THE BAND

Reviewed:

- Music from Big Pink (1968)

- The Band (1969)

- Stage Fright (1970)

MUSIC FROM BIG PINK          1968          (Capitol)

- Standouts: everything.

Hell, if Roger Waters hails The Band's Music from Big Pink "the most influential record in rock n' roll" - at least behind Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (an album I find to be frankly overrated, but I can't deny it's influence on rock...), then it surely deserves a place in my music collection, right? Well, yes it does, even if I don't really care for Roger Waters' opinion because I don't consider myself to be a 'Floyd fan. No, I actually bought this album not so long ago, because I bought The Band's self-titled album - the follow-up to Music from Big Pink - on vinyl, and I really connected with it. So naturally I had to go back and buy Big Pink, the debut. 

While I'm not 100% sure I'm in agreement with people that consider Music from Big Pink to be one of the most influential rock LP's of all time, I wouldn't argue against anyone that sticks it in a list of 'greatest records ever' and whatnot. Each member of The Band is/was (only 2 of them are still alive, sadly) as talented as one another as well as just as important. Put simply, the musicianship on this album and it's follow-up is unprecedented, especially for the 60's period as a whole. This is a group who were all about the music. The mid-to-late 60's was obviously a turning point in musical history and society in general; things that were once considered taboo, was now becoming accepted. A lot of these essentially hippie principles was present in the popular music of the time, such as the Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix, and while The Band were happily playing alongside those kind of acts at Woodstock and wherever else, they were never trying to make any kind of political or social statement with their songs. Their music was just that - music, nothing more, nothing else. The Band were bringing in all kinds of different genres and influences into their songs, and the result is a seamless blend of rock n' roll, Americana, blues, folk and country. No one else sounded like them, and I still can't think of anything directly comparable to them musically either. 

I must admit, although I started with the second album, I did know and love the track 'The Weight' from this record for many years. I honestly think 'The Weight' is one of the best rock tracks ever written. I don't really know what the point of the song is lyrically, but I don't care either way. It's instrumentally amazing, the shared vocals are perfect and it features enough hooks and melodies that make you want to play it over and over again. That's how you write a song! I think 'Long Black Veil', originally an old country song from 1959, but covered by all means of people over the years, is one of the best tracks on the album too. And let's not forget about opener 'Tears of Rage' - originally a song they performed with Bob Dylan not too long before (with lyrics from Dylan) - is unbelievably good. Richard Manuel (RIP) handles vocals on about 2/3 of the album, and from the get-go on 'Tears of Rage', you can tell he was a really special character in rock, especially regarding his singing. There's a kind of unintentional sorrow in his voice that is really hard to describe until you actually hear him for yourself. It's not like he's singing sad songs on this album, you just get a sense of pain when you listen to him, and it really gives me chills - in a good way! 'I Shall Be Released' is absolutely beautiful.

Gotta hand it to the other band members too, though. They were all basically talented across multiple instruments, but Garth Hudson in particular really impresses with his unmistakable organ playing, particularly on a song like the powerful 'Chest Fever'. And while Robbie Robertson isn't what you'd call a 'guitar virtuoso', his guitar playing on this album is full of heart and soul - if you really focus on his contributions, you'll hear a lot going on in the background with his licks. Try focusing primarily on Robertson on 'This Wheel's On Fire'.

Music from Big Pink is certainly an incredibly well-constructed and near-perfect record with some amazing songs, but I still don't quite understand it's importance on rock music as a whole. Maybe I'm too dumb to not hear their influence in other artists who followed, but to me nobody else sounds like The Band. I'm certainly NOT going to call this album overrated though - I don't know anyone personally who's even properly listened to The Band, and I think Music from Big Pink is almost flawless. It just didn't click with me in the same way that it's follow-up did...

Adam's rating: 9.8/10

THE BAND          1969          (Capitol)

- Standouts: This is a masterpiece, so everything.

