bit at a time than having it all handed to me on a platter, so to speak. Then, when I finally learned how to use a computer a few years ago (late starter, to put it mildly!) the first thing I looked up was The Band, and the first thing I found was Jan's site, and found all of you, and I've been a daily reader ever since.

So that's my story ... what's yours?

Entered at Mon Aug 11 21:25:10 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

What’s Changed….two things:

1. Steve is gone and with him daily content that entertained some, infuriated many but always generated responses.

2. PutEmUp(Friend0 changed his name, Norm moved to a condo, David left in a snit ( I am still hoping dearly to inherit his record collection in about 40 years and somehow find out “what’s playing on his turntable” every now and then ), Al Edge has left home and has embarked on a journey to prove that Louis Suarez has never bitten anyone, Toppermost just paid a record transfer fee to Peter and the guy posting here under his name is actually a 20 year old midfielder from Columbia that thinks Norah Jones wrote Java Blues…….the rest are all respectably married or running whorehouses in Buenos Aires.

Entered at Mon Aug 11 21:18:35 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Thanks for the link sadavid, and for your thoughts Lisa. I just thought of a good name for the big 'plantation' company that's coming to take over from the family farm - King Harvest! No? Anyway, here's a link to a song that is similarly evocative of a gone or going way of life, though the song itself only starts around 3:20 or something. The mandolinist is Willie P Bennett, in whose honour Linden, Fearing and Wilson recorded their initial Blackie and the Rodeo Kings project.

Entered at Mon Aug 11 19:12:32 CEST 2014 from (174.1.247.160)

Lisa

Sadavid, thank you for that. It was wonderful - very evocative, even if Ole had four wheels instead of two legs.

So what is happening to the Guestbook? It seems as though everyone but a few stalwarts has given up. Has everything been said, and now the Band train is going to chug away into the distance and out of our lives? I hope not! Peter was right, though. Things were a lot livelier in the past. What changed?

Entered at Mon Aug 11 17:02:08 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: corn in the field

An old article from a series about a farm family.

This was at the time when everybody realized that the family farm was dying, to be succeeded by plantations.
They hope it is not too late and fear it already is . . . anyway, it is a Minnesota story, and it has an Ole in it . . . .

Entered at Mon Aug 11 16:07:35 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Spirit

Our very own Rob The Organ has a new Toppermost up today on Spirit. Not the cartoon, but the band who might have been named after it. Linked.

I was looking back through 2002 / 2003 archives to see if I'd reviewed Norah Jones (couldn't find it) and it struck me how much wider the world of the GB was. Life The Universe & everything.

Entered at Mon Aug 11 15:48:14 CEST 2014 from (72.78.48.169)

PSB

Subject: Bob and Robbie RTR pic

Ian, that pic appeared a couple of days ago and I didn't think I'd seen it before either, but yes to the place and the song.

Entered at Mon Aug 11 11:46:41 CEST 2014 from (122.59.251.42)

Rod

Entered at Mon Aug 11 10:46:18 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Subject: Robbie Robertson during Rolling Thunder show ?

Maybe this photo is well-known but I hadn't seen it before:-

http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m542/blue281/1975.jpg

I assume it's "It Takes A Lot To Laugh" at Madison Square Garden on 8 Decemeber 1975. Is that right?

Entered at Sun Aug 10 23:55:44 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Catherine Popper sings most of the lead on the Pussnboots version. I'm trying to find where Norah Jones did it alone or whether it's false memory … she has recorded Bessie Smith and Life Is A Carnival. I think it's false memory. I saw her at Hammersmith in London around the second album, and I've been trying to find whether I reviewed it here … I would have I'm sure. But I never kept it.

Entered at Sun Aug 10 23:10:08 CEST 2014 from (58.104.17.108)

Wallsend

Entered at Sat Aug 9 19:14:19 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Pussnboots

Norah Jones project with Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper is Pussnboots, with "No Fools No Fun". It has a new version of Twilight, which Norah Jones has done before. Interesting to hear a female vocal trio. They have changed the words considerably in the studio version. They did it at the Levon tribute in 2012 too. There are three versions on YouTube. A live 2014 version is linked. I have to say the drumming isn't much good … we got the CD today and put it on in the car for a 90 minute drive and we both said "That's not a person who normally plays drums." But ignoring that, it's fun.

Though by no means the best track on the album, which I reckon is the opener, Tom Paxton's Leaving London.

