We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
The Band was struggling in 1971. After three outstanding LPs, the booze, drugs and decay seemed to ripen into a chasm of trouble on the 4th LP ‘Cahoots” released in 1971.
The album was recorded at Albert Grossman’s new studio and Robbie Robertson didn’t like it. It was like the group needed the seedy recording atmosphere of Big Pink to get the sound they wanted. Most of the critics seemed to view this Lp as a “break-up” record and, indeed, the group didn’t record another album of original material until 1975 when they emerged with the stunning ‘Northern Lights, Southern Cross.” That LP almost seems like a miracle after the struggles here.
Not that there aren’t some highlights. They do a marvelous version of Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” with Levon Helm delivering his usual vocal brilliance.
Helm also delivers on the closing song of the LP…The River Hymn…as gospel as The Band ever got.
And then there is ‘4% Pantomime”…a song that was recorded on the spur of the moment when a drunk Van Morrison visited his friend Richard Manuel and the two traded verses on the differences between Johnnie Walker Red & Black. It’s a one-take recording that is what it is…a snapshot of its time…and it has its charms despite the sloppiness.
Jon Landeau, in his review of the album for Rolling Stone, said the record was “filled with the tinge of extinction”. I think he had it nailed. The Band got too big, too fast….and abused all of the fruits of that success. Consider this a dispatch on that road…better than many…but certainly not up to the group’s standards.
Comments