The Band (11/10/19)

After a couple false starts (albums i just wasn't in the mood to enjoy), i settled on the self titled sophomore album by The Band (their first album was born in Dylan's Basement Tapes) because i giggle a little when i think about "the brown album."

Some people make the argument that this is actually a concept album, and i think i agree. It's quite a bit like Ladies of the Valley and Blues from Laurel Canyon in that the songs are about actual characters, but they are fictional. Mayall and Mitchell were writing about their impressions of real people and a real place. The Band though, is imagining a whole world, much the same way Fogerty was pretending that his native California was actually a swamp. Before the band became The Band they were literally "the band" that supported big name artists (and actually changed Bob Dylan's writing style by simply touring with and living near him), and i would argue that simply acknowledging that persona was the actual concept of the "americana" genre.

The brown album (tee hee) is itself a melting pot of the characters, landscapes, and nostalgia that define our memories and sense of home. The mash of blues, country, boogie, and ballad on this album don't seem as squirrelly as the last few because that kind of "everything influences everything" is the core of the world they live in.

It would be easy to compare them to the Grateful Dead (because the sonic similarities are obvious), but i think there's also a real difference you can hear. The Grateful Dead sound this way because they live inside the world that The Band is describing.

The concept of this album is "American Nostalgia." I think that's what affected Dylan the most; up until this point he had been the champion of whatever people he focused his attention on, but after his tour with The Band he started to see the value of describing why they simultaneously acknowledge the benefits of progress yet long to return to the lives and experiences that that progress takes away.

It's also the album with "Up on Cripple Creek" on it, and i don't know why but i f-ing love that song.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE31AAD9114F343C4

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