Garth Hudson in his element, a complete genius. Remembering him on his birthday.
Garth Hudson
Remembering Garth 'Honey Boy' Hudson
August 2, 1937 - January 21, 2025
The Band's musical maestro has enchanted us with his sounds for decades. He was honored into the Rock and Roll of Fame in 1994.
“If you can’t write your song in half an hour, you’re in trouble - which is always true”.
Garth Hudson
"I can't say that there's anything new, guitar-wise, that I find particularly stimulating. Some people play tremendously, but for some reason I'm not moved by it. Most of the things that fascinate me, have been fascinating for quite a while — in jazz, of course, I like Django Reinhardt, the innocence of that guitar playing. Today, I just don't hear anybody doing those things. Roy Buchanan plays very nice, always has. And Fred Carter, the guitarist I replaced with Ronnie Hawkins, was a terrific player at the time. But there are so many players of some years back, that I can't even start naming them.Fender is comfortable for what I have to do, but I think Gibsons are better-sounding guitars. It's just that for what I'm trying to do, Fender is physically better for me. At one point I went from a [Fender] Stratocaster to a red B.B. King-style Gibson. I liked the way it sounded, but the string height and the shape of the body prevented me from doing some things that I'd grown accustomed to — for instance, it wasn't comfortable for my fingerpicks.I went to Telecaster for ten years. I had one for a couple of years, then someone stole it. A friend of mine who is actually a thief stole me one back. I used it eight years and still have it. I have several others for specific things, but I ended up going back to the Stratocaster. Now I have an early Fifties Strat built without the string stretcher. Those are a problem for me with intonation. Like if I'm playing rhythm on the bass strings and I'm picking on the high strings, when I'm stretching notes it makes the bass strings go out of tune.
Robbie Robertson was born as Jaime Robertson in Toronto, Ontario on this day in 1943.
When all the bells were ringing.
All the boys gone now . . . . . Garth the last to go and we really miss them . . . . . one of the best bands I ever saw live (Wembley 1974)
"We were all very serious – guitar battles and everything…" Interviewed in late 1976, just prior to their split, The Band's Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko look backThe Band's 1976 Guitar Player cover story went onsale just as the band themselves came to an end. Founding members Robbie Robertson and bassist Rick Danko looked back on the country rock group that influenced a generation
The unique, renaissance man, multi -instrumentalist, at once a maverick magician and yet quiet voiced stoic steadfast still centre of the Band has passed away at his nursing home in Woodstock NY aged 87.
recent posting from The Reconstructor - Bob and The Band at Big Pink
Garth Hudson, whose intricate swirls of Lowrey organ helped elevate the Band from rollicking juke-joint refugees into one of the most resonant and influential rock groups of the 1960s and ’70s, died on Tuesday in Woodstock, N.Y. He was 87 and the last surviving original member of the group.
One of the most inventive keyboardists in the history of rock & roll, Hudson was born in London, Ontario, on Aug. 3, 1937 — years before his fellow Band members — to a pair of gifted musicians: His mother was a pianist, and his father played a variety of wind instruments, though he was employed as a farm inspector and entomologist.
Hudson was a prodigy who once disassembled his father’s old pump organ and rebuilt it. He was playing accordion in a country band at age 12; his parents sent him to the Toronto Conservatory, where he learned to play Bach preludes; at an uncle’s funeral parlor, he played Anglican hymns. (“The Anglican church has the best musical traditions of any church that I know of,” he told author Barney Hoskyns in the Band biography Across the Great Divide.)
With his reserved manner and technical skills, he lent the group a gravitas that set it apart from peers during the Summer of Love. The freewheeling sessions with Dylan at Big Pink — remarkably well-recorded by Hudson using an Uher reel-to-reel tape recorder — would eventually be documented on The Basement Tapes, with Hudson supplying buoyant accompaniment on “This Wheel’s on Fire” and “Million Dollar Bash,” among other standouts.
