I'll be there when The Band starts playing...

Original released on LP Capitol STAO 132 

(US 1969, September 22)

In 1969, with America politically divided, culturally riven, and inextricably mired in Vietnam, the once glorious Sixties were stumbling to an end. Dylan had closed the door and pulled down the shades on a generation looking to him for answers. Drugs were getting heavier and psychedelia had turned flaccid. It was into this environment that the most influential band of the time unleashed their masterpiece. Built upon Robbie Robertson's extraordinary cycle of songs inspired by the American South, "The Band" is an album with a hefty contemporary resonance rooted in the hurt and pride of the nation's past (it was nearly called "America"). Intriguingly - coming from four Canadians and a Southern boy from Arkansas - it is a heritage they both absorbed and memorably defined. Recorded (mostly) in a house rented from Sammy Davis Jr., high up in the Hollywood hills, these recordings are the culmination of all their rockabilly years on the road, their time spent with Dylan, and their Woodstock sojourn. From barrelhouse piano to ragtime soul, there is a grainy texture to the sound and a rolling flow to the rhythm. Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko's interlinking vocals seamlessly switch and trade to ghostly, ethereal effect. The Band had many highs, but this second album is their most haunting, poetic, and their most beautifully realized. On the cover they look like a raggedy bunch of frontiersmen or a glowering gang of outlaws - which (in both cases) they were. 

The Band's first album, "Music from Big Pink", seemed to come out of nowhere, with its ramshackle musical blend and songs of rural tragedy. "The Band", the group's second album, was a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort, partially because the players had become a more cohesive unit, and partially because guitarist Robbie Robertson had taken over the songwriting, writing or co-writing all 12 songs. Though a Canadian, Robertson focused on a series of American archetypes from the union worker in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and the retired sailor in "Rockin' Chair" to, most famously, the Confederate Civil War observer Virgil Cane in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The album effectively mixed the kind of mournful songs that had dominated "Music from Big Pink", here including "Whispering Pines" and "When You Awake" (both co-written by Richard Manuel), with rollicking uptempo numbers like "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" (both sung by Levon Helm and released as singles, with "Up on Cripple Creek" making the Top 40). As had been true of the first album, it was the Band's sound that stood out the most, from Helm's (and occasionally Manuel's) propulsive drumming to Robertson's distinctive guitar fills and the endlessly inventive keyboard textures of Garth Hudson, all topped by the rough, expressive singing of Manuel, Helm, and Rick Danko that mixed leads with harmonies. The arrangements were simultaneously loose and assured, giving the songs a timeless appeal, while the lyrics continued to paint portraits of 19th century rural life (especially Southern life, as references to Tennessee and Virginia made clear), its sometimes less savory aspects treated with warmth and humor.