SLABS OF AMERICANA
November 19, 2009 – 12:15 pmIn the face of heavy metal, America responded with The Band.
Click on the panels for a better view or to download artwork.
THE BAND
Ultrasonic Studios, Hempstead, NY 1971 [no label, 1CD]
Rehearsals live in New York, December 1971. Ex- SBD stereo. Speed-pitch corrected version.
To give their music an added dimension, The Band recruited Allen Toussaint and a five-man horn section to spice up their sound for the Cahoots album. When they rehearsed for a four-night stand at the Academy of Music in New York City back in the winter of ‘71, Toussaint and the horns were invited.
On the introduction to this brief 40-minute excerpt of a rehearsal, the signature horns blow nicely that toot-toot New Orleans sound as the Band come together for The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. That’s what you’ll hear throughout the rehearsal, how the horns swooped, swished and skittered around, above and below the songs. Injecting freshness and excitement to the Band’s repertoire.
Just on the horizon other bands were preparing louder, angrier albums, hamming up with makeup and marketing, posing for hours in front of mirrors as they vied to be the next big thing.
But The Band were digging the older vibe with accordians, horns, a carnival sound, vaudeville, a hoedown that invented Americana before the term was coined. Levon Helm handles much of the vocal chores on the songs here leaving Rick Danko with Unfaithful Servant. Richard Manuel gets to be heard on two takes of Across The Great Divide.
The sound is thick and chunky with nice turns from Garth Hudson’s organ and Robertson’s sterling solos. But really, the horns take up centerstage much of the time. By now, success with Dylan and as a working unit had changed their lifestyle and Cahoots, the album preceding the concerts, had a bittersweet taste.
“I can’t emphasize how much success had changed everything,” Rick Danko said of this period. “We were outrageous in our behavior, and it was impossible to get people in one place at one time. And when we did, it was hard to work because when we looked at one another and saw how wrecked we were, it was hard not to crack up.”
This fly-on-the-wall moment with The Band and Toussaint disputes this. They sound energised and refreshed. But this was before they lurched forward into a downward spiral, eventually disbanding in 1978 with the prophetic Last Waltz.
This was originally shared by “DynacoST70″ in 2005 and recently uploaded on DIME by JTT. This is the fixed version using Prof Goody’s recommendation on how to correct the pitch. Thanks to lolita for sharing the fixed version. Thanks to everyone who shared this. Sound quality is great.
- Professor Red 
Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.
Track 01. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (7.1MB)
Track 02. Across the Great Divide (take 1) (4.0MB)
Track 03. WS Walcott Medicine Show (take 1) (4.9MB)
Track 04. WS Walcott Medicine Show (take 2) (4.9MB)
Track 05. Life Is A Carnival (take 1) (3.9MB)
Track 06. Life Is A Carnival (take 2) (5.5MB)
Track 07. Across the Great Divide (take 2) (4.4MB)
Track 08. Unfaithful Servant (5.8MB)
Track 09. Chestfever (6.9MB)
Track 10. Rag Mama Rag (take 1) (5.2MB)
Track 11. Rag Mama Rag (take 2) (1.2MB)
39:26m
Note: This was shared as the Saturday Night Live rehearsals on Oct 30, 1976. But the general consensus among fans is that this is the rehearsals at Ultrasonic Studios for the Academy of Music December 28-31, 1971 shows. The tracks rehearsed do not match the songs performed on SNL in 1976.
Likely Lineup:
Rick Danko - bass, violin, vocals
Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, vocals
Garth Hudson - organ, piano, accordion, tenor and soprano saxophones
Richard Manuel - piano, organ, clavinet, drums, vocals
Robbie Robertson - guitar, vocals, introduction
Allen Toussaint - horn arrangements
Howard Johnson - tuba, euphonium, baritone saxophone
Snooky Young - trumpet, flugelhorn
Joe Farrell - tenor and soprano saxophones, English horn
Earl McIntyre - trombone
J. D. Parron - alto saxophone and E-flat clarinet
The shows at the Academy of Music would be released in August 1972 as Rock Of Ages, The Band’s live album and one of the finest live albums of all time. Buy it here.
14 Responses to “SLABS OF AMERICANA”
Excellent gem!
