The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, trombone, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboard instruments, saxophones, trumpet), Richard Manuel (piano, drums, baritone saxophone, vocals), Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals), and Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, vocals). All five members were notable musicians in their own right. The members of the Band first came together as they joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins's backing group, The Hawks, one by one between 1958 and 1963. Upon leaving Hawkins in 1964, they were briefly known as the Levon Helm Sextet with sax player Jerry Penfound being the sixth member, then Levon and the Hawks after Penfound's departure. In 1965, they released a single on Ware Records under the name Canadian Squires, but returned as Levon and the Hawks for a recording session for Atco later in 1965.[1] At about the same time, Bob! Dylan recruited Helm and Robertson for two concerts, then the entire group for his U.S . tour in 1965 and world tour in 1966.[2] Dylan continued to collaborate with The Band over the course of their career, including the informal 1967 recordings that became The Basement Tapes and a joint 1974 tour. Because they were always "the band" to various frontmen, Helm said the name "The Band" worked well when the group came into its own[3] and left Saugerties, New York, to begin recording their own material. They recorded two of the most acclaimed albums of the late 1960s: their 1968 debut Music from Big Pink (featuring the single "The Weight") and 1969's The Band. In 2004, "The Weight" was ranked the 41st best song of all time in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.[4] The Band broke up in 1976, officially ending their touring career with an elaborate live ballroom performance featuring numerous musical celebrities. This performance was immortalized in ! Martin Scorsese's 1978 documentary The Last Waltz. The Band re! formed in 1983 without guitarist Robbie Robertson, who had found success with a solo career and as a Hollywood music producer. The reformed Band were recorded live in concert at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre that year, assisted by four extra musicians; It has been released as The Band Reunion and The Band is Back. Following a 1986 show, Richard Manuel was found dead of suicide. However, The Band continued to tour and record albums until the death of Rick Danko in 1999, when the group broke up for good. Levon Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998, and after a series of treatments was able to regain use of his voice. He continued to perform and released several succesful albums until he succumbed to the disease in 2012. Although the Band was always more popular with music journalists and fellow musicians than with the general public, they have remained an admired and influential group. The group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989[5] and th! e Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.[6] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them #50 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time,[7] and in 2008, they received the Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award.[8] Contents 1 Overview 2 History 2.1 Early years: The Hawks 2.2 With Bob Dylan 2.3 Music from Big Pink and The Band 2.4 Stage Fright, Cahoots, and Northern Lights - Southern Cross 2.5 The Last Waltz 2.6 Post-Waltz 2.7 Reformation 2.8 Post-reformation 3 Members' other endeavors 4 Influence 5 Discography 5.1 Studio albums 5.2 Live albums 6 Personnel 7 References 8 See also 9 External links [edit] Overview The Band's music fused many elements: primarily old country music and early rock and roll, though the rhythm section often was reminiscent of Stax or Motown, and Robertson cites Curtis Mayfield and the Staple Singers as major influences, resulting in a synthesis of many musical genres. As to the group's songwriting, very few of their early compositions were based on conven! tional blues and doo-wop chord changes. Every member was a multi-instru! mentalist. There was little instrument-switching when they played live, but when recording, the musicians could make up different configurations in service of the songs. Hudson in particular was able to coax a wide range of timbres from his Lowrey organ; on the choruses of "Tears of Rage", for example, it sounds like a mellotron. Helm's drumming was often praised: critic Jon Carroll declared that Helm was "the only drummer who can make you cry," while prolific session drummer Jim Keltner admits to appropriating several of Helm's techniques.[9] Singers Manuel, Danko, and Helm each brought a distinctive voice to The Band: Helm's southern voice had more than a hint of country, Danko sang in a tenor, and Manuel alternated between falsetto and baritone. The singers regularly blended in harmonies. Though the singing was more or less evenly shared among the three men, both Danko and Helm have stated that they saw Manuel as the Band's "lead" singer. Robertson is credited as writer ! or co-writer for the majority of The Band's songs, but sang lead vocals on only three of their studio recordings ("To Kingdom Come", "Knockin' Lost John" and "Out Of The Blue"). This role, along with Robertson's resulting claim to the copyright of most of the compositions, would become a point of contention, especially that directed towards Robertson by Helm; In his autobiography This Wheel's on Fire – Levon Helm and the Story of The Band, Helm disputes the validity of Robertson's place as chief songwriter, as The Band's songs were often honed and recorded through collaboration between all members. Robertson for his part angrily denied that Helm had written any of the songs attributed to Robertson[10] and his daughter later pointed out in a letter to the Los Angeles Times that Levon Helm's solo work consists almost entirely of songs written by others.