The Genetic Method / Chest Fever - The Band - The Last Waltz
- Rolling Stone
Bobby Charles, the legendary Louisiana songwriter behind classics like "See You Later, Alligator" and "Walking to New Orleans," played a unique role in The Last Waltz, The Band’s historic farewell concert in 1976. While he took the stage to perform "Down South in New Orleans" with Dr. John, his performance was the only one cut from the final film, thought he ended up on the soundtrack.
Though excluded from the final edit, Bobby Charles' connection to The Band ran deep. He was a steady collaborator with Rick Danko, who played a key role in producing Charles' critically acclaimed 1972 self-titled album. Their partnership continued on Danko's 1977 solo album, where Charles contributed his signature blend of swampy grooves and soulful lyrics.
I loved Bobby Charles and can’t believe he was cut!?
Despite the popularity of The Band‘s signature song ‘The Weight’, it actually only charted at number 63 in the United States. Yet, these days, the track is recognised as one of the most iconic recordings of the 1960s, often celebrated as one of the best songs of the decade.
‘The Weight’ appeared on The Band’s 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink, and uses a storytelling structure to depict the travels of a man through Nazareth, Pennsylvania. The song is rich with biblical language, with the first verse mirroring Mary and Joseph’s attempt to find a place to stay before the birth of Jesus.
As the track progresses, with both Levon Helm and Rock Danko alternating between lead vocals, the listener is introduced to a collection of unique characters, all inspired by people Robbie Robertson had met in real life. These bizarre figures give the song its unique charm, with Helm explaining the backstory in his autobiography, This Wheel’s On Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band.
He wrote: “The song was full of our favourite characters. ‘Luke’ was Jimmy Ray Paulman. ‘Young Anna Lee’ was Anna Lee Williams from Turkey Scratch. ‘Crazy Chester’ was a guy we all knew from Fayetteville who came into town on Saturdays wearing a full set of cap guns on his hips and kinda walked around town to help keep the peace, if you follow me.”
Helm added: “We recorded the song maybe four times. We weren’t really sure it was going to be on the album, but people really liked it. Rick, Richard, and I would switch the verses around among us, and we all sang the chorus: Put the load right on me!”
The song is credited to Robertson, although Helm argues that the other members of The Band contributed a significant chunk of the lyrics. However, the song’s beginnings can be traced back to Robertson, who started writing it while jamming on his guitar. He noticed that the inside of his instrument contained a manufacturing label stating that it was made in Nazareth. From there, he began penning lyrics with the place in mind, drawing from various cinematic influences.
While living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, Robertson became acquainted with Gotham Book Mart, where he would read film scripts. “The bookshop was a dusty, funky place owned by Fanny Steloff that sold used and new books,” he explained in an interview. “After looking around, I found that the store also stocked movie scripts. I loved film, and had long wondered how plot elements in a film fit together. These scripts were like blueprints”.
Alongside Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, Robertson was also enamoured by the work of Spanish surrealist Luis Buñuel, best known for directing films such as Un Chien Andalou and Belle de Jour. “Luis Buñuel’s scripts for NazarÃn and Viridiana, which examine the impossibility of sainthood, also captivated me,” he said. Thus, seeing the word ‘Nazareth’ inside his guitar “unlocked a lot of stuff in my head from Nazarin and those other film scripts”.
Robertson once explained in detail how Buñuel’s films connected with ‘The Weight’, stating: “People trying to be good in Viridiana and NazarÃn, people trying to do their thing. In ‘The Weight’, it’s the same thing. People like Buñuel would make films that had these religious connotations to them, but it wasn’t necessarily a religious meaning. In Buñuel, there were these people trying to be good and it’s impossible to be good.”
He continued: “In ‘The Weight’ it was this very simple thing. Someone says, ‘Listen, would you do me this favour? When you get there will you say ‘hello’ to somebody or will you give somebody this or will you pick up one of these for me? Oh? You’re going to Nazareth, that’s where the Martin guitar factory is. Do me a favour when you’re there.’ This is what it’s all about. So the guy goes and one thing leads to another and it’s like ‘Holy shit, what’s this turned into? I’ve only come here to say ‘hello’ for somebody and I’ve got myself in this incredible predicament.’ It was very Buñuelish to me at the time.”
