The Band - I Shall Be Released

Rodgre · Post by **Rodgre** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:43 pm

I was just listening to The Band's Music From Big Pink and among many many things that I love about that record, I noticed something very hip and ahead of it's time in the mix of the haunting "I Shall Be Released."

There is an atmospheric track of a keyboard (a Roxochord according to one website) run through a wah pedal for a slow and dreamy filter sweep that the whole song floats on. Very very cool. Check it out if you have it.

Roger

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:37 am

I've heard somewhere that Garth Hudson was making some pedals back then - I wonder if the wah filter thing is something he concocted, or if it's even true that he was messing around with that kind of thing at all.

LeedyGuy · Post by **LeedyGuy** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:09 am

That's one of my favorite records right now. How about The Weight? Gets me every time.

-Ken

wrenhunter · Post by **wrenhunter** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:17 pm

How 'bout Robbie's way-high girl harmonies? Autotune free and loving it.

I've been listening to the Genuine Basement Tapes lately, too. Doesn't sound great, but they seemed to be having a good time.

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:12 am

THere's so much that's cool about that track. The panned reverb on the piano, esp. on the count off, the strummed snare, the switch from 1 and 3 in the verses to 2 and 4 in the choruses on the ac gtr. the whole thing holds together like lace. it's amazing.

honkyjonk · Post by **honkyjonk** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:37 am

Yeah, the great thing about that record and that Band is that no one is ever going through the motions on any part of any song. There's no "he's just the bass player" parts or anything. Everyone adds a certain specialness to every part, usually very understated, that makes a really awesome whole.

What are the "Genuine" Basement tapes? Different from the regular basement tapes?

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:41 am

honkyjonk wrote:
What are the "Genuine" Basement tapes? Different from the regular basement tapes?

There are something like ten cds worth of stuff that they recorded in that basement which the "official" basement tapes were culled from. The've been bootlegged under a lot of different names: A Tree with Roots, A Tree with Branches, etc. As an artifact they are fantastic. The recording quality varies a lot, but the playing and the songs are fun and weird and wonderful.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:57 am

Then, too, I think that official release from the mid-1970s had some vocal overdubs (done much later than the original sessions) and other offenses against the original nature of the sessions.

I highly recommend that you AVOID the Greil Marcus book about the sessions at all costs. It is just so haughty and pseudoacademic. If you want to know about the official sessions, find a way to hear them. They are fantastic in ways not even suggested by the official release, nor by the Band's Big Pink album (which is also fantastic in its own way)

JASIII · Post by **JASIII** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:33 pm

Chest Fever. nuff said. Wow.

if6was9 · Post by **if6was9** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:08 pm

wrenhunter wrote:How 'bout Robbie's way-high girl harmonies?

I'm pretty sure the high harmonies are Richard Manuel. Richard was a great singer!

According to Levon's book, Robbie's singing was so bad that they didn't normally route his mic out to the house in live performance (great guitar player, though).

JASIII · Post by **JASIII** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:30 pm

if6was9 wrote:
wrenhunter wrote:How 'bout Robbie's way-high girl harmonies?
I'm pretty sure the high harmonies are Richard Manuel. Richard was a great singer!

According to Levon's book, Robbie's singing was so bad that they didn't normally route his mic out to the house in live performance (great guitar player, though).

That's my understanding too, although I read somewhere that Robbie did sing on a "Big Pink" cut, was it Caldonia Mission? I don't remember.

swelle · Post by **swelle** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:19 pm

Some of the tunes on the '75 release are definitely NOT basement tapes, I think they're demo tracks from before the first record. Cane on the Brazos, Don't You Tell Henry, Dear Katie, etc.-- all recorded in a real studio. People wonder about Robertson's motives for including them, but they're great tunes.

percussion boy · Post by **percussion boy** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:08 pm

Re the vocal questions above:

Robbie sang lead on "To Kingdom Come" on BIG PINK, which gives you some idea what his voice was like at the time.

Any falsetto vocals on Band albums are usually Richard Manuel, except when he's singing lower, then it might be Robbie on the high part: e.g., "Katie's Been Gone."

Hope this helps.

pantone247 · Post by **pantone247** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:04 am

track this bad boy down, it deal with the brown album but I think it was the same producer he, if I remember rightly, talks about big pink... dude ends up drawing diagrams of where they all sat in the studio, Levon sits at a kit and goes thru his drum parts, and they get busy with the vocal harmonies on the mixing desk. Amazing DVD probaly one of the best in the Classic Albums series

lukievan · Post by **lukievan** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:01 am

S.O.S. magazine (a pretty good British recording/engineering rag) did a piece about the recording of 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' in their 'Classic Tracks' column. It's not free on their site, but it's well worth tracking down if you want to peek at the magic.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct06/a ... s_1006.htm

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The Band - I Shall Be Released

The Band - I Shall Be Released

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