British guitarist analyses 'The Band' live in 1970!

hello phil here from wings of pegasus and welcome to another analysis video if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe on the agenda tonight we're going back to 1970 we're gonna be taking a look at the band and they're gonna be performing the weight so let's get the guys up on screen and see how they get on [Applause] [Music] [Music] you tell me [Music] [Music] I said [Music] Oh [Applause] [Music] [Music] I'm just gonna jump in here as always the links of this video is going to be in the description below so you guys can watch it the whole way through and this is for songs in total so it's one of those videos that I won't be able to look at all off with this analysis and we're just focusing on the weight here but the band as a band were one of those outfits that were supporting other artists to begin with it was Ronnie Hawkins that they're playing behind and then they moved on from there in the mid-60s is when they got involved with Bob Dylan and you can check out my video on Bob because I do mention them in there but also for an independent look at Bob Dylan as an artist but putting the spotlight on these guys because it's probably got to a point where like I mentioned they were playing behind Ronnie but then adapted and realized that they could do everything themselves so what we're looking at essentially is a group of guys who would have been looked at as a backing band or the session guys of the time and everyone will know back in the late 50s 60s 70s the guys in the studio the session musicians were the top of the pile when you're looking at technical ability and musicianship and this is something that when you look at a band such as of the band having that ability to play and sing at the same time but also be so tight live it was their job to be tight behind an artist but then as soon as they're now the main focus of attention you can see how tight they are but the devil is in the detail especially with a performance that seemed so laid-back and routine as this does when I talk about that just take a look at levon Helm on drums because he's supplying that vocal but the drum worked throughout this whole song is so spot-on and drawing attention to the fills as well I mentioned in other videos about drummers sometimes life can start to push the tempo but here levon is so spot-on throughout the whole performance and go and listen to the original composition the record the original release and just match it with this because the groove in the feel is exactly the same and when you consider that Levon is supplying that lead vocal at exactly the same time it's just evermore impressive and the thing that I love to listen to with this performance are those fails because they are so rock solid and when you listen to a lot of drummers when they're not singing the thing that can suffer are the fields speeding up during a fill and now you might be one or two beats faster per minute than you were before the fill but it is so solid here from Levon throughout this whole performance I always mentioned about having that solid rhythm section we've got that here you'd expect nothing less from a band of this quality and it's Rick Danko on the left of the screen here playing bass fretless bass by the way that is supplying that solidity with Levon and having that solid foundation means that everything placed on top of that is going to sound that much better and it's going to be such a cohesive unit mentioning vocals because this is something that as a backing band they would be expected to provide backing harmonies and have that ability and then breaking off as an independent standalone band it means that now you've got four out of five guys who can supply lead vocals and backing vocals harmonies so it is that luxury I always say about having just one extra singer in the band is such an advantage but when you look down the list of performers in the band and it'll give the instrument that they play after their name but then also or say whether they provide vocals or not when you look down the list of band names and four out of five or supplying vocals you know there is so many places that they can take the melody vocally and the way that they can interact with each other the compositions obviously it opens the door to go to so many interesting places this is a great song to show the versatility of those vocal because we have the repeated line that comes in three times and it's ever so slightly staggered so you get that harmony coming together but also the effect of delay that you would have added in the studio but because you've got three vocalists that can pull it off live it means that you can bring that sound from the record to the live stage we've got Robbie Robertson on guitar here as well supplying all of that solid rhythm work and the intro of course and Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel on keys and you'll find that we can hear the piano sound in there but also the organ so we've got two piece sections effectively working together I always say in other videos how just having one Keys player is great for filling in all of that frequency all of that space underneath the guitars and here having just one guitar with a really clean tone it means that there would be a lot of space underneath that that needs to be filled and it just so happens we've got that luxury of not one but two guys who can play keys in the background we've got a really dry sound across the whole stage here because there's nothing on the vocal mics and mix wise it's a little bit heavy on Rick's mic I think so it would have been better to even those up a little bit but we still get a great sound because the band are so great and this is what you'll find sometimes that even with a bad mix it still sounds good when the band are just a top band and that's exactly what we've got here but let's get back into the performance crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the ball he said I will fix your cable won't you be [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and there we have it so because we're now focused a little bit more on the base work going on we can have a look at Rick's technique because is something that's you'll find with a lot of guitar players having the thumb over the top of the guitar but not so much with bassists and the way that Rick just throws these bass lines together the supplies the root note of the chord with his thumb over the top so stretching right over there like I said playing fretless bass here and really so solid with his playing singing at the same time exactly the same across the board here but all of these guys have that top technical ability as a band but it's one thing to have technical ability and is a whole nother thing to write a song that is catchy that is popular that people can relate to and the band managed to make that transition from supporting another artist to then having their own standalone songs and this one was written by Robbie Robertson and it's got all of those melodic components you want from a great song so I always say in other videos that songwriting is the hardest part of the music industry and as an artist or a band just having that connection with an audience and writing something melodic this is going to be memorable and people want to listen