Live at Watkins Glen

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Live at Watkins Glen
Live at Watkins Glen cover
Live album by The Band
Released April 4, 1995
Recorded December 28, 1971July 28, 1973
Genre Rock
Length 44:36
Label Capitol
Producer The Band
Professional reviews
The Band chronology
Across The Great Divide
(1994)
Live at Watkins Glen
(1995)
High on the Hog
(1996)

Live at Watkins Glen is a 1995 album by The Band, presented by Capitol Records as a live album from the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen rock festival held outside Watkins Glen, New York on July 28, 1973 in front of 600,000 people.

While presented as a live album, it is actually a compilation of live tracks and overdubbed studio tracks. There are many reasons to believe that very little of the album comes from the concert. For one, the tones of the bass guitar and snare drum change slightly between selections. Also, the set list is radically different from concerts held later that week. And it is known that certain songs that appear were definitely not performed at the concert.

The tracks most likely come from three sources:

  1. The 1971/72 concerts at the Academy of Music that produced Rock of Ages
  2. 1973 studio outtakes with crowd overdubbing
  3. The Summer Jam concert (in highly edited forms)

Garth Hudson's organ solo, "Too Wet to Work" and the plainly titled "Jam" come from group three, as does the introduction of the group. The former is on the out-of-print 1994 box set Across The Great Divide, the latter is only present on the Watkins Glen disc. "Back to Memphis" and "Endless Highway" come from group two, and are available on the 2001 re-release of Moondog Matinee, without the crowd overdubs. The rest come from group one, and are available on the 2001 two-CD re-release of Rock of Ages as "previously unavailable" tracks, with the exception of "Don't Ya Tell Henry", which is replaced with an alternate cut featuring Bob Dylan.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Back to Memphis" (Chuck Berry) – 6:16
  2. "Endless Highway" (Robbie Robertson) – 5:18
  3. "I Shall Be Released" (Bob Dylan) – 4:24
  4. "Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever" (Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevie Wonder) – 3:25
  5. "Too Wet to Work" (Garth Hudson) – 3:29
  6. "Don't Ya Tell Henry" (Dylan) – 4:01
  7. "The Rumor" (Robertson) – 4:57
  8. "Time to Kill" (Robertson) – 4:54
  9. "Jam" (The Band) – 3:02
  10. "Up on Cripple Creek" (Robertson) – 4:48

[edit] Personnel

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