The Band

1983–1989: Reformation and the death of Richard Manuel

The Band resumed touring in 1983 without Robertson. An accomplished musician from Woodstock, New York, Jim Weider, became lead guitarist. Robertson had found success with a solo career and as a Hollywood music producer. As a result of their diminished popularity, they performed in theaters and clubs as headliners and took support slots in larger venues for onetime peers such as the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Musical style

The Band's style "thematically and musically fuse[d] the past and the present" by combining various genres. Although primarily incorporating old country music and early rock and roll, the rhythm section often was reminiscent of Stax- or Motown-style rhythm and blues, and Robertson cites Curtis Mayfield and the Staple Singers as major influences, resulting in a synthesis of many musical genres. Singers Manuel, Danko, and Helm each brought a distinctive voice to the Band: Helm's Southern accent was prevalent in his raw and powerful vocals, Danko sang tenor with a distinctively choppy enunciation, and Manuel alternated between falsetto and a soulful baritone. The singers regularly blended singing harmonies. Though the singing was more or...

Legacy

The Band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them 50th on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and ranked "The Weight" 41st on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2008, the group received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2014, they were inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Acadian Driftwood

"Acadian Driftwood" is a song by the Band. It was the fourth track on their sixth studio album Northern Lights – Southern Cross (1975), written by member Robbie Robertson.

Richard Manuel, Levon Helm and Rick Danko trade off lead vocals and harmonize on the chorus.

Reception

Bowman rated "Acadian Driftwood" as "one of Robertson's finest compositions, equal to anything else the Band ever recorded." According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Mark Kemp, "Acadian Driftwood" is one of three songs on Northern Lights – Southern Cross, along with "Ophelia" and "It Makes No Difference," on which "Robertson reclaims his reputation as one of rock's great songwriters. Music critic Colin Larkin concurred that it is "one of Robertson's most evocative compositions." Music critic Barney Hoskyns considers it and "It Makes No Difference" to be "the most moving songs Robertson had written in five years." Dave Zurawik of The Milwaukee Sentinel praises the way the song "rattle[s] in [his] head and reverberates off [his]...

It Makes No Difference

"It Makes No Difference" is a song written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Rick Danko that was first released by The Band on their 1975 album Northern Lights – Southern Cross. It has also appeared on live and compilation albums, including the soundtrack to the film The Last Waltz.

Among the artists that have covered the song are Solomon Burke, My Morning Jacket, The Icicle Works, Trey Anastasio, Over the Rhine and Eric Clapton.

Lyrics and music

Critic Barney Hoskyns described "It Makes No Difference" as "an artlessly simple country-soul ballad." The Band biographer Craig Harris considers it "one of pop music's saddest songs." Music critic Nick DeRiso similarly states that "The Band, as a whole, has never constructed a sadder moment, nor one with more direct specificity." The song's theme is the singer's inability to get over a failed relationship. Among the metaphors used to portray the singer's sadness are images of weather, such as the sun never shining, constant rain and clouds hanging low.

Reception

According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Mark Kemp, "It Makes No Difference" is one of three songs on Northern Lights – Southern Cross, along with "Ophelia" and "Acadian Driftwood," on which "Robertson reclaims his reputation as one of rock's great songwriters. Hoskyns considers it and "Acadian Driftwood" to be "the most moving songs Robertson had written in five years." Allmusic critic Rob Bowman claims that it "might be the best romantic ballad ever done by the group." The Sarasota Herald-Tribune described the song as "poignant" and praised its eloquence as being worthy of a Grammy Award. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Ed Masley considers "It Makes No Difference" to be "Robertson's best song," praising its majesty and...

Cover versions

Solomon Burke covered "It Makes No Difference" on his 2005 album Make Do with What You Got. Deming praises his version for bring the song "to vivid and passionate life that's thrilling to hear." My Morning Jacket covered "It Makes No Difference" on the 2007 tribute album Endless Highway: The Music of The Band. Ben Windham of The Tuscaloosa News particularly praised the lead vocal and "biting guitar" of this version. My Morning Jacket also covered the song on Love for Levon in 2012. Over the Rhine covered the song on their 2013 album Meet Me at the Edge of the World. AllMusic critic James Christopher Monger praised their version as "a soulful, Carole King-inspired take.". Post-punk group the Mekons also covered the song on their F.U.N. 90...

