Classic Albums - The Band: The Band (2008)

Classic Albums - The Band: The Band (2008)
DVD-5 | Runtime: 75 min. | 3,37 Gb | Copy: Untouched
Video: PAL, MPEG2 Video at 6 436 Kbps, 720 x 576 (1.333) at 25.000 fps | Audio: English, AC-3 2channels at 320 Kbps, 48.0 KHz
Genre: Rock, Rock & Roll, Folk Rock | Label: Eagle Rock Entertainment Ltd | Subtitles: Dutch, German, Italian, Portugese, Spanish, French

Initially associated with Bob Dylan with whom they toured and recorded, The Band were soon to be acknowledged as as a truly seminal band in their own right. The Band's eponymously-titled 1969 album reached number 9 in the billboard chart, secured 24 weeks in the Top 40, and was their second million seller. It is now regarded as a rock classic, emphasising their brilliant abilities to merge various musical influences including black, country, rockabilly and rock and roll music. The story of The Band and their classic album is told here in vivid words, pictures and music. Rock legends Eric Clapton and George Harrison, lyricist Bernie Taupin and music producer Don Was pay tribute to The Band and give reasons why their album is top of their classic album list. Among the many music highlights are 'I Shall Be Released', 'The Weight', 'Rockin' Chair', 'King Harvest (Has Surely Come)', and 'The Unfaithful Servant' all perrformed in The Band's very unique and memorable style and underling their enormeous contributions to the annals of popular music history.

For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan. Although the Band retired from touring after The Last Waltz and disbanded several years later, their legacy thrived for decades, perpetuated by the bandmates' respective solo careers as well as the enduring strength of the Band's catalog.

The group's history dates back to 1958, just about the time that the formative Beatles gave up skiffle for rock & roll. Ronnie Hawkins, an Arkansas-born rock & roller who aspired to a real career, assembled a backing band that included his fellow Arkansan Levon Helm, who played drums (as well as credible guitar) and had led his own band, the Jungle Bush Beaters. The new outfit, Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, began recording during the spring of 1958 and gigged throughout the American south; they also played shows in Ontario, Canada, where the money was better than in their native south. When pianist Willard Jones's left the lineup one year later, Hawkins began looking at some of the local music talent in Toronto in late 1959. He approached a musician named Scott Cushnie about joining the Hawks on keyboards. Cushnie was already playing in a band with Robbie Robertson, however, and would only join Hawkins if the latter musician could come along.

After some resistance from Hawkins, Robertson entered the lineup on bass, replacing a departing Jimmy Evans. Additional lineup switches took place over the next few years, with Robbie Robertson shifting to rhythm guitar behind Fred Carter's (and, briefly, Roy Buchanan's) lead playing. Rick Danko (born December 9, 1943) came in on bass in 1961, followed by Richard Manuel (born April 3, 1944) on piano and backing vocals. Around that same time, Garth Hudson (born August 2, 1937), a classically trained musician who could read music, became the last piece of the initial puzzle as organ player.

From 1959 through 1963, Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks were one of the hottest rock & roll bands on the circuit, a special honor during a time in which rock & roll was supposedly dead. Hawkins himself was practically Toronto's answer to Elvis Presley, and he remained true to the music even as Presley himself softened and broadened his sound. The mix of personalities within the group meshed well, better than they did with Hawkins, who, unbeknownst to him, was soon the odd man out in his own group. As new members Danko, Manuel, and Hudson came aboard - all Canadian, and replacing Hawkins' fellow southerners - Hawkins lost control of the group, to some extent, as they began working together more closely.

Finally, the Hawks parted company with Ronnie Hawkins during the summer of 1963, the singer's at times overbearing personality and ego getting the better of the relationship. The Hawks decided to stay together with their oldest member, Levon Helm, out in front, variously renaming themselves Levon & the Hawks and the Canadian Squires and cutting records under both names. A hook-up with a young John Hammond, Jr. for a series of recording sessions in New York led to the group's being introduced to Bob Dylan, who was then preparing to pump up his sound in concert. Robertson and Helm played behind Dylan at his Forest Hills concert in New York in 1965 (a bootleg tape of which survives, and can be heard), and he ultimately signed up the entire group.

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