[11] Strains first appeared in the 1980s, when the bulk of songwriting royalties were going to Robertson alone while the ot! hers had to rely on income from touring. This had not arisen as an issu! e in the late sixties and early seventies, when a number of Band songs, mostly credited to Robertson alone, were covered successfully by other artists - such as Smith's version of "The Weight" for the Easy Rider soundtrack LP and Joan Baez's cover of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" in 1971. Producer John Simon is cited[12] as a "sixth member" of the Band for producing and playing on Music from Big Pink, co-producing and playing on The Band, and playing on other songs up through the Band's 1993 reunion album Jericho. [edit] History [edit] Early years: The Hawks The members of The Band gradually came together as a part of Toronto-based, rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins's backing group, the Hawks: Helm, an original Hawk who journeyed with Hawkins from Arkansas to Ontario, then Robertson, Danko, Manuel and finally, Hudson. Hawkins's act was popular in and around Toronto and he had an effective way of eliminating his musical competition: When a promising band appeared, Haw! kins would often hire their best musicians for his own group;[citation needed] Robertson, Danko, and Manuel came under Hawkins' tutelage this way. While most of the Hawks were eager to join Hawkins's group, getting Hudson to join was a different story. He'd earned a college degree, planned on a career as a music teacher and was interested in playing rock music only as a hobby. The Hawks were in awe of his wild, full-bore organ sound and often begged him to join. Hudson finally relented, so long as the Hawks each paid him $10 per week to be their instructor; all music theory questions were directed to Hudson. While pocketing a little extra cash, Hudson was also able to mollify his family's fears that his education had gone to waste. The piano-organ combination was uncommon in rock music, and for all his aggressive playing, Hudson also brought a level of musical sophistication. There is a view that jazz is 'evil' because it comes from evil people, but actually the greatest pr! iests on 52nd Street, and on the streets of New York City were the musi! cians. They were doing the greatest healing work. And they knew how to punch through music which would cure and make people feel good. —Garth Hudson, The Last Waltz With Hawkins, they recorded a few singles in this period and became well known as the best rock group in the thriving Toronto music scene.[citation needed] Hawkins regularly convened all-night rehearsals following long club shows, with the result that the young musicians quickly developed great technical prowess on their instruments. By 1964, the group had split from Hawkins over personal differences. They were tiring of playing the same songs so often and wanted to perform original material, and they were weary of Hawkins's somewhat dictatorial leadership. He would fine the Hawks if they brought their girlfriends to the clubs, fearing it might reduce the numbers of available girls who came to performances, or if they smoked marijuana. Alcohol and pills were acceptable but Canada then had stiff penalties ! against marijuana possession. Robertson later said, "Eventually, [Hawkins] built us up to the point where we outgrew his music and had to leave. He shot himself in the foot, really, bless his heart, by sharpening us into such a crackerjack band that we had to go on out into the world, because we knew what his vision was for himself, and we were all younger and more ambitious musically."[13] They recorded two singles and toured frequently, usually billed as Levon and the Hawks, but found little success, partly because without Hawkins, they lacked a magnetic frontman. In 1963, Levon Helm met the groupie Cathy Smith, with whom he and other members of the Band would have a long association.[14] In 1965, Helm and the band met blues singer and harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson. They wanted to record with him, offering to become his backing band, but W
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The Band music profile on Yahoo! Music. Find lyrics, free streaming MP3s! , music videos and photos of The Band on Yahoo! Music Read the rest
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Uploaded by watanokuni on Apr 17, 2009 From "The Last Waltz" Category: Music Tags: The Band License: Standard YouTube License. 4,675 likes, 33 dislikes Read the rest
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It seems odd that the Band emerged in 1968, defying the counterculture's extravagant rejections of U.S. culture with literary, often Southern-tinged musical and Read the rest
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Even taking into account inflation, it's ironic in this era of $250 concert tickets that critics harped when the Band charged $25 for their legendary November 1976 Read the rest
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Documents The Band's entire ca! reer, from their start as the Hawks to the present, and to keep their f! ans updated on the current activities of the group and its members. Read the rest
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The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, trombone, vocals), Garth Read the rest