Life Is a Carnival

"Life is a Carnival" is the opening track of the Band's fourth album, Cahoots. Written by Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson, the song features horn arrangements by New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint.

The song is the only track from the Cahoots album included on the original releases of Rock of Ages and The Last Waltz. The song was featured in the Bill Murray movie Larger Than Life.

Ophelia

"Ophelia" is a song written by Robbie Robertson that was first released by The Band on their 1975 album Northern Lights – Southern Cross. It was the lead single from the album.

It has also appeared on several of the group's live and compilation albums, and has been covered by such artists as Vince Gill and My Morning Jacket.

Lyrics and music

The lyrics tell of the singer's attempt to find the heroine Ophelia. The relationship between the singer and Ophelia is never made explicit. Author Craig Harris refers to her as the singer's old friend, while music critic Nick DeRiso considers her his lover. But he finds out that Ophelia has left town, apparently in a hurry. According to Band biographer Barney Hoskyns, the name Ophelia for the song did not come from Shakespeare's Hamlet but rather from Minnie Pearl's real name. But Shakespeare scholar Stephen M. Buhler sees some Shakespearean echoes in "Ophelia," particularly related to Othello. In particular, Buhler sees hints that perhaps Ophelia is a black woman in a Southern town who was forced to flee because of Southern...

Reception

According to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide critic Mark Kemp, "Ophelia" is one of three songs on Northern Lights – Southern Cross, along with "Acadian Driftwood" and "It Makes No Difference," on which "Robertson reclaims his reputation as one of rock's great songwriters." Cash Box called it a "funky shuffle in the Band's best found-and-lost woman tradition," and said "Levon Helm's floppy drums kick the piece along, and his vocal is impeccably mournful" and that "Robbie Robertson plays an absolutely steaming guitar solo." Record World called it "a festive sounding tune chock full of Bayou funk."

Rag Mama Rag

"Rag Mama Rag" is a song by the Band which was first released on their 1969 album The Band. It was also released as a single, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, the highest position for any single by the group.

The single was less successful in the US, reaching only number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Music and lyrics

"Rag Mama Rag" is credited solely to Robbie Robertson. However, drummer Levon Helm claimed years later that the song was a group effort. The song has an improvised feel. The Band initially attempted to record the song in a straightforward manner, but it did not sound right to Robertson. So, drummer Helm moved to play mandolin, pianist Richard Manuel played drums, bassist Rick Danko played fiddle and producer John Simon played tuba, while organist Garth Hudson played upright acoustic piano in a ragtime fashion. Helm also sang the lead vocals.

Reception

AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes "Rag Mama Rag" as a "rollicking uptempo number." Hoskyns claims that the song sounds like it "came straight out of turn-of-the-century New Orleans." Musician Dr. John claimed that the song sounded "like a cross between Memphis and New Orleans." Ward describes the song as a "wonderful, swinging song with some of the Band's most perfect playing (which is saying something)..." According to Ward, unlike most Band songs, "Rag Mama Rag" owes its success more to the music than the lyrics. DeRiso rated "Rag Mama Rag" as one of the five essential Levon Helm songs with the Band. DeRiso commented on how the song sounds improvised at first but on closer listen the "song rambles along with a...

Stage Fright

"Stage Fright" is the title track of the Band's third album, Stage Fright. It features Rick Danko on lead vocals and was written by Robbie Robertson.

According to author Barney Hoskyns, Robertson originally intended it to be sung by Richard Manuel but it became clear that the song was better suited to Danko's "nervous, tremulous voice."

Tears of Rage

"Tears of Rage" is a song with lyrics written by Bob Dylan and music by Richard Manuel. Dylan and the Band first recorded the song in 1967, but it was not released until 1975 on The Basement Tapes album.

In 1968, the Band recorded it for their debut album Music from Big Pink.