Many thanks bigo’s team
By Rochacrimson on Nov 20, 2009
Thanks for that guys. When it came out as Academy Of Outtakes I reviewed it for Rock’s Back Pages: “The rehearsal features ‘Dixie’, ‘Divide’, ‘Walcott’, ‘Carnival’, ‘Unfaithful Servant’ and ‘Chest Fever’, and is interesting, mostly to hear how much The Band are responding to the horns. Levon shouts “Yeah!” as the Section piles into the break in ‘Chest Fever’ as he furiously battles the waves of sound coming at his drums. The horns are ragged but getting there, and if this was their only rehearsal, then they did an astonishing job of learning these complex, layered charts.”
Apparently Toussaint was working with a tape machine running slow so the horn charts were all pitched wrong. He was mightily impressed when Garth and Richard just transposed their keyboard parts on the fly… Nicely fixed—well done!
By Martin Colyer on Nov 20, 2009
Very nice share BigO
By Matt on Nov 20, 2009
Are the SNL 76 rehearsals around anywhere?
By Matt on Nov 20, 2009
Amazing sound! Thank you!
By John C. on Nov 21, 2009
Thank you very much for The Band’s SNL Rehearsals, BigO.
By Lee67 on Nov 22, 2009
In the face of heavy metal, America responded with The Band.
America ?..always trying to claim fame for everything..There were 5 members in the Band.
four of them , Canadian…one American.
a proud canuck Band fan,
sluggo
By sluggo on Nov 23, 2009
I don’t know if the rehearsals are posted but I have posted the entire SNL set at:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5031354/The_Band_-_Saturday_Night_Live_-_October_30__1976
The Band plays one of their final live shows in front of the entire country on Saturday Night Live. Less than a month later they will play their “Last Waltz” at Winterland. The order of songs on “The Band” website shows “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as the last song in the set. I would rate the quality of this video as an A considering its age. I do not know the genealogy as it came to me on a dvd coupled with the Woodstock 94′ show. I would have to guess that the lineage is: TV/VHS/DVD/ (The Band website shows this as: TV/EX/20)then I used a stand alone Sony DVD Player and extracted the video with Powerdirector > Mpeg 2 > then to you. Enjoy!
1. Life Is a Carnival
2. Stage Fright
3/4? The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
4/3? Georgia On My Mind
By Owen on Nov 28, 2009
Awesome. Thank you!
By Mike & Kim Hayward on Nov 28, 2009
Thanks for the SNL torrent. I’m getting it now.
By Matt on Nov 29, 2009
thanks so much for posting!
By jeff on Nov 29, 2009
TYSVD(AMN)M 4P!
@ sluggo “‘In the face of heavy metal, America responded with The Band.’ …America ? always trying to claim fame for everything..There were 5 members in the Band. four of them , Canadian…one American.’
OK, if you want to get technical… The members of the Band first came together as they joined rockabilly singer Canadian Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, The Hawks, one by one between 1958 and 1963. However, upon leaving Hawkins in 1964, they were known as The Levon Helm Sextet, then Levon and the Hawks. The leader of the band, Levon Helm, being that ahem, American you mention. So when first on their own as a group they were an American band. Then they backed Dylan, another American. Then they finally struck out on their own in a major way, changing their name to The Band, and recorded their music in America.
As Wikipedia correctly reports, “The Band’s music fused many elements: primarily old country music and early rock and roll, though the rhythm section often was reminiscent of Stax or Motown… The Band’s “The Band” album, featured songs that evoked oldtime rural America.” And as Professor Red correctly says above, “The Band were digging the older vibe with accordions, horns, a carnival sound, vaudeville, a hoedown that invented Americana before the term was coined.”
I’d venture to say that they were one the most quintessential American bands.
By thewaymouth on Dec 5, 2009
you need not try to lay your Band history on me..i have been a fan , and attendee of concerts since 1965..I often saw Ronnie and the Hawks at teen dance here in our city [30 miles east of the Hawk`s Nest] where they preformed regular sat . matinees at the local u.a.w. [at the time , C.A.W. now] union hall.
Rick , Robbie , Garth and Richard all are form the stratford area, their families still there and they continue to be very much rooted in Canadiana,,,like I said it is just typical americanism to want to claim anything that woks as being theirs..Perhaps you don`t or won`t realize the rooted Canadian sounds that are quite present in their music..a for instance itself , listen to Acadian driftwood and it will explain the genesis of “Acadjun” or “Cajun ” music..just dig the music don`t get hung up on ownership.
By sluggo on Dec 5, 2009
It seems you may be the one hung up on ownership sluggo. Levon was the first member of what would become “The Band”, born and raised in Arkansas. To not consider the band categorically as “Americana” is ridiculous. After all it is a continental term.
By Jeff on Jun 17, 2010