Entered at Sat Aug 9 19:01:25 CEST 2014 from (24.114.94.26)

Kevin J

Woke up this morning to hear of a disgruntled condo owner throwing a few rowdies from a window somewhere in British Columbia...........and immediatley thought "Oh no, maybe Norm isn't adjusting to condo living as well as we had hoped".

Entered at Sat Aug 9 18:20:36 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: The Supremes

My latest Toppermost is up on The Supremes plus a chance to catch up on an interesting week. Please comment over there,

Entered at Sat Aug 9 14:24:05 CEST 2014 from (83.249.137.149)

NorthWestCoaster

Subject: Ragtime

It was Ragtime who wished me welcome to gb after my first humble post for fifteen years ago. On behalf of this golden gb community I say "thanks for this extraordinary effort". (Consequently, all complaints should be adressed _to him_ as well :-)

I will always remember his aforism: "In Low countries every day is April 1st."

Entered at Fri Aug 8 13:54:15 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Subject: Bill M

I like Rick's moving performance, and it's a bloody shame that the audience's attention is... driftin' away...

But as much as I like it, I wouldn't use the word "effortless", actually, as I would have described Rick's vocals in the seventies. And Danko and Kottke, each in their own right, are hard to compare, imho.

Entered at Fri Aug 8 01:58:03 CEST 2014 from (68.171.246.134)

Bill M

Entered at Thu Aug 7 22:07:58 CEST 2014 from (96.30.173.135)

joe j

Have listened to 'Vaseline Machine Gun'. The man has chops.

Entered at Thu Aug 7 12:32:48 CEST 2014 from (222.158.182.36)

Kerrin

Entered at Wed Aug 6 22:26:29 CEST 2014 from (58.104.7.83)

Wallsend

Subject: Ragtime

I really like simple arrangements of songs. I love hearing people finger picking popular songs because that style of playing really brings out the melody. What struck me about the two clips of Leo is the age difference. We are all getting older and it is kind of scary. It is said of lute players that they spend half their time playing and the other half tuning, I think this applies even more to twelve string guitarists.

Entered at Wed Aug 6 21:38:09 CEST 2014 from (99.244.8.134)

John

joe. Sample Vaseline Machine Gun.

Entered at Wed Aug 6 21:35:23 CEST 2014 from (108.90.18.26)

Pat B

Entered at Wed Aug 6 21:05:38 CEST 2014 from (96.30.173.135)

joe j

Just got turned on to Leo Kottke. Scott Goudie, a local player, told me that his version of 'Louise' was based on Kottke's cover and that he had never heard Paul Siebel's original (until I brought it up on Youtube). I like Leo's 'Louise' and I've been sampling other of his songs. Yes he can play (duh) but he can sing as well.

Entered at Wed Aug 6 18:50:40 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

LINKED: Glen Silverthorn talks about Rick Danko’s early days………stick with this link – well worth it.....and dig the photos

Bill M: on those that cannot stop gabbing……I miss the old Montreal Bistro jazz club in Toronto where the owner ( Lothar ) used to get up before every performance and in that very commanding German voice “inform” the crowd that there should be no talking – at all – while the performers are on stage.

Entered at Wed Aug 6 14:36:46 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime (P.S.)

BTW, talking about Leo and Bob (there's always talking about Bob in this gb), try this link. Funny!

Entered at Wed Aug 6 14:18:36 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Wallsend: pardon me boy, I like the guitar playing, but what is it that makes you smile...?

And here's is MY train favorite...

Entered at Wed Aug 6 13:59:40 CEST 2014 from (83.160.180.22)

Ragtime

Wallsend: pardon me boy, I like the guitar playing, but what's the smile about?

Entered at Wed Aug 6 07:38:25 CEST 2014 from (58.104.15.4)

Wallsend

This version of Chattanoga Cho Cho always brings a smile to my face.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 22:28:21 CEST 2014 from (204.138.59.92)

Bill M

Kevin J: Thanks for the link. Beautiful version of a beautiful song. How can people continue gabbing through such performances?

Ian W: Thanks for the follow-up. Surely the prospect of ghost-hunting with the Winwoods in Birmingham would have trumped the prospect of an extra empty night in Manchester - and Bob would have had the power to choose.

