What do you know about a Levon and the Hawks 45?
DrWu
4,021 Posts
I really dig The Band. Just saw this sold on the ebay. It's listed as soul. Good cover of the Jerry Butler classic? Written by Robertson? What's it sound like? Is my face gonna melt when I hear it? What's the deal?
Comments
This is The Band before they were "The Band." Originally, they were a Toronto-based (excluding drummer Levon Helm who was from Arkansas) band, The Hawks, who backed Ronnie Hawkins. They recorded two singles, I believe, as the Hawks.
Eventually they left Hawkins and backed Dylan before changing their name to The Band.
Levon Helm, drummer and singer, remains one of my favorite singers, drummers, and all around rock personalities. Unfortunately, he was screwed out of much of his share of the income (what's new) from songwriting credits and still lives in "Big Pink," the house featured on their 1968 LP.
To raise money, Helm has regular performances in the barn slash recording studio slash performance hall that is Big Pink circa 2006. The performances are called "Midnight Ramblers" (for more on this name, or for awesome footage of rockers completely stoned out of their gourd, check out the Scorsese documentary about The Band's last performance entitled The Last Waltz -- awesome film).
A dear friend of mine flew from San Francisco all the way to Woodstock to see one such Midnight Rambler this summer. After the show, my friend and his wife approached Helm to give praise. Helm, upon hearing the distance they had traveled, promptly asked them where they were staying. Then he said, "You should get up tomorrow, go to Woodstock Meats right there in town, best meat in the city, get yourself some sandwiches and bring them up to the house. Have a picnic by the creek and then come to the studio, we'll be here all day."
Who could refuse such an offer?
My friends did as Helm suggested, and after enjoying Woodstock's finest meats, some birdwatching, and the general pleasantries of creek life, went to the studio. Levon proceeded to get them all zooted, offered their band a slot at the next Rambler, and said in parting, "We should record together sometime."
They don't make folks like Levon anymore. Truly a wonderful man and a genius musician.
Cool story about your friends. Read Levon's book when it came out. Really interesting stuff about the Band breaking up. Always loved Levon's voice.
Great story. Also one of my fave bands ('Big Pink' is a killer). I saw them a few times when they were touring with the Cate Bros back in the 80's.
it sounds( to my ears at least) like it predates their work as Dylans backing group - but the radio station scribblings on the promo I have seems to indicate it was a late 60's release - i.e after they started working with the Zimmerman.
---
1965-1968
* Uh-Uh-Uh / Leave Me Alone (1965 single, as The Canadian Squires)
* The Stones I Throw / He Don't Love You (1965 single, as Levon and the Hawks)
* Go Go Liza Jane / He Don't Love You (1968 single, as Levon and the Hawks)
1968-1978
* Music From Big Pink (1968)
* The Band (1969)
* Stage Fright (1970)
* Cahoots (1971)
* Rock of Ages (live, 1972)
* Moondog Matinee (1973)
* Northern Lights - Southern Cross (1975)
* Islands (1977)
* The Last Waltz (live/studio, 1978)
Albums with Bob Dylan
* Planet Waves (1974)
* Before the Flood (1974)
* The Basement Tapes (1975)
* The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (1998)
From wiki, for what it's worth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Band
It's amazing that they could record such a primal garage stomper that late in the game, when most bands were starting to feel the pull of psychedelia. Either that, or it's an older recording that was just then released.
I'd say it's a release of an earlier recording - sounds very '65.
Dylan & the Band seem to have steered a course away from psychedelia - I suppose their whole 'Civil War general' fashion sense & rustic affectations were a precursor of a counter-culturewide 'back to the earth' movement.
---
Recording is like sub-4 track, Dylan sounds high out of his gourd. For instance, lyrics from an alt version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere": "Look here you bunch of basement noise/You Ain't No punchin' Bag/ I see you walkin' out there, and you're the one to do it/ Pick up your nose, you canary, 'Cause you Ain't Goin' Nowhere."
Its really uneven, both in recording quality and listenability, but it is some of my favorite music I've ever heard. And, a great cover of "People Get Ready," in there.
They didn't steer too far from psychedelia...
Listen to 'In A Station', 'Chest Fever' and 'This Wheels On Fire' from Big Pink.
well, I see what you're saying - there are 'head' elements in their sound - incl Dylans free-associative Rimbaud BS etc - but it's not exactly flaming wah guitar divebombing / pastoral nursery-rhyme fey-whimsy either.
No, but no t all psychedelia fits that description either. I wouldn't put the Band side by side with Tintern Abbey or the Syn, but their forays into "head music" fit quite nicely with the majority of West Coast sounds, a lot of which (see later Buffalo Springfield, Grateful Dead etc) are also "roots based".
'cept that all them limp-dicked country-rockers and mellow singer-songwriters that followed were twice as bad
frankly, when I was younger I was real disappointed when I first heard the Dead. "what is this noodly folk garbage? where's the brain burning guitar & insane shit?"
I now have a better perspective, but can't say I enjoy them much more.
yawn.
To be truthful, when I think of bands coming out of a roots-R&B/country sort of background, I wouldn't put the Dead in there. The Band, CCR, the Sir Douglas Quintet, definitely, but I agree that the Dead are noodly, folky and jammy.
Garcia was in a bunch of country/folk/bluegrass type things before the Warlocks garage band stuff wasn't he?
early 60s garage band material was primarily R&B covers anyway - 'deep roots' by todays alt-rock standards.
Maybe so, but where he came from and where he wound up are two different things. Sir Doug Sahm, on the other hand, started out in the 50's doing country, rockabilly, Tex-Mex, R&B and eventually hit the big time doing (what we now call) garage-rock with the Sir Douglas Quintet. By the time the hippie movement rolled around, his music was still as tough and rootsy as it was when he started, even though he'd been through some changes.
This is why it doesn't feel correct calling the Dead a roots-rock band, because they detoured into the jam band thing, which a lot of real roots bands reacted AGAINST. CCR, Sir Doug, the Band, Commander Cody, Tony Joe White and the Flamin' Groovies weren't about that.
I'm scared, hold me.
If the Dead were a roots rock band they sucked even worse than I thought.
Listen to some more Dead. On the first album alone they covered Sonny Boy Williamson, Lonnie Chatmon, Cannons Jug Stompers, and Jesse Fuller. On "Live Dead' they cover 'Turn On Your Lovelight' and Rev Gary Davis 'Death Don't Have No Mercy'. The regularly performed folk, blues, country and soul covers as a live band, and Garcia had strong roots in Bluegrass and country (huge fan of Don Rich of the Buckaroos) which he brought back around with both the Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
All of the artists you mention had their own "noodly moments" (CCR's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" for instance).
What do you expect, YOU'RE the cat holdin' the seance!
The same guy who wrote that the Band's "rustic affectations were a precursor of a counterculturewide 'back to the earth' movement" is scared this thread is turning into one big Greil Marcus lovefest? Please!
True, but those other bands dabbled[/b] in jamming; they didn't make it their "thing" like the Dead did.
It's awsome to see this board give Levon some love. He's sort of a family friend and he is definitely that dude-great drummer,too.
ringo and levon are probably my two fave drummers ever