- Aimee Ferrier / Far Out
Photo: Barrie Wentzell
And the sun don’t shine anymore. . . . and the rains fall down on my door . . . . . . . it makes no difference
The Band - Don’t Do It (the closing song to The Last Waltz )
"I just saw the NY Times obituary for Mary Martin, who died at age 85: "Turned unknown acts into musical legends" and "A Grammy winner who introduced Bob Dylan to the Band”
I forgot that Bob mentioned her in Chronicles, how she was relentless in getting Bob to hire the Hawks as the polished band he needed (she was not impressed with his backing at the '65 Newport Folk Festival).
And I learned some new things in the obituary. That Mary lost to Bob in a swimming race up in Woodstock, and as consolation, Albert Grossman gave her his cat, "Lord Growing" --the same cat Bob holds on the cover of "Bringing It All Back Home.”
She also signed Van Morrison and guided him to "Moondance."
The NY Times obit is behind a pay-wall, there are others . . . .
Billboard Obituary for Martin by John Naslen
Mary Martin Music Catalyst of Giants - Mike Daley Music
The Band performed Rick Danko's original "Java Blues" on New Year's Eve 1983 at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. The Band was back, reunited earlier in the year and ended a huge year with an electrifying performance.
Mark Lavon Helm was born near Marvell on May 26, 1940. He grew up in Turkey Scratch, working on the family’s farm and singing and playing music at home and at church. Helm said he decided to become a musician at the age of six, after seeing bluegrass legend Bill Monroe perform. Two years later he began playing guitar but switched to drums after seeing a left-handed drummer in a traveling musical show. It was in nearby West Helena that he met another Arkansas native, Ronnie Hawkins, who was playing a show without a drummer. His piano player knew Levon and suggested that he join the band that evening on drums. It was Helm’s “big break.”(If you're wondering, it became Levon when, the story goes, his band mates had "trouble pronouncing Lavon." His family and close friends just called him Lee.)After graduating high school in Marvell, he joined Hawkins’ band full time. Hawkins and his group headed to Canada – Ronnie Hawkins liked living and playing in Canada, where rockabilly was extremely popular. In 1959, Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks were signed to a record deal. During this time, Hawkins added several musicians to the roster – pianist Richard Manuel, bassist Rick Danko, keyboard and saxophone player Garth Hudson and guitarist Robbie Robertson. The four Canadian musicians and Helm would go on to form their own group after leaving Ronnie Hawkins…and eventually, after playing as Bob Dylan’s backup band, the five went out on their own…and The Band was formed.In 1968, the Band released their critically acclaimed debut album, Music from the Big Pink. They continued to record and perform together until 1976, when one of the members decided he’d had enough of life on the road. The Band’s last concert, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on Thanksgiving 1976, was recorded and directed by Martin Scorsese as a documentary, The Last Waltz. Also on hand for the one-of-a-kind musical event was Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Paul Butterfield, Dr. John and Van Morrison. The Last Waltz is considered by many to be the greatest concert documentary ever made.However, Levon Helm was not one of those people. Helm, according to his autobiography This Wheel’s on Fire, wanted the Band to continue recording and performing live. One of the other band members did not. Levon continued recording and performing live (sometimes on his own or with former members of the Band or even with other groups such as Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band). It was his friend Tommy Lee Jones that suggested him for the part of Loretta Lynn’s father in the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter. After that, he appeared in nearly 20 movies, including the The Right Stuff, The End of the Line and In the Electric Mist, his last film performance.
Paul says This is the eighth and last major act to perform for the 1975 SNACK benefit concert in San Francisco. In my opinion, it's the most interesting one, because it was a very rare collaboration between Neil Young and Bob Dylan, with three members of the Band assisting for good measure.It's not entirely clear how this collaboration came about. Only Neil Young was billed as the final act for the concert. Promoter Bill Graham later said that Young and the Doobie Brothers were the biggest draws. Bob Dylan seemed to a last minute addition because this group probably didn't practice much. I'm guessing the Band members joined due to their connection with Dylan. They'd never played with Young before, as far as I know, but they'd been Dylan's most frequent backing back from 1966 all the way until a big tour in 1974. Only three members of the Band were there though: Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson. That meant Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel were missing. But the key thing was that Helm was there, because he was the lead vocalist on most of the songs by the Band. And indeed he sang lead on a couple of the songs here.