Wallsend: You're right about trains and train songs. Because I just saw the worthy James Brown biopic, his "Night Train" is top 10 of mind - as it should be. Another top-tenner would be a great favourite of mine, "I Like Trains" by Fred Eaglesmith; the whole thing is terrific, and the opening verse is brilliant.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 21:27:00 CEST 2014 from (58.104.15.4)

Wallsend

Some great songs have been written about trains. Trains lend themselves to music, not just the rhythm but there is something romantic about a train.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 20:07:01 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

Subject: Rick Danko's most beautiful 4 minutes

LINKED: A performance so beautiful it will break your heart………and if you ever did doubt how tough you have to be to perform live and put up with those that talk during performances – watch this and know………….some consolation to also know that all the Biff’s and Betty’s talking away in the audience that night have already been punished…………sent to jail for texting while driving….if only!!….likely they’re all politicians.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 19:44:07 CEST 2014 from (82.25.178.222)

Ian W

Sorry not to have responded to your comments of a couple of weeks ago but I have been up in Glasgow during the intervening period for the Commonwealth Games and, since I haven't replaced my laptop which went "kaput" a while back, I limited myself to checking e-mails on the hotel computer.

JT: I don't know for sure whether that guy was there or not. He may have been there but simply had no visual memory of Dylan's clothing, so just described an early image that he could recall. Many years ago, a friend asked me if I'd ever seen Jo Ann Kelly live and I answered "No", only to find, some years later, a diary entry that indicated that she had guested at a club I once went to, when the club I had planned to attend that night was closed for its summer break. And I have no visual memory of the place at all, only this brief diary note.

Bill M: Yes, based on the way the dates fell, it could have been 13 May, though Dylan tended to move on to the next city the day after each concert. Also, I have a faint memory that there was a specific reason that the 13th May was discounted from consideration but I disremember what that was.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 14:38:01 CEST 2014 from (222.158.182.36)

Kerrin

Nice link, Wallsend. A favourite song of mine and not a bad version. Great to see Levon's face light up at the end of the take.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 11:00:22 CEST 2014 from (58.104.24.243)

Wallsend

All very sad Peter. Seems like people haven't learnt anything in the last hundred years. I think things are worse now than they were then. Link is to Levon playing on a cover of The City of New Orleans. It does't have many views so maybe it hasn't been posted here before.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 09:53:34 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: The Great War

A few thoughts on the start of The Great War 100 years today are on my blog. Linked. I was going to post it here, but we don't do current events anymore.

Entered at Tue Aug 5 00:53:00 CEST 2014 from (67.84.79.26)

Jeff A.

Subject: Dixie

Just for fun, see the link.

Entered at Mon Aug 4 14:34:05 CEST 2014 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

I'm astonished at the thought that there are people who don't know TLW (aka "The Death of A Fly") by heart.

Entered at Sun Aug 3 22:12:19 CEST 2014 from (58.104.17.239)

Wallsend

Don't know if this transcript of TLW has been posted before but it may be of some use to people who have not already committed the entire movie to memory.

Entered at Sun Aug 3 15:45:15 CEST 2014 from (50.201.168.69)

JT

Subject: Peaks

The Golden Chords continue to thrive. Do you not recognize them? Self-Portrait is sung and painted repeatedly with different faces. With every album presented by our creative Santa, Christmas arrives with a gift to all. As for Frank, ''doo-be-doo-be-doo. " - he did have golden cords. Roll on, Elston.

Entered at Sun Aug 3 13:54:05 CEST 2014 from (83.249.135.242)

NorthWestCoaster

JT, I don't know about Dylan's creativity. Paintings which I saw in Denmark where plagiats, or even more: they were coloured black and white photos. On the other hand _Bob Dylan_ is a plagiat from the beginning so I don't really mind.

For me there is three peaks in his career: 1.) Golden Chords with Leroy Hoikkala and Monte Edwardson in Hibbing 2.) Self Portrait and 3.) Christmas album. I am the first to shout "hooray" if there will be Sinatra covers.

Entered at Sat Aug 2 21:33:17 CEST 2014 from (96.30.173.135)

joe j

Subject: Blind and Afraid of the Dark

Thinking about Garth sorta leads to this Keith Whitley tune. Not sure of thought progression.

Entered at Sat Aug 2 21:23:29 CEST 2014 from (84.143.58.144)

Wolle

Happy Birthday Garth Hudson! My Birthdayposter for Garth on my Website! Wolfgang (the greatest THE BAND Fan from Germany!)

Entered at Sat Aug 2 21:00:50 CEST 2014 from (96.30.173.135)

joe j

Happy birthday Mr. Hudson. Mine was yesterday but I'm celebrating this evening with seafood and single malt. If the weather holds we'll have a few neighbours on the back deck for a bit of singing and picking. Life is good.