Initial recordings

The song was first recorded in rehearsal sessions at the Band's upstate New York residence, Big Pink, in 1967, with Dylan on lead vocal and the Band backing him. These sessions were not officially released until the 1975 double-album The Basement Tapes, although they were widely bootlegged in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Lyrics

Andy Gill likens the song to King Lear's soliloquy on the blasted heath in Shakespeare's tragedy: "Wracked with bitterness and regret, its narrator reflects upon promises broken and truths ignored, on how greed has poisoned the well of best intentions, and how even daughters can deny their father's wishes." He suggests that Dylan is linking the anguish of Lear's soliloquy to the divisions in American society apparent in 1967, as the Vietnam War escalated: "In its narrowest and most contemporaneous interpretation, the song could be the first to register the pain of betrayal felt by many of America’s Vietnam war veterans ... In a wider interpretation [it] harks back to what anti-war protesters and critics of American materialism in general...

In popular culture

Gene Clark recorded the song for his White Light album (1971). Hip hop group Public Enemy reference it in their 2007 Dylan tribute song "Long and Whining Road": "Tears of rage left a friend blowing in the wind / But time is God, been back for ten years, and black again".

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a song written by Robbie Robertson. It was originally recorded by his Canadian-American roots rock group the Band and released on their eponymous second album in 1969.

Levon Helm provided the lead vocals. The song is a first-person narrative relating the economic and social distress experienced by the protagonist, a poor white Southerner, during the last year of the American Civil War.

Creation and recordings

The song was written by Robbie Robertson, who spent about eight months working on it. Levon Helm performed lead vocals on the song. Robertson said he had the music to the song in his head and would play the chords over and over on the piano but had no idea what the song was to be about. Then the concept came to him and he researched the subject with help from the Band's drummer Levon Helm, a native of Arkansas. In his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire, Helm wrote, "Robbie and I worked on 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' up in Woodstock. I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography of the era and make General Robert E. Lee come out with all due respect".

Reception

"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is considered one of the highlights of The Band, the group's second album, which was released in the fall of 1969.

The Shape I'm In

"The Shape I'm In" is a song by the Canadian–American rock band the Band, first released on their 1970 album Stage Fright. It was written by Robbie Robertson, who did little to disguise the fact that the song's sense of dread and dissolution was about Richard Manuel, the song's principal singer.

It became a regular feature in their concert repertoire, appearing on their live albums Rock of Ages, Before the Flood, and The Last Waltz. Author Neil Minturn described the song as "straightforward rock." Along with "The Weight", it is one of the Band's songs most performed by other artists.

Time to Kill

"Time to Kill" is a song written by Robbie Robertson that was first released by the Band on their 1970 album Stage Fright. It was also released as a single off the album, backed with the more famous "The Shape I'm In" and, although it failed to reach the Top 40 in the United States, it peaked at #13 in the Netherlands.

It has also been featured on several Band compilation and live albums.

Lyrics and music

On the surface, the lyrics of "Time to Kill" extoll the joy of country life, which the Band members had enjoyed prior to becoming famous. Music critic Barney Hoskyns states that the song sounds like a "celebration of the 'mountain hideaway' to which they'd at last returned," and the lyrics explicitly reference the town Catskill in the Catskill Mountains, near Woodstock where the Band recorded The Basement Tapes with Bob Dylan. The music is also happy and upbeat. Steve Millward described the song as "a catchy medium-pacer." Rolling Stone critic John Burks describes the music as having an old fashioned sound that a Kentucky moonshiner may have hummed to himself in the 1890s. Burks also describes Robertson's guitar intro to the song as...

Reception

Hoskyns feels that this song plays it safe, describing it as "the most harmless piece of music the group had yet recorded as the Band." Hoskyns does praise Hudson's piano, and the combination of Helms' "funky" rhythm guitar with Robertson's "piercing" guitar solo. DeRiso states that "Robertson’s guitar weaves in with a serrated economy, working in counterpoint to Levon Helm’s tough rhythm riffs." Rolling Stone critic Dave Marsh described "Time to Kill" as one of the most notable "fine moments" from the Stage Fright album, along with "Stage Fright" and "The Shape I'm In." Burks praised Robertson's guitar opening and described the song as "a controlled performance, if, paradoxically, a bashing one," with "a complacent lyric" that he...