According to Rolling Stone Magazine's account of the concert, Dylan wasn't expected by the crowd whatsoever. When he showed up on stage, very few people recognized him until Bill Graham introduced the band members. Then a huge roar went up, naturally, since he was arguably the biggest name of all the acts in the concert.
But what's curious is that one normally would have expected Dylan to dominate the set, but for this concert he seemed content to be just one member of a group. For most of the songs, he just played guitar and/or harmonica, and sang backing vocals some. He only sang lead on two of the nine songs, his "I Want You" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," which was inexplicably renamed "Knockin' on the Dragon's Door" for this concert only. He also sang lead on some of the verses for the traditional song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but he forgot how a verse went, so the song finished more as an instrumental.
Young sang lead on three songs: "Are You Ready for the Country," "Lookin' for a Love," and "Helpless." "Lookin' for a Love" wouldn't be released until it appeared on the "Zuma" album towards the end of the year. This was its concert debut. The Band dominated the singing on "Ain't That a Lot of Love," "Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever," and "The Weight." "Helpless" flowed directly into "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (er, "Dragon's Door") in an interesting way.
Unfortunately, there was one very big problem with the audio of this set that I think has prevented it from being much better known: Bob Dylan's microphone was turned off or malfunctioned for the entire set! As a result, he was practically inaudible at times. The only reason he could be heard at all was because he was singing in a particularly shouty style (perhaps because he noticed the microphone problem?) and his voice was picked up somewhat by some of the other nearby microphones.
Luckily, in this day and age there are things that can be done to fix this. Using the UVR5 audio editing program, I did my best to boost Dylan's voice up to normal levels as much as possible. However, in some cases there wasn't enough there to do any boosting. For "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (sorry, "Dragon's"), and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," I was able to get by with just boosting. It doesn't always sound great, but it's way better than previous versions.
However, I had a lot more trouble with "I Want You." His voice was nearly totally gone for the first verse. So I found a soundboard of him singing the song from 1976 and pasted his vocals in for that part. But for the bridge and the second and third verses, I was able to get by with just boosting the existing vocals. The choruses were also a problem. Rick Danko sang backing vocals, and that was picked up very loudly, totally drowning out Dylan. So again I used that 1976 version and pasted in Dylan singing on the choruses, trying to match it with Danko's timing. I think the end result more or less works, but you can tell the difference in style between the 1976 parts, where he was singing the song normally, and the parts from this concert, where he was much more shouty.
So that's why the three songs with Dylan lead vocals all have "[Edit]" in their titles. With "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," the last verse didn't have a chorus following it due to Dylan forgetting the words, so I pasted in the chorus from earlier in the song.
I'm afraid there are probably other songs where Dylan sang backing harmonies that are now totally lost due to the microphone problem. In such cases, his quiet voice would have been totally drowned out by whomever happened to be singing lead. Oh well.
It's too bad that Dylan and Young in particular didn't collaborate more, but at least we have this.
This album is 36 minutes long.
73 talk by Bill Graham (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
74 Are You Ready for the Country (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
75 Ain't That a Lot of Love (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
76 talk (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
77 Lookin' for a Love (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
78 Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
79 I Want You [Edit] (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
80 The Weight (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
81 Helpless (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
82 Knockin' on the Dragon's Door [Knockin' on Heaven's Door] [Edit] (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
83 Will the Circle Be Unbroken [Edit] (Neil Young, Bob Dylan & the Band)
For My Merkin pals (you know who you are!) and apparently it's Thanks Giving today [23rd November] !? . . so this from the band seems apposite . . . .
The Band - Live at The Palladium, NEW YORK 1976 - Big O
+ + + + +
Lineup:
Robbie Robertson - guitar
Rick Danko - bass
Garth Hudson - organ
Richard Manuel - piano
Levon Helm - drums
Big O says:
Robbie Robertson, the Band’s guitarist and primary songwriter who penned “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and many other beloved classics, died on August 9 at age 80.