to just to point out that we do have that change in the vocal as well from Levon to Rick and just having that ability in a band to have two separate lead vocalists is such a luxury and such a rare thing as well you don't really see a lot of bands sharing lead vocals just a lead vocalist and then a harmony vocal in the background maybe one or two of those this performance falls into that category of being so good that people won't notice how good it is and I'm specifically going to be talking about the tempo the feel the mood of the performance as well as just nailing everything live but getting that groove and feel exactly the same throughout the whole track I mean that is Levon on trial supplying that lead vocal like I mentioned earlier but having that solidity is something that is so solid and reliable that you don't notice how reliable and solid it is because you can just sit back and listen and you'll find that with a lot of artists who were standalone singers in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s when they performed live with a band as the band work behind a standalone artist to begin with they are so rock solid the level of ability amongst those session musicians back at that time was just crazy that they could turn up and just nail the performance with exactly the same feel and tempo and I'm talking about guitar solos as well just note for note and sometimes not even note for note but just a great alternative solo that might just have been live on that night I do want to cover a little bit of the history quickly about the band because they started out as the Hawks and I mentioned Ronnie Hawkins earlier who had this way of playing with other bands and hiring the best musicians from those bands to eliminate the competition and that's how the band initially came about and they were very popular in Toronto and this would have been in the early 60s but up until 1963 is when the band and the guys left Ronnie because they felt like they had outgrown the sound and wanted to go in their own direction because they had goals that they wanted to achieve as a band themselves so in 1965 is when they teamed up with Bob Dylan who was looking for a backing band and initially they weren't popular at all in an interview Rick said that they were only applauded and cheered in France and everywhere else they were booed and heckled and this was the reason why I leave on helm left he sat out the 1966 world tour because of all the heckling that they had to experience at their gigs and during that time Levon worked on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 1966 is when Bob Dylan had his motorcycle accident so he was recovering from and the guy's rented a house which they called big pink and if you've seen the pictures of it it is big and it's pink and in 1968 they released their debut album and that was called music from big pink and that featured this song the wait which was also featured in the movie Easy Rider and that was a huge hit the song but also the movie they had huge success with the debut album and played at Woodstock as well in 1969 but unfortunately they weren't featured on the film due to legal complications on the album there's also a track called this wheels on fire and there were a few co-written tracks with Bob Dylan on that album and this wheels on fire a lot of people here in the UK it will know it especially if they're fans of absolutely fabulous because that is the theme song for that show but in 1969 is when they released the band and on the previous album the band name didn't really appear on there because it was just the name of the album and then the band and then the names listed of the band members so in 1969 they were now known as the band on this second album and it has been widely referred to as a massive influence from many artists around at the time including George Harrison and Eric Clapton as well Clapton actually wanted to join the band but unfortunately for Eric it just didn't work out that way people at the time was starting to refer to this sound as country rock because it was new and other people would say that it paved the way for bands like the Eagles who have multiple vocalists within the band and harmonized with each other exactly as the band are doing here in 1970 they released the album stage fright and that was produced by Todd Rundgren and if you want to check him out he's here on the channel as well independently in the early 70s they were starting to have a few problems because Robbie was taking more control of the band or at least Levon was seeing it that way and Robbie was citing drug use by other band members but they Tom pushing forward in 1971 they released cahoots and this was the first album that had Allen Tucson involved and he had a horn arrangement on life is a carnival and Allen would then be involved in future projects as well in 1971 they released their Rock of Ages live album and in 1973 they had a joint tour with Bob Dylan and also backed him up on his album Planet Waves which was released in 1974 in 1975 they released Northern Lights Southern Cross and in 1976 is when they decided to retire from touring and had their part in the last waltz which was a massive concert and event and something that Martin Scorsese filmed and put it together as a concert film documentary and that was released in 1978 but the year before that they released their last album with the original lineup and that was called Islands in 1977 in 1983 they did return to touring but this was without Robbie they were playing smaller venues than before and unfortunately in 1986 is when Richard Manuel committed suicide he was struggling with alcohol and drugs as he had done for a long time in the 70s he was clean for a few years at the end of the 70s going into the 80s but by 1984 unfortunately he was back in the grasp of addiction and in the 90s they recorded a few more albums in 1998 was the last album and that was called jubilation and unfortunately in 1999 Rick Danko died in his sleep and that was of heart failure so a sad end to the story but again we can use YouTube and teleport ourselves back to 1970 to check out the band live in action and I think they are one of those bands that a lot of people know the songs even if they didn't know that it was the band who played them in the first place and I mentioned about them co-writing with Bob Dylan as well like I said it's one thing to be a great band but then it's another thing to actually have so that people will remember and like that will do when in the charts and connect with an audience on mass but thank you guys so much for suggesting this video for me to take a look at and keep their suggestions coming in the comments below and let me know what you guys think and if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe and I'll see you guys at the next one rock

Channel: Wings of Pegasus

Views: 48,490

Rating: 4.9691558 out of 5

Keywords: the band, the band live, the band bob dylan, bob dylan, robbie robertson, levon helm, music from big pink, the band the weight live, the band the weight, the weight song, the weight easy, the weight easy rider, wings of pegasus, wingsofpegasus, british guitarist reacts, british guitarist analysis, british guitarist analyses

Id: TNSvJHvt3fs

Length: 20min 4sec (1204 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020