Up On Cripple Creek

"Up on Cripple Creek" is a song written by the Band’s guitarist Robbie Robertson which appeared on their second album The Band, with drummer Levon Helm on lead vocal. Released as a single in November 1969, it reached 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Lyrics and music

Drawing upon the Band's musical roots—the American South, American rock and roll, and bluegrass/country—the song is sung from the point of view of a truck driver who goes to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to stay with a local girl, Bessie, with whom he has a history. In the song, he gambles, drinks, listens to music, and spends time with "little Bessie," who takes an active role in the goings-on, while expressing her opinions, further endearing herself to the narrator. At the end of the song, after exhausting himself on the road, he talks about going home to his woman, "big mama," but is tempted to return to Bessie again. He may or may not be cheating. Truckers also use the term "Big Mama" to refer to their dispatcher over CB radio. Concerns...

In popular culture

The hip hop duo Gang Starr sampled the rhythm track on their own song "Beyond Comprehension."

When I Paint My Masterpiece

"When I Paint My Masterpiece" is a 1971 song by Bob Dylan. It was first released by The Band, which recorded it on its album Cahoots, released on September 15, 1971.

Background

Dylan first recorded the song at New York's Blue Rock Studio, backed by Leon Russell and session musicians, including Jesse Ed Davis on lead guitar. The recording sessions lasted from March 16 to 19, 1971, and also saw the recording of the 45 RPM single "Watching the River Flow", released by CBS Records on June 3, 1971. Both songs appeared on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II, released November 17, 1971, with Russell credited as the songs' producer.

Reception and legacy

Douglas Brinkley, while interviewing Dylan for the New York Times in 2020, noted that "When I Paint My Masterpiece" was a song that had grown on him over the years and asked Dylan why he had brought it "back to the forefront of recent concerts". Dylan replied: "It's grown on me as well. I think this song has something to do with the classical world, something that's out of reach. Someplace you'd like to be beyond your experience. Something that is so supreme and first-rate that you could never come back down from the mountain. That you've achieved the unthinkable. That's what the song tries to say, and you'd have to put it in that context. In saying that, though, even if you do paint your masterpiece, what will you do then? Well, obviously...

In popular culture

Dylan performs the song live (as a duet with Bob Neuwirth) during the opening credits of his 1978 film Renaldo and Clara. He also performed a version of it, with substantially rewritten lyrics, to open his 2021 concert film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan.

Notable covers

The Grateful Dead often played "When I Paint My Masterpiece" in concerts starting in 1987, sometimes alongside other Dylan songs. Though Grateful Dead vocalist Bob Weir sang lead on the song, lead singer Jerry Garcia had played it as early as 1972 with Merl Saunders and John Kahn, both of whom became members of the Jerry Garcia Band.

The Weight

"The Weight" is a song by Canadian-American rock band the Band that was released as a single in 1968 and on the group's debut album Music from Big Pink. It was their first release under this name, after their previous releases as Canadian Squires and Levon and the Hawks.

Written by Band member Robbie Robertson, the song is about a visitor's experiences in a town mentioned in the lyric's first line as Nazareth. "The Weight" has significantly influenced American popular music, having been listed as No. 41 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004.

Composition

"The Weight" was written by Robbie Robertson, who found the tune by strumming idly on his guitar, a 1951 Martin D-28, when he noticed that the interior included a stamp noting that it was manufactured in Nazareth, Pennsylvania (C. F. Martin & Company is situated there), and he started crafting the lyrics as he played. The inspiration for and influences affecting the composition of "The Weight" came from the music of the American South, the life experiences of band members, particularly Levon Helm, and movies of filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Luis Buñuel. The original members of the Band performed "The Weight" as an American Southern folk song with country music (vocals, guitars and drums) and gospel music (piano and organ) elements.

Legacy

In the 1969 road movie Easy Rider, the song was used as recorded by the Band, but their recording was not licensed for the later soundtrack album. To deal with this, ABC-Dunhill commissioned Smith, a band that recorded for the label at the time, to record a nearly identical cover version of the song for the soundtrack album.

Songwriting credit dispute

The songwriting credit to Robbie Robertson for "The Weight", like credit for many of the songs performed by the Band, was disputed years later by Levon Helm. Helm insisted that the composition of the lyrics and the music was collaborative, declaring that each band member made a substantial contribution. In an interview, Helm credited Robertson with 60 percent of the lyrics, Danko and Manuel with 20 percent each of the lyrics, much of the music credit to Garth Hudson, and a small credit to himself for lyrics.