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BBC4 doc on The Band now


Beedster
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15 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

I'm looking forward to watching it, but if it's anything like Robbie's book, I'll have to keep an open mind as to what the other viewpoints might have been...!

It is, but introduces a little more empathy re Levon’s POV. Great footage, Danko’s presence and Manuel’s voice both notable. Real sense of the magic of a moment in time 

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6 hours ago, chris_b said:

Read Levon Helm's This Wheel's On Fire for the other side's view.

I have this program on the hard drive. Will watch it next week.

I’ve read it aaaaaaaall! Don’t entirely believe him, either. As ever, I suspect the truth is somewhere inbetween.

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7 hours ago, chris_b said:

Read Levon Helm's This Wheel's On Fire for the other side's view.

I have this program on the hard drive. Will watch it next week.

 

1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

I’ve read it aaaaaaaall! Don’t entirely believe him, either. As ever, I suspect the truth is somewhere inbetween.

I'm with WoT, I've read several of the relevant books, and each comes at the same scenes with a different bias. Robertson had an agenda from the early days and was driven by a high level of ambition; Helm simply didn't share them, or at least not to the same degree (and you can see where he was coming from, post Hawkins he had to start playing second fiddle to Robertson, then third fiddle behind Robertson and Dylan, and this started a creeping resentment that never really went away). And whilst the truth is always going to be hard to come by, long-term use of hard drugs played a major role in the demise of the band as both a musical entity and a group of friends. 

Amazing documentary though, worth watching for the footage of Danko's playing style as much as anything else.

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11 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

it’s THE Band

I always felt they missed out the most important descriptive bits out of their name...

It should probably have been "The very middle of the road and rather dull Band unless you're a fan of 70s Americana and blokes who no doubt now wear double denim"

:D

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15 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I always felt they missed out the most important descriptive bits out of their name...

It should probably have been "The very middle of the road and rather dull Band unless you're a fan of 70s Americana and blokes who no doubt now wear double denim"

:D

Get in the sea.

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46 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I always felt they missed out the most important descriptive bits out of their name...

It should probably have been "The very middle of the road and rather dull Band unless you're a fan of 70s Americana and blokes who no doubt now wear double denim"

:D

I can see how you get there, some of their studio stuff is pretty average. But some of their stuff is extraordinary, and live they were something else (never saw them, speaking about their live recordings). There is an extraordinary joy and passion for life in a lot of their songs, and especially in their performances of those songs live, despite that fact that at first impression, the songs themselves can appear quite MOTR. 

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I caught their fairwell/revival/final, whatever you want to call it tour show in London. 
Very embarrassing..It was like a shambolic un rehearsed jam session. 
Levon was obviously ill and looked to be on the point of collapsing. 
So bad we walked out before the interval. 
They really shouldn’t have bothered. 

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4 minutes ago, Cliff Edge said:

I caught their fairwell/revival/final, whatever you want to call it tour show in London. 
Very embarrassing..It was like a shambolic un rehearsed jam session. 
Levon was obviously ill and looked to be on the point of collapsing. 
So bad we walked out before the interval. 
They really shouldn’t have bothered. 

The Band weren't alone in producing moments of utter musical genius and shambolic disarray within years of each other (Jaco springs to mind), it all too often went with the territory in the 70's. I prefer to remember The Band for what they did at the top of their game. And The Band at the top of their game were good enough to be cited by many of the major musicians of that era as THE Band :)

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Just now, Beedster said:

No, but you should...,,,

Oh, go on then.

In 2004, Mrs. WoT & I hit San Francisco as part of our honeymoon adventure (God, the days before kids when we had a few quid...). I was browsing The guestbook on the Band's website (big fan that I was / am) and spotted a post from someone to say that Garth and Maud (Mrs. Hudson) were playing that night in Boz Skaggs' club in the Theatre district. I posted a 'We're going!' comment, and thought nowt else about it.

We got in the car and muddled our way across, and parked outside on what seemed to be an otherwise empty, quiet street. There were no posters outside, nothing. We ventured in and checked with the bar staff, who confirmed we had the right place and time. Medium sized venue with a stage, probably feel great with a couple of hundred people in there.

The seating was cabaret style, so we took a seat at the front and waited for the hordes to arrive.

...which didn't happen. There was probably about 30 people in there by the time Garth, Maude and the guitarist and bass player arrived on stage. We were treated to a couple of hours of jazz / blues musical brilliance. Maude sang like an angel, and Garth spread himself out over his keyboard, accordion and sax head-down and hands sprawling, exactly like you'd imagine. They played stuff from his album of the time, some standards, some Band stuff, and it was incredible. 

At the end of the show, we were getting ready to leave when someone (I think the guitarist or bass player, but I can't quite remember) came over and said 'Are you the couple from England? Stick around for a bit 'cos Garth wants to say hello'.

😮

So we did. Once the 25-odd other people left, Garth and Maud came out and we sat at a table with them and another couple who lived nearby. Just the six of us, for probably an hour or two, listening to these AMAZING stories about his life on the road with The Band and Dylan. They were absolutely mesmerising, and then he came out with the first accordion joke: 'What's the definition of a gentleman? Someone who can play the accordion but chooses not to.".

And that's when the accordion jokes began.

I laughed. Then pinched myself. Then laughed. Then pinched myself. etc.

Unreal, man.

 

 

 

19752_270471291321_3487023_n.jpg

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53 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Oh, go on then.

In 2004, Mrs. WoT & I hit San Francisco as part of our honeymoon adventure (God, the days before kids when we had a few quid...). I was browsing The guestbook on the Band's website (big fan that I was / am) and spotted a post from someone to say that Garth and Maud (Mrs. Hudson) were playing that night in Boz Skaggs' club in the Theatre district. I posted a 'We're going!' comment, and thought nowt else about it.

We got in the car and muddled our way across, and parked outside on what seemed to be an otherwise empty, quiet street. There were no posters outside, nothing. We ventured in and checked with the bar staff, who confirmed we had the right place and time. Medium sized venue with a stage, probably feel great with a couple of hundred people in there.

The seating was cabaret style, so we took a seat at the front and waited for the hordes to arrive.

...which didn't happen. There was probably about 30 people in there by the time Garth, Maude and the guitarist and bass player arrived on stage. We were treated to a couple of hours of jazz / blues musical brilliance. Maude sang like an angel, and Garth spread himself out over his keyboard, accordion and sax head-down and hands sprawling, exactly like you'd imagine. They played stuff from his album of the time, some standards, some Band stuff, and it was incredible. 

At the end of the show, we were getting ready to leave when someone (I think the guitarist or bass player, but I can't quite remember) came over and said 'Are you the couple from England? Stick around for a bit 'cos Garth wants to say hello'.

😮

So we did. Once the 25-odd other people left, Garth and Maud came out and we sat at a table with them and another couple who lived nearby. Just the six of us, for probably an hour or two, listening to these AMAZING stories about his life on the road with The Band and Dylan. They were absolutely mesmerising, and then he came out with the first accordion joke: 'What's the definition of a gentleman? Someone who can play the accordion but chooses not to.".

And that's when the accordion jokes began.

I laughed. Then pinched myself. Then laughed. Then pinched myself. etc.

Unreal, man.

 

 

 

19752_270471291321_3487023_n.jpg

Toon Army!

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Just gonna watch it , the classic albums on the Brown Album is worth a look too, I love the band , 3 of the most beautiful idiosyncratic voices I've ever heard , great songs that bring together so many aspects of American music (mainly Canadian I know)

I've read both the books , I'm with Levon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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