Robertson’s management company confirmed the musician’s death. “Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny,” his longtime manager Jared Levine said in a statement. “In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Six Nations of the Grand River to support the building of their new cultural centre.”
The Band only lasted eight years after the release of their 1968 debut LP, Music From Big Pink, but during that time they forever changed the pop-culture landscape by releasing brilliant Americana music at the peak of the psychedelic movement. Their first album sent shockwaves through the industry, inspiring Eric Clapton to break up Cream, the Beatles to attempt their own stripped-back project with Let It Be, and a pair of young British songwriters named Elton John and Bernie Taupin to begin writing and recording their own material.
Robertson took on the role as the group’s leader, writing the majority of their songs and pushing them forward when substance abuse issues and infighting threatened their existence. It was also his decision to pull the plug on the group in 1976 when he couldn’t take it anymore, setting the stage for their legendary farewell concert The Last Waltz.
Before the Band began making their own music, Robertson was one of Bob Dylan’s key collaborators, playing guitar on Blonde on Blonde and convincing the songwriter to hire the other members of his group as his backing band. They toured the world in 1965 and 1966, facing a torrent of boos by enraged folk purists. “His friends, his advisors, and everyone told him to blow us off and start from scratch,” Robertson said in 1987. “And it took a tremendous amount of courage for him not to do that.”
By 1976, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel developed severe substance-abuse issues, and Robertson - who had effectively been on the road since 1959 - was burned out. “The road turns you into a meaningless piece of dribble that will complain about shit that doesn’t mean anything to anybody,” he said in 1987. “It got to the point where I couldn’t see the upside.”
Robertson decided that the Band should go out with a bang, so he organised a massive farewell gig at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom and invited everyone from Dylan to Neil Young to Muddy Waters and Hawkins to guest. Martin Scorsese filmed the event, which was released in 1978 under the title The Last Waltz.
Keeping the promise of The Last Waltz, Robertson never returned to touring, though he did release five solo albums beginning with 1987’s critically acclaimed Robbie Robertson. In 2016, he published the memoir Testimony, following it up in 2019 with the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band. At the time of his death, he was working on a second volume of his memoir series. - Andy Greene, rollingstone.com
Robertson had also worked alongside Martin Scorsese as a composer, music supervisor, and music producer starting in 1980 on films including “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” “The Color of Money,” “Gangs of New York,” “The Departed,” “Shutter Island,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Silence,” “The Irishman” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Scorsese issued a statement on the death of his collaborator and friend obtained by Variety that lauded Robertson’s “effect on the art form” as “profound and lasting”. He said: “Robbie Robertson was one of my closest friends, a constant in my life and my work. I could always go to him as a confidante. A collaborator. An advisor. I tried to be the same for him. Long before we ever met, his music played a central role in my life - me and millions and millions of other people all over this world.”
Neil Diamond tweeted that the “music world lost a great one with the passing of Robbie Robertson. Keep making that Beautiful Noise in the sky, Robbie. I’ll miss you.” Canadian musician Bryan Adams reminisced on “the great hangs” he spent with Robertson, “especially photographing you in LA not so long ago.”
Stevie Van Zandt tweeted: “RIP Robbie Robertson. A good friend and a genius. The Band’s music shocked the excess out of the Renaissance and were an essential part of the final back-to-the-roots trend of ‘60s. He was an underrated brilliant guitar player adding greatly to Bob Dylan’s best tour & best album.”
and this extraordinary set from Watkins Glen SUMMER JAM on this four disc set!
SUMMER JAM - THE BAND at WATKINS GLEN FESTIVAL : Live at the Raceway, New York, July 27, 28, 1973.
This includes the Sound Check, the two disc concert and then the later Summer Jam with members of the Grateful Dead and the Allman Bros Band . . . .four discs! Enjoy!
Keyboardist Garth Hudson is 86.
Bassist, songwriter, and singer Rick Danko died of heart failure away in 1999.
He was 55.
Pianist, singer songwriter Richard Manuel committed suicide in 1986. He was 42.
Drummer Levon Helm died from complications of throat cancer in 2012. He was 71.
