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What's blasting in your headphones?
- Thread starter ShawnF
- Start date
Well, of course Robbie led me back to The Band.
The soundtrack to The Last Waltz is the more famous live album by The Band, I guess...but although I love The Last Waltz a lot... Rock Of Ages is far superior in this reporter's humble opinion - particularly if you are looking for a more true representation of the 5 talents that made up the group. In a large part this is due to Richard Manuel being in prime shape as a singer in 1971...something that unfortunately had ceased to be the case by 1976. If all you knew of The Band was TLW, you could be forgiven for thinking Manuel was almost a side guy in the band, as opposed to an integral member with one of the great singing voices in rock/americana/whatever the hell The Band is.
This album is also noteworthy for the incredible horn section that they played these shows with - it really elevates the already great material, and is unique to this record (The Last Waltz horn section is not as cool.). The arrangements for the horn parts were written by the great New Orleans musician Allan Toussaint. Legend has it he wrote the parts, flew to New York to deliver them for rehearsals and managed to lose them on the plane! He then re-wrote all the arrangements from memory, changing parts as he went along. Not sure how tall that tale is...but it is incredible if true. This record also has one of my all time favourite guitar solos on Unfaithful Servant - a beautiful and surprising little break from Robbie. One of the great live albums of all time.
The soundtrack to The Last Waltz is the more famous live album by The Band, I guess...but although I love The Last Waltz a lot... Rock Of Ages is far superior in this reporter's humble opinion - particularly if you are looking for a more true representation of the 5 talents that made up the group. In a large part this is due to Richard Manuel being in prime shape as a singer in 1971...something that unfortunately had ceased to be the case by 1976. If all you knew of The Band was TLW, you could be forgiven for thinking Manuel was almost a side guy in the band, as opposed to an integral member with one of the great singing voices in rock/americana/whatever the hell The Band is.
This album is also noteworthy for the incredible horn section that they played these shows with - it really elevates the already great material, and is unique to this record (The Last Waltz horn section is not as cool.). The arrangements for the horn parts were written by the great New Orleans musician Allan Toussaint. Legend has it he wrote the parts, flew to New York to deliver them for rehearsals and managed to lose them on the plane! He then re-wrote all the arrangements from memory, changing parts as he went along. Not sure how tall that tale is...but it is incredible if true. This record also has one of my all time favourite guitar solos on Unfaithful Servant - a beautiful and surprising little break from Robbie. One of the great live albums of all time.