Product Description

The Band was one of the most celebrated and influential groups to arrive on the music scene in the late 1960s. The Band's members - Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm - fashioned something magically new out of musically traditional components: old-time country and gospel, Preservation Hall jazz, medicine-show vaudeville. They started as The Hawks, a teenage backup group for the rockabilly renegade Ronnie Hawkins, touring the endless highways through the heart of the South. Eventually they headed north, where they left Hawkins to become Bob Dylan's band on the revolutionary electric tours of 1965 and 1966. From there they retreated to Woodstock, and, during a period of intense personal closeness and creativity, produced two of the hallmark albums of the era. When The Band finally emerged from their Woodstock home they found themselves ill-equipped to deal with the realities of fame and the music business. Stage fright, drug addictions and growing bad feelings within the group led them to quit with the star-studded farewell of "The Last Waltz" in 1976. A few years later Richard Manuel hung himself in the bathroom of the Winter Park Quality Inn. This history captures the raw magic and complex personalities of these "musician's musicians".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44621 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

About the Author
Barney Hoskyns was born in England in 1959 and began writing for the New Musical Express after leaving Oxford. He has since written for The Times, the New Statesman, the Guardian, Spin, the Los Angeles Reader, Creem, Vogue and many other publications. His other books include Say Time for the brokenhearted + 'Imp of the perverse'.

Customer Reviews

Most Rock Books are for fans only - but this is a gem
A welcome reissue, 10 years after its first publication, of one of the few really readable books on Rock Music. This is no anorak's book and is neither pompous nor academic . The publishers Pimlico have also released Hoskyns' collection of articles on American music legends titled "Ragged Glories" , but this book on just one group gives a greater sense of the huge 'melting pot' of popular music styles in the USA.
When I first read this book I didn't own even one album by the Band. I had seen "the Last Waltz" movie several times and found the Band's reminiscences between the songs more irritating with each viewing. This story however is fascinating. Hoskyns never allows the detail to become academic and boring. There is a huge supporting cast of "Rock Legends" but also a real sense of how a group of great characters can gel together and support each other generously. Everything seems possible to them in the land of opportunity. The darker side of fame, fun and fortune inevitably emerges - this is a Rock Biography after all - but not before they made some fabulous music. Your increased appreciation and enjoyment of those great recordings will be the ultimate reward for reading this book.