Music from Big Pink was such a brilliant record - so much so that even members of rock's elite such as Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Roger Waters consider it to be a milestone in rock history. I love the album, but I consider this album to be even better. Part of me wishes I'd picked up The Band's early records a few years back, but I'm not so sure I'd have appreciated them to the same extent as I do now in my late 20's. At the start of the year, I finally replaced my old turntable with one that actually works,  and The Band was one of the first LP's I purchased to christen it - despite only being familiar with 'The Weight'. Heh, seems weird to think that at the start of 2020, 'The Weight' was the only song by The Band I had heard! Yep, clearly I was missing out. I will admit that although I enjoyed this album a fair amount on the first few spins, it wasn't until the COVID lockdown began that I really sank my teeth into it. I gave it repeated listens in the car on Spotify, to the point where I now consider it to be not only one of the greatest albums of the 60's, but one of the greatest albums rock has to offer in general.

Like Music from Big Pink, I haven't heard anything else that really sounds comparable to The Band's second album. The musicianship is some of the best I've ever heard; the songs have been written and rehearsed well enough that they have been performed flawlessly, yet at the same time they still have a slight, live atmosphere surrounding them. The members are uniting together and performing like a well-oiled machine, flawlessly melding their instruments to create a sound that other band's usually can't pull off: when I listen to this album, it doesn't feel like any album has been pushed to the front and prioritised over any other. I honestly can't say that about many other albums. Once again the band members often swap vocal duties per song, and given each members' personality, they always sing the right song depending on the music itself. Example, Levon Helm's Southern flair means he usually handles the more rock n' roll and country kinda material such as 'Jemima Surrender', 'Up On Cripple Creek' and 'Rag Mama Rag' while Richard Manuel's soulful vox are perfect on the smoother numbers such as 'Whispering Pines'.

And of course, the songs themselves continue to mix rock, folk, country, Americana and blues flawlessly, and in the same vein as the debut LP. The tracks are full of perfect instrumentation with usage of electric guitars, organs, mandolins, fiddles, trombones etc., and feature incredible musicianship as well as enough hooks that make the majority of the tracks extremely memorable. I mean, 'Whispering Pines', much like 'I Shall Be Released' from Big Pink, is once again an absolutely beautiful, emotional ballad from Manuel. But there's also some really catchy melodies and hooks to be found on 'Across the Great Divide' and 'Rag Mama Rag' - when I listen to tracks like these, they make me feel good! Even the lyrics are fantastic - 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' is a roots rock masterpiece about the effect the final years the American Civil War had on poor southerners. 'King Harvest (Has Surely Come)' is about a farmer stuck in poverty. The most underrated track on here, in my opinion, is Manuel's 'Jawbone'. This track was written in an unusual time signature, features an absolutely infectious chorus ("I'm a thief, and I dig it...") and has lots of shifts and transitions in terms of melodies and overall song structure. I really think 'Jawbone' is one of the best tracks on the album and generally doesn't get as much conversation as the rest of the album. But honestly, I think basically every song on this record is spot-on. The only downer that comes to my head right now is that the soulful 'When You Awake' is too short, and fades out too abruptly, but the actual song itself is pretty much perfect. 

There's a handful of albums I can give a 10/10, for different reasons of course. For example, I think Black Sabbath's Master of Reality is a perfect heavy metal album. I think The Stooges' Raw Power is what unrefined, bare-bones rock n' roll with an attitude should sound like. I think Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced is the quintessential 60's rock album. But The Band's self-titled is just a perfect album for a lot of reasons. It melds so many different styles together and still, somehow manages to pull them of with ease. It's probably one of the best examples of a band working together without any egos taking over, where each member really has something to offer in a way that makes them as important as one another. The Band is pure magic.

Adam's rating: 10/10

STAGE FRIGHT          1970          (Captiol)

- Standouts: 'Strawberry Wine', 'Sleeping', 'Time to Kill', 'All La Glory', 'The Shape I'm In', 'The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show', 'Daniel and the Sacred Harp', 'Stage Fright'

Music from Big Pink is nearly a perfect roots rock record for me. And as for the self-titled follow-up, well, that is basically a perfect record within it's genre. I bought those albums more-or-less at the same time, and despite how much I enjoyed them, I didn't immediately rush out to buy a copy of Stage Fright, the third Band album. Couldn't really tell you why, although I did win this, Cahoots and Islands all at the same time from the same eBay seller. I have sat down and listened to this album a handful of times now though, and while it's difficult to really hold it up in the same light as the first couple of records, Stage Fright is still a legit classic rock album from 1970. It must be said however, that the album sounds much less ambitious in comparison to it's predecessors, but by the looks of things, that was also kind of the point. I'm guessing even the album title is some kind of reference to the fact that the first two records boosted their popularity immensely.

