The Band Biography

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Original Recordings by the Original Artists!

The Band
Classic Rock | 3 CD Set
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Discuss The Band and immediately three events come to mind: The group's connection to Bob Dylan, the album MUSIC FROM BIG PINK and its farewell show, The Last Waltz. Add THE BASEMENT TAPES and you have a whole career in rock. The Band was known by different names in Canada. Canadians Robbie Robertson, guitar, vocals; Garth Hudson, organ; Richard Manuel, piano, vocals; and Rick Danko, bass, vocals; joined with Ronnie Hawkins, from Arkansas, at the end of the late '50s and became the Hawks. Hawkins had moved to Toronto. Then it became the Canadian Squires and then Levon and the Hawks, since Arkansan Levon Helm had been with Hawkins. The group began working American bars, leaving Hawkins along the way, and were playing a loud mix of R&B, soul and gospel. They recorded as Levon and the Hawks and soon blues singer (and son of Columbia Records executive) John Hammond Jr., utilized them for his debut record. Through Hammond, they met Dylan, who was going through his own problems getting fans to understand his move into electric music. The group's first gig with Dylan was 1965's noted Forest Hills event and they supported Dylan in 1966 on his first "electric" tour. THE BASEMENT TAPES came about as Dylan recovered from a motorcycle accident and the Hawks and Dylan rehearsed and recorded while living in Woodstock, N.Y. It became the most notorious "bootleg" record ever, causing Columbia to finally release it in 1975. It's not clear when The Band became The Band but that was the appellation on the group's own release, MUSIC FROM BIG PINK, which was what they called their Woodstock pink house. This album included The Weight, called by many one of The Band's true classics and a tune covered by several other singers. Then came THE BAND, arguably its best effort and the album that put it on the map apart from Dylan. By the mid-'70s they'd had enough. On Thanksgiving Day 1976, the event billed as "The Last Waltz" took over San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom. It was filmed by Martin Scorsese, became a 3-record LP and had a number of special guests, such as Dylan, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters and more. After the breakup, The Band's members did a variety of individual projects. Robertson went on to do soundtracks for Scorsese films and they regrouped in 1991 sans Robertson, recording their first record in 17 years in 1993. Manuel hanged himself in 1986.

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