It took awhile, but the Levon Helm Band finally made it to California soil. Ever since the iconic drummer of the Band returned to performing after a nearly career-ending bout with throat cancer about a decade ago, he’s rarely played beyond the northeast. In fact, he’s rarely even left the grounds of his property in the Catskill Mountains of Woodstock, New York
With their distribution deal with EMI ending at the end of June, fans of the seminal psychedelic rock act Pink Floyd may have a harder time getting their hands of
As much of the HT staff takes to the road this weekend for some of Phish’s Northeast run, thought we’d dedicate this week’s Mix Tape to the art of the
Last week, our guest Cover Wars author Andy Kahn mentioned that many people incorrectly think that Jeff Buckley penned Hallelujah when in fact it is the work of Leonard Cohen. Similarly this week, I’m sure there are a large number of people who think The Band wrote Don’t Do It when in fact it was originally recorded by Marvin Gaye in 1964. Alright, I’ll admit it – I was one of those people until somewhat recently. This song was written by the legendary songwriting team of Holland–Dozier–Holland, more on them later.
The Contestants:
The Band released this under the name of simply Don’t Do It, not exactly sure why they dropped the “Baby Don’t You”, maybe one of our readers knows. This was first released on the live album Rock of Ages which was recorded during the last four days of 1971. Don’t Do it was also on the live release The Last Waltz recorded in 1976. A studio version was released by way of a bonus track for the 2000 Deluxe Edition of Cahoots, an album by The Band from 1971. Source: Rock Of Ages
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dontband.mp3]Happy Thanksgiving. The encore from The Last Waltz:
READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Last fall, Levon Helm, the former drummer for The Band, was forced into vocal rest after doctors found a non-cancerous lesion on his vocal chords. While the docs kept us
We here at HT Headquarters were completely hooked on the first season of Elvis Costello’s talk show/variety hour Spectacle. From the great guests to Costello’s combination of music geekiness and
We couldn’t let Thanksgiving pass around these parts without our annual fluffage of the greatest rock movie of all time The Last Waltz. Some 33 years ago 5,000 lucky fans
Originally, the purpose for The Midnight Rambles at Levon Helm’s Woodstock home-recording studio – otherwise referred to as The Barn – was to serve as a way for the legendary drummer of The Band to recoup money from his mounting medical bills after battling and overcoming throat cancer. Helm’s iconic and unmistakable voice was down to barely a raspy whisper after radiation treatments which forced him into resting his vocal chords.
While he had to rely on his capable band to provide the vocals, Helm was able to return to his signature perch behind his drum kit for what must have provided a cathartic release till he was ultimately able to sing again. Over the years the legend of the Rambles have grown, with everyone from Elvis Costello to Dr. John to Donald Fagen to former bandmate Garth Hudson showing up and sitting in with Levon.
When an invite was extended to head upstate to take in a night at The Barn, as a monster fan of The Band I was salivating at the opportunity to see Levon in such an intimate and undeniably unique setting. Since I couldn’t make it out to Indio for Festival 8, a Halloween Midnight Ramble was the next logical choice. Pulling into the sleepy town of Woodstock in the late afternoon on an overcast and rainy late fall day, we were greeted to a full-on Halloween parade by the locals in the streets of the small downtown area that helped to set the tone and atmosphere for the rest of the evening.
READ ON for more of Jeff’s All Hallow’s Eve experience…
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was released as a single and also appeared on The Four Tops 1966 album On Top. Though he’s never recorded a version of the song, Stevie Wonder gets the songwriting credit for this legendary Motown gem. The composition was a joint effort between Wonder and Ivy Jo Hunter, whose songwriting credits also include another smash hit – Dancing In The Street.
The Contestants:
The Band: It’s gotta be confidence-building for a lead singer tackling this song, in this case Rick Danko, knowing you’ve got a voice like that of Levon Helm to back you up. While poking around looking for information on these covers, I found a great interview that Peter Stone Brown did with Rick Danko in 1977. When asked why Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was never on an official release from The Band, Danko answers that he thought it was on Rock Of Ages. It’s interesting just how little artists can sometimes know about their own releases. The track would make it to the Deluxe Edition release in 2001. Source: Rock Of Ages (Deluxe Edition)
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bandsweeter.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Eric Clapton – Sign Language