Whatever the case, I do like Stage Fright a lot. It's The Band in autopilot, but it's a perfectly acceptable kind of autopilot mode, 'cos they were still writing such quality music during this period. You've got another pretty, Richard Manuel-fronted ballad in 'Sleeping', and you've got more Levon Helm-fronted Americana brilliance in tracks like 'All La Glory'. But the rockers are great too - 'The Shape I'm In' is quality roots rock, with some fantastic organ playing from Garth Hudson, as you'd expect. 'The Shape I'm In' ended up becoming one of the group's best-known tracks, and for good reason. 'Strawberry Wine' is a fine blues-based opening number, with Hudson adding some interesting accordion work throughout. I enjoy the grooves of 'The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show', and 'Daniel and the Sacred Harp' sort sounds like a mixture of 'Rockin' Chair' and 'Up On Cripple Creek', with a sleazier kind of attitude. I suppose the Rick Danko-fronted title track is the second best-known number on here, and again, I think it's a great song.

Stage Fright may be a somewhat unambitious album with generally less memorable moments than either of it's two predecessors, but it's still an excellent record. It just goes to show that even when The Band in 1970 deliberately put less effort into writing songs, they naturally play together so well that the resulting product is still very entertaining at the very least. If you liked the first two, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be giving this one a chance.

Adam's rating: 9/10

SUBLIME

Reviewed:

• 40oz. to Freedom (1992)
• Robbin' the Hood (1994)
• Sublime (1996)
• 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Sublime (2002, compilation)

40oz. TO FREEDOM          1992          (Skunk)

- Standouts: Most of it is pretty good, particularly 'Badfish', 'Smoke Two Joints' and 'Date Rape'.

My older brother was a big fan of Sublime in his mid-teens, but they never really did much for me until I became an adult. I'm not exactly a stoner, even if I do enjoy the occasional, cheeky 'you know what' every once in a while, but I like a lot of stoner music. 40oz. to Freedom might as well be the pothead's bible, as far as music goes. Well, this and maybe something by Cypress Hill - whatever, it's one of the definitive fusions of punk, ska and reggae you'll probably ever hear. And I'm sure I have memories of my brother telling me that the album - their debut - was originally released independently and became a classic rather quickly, sorta like Diamond Head and their Lightning to Nations record, not that Sublime sound anything like Diamond Head.

There's a few numbers on here that make regular playlists for me. I really can't get enough of 'Badfish' sometimes... it's just a cool, chilled-out reggae dopefest, and it's catchy! I really like the cover of Bad Religion's 'We're Only Gonna Die for Our Arrogance' too - Biohazard also covered the track on Urban Discipline the same year. Obviously their version is way harder-hitting than Sublime's, but Sublime's still keeps the tempo rolling fast while adding their own ska, flair to the tune. 'Don't Push' is a good-time, 'New Thrash' has that 'skate punk' sound of bands like Pennywise and NOFX, maybe a touch of early Offspring, and it's fun. 'Date Rape' goes full ska and features trumpets and saxophones, plus punk rock lyrics to boot. In all fairness, you won't find any sketchy material on here. 'KRS-One', which obviously references and samples the infamous rapper, kind of gets on my nerves at times, and I always thought having 22 songs on an album of this nature was going a bit overboard, but lengthy track-listings is just something Sublime did with their records. Like I said before, I'm no stoner, but this album gives me positives vibes. I dig it, and it makes great background music when chilling with mates at a BBQ, or just generally kicking back. It's a classic, though I wouldn't put it up there among punk's best ever albums. That's if you even consider 40oz. to Freedom to be a punk album more-so than it is ska. 

