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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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June 14, 2004
Groovy DVD: Classic Albums - The Band: The Band (1997)
Now here is a music documentary for actual music fans. This comes from a series of video documentaries about specific classic pop albums. This was produced by some concerted effort involving among others the BBC and VH1.
But this is no Behind the Music soap opera crap. You wouldn't know from watching this video just what kind of drugs which band members were doing, other than some seemingly run of the mill drinking, and you wouldn't know anything about what who was humping.
Instead, they're all about taking apart the Band's eponymous second album. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this album rates equal to any in the history of recorded popular music. They could have probably gotten several fascinating hours.
They actually start with the tail end of recording the preceding debut album Music From Big Pink. One sort of bled into the other somewhat.
One thing that jumped out at me was the deep sadness that came out of Richard Manuel's high vocal parts. Hearing his vocal part from "I Shall Be Released" pulled out by itself from a studio mixing board, it seems a wonder that he made it as long as he did before killing himself.
Ah, but the survivors are sure proud of their achievements. Robbie Robertson comes out as the professor. He's totally enthusiastic and informative about how different arrangements came about, but academic. I about half expected him to pull out a chalkboard.
Old Levon Helm was probably the most fun. Out by the lake, enjoying his Arkansas twang, Levon looks to be a cracker's cracker. I'm telling you, ol' Skip McQueen out of our Rabbit Holler would talk to this guy for a minute and say, "Damn, but that's one cracker ass country boy."
He exhibited the most purely visceral enjoyment of any band member, which I found very gratifying. Besides the good information and analysis from his studio segments, it was rewarding to see the sense of continuing pleasure these recordings have obviously given him.
This 60ish year old man was like a giddy teenager again in the studio, playing air drums, reliving the parts as he was playing them those decades ago. He was just as enthusiastic playing air keyboards along with the separated playback of Garth Hudson.
Garth really comes from out there somewhere. He was involved in the production and all cheery and enthused, but he really said very little. It doesn't seem like more than a few dozen words.
Yet he was fully involved and entertaining, speaking through his keyboards. He was real happy showing the sounds and textures, and how they came together.
Couple of Garth notes, new to my knowledge: One is that in the early days of the band, he actually insisted on charging the other members for "music lessons"- $10 each per week. As explained by Robbie, it turns out to have been not greed or ego, but weird family psychology. Apparently, it would have been really bad if he had thrown his future away on joining some rock band. As it was, he could justify to his family that he was a music teacher, which would be much more respectable.
Also, Garth apparently spent some time in his youth playing organ in his uncle's funeral parlor. That idea stuck with me. Some of the Band's best work involves consciously making carnival music, country county fair or harvest festival celebration stuff. It makes a certain poetic sense to think about this guy seeking out to play this happy music, but still hearing hints of the funeral home lingering in the back of his mind.
Rick Danko didn't add much interview wise, but he actually played a full song, live solo acoustic. That also helps distinguish the unique voices in their choir.
All in all, if you're any kind of fan of the Band or especially if you're any kind of musician, you really should see this. It would likely significantly improve your appreciation of a great classic.
posted by Al at 6/14/2004 12:22:00 AM
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