The Band holds a nearly mythological place in rock history, despite experiencing such a meteoric but short initial run.
There were only six albums of mostly original material during the group’s 1968-77 era as a five-piece group featuring Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson. Otherwise, the Band only released a live album (1972), a covers album (1973) and the soundtrack to The Last Waltz (1978).
They went on to produce three LPs with Bob Dylan, a live project (Before the Flood) and a studio effort (Planet Waves) in 1974 and then The Basement Tapes in 1975, the latter of which was constructed around recordings that predate their 1968 debut. Subsequently, after Robertson’s departure, the remaining members went on to make three more studio records – Jericho (1993), High on the Hog (1996) and Jubilation (1998). The latest archival release from the Band is a 50th anniversary deluxe box set focusing on their third album Stage Fright, originally released in 1970.
The six initial studio albums are largely the reason that the Band is considered one of the most important groups in rock history, along with their legendary concerts. Their music, both live and in the studio, has been reissued over and over again: Deluxe box sets focusing on The Last Waltz and Rock of Ages (which was later expanded into the Live at The Academy of Music 1971 package), along with The Band: A Musical History are all superb. More recently, expanded retrospectives on 1968’s Music From Big Pink and 1969’s The Band (known as the “Brown Album”) have also been released.
The format of Stage Fright: 50th Anniversary Edition is very much in keeping with that of Big Pink and The Band. The box includes two compact discs, a Blu-ray, and a 180-gram 12-inch vinyl LP and seven-inch single. There is also a booklet, with new liner notes from Robbie Robertson, Norman Seeff and others. Three lithographs feature Norman Seeff’s signature lush photos. Elliot Landy supplied his own iconic photographic vision for the group’s first two albums.
Seeff become a legendary figure in rock-album photography after this first major assignment. His images now figure much more prominently, almost completely obscuring Bob Cato’s original abstract sunset album cover painting.
The first disc includes the Band’s original 10-track album, two alternate mixes and seven tracks from 1970 referred to as the “Calgary Hotel Room Recordings.” These hotel-room cassette tapes feature a loose, late-night jam with only three members of the group – Robertson, Danko and Manuel. There are covers of Johnny Rivers’ “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” and Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me,” which has been covered by many rock artists; along with “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” from Stage Fright; two versions of “Get Up Jake,” which was a live staple and the 1973 B-Side of “Ain’t Got No Home” from Moondog Matinee, and more.
Disc 2 is the entire 20-song performance of the group from the Royal Albert Hall in 1971. The Blu-ray contains stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound, High Resolution Audio96 kHz/24bit audio of the original 10-track album, the two alternate mixes and the Royal Albert Hall performance. There is also a 180-gram vinyl album, with new artwork and a Spanish pressing of the seven-inch single “Time to Kill/The Shape I’m In.” Two alternate mixes, one alternate take and a radio spot are also carried over from the previous reissue of Stage Fright as part of “The Band Remasters” series.
The title cut, “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” and “The Shape I’m In” became staples of the group’s live sets and live albums. Two songs that Richard Manuel co-wrote with Robbie Robertson (“Sleeping,” “Just Another Whistle Stop”) would be his last composing credits on an album by the group. The big change for Stage Fright was that while the group’s first two albums were recorded in various studios in New York and Los Angeles, and were both produced by John Simon, their third release was produced by the Band and was recorded at the Woodstock Playhouse. (The Woodstock, N.Y. theater burned to the ground in 1988, but has been rebuilt.) Their initial intention was to record the album in front of a live audience.
Simon contributed baritone sax on “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” but Todd Rundgren, just getting his career off the ground, was the recording engineer and mixed the album together with Glyn Johns. The mixing by these two unquestioned pros, done while the group was on the Festival Express tour has been debated for years in terms of who mixed what and which mixes ultimately have been used through the years on various issues and reissues. Citing his dissatisfaction with not only the previous mixes of the album, but the original running order of the album, Robbie Robertson, with assistance from Bob Clearmountain, has remixed Stage Fright. A new track sequence has been also done.
The original running order was: “Strawberry Wine,” “Sleeping,” “Time to Kill,” “Just Another Whistle Stop,” “All La Glory,” “The Shape I’m In,” “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” “Daniel and the Sacred Harp,” “Stage Fright,” “The Rumor.” The new song sequencing is: “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show,” “The Shape I’m In,” “Daniel And The Sacred Harp,” “Stage Fright,” “The Rumor,” “Time To Kill,” “Just Another Whistle Stop,” “All La Glory,” “Strawberry Wine,” “Sleeping.”
Stage Fright was recorded during a difficult period for the group, as various members were dabbling in hard drugs. Additionally, while previous albums featured many Robertson-penned songs, by the group’s third album, he was the primary writer for the group. Their next album, 1971’s Cahoots, would prove to be the conclusion of the group’s Woodstock period, and it would be four years before they would release an album of new music.
It’s hard in many ways to encapsulate how significant the Band was at this point in music and how large its legend and music loom in rock history. Both This Wheel’s On Fire: Levon Helm and The Story of the Band, by Levon Helm and Stephen Davis, and Robertson’s memoir Testimony offer iews from inside the eye of the hurricane. Mystery Train, by Greil Marcus, which isn’t just about The Band, was the first and is perhaps still the best and most insightful and elegant writing on the group.
Another recent project related to the Band is the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (Magnolia Pictures), now available on Blu-ray. The film is directed by Daniel Roher and the executive producers are Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Given that The Last Waltz already exists as perhaps the best movie on rock music ever produced, one might wonder why another would be needed – particularly from two of those (Robertson and Scorsese) instrumental in the success of the earlier film.
In many respects, Once Were Brothers is a companion piece, a retelling of the group’s story that fills in some of the gaps while serving as a prequel to The Last Waltz. It is a mesmerizing, expertly crafted, revelatory and lovingly made movie that works as the perfect complement. Once Were Brothers is also a companion to Robertson’s Testimony, and is very much the story of his life until the end of the Band. It also chronicles the substance abuse and intergroup dramas that ultimately led to the end of the original five-piece lineup.
Robertson serves as the primary on- and off-screen narrator, but folks like Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton offer contemporary insights on the group’s influence, with archival footage of Bob Dylan, George Harrison and other members of the Band, among others. Robertson is quite the raconteur, and I would love to see him and Jimmy Webb sit down together and have a conversation, as they are both master music world story-tellers.
While theirs is ultimately a cautionary tale, it is also an endearing and heartfelt portrait of a group whose music was so pure and whose unique chemistry may be unrivaled in rock history. Seeing Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band makes one realize just how truly vapid and lightweight much of today’s popular music is – and how reliant it is on image, buzz and fame.
I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an evening at home than to play Once Were Brothers and then play The Last Waltz – and to play both movies loud!
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