Adam's rating: 8/10

ROBBIN' THE HOOD          1994          (MCA)

- Standouts: 'Greatest Hits', 'Saw Red', 'Work That We Do', 'Cisco Kid', 'All You Need', 'Falling Idols'

I get that people generally regard most of Sublime's recordings to be classic material these days, but Robbin' the Hood I do have some issues with, especially when compared to the debut or it's self-titled followup. The album doesn't really even get going properly until track 4, 'Pool Shark', because the first bunch of 'songs' are essentially just made up of skits and samples. And 'Pool Shark' itself is short as hell too. 'Steppin' Razor' is kinda cool though, even if it does feel more like an instrumental than anything else. I'd also say that 'Greatest Hits' is one of my favourite Sublime tracks ever. The bass lines are killer, and Brad Nowell's vocal lines and melodies are absolutely spot-on and infectious as fuck. Just an excellent track from the 90's. And 'Saw Red', which features Brad duetting with Gwen Stefani ks extremely fun to say the least. Shame it's over in less than a couple of minutes. 'Work That We Do' is one of their better reggae songs, and a lot of the punkier ska tunes like 'All You Need' and 'Falling Idols' are great too, but I overall I just don't find the music on this album to be as listenable as what can be found on 40oz. to Freedom. There's far too much sampling and instrumental stuff which just annoys me after a while. I get that they made druggie music first and foremost (hell, drugs are what finally killed Brad, R.I.P.), but the actual musical performances are lacking in comparison to the debut album. The good songs on here, like 'Greatest Hits', are as good as anything from the previous record, but I've found myself sitting through a bunch of filler and re-recordings of older tracks  in order to really get to the good stuff on Robbin' the Hood. 

Adam's rating: 7/10

SUBLIME          1996          (MCA)

- Standouts: Basically everything.

The final album to come out of the trio before Brad Nowell's demise was this self-titled record. I always thought Robbin' the Hood featured a little too much fucking around instead of actual songs; thankfully, Sublime is, in my opinion, the best thing they ever put out. It takes advantage of most of the musical ideas they had on the past releases and results in songs that are generally just better across the board. It certainly has more radio-friendly tracks on it - it was by far their biggest seller - but for a band like Sublime, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. They came up with a reggae/ska/punk fusion that could be extremely infectious on past tracks like 'Badfish' and 'Greatest Hits', and this is further reinforced on songs like 'Wrong Way' and 'What I Got' from this third and final record. 'What I Got' really is one of my favourite 90's alternative singles of all time. I love it. The same can be said for the excellent 'Santeria' - it's Sublime perfecting what they came up with in the past and using that formula to write songs that insanely memorable and catchy whilst still sounding like true Sublime! Even the ska punk rockers like 'Seed' are better too. 'Garden Grove' has a lot of weird experimentation and sampling on it, kinda similar to the stuff I disliked about Robbin' the Hood, but on this album once again, it's just been pulled off better in nearly every way. And let's not forget about 'Doin' Time', another of their finest tracks of all time, with it's warm and laid-back summer vibes as well as it's dark undertones, a characteristic of Sublime's lyrics.

Any complaints? I guess the album is kinda one-dimensional, and sometimes I'm a miserable bastard that doesn't always want to hear nonsensical stoner music. Obviously the band disbanded shortly after the release of the album due to Nowell's tragic heroin overdose. Heroin sucks. I don't claim to be a die hard Sublime fan by any means, but I liked this album enough to pick it up on vinyl too. I totally recommend any rock fan to check it out, these are just good songs full-stop, and you don't have to be a pothead to really appreciate it either!

Adam's rating: 8.8/10

20th CENTURY MASTERS - THE MILLENNIUM COLLECTION: THE BEST OF SUBLIME          2002          (MCA)

This CD - the aptly titled 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Sublime (fuck me, that's a mouthful!) - is a compilation that for whatever reason only features 10 songs. Not exactly enough to summarise this band then, but at least each of those 10 songs are among their best. It is what it is. The only reason I have this in my collection is because I bought it for like less than £2 a few years back, and it reminded me just how good some of the songs this band wrote actually were, so at least it made me go out and buy their trilogy of studio albums.