The Band (album)

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The Band

Studio album by The Band
Released	September 22, 1969
Recorded	Early-to-mid 1969
Genre	Rock
Length	43:50
Label	Capitol
Producer(s)	John Simon
All Music Guide link
The Band chronology
Music from Big Pink (1968)	The Band (1969)	Stage Fright (1970)

The Band is the eponymous second album by The Band, released on September 22, 1969 (see 1969 in music).

1 Album details
2 Track listing
3 Personnel
4 See also
5 Charts

[edit] Album details

The Band peaked at #9 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. In 2000, it recharted on Billboard's Internet Albums chart, peaking at #10. The singles "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" peaked on the Pop Singles chart at #57 and #25 respectively.

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted The Band the 76th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 45 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

According to the liner notes to the 2000 reissue of "The Band" by Rob Bowman, the album, "The Band", has been viewed as a concept album, with the songs focusing on peoples, places and traditions associated with an older version of Americana.

Greil Marcus suggests that "King Harvest" might be The Band's finest song, and the best example of their approach to songwriting and performing. The song's structure is unusual: the choruses (sung by Manuel and Helm) are subdued while Manuel's verses are more energetic. With increasing desperation, the narrator (an unnamed, poverty-stricken farmer) details the misfortune which has befallen him: there was no rain and his crops died, his barn burnt down, he ends up on skid row. A union organizer appears, promising to improve things, and the narrator tells his new associates "I'm a union man, now, all the way", but, perhaps ashamed of his station, begs them "just don't judge me by my shoes."

The Cripple Creek Theatre Company in New Orleans, LA is named after the song "Up on Cripple Creek".

[edit] Track listing

"Across the Great Divide" (Robertson) – 2:53
"Rag Mama Rag" (Robertson) – 3:04
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Robertson) – 3:33
"When You Awake" (Manuel/Robertson) – 3:13
"Up on Cripple Creek" (Robertson) – 4:34
"Whispering Pines" (Manuel/Robertson) – 3:58
"Jemima Surrender" (Helm/Robertson) – 3:31
"Rockin' Chair" (Robertson) – 3:43
"Look Out Cleveland" (Robertson) – 3:09
"Jawbone" (Manuel/Robertson) – 4:20
"The Unfaithful Servant" (Robertson) – 4:17
"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" (Robertson) – 3:39

Bonus tracks from 2000 CD re-release:
"Get Up Jake" (outtake - stereo mix) (Robertson) – 2:17
"Rag Mama Rag" (alternate vocal take - rough mix) (Robertson) – 3:05
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (alternate mix) (Robertson) – 4:16
"Up on Cripple Creek" (alternate take) (Robertson) – 4:51
"Whispering Pines" (alternate take) (Manuel/Robertson) – 5:09
"Jemima Surrender" (alternate take) (Helm/Robertson) – 3:48
"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" (alternate performance) (Robertson) – 4:28