12 September 2020

Band: THE BAND
Album: THE BAND – second LP
Released: 22 September 1969

ROLLING STONE wrote: “The Band were four-fifths Canadian – drummer Levon Helm was from Arkansas – but their second album is all American. Guitarist Robbie Robertson’s songs vividly evoke the country’s pioneer age (“Across the Great Divide”) and the Civil War (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), while reflecting the fractured state of the nation in the 1960s. The Band’s long life on the road resonates in the brawn of Garth Hudson’s keyboards and Helm’s juke-joint attack. But Robertson’s stories truly live in Helm’s growl, Rick Danko’s high tenor and Richard Manuel’s spectral croon. “Somebody once said he had a tear in his voice,” Helm said
of Manuel: “Richard had one of the richest-textured voices I’d ever heard.”

“It’s easy to be a genius in your twenties. In your forties, it’s difficult.” – Robbie Robertson

Two of the many highlights (live versions taken from their famous final The Last Waltz concert – with the original line-up – in 1976 in San Francisco filmed by top director Martin Scorsese)…

– THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN –

– UP ON CRIPPLE CREEK –

Album – expanded version
(Original tracklist #1 – #12)

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THE BAND: Biography

Back sleeve