People forget that it was Richard Manuel, that lost, beautiful soul, who created some of the Band’s first original compositions — including this one, which serves as the debut track for Across the Great Divide.

Early musical collaborator Glen Silverthorn remembers the moment Rick Danko began his journey toward membership in the Band, though his friend eventually had to make the switch from guitar to bass.

This week’s “Songs of the Band” event at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania doesn’t just pay tribute to Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel. It features in multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson one of just two surviving members of the original Band lineup

The forthcoming Garth Hudson Presents: A Canadian Celebration of the Band, curated and performed alongside co-founding keyboardist Garth Hudson, is nearly set ablaze by this ferocious new take on “This Wheel’s on Fire.”

I came back to this song again, as the anniversary of the Band bassist’s death on Dec. 10, 1999, loomed this week.