Entered at Sat Aug 2 14:57:31 CEST 2014 from (50.201.168.69)

JT

Subject: Nick Cave

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (with Warren Ellis) get 5 stars out of 4 in Toronto concert.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2014/08/01/a_nick_cave_concert_so_riveting_it_gets_five_stars_out_of_four.html.

I've always liked this band and Nick Cave is a major force in music. Have a listen to his albums (esp. Abattoir Blues and Dig, Lazarus, Dig to the current album.

Entered at Sat Aug 2 03:55:21 CEST 2014 from (203.160.29.153)

Fred

Subject: Levon explains why the no-show & more.

: )

Entered at Sat Aug 2 03:54:18 CEST 2014 from (203.160.29.153)

Fred

Subject: Levon...a no-show on Letterman

: (

Entered at Sat Aug 2 00:45:18 CEST 2014 from (173.3.48.201)

Jeff A.

Entered at Fri Aug 1 20:37:56 CEST 2014 from (70.53.44.212)

Kevin J

.....He was on fire then Jeff and I have always felt ( as I believe you do too ) that a large part of kicking out his cobwebs and making us all forget the "fog years" was Winston Watson.......I loved his energy..............See LINK as there is apparently a documentary on his time in the Dylan Band - 93-96

Entered at Fri Aug 1 19:08:54 CEST 2014 from (173.3.48.201)

Jeff A.

Entered at Fri Aug 1 17:13:14 CEST 2014 from (216.75.237.130)

JT

Subject: Arenas

For music, that is.... hockey etc... No problem! Even good acoustics fail to attract me most of the time now. The best Dylan I ever saw was in Massey Hall (65 Nov) and at the Masonic Temple in 94. The arena shows and the outside shows have somehow left me lukewarm even when the performances are good. The 74 Dylan at MLG with the Band was the exception, but I was pretty close for that one.

Entered at Fri Aug 1 17:05:46 CEST 2014 from (216.75.237.130)

JT

Subject: Jack White carries the torch

And while I'm at it trying to contribute some words and ideas to this music site dedicated to the best we have had, (San Francisco sitting in a room dedicated to Jack Kerouac) read this about the astounding Jack White and his contribution to 'today's' musical notes.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2014/08/01/jack_white_at_the_acc_rustic_raveups_torrid_fretwork_and_a_onehour_encore.html

Sorry I missed this one, even in a large arena (I have grown to dislike large arenas)

Entered at Fri Aug 1 16:38:05 CEST 2014 from (216.75.237.130)

JT

Subject: Murray McLaughlin shines on

I am pleased to see Murray McLaughlin discussed here. I have admired him since the start. Like so many from Toronto, he made a major impact locally and was successful in Canada, but did not get the international sales he deserved. His songs and his work stands the test of time. He is a gentleman and continues to 'wow' quietly in his performances. With Bruce Cockburn and a few others (less known but still major songwriters - ask Bill M: he knows and writes about them all the time) Murray McLaughlin has contributed as a major force in Canadian music. If music be the food of life, play on,( Murray).

Entered at Fri Aug 1 16:16:56 CEST 2014 from (216.75.237.130)

JT

Subject: 'Weird' NO!: Creative and evolving, ABSOLUTELY!

There is an answer to Bill Wyman's essay at Expecting Rain today. It is definitely worth a read. For anyone who cares, I agree with the writer of that response. Bob Dylan is a performer who continues to evolve and if he wants to make metal statues or paint pictures or sing Frank Sinatra covers or write 'Desolation Row Pt 2,, (who are they now?), that is his business. If we want to see his work or listen to it, that is our business. The word 'weird' is inappropriate in my view (I opine) in that it implies that if one doesn't follow the straight line that is expected of you, that classifies you as 'weird'. If 'weird' is creative then OK. But unfortunately, 'weird' has a negative connotation. Whether it is the writer who chose this description or whether it is the editor who chose the title to sell magazines, it is not descriptive of the Bob Dylan I continue to admire for his creativity. As for his private life, that is none of my business.

Entered at Fri Aug 1 15:04:12 CEST 2014 from (131.137.35.83)

sadavid

Subject: another essay about Bob Dylan

Critic Bill Wyman opines.

Entered at Fri Aug 1 04:22:05 CEST 2014 from (24.108.1.255)

BONK

Thanks for that tune. Been awhile. That clip of Ronnie and Rick and Ronnie's take on Yoko's voice is in my opinion one of the funniest lines ever. The first time I seen that was between mouthfuls of pasta! Which ended up coming out my nose I laughed so freaking hard. And if you watch Ronnie I think he's making it up as he goes along.

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