The Band - The Band (1969)

Όχι μόνο για αυτό το δίσκο που θεωρείται σταθμός για το γκρουπ, αλλά γενικά για τους Band, παραθέτω μία φράση από το κείμενο στο wikipedia με το οποίο συμφωνώ απόλυτα… Although the Band was always more popular with music journalists and fellow musicians than with the general public, they have remained an admired and influential group.

The Band peaked at #9 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. In 2000, it recharted on Billboard's Internet Albums chart, peaking at #10. The singles "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" peaked on the Pop Singles chart at #57 and #25 respectively.
In 1998 Q magazine readers voted The Band the 76th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 45 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

According to the liner notes to the 2000 reissue of "The Band" by Rob Bowman, the album, "The Band", has been viewed as a concept album, with the songs focusing on people, places and traditions associated with an older version of Americana.
Greil Marcus suggests that "King Harvest" might be The Band's finest song, and the best example of their approach to songwriting and performing. The song's structure is unusual: the choruses (sung by Manuel and Helm) are subdued while Manuel's verses are more energetic. With increasing desperation, the narrator (an unnamed, poverty-stricken farmer) details the misfortune which has befallen him: there was no rain and his crops died, his barn burnt down, he ends up on skid row. A union organizer appears, promising to improve things, and the narrator tells his new associates "I'm a union man, now, all the way", but, perhaps ashamed of his station, begs them "just don't judge me by my shoes."

This is the album where Robbie Robertson emerged as The Band's primary songwriter. While Robertson and Richard Manuel largely shared songwriting duties on Music From Big Pink, Robertson wrote or co-wrote every song on this album, with Manuel receiving co-writing credit on three tracks. Robertson would write the majority of The Band's material after this album.
The Cripple Creek Theatre Company in New Orleans, LA is named after the song "Up on Cripple Creek".

Personnel:
Robbie Robertson – guitar, vocals
Rick Danko – bass, vocals
Levon Helm – drums, vocals
Richard Manuel – keyboards, vocals, drums
Garth Hudson – keyboards, saxophone

Tracks:
"Across the Great Divide" (Robertson) – 2:53
"Rag Mama Rag" (Robertson) – 3:04
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Robertson) – 3:33
"When You Awake" (Manuel/Robertson) – 3:13
"Up on Cripple Creek" (Robertson) – 4:34
"Whispering Pines" (Manuel/Robertson) – 3:58
"Jemima Surrender" (Helm/Robertson) – 3:31
"Rockin' Chair" (Robertson) – 3:43
"Look Out Cleveland" (Robertson) – 3:09
"Jawbone" (Manuel/Robertson) – 4:20
"The Unfaithful Servant" (Robertson) – 4:17
"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" (Robertson) – 3:39
"Get Up Jake" (outtake - stereo mix) (Robertson) – 2:17
"Rag Mama Rag" (alternate vocal take - rough mix) (Robertson) – 3:05
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (alternate mix) (Robertson) – 4:16
"Up on Cripple Creek" (alternate take) (Robertson) – 4:51
"Whispering Pines" (alternate take) (Manuel/Robertson) – 5:09
"Jemima Surrender" (alternate take) (Helm/Robertson) – 3:48
"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" (alternate arrangement) (Robertson) – 4:28

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