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jaycat
Dec-01-2010, 12:53pm
Isn't that a great song? I've had it in my head all morning.

journeybear
Dec-01-2010, 1:08pm
Great album. Everyone always does "The Shape I'm In" but there's plenty more going on. I've always liked "All La Glory." Still think it's a step or two down (in songwriting) than their first two (hard not to be, all the years of inspiration and work that went into them), but still plenty good.

Someone I've done a bunch of gigs with likes to do "Ophelia," from "Northern Lights, Southern Cross." Has that same medicine show feel (whatever that is ;) ). Funny - I'm sure the album is older than he is. :grin: Hey, if he wants to remember all the words, fine, I'll just play. :mandosmiley:

jaycat
Dec-02-2010, 12:02pm
All La Glory really is a beautiful song. I love Strawberry Wine as well . . .it's as close to rockin' out as the Band ever came.

But off of Northern Lights, I'll take It Makes No Difference.

AlanN
Dec-02-2010, 12:15pm
Ophelia has been grassed up by a few bands, notably The Gibson Brothers, with the fine picker Marc McGlashan on mando.

Dan Margolis
Dec-02-2010, 12:22pm
Man, I'm a Band fan. I enjoy their later albums, even through the ninties, long past their glory days.

jaycat
Dec-02-2010, 2:14pm
And you don't see much talk on here about Levon Helm . . . not compared with Jerry Garcia, at any rate.

journeybear
Dec-02-2010, 2:43pm
But off of Northern Lights, I'll take It Makes No Difference.

Well, really, it makes no difference, ;) but I would too, even with the last line of the bridge ("stampeding cattle, they rattle the walls" - I mean, what IS that? :confused: ). But my favorite off NLSC is "Acadian Driftwood."

There actually was a good bit of chatter and a few threads when Levon's last album came out, and with the single from it, "Tennessee Jed" - well, there is your perfect storm of Band and Dead. :grin:

jaycat
Dec-02-2010, 2:53pm
Well, really, it makes no difference, ;) the last line of the bridge ("stampeding cattle, they rattle the walls" - I mean, what IS that? :confused: ).

OK, you're holed up in your little cabin, and the stampeding cattle outside make the walls rattle. How's that? I wonder what "stampeding cattle" is a metaphor for . . . hmmmm

journeybear
Dec-02-2010, 5:40pm
Well, sure, but what does a line like that have to do with the rest of the song? (Not necessarily asking you specifically, but the world at large, more or less rhetorically.) It just comes from out of nowhere and relates to nothing else in the song, as far as I can tell (other than two words rhyming with the last word of the previous line, which isn't enough of a connection). It's a true non sequitur that mars an otherwise nearly perfect song.

brunello97
Dec-02-2010, 5:50pm
I don't see it as a non-sequitur at all, just a metaphor-to go along with all the figures of speech (sun don't shine, rain falls down, etc.) I'm no interpreter of song lyrics, but I always thought the stampedin' and rattlin' had to do with what was going on in the storyteller's head in the face of a love gone bad. The 'walls' were inside his head, the stampedin' cattle-the regrets, woulda-coulda-shoulda thoughts. Makes a lot of sense, to me at least.

But as to the OP: WS Walcott, is pure genius. I love Allen Toussaint's horn arrangements on the Rock of Ages version.

Mick

journeybear
Dec-02-2010, 6:03pm
Well, even though you say you are no interpreter of song lyrics, you just did, and a pretty wild yet credible interpretation it is. I am not completely on board with it, but I can see it - which is a LOT more than I can say about anyone else's answer to my question over the years. ;) The imagery is still not as clear as the other examples you mentioned - which are pretty timeworn but emotionally resonant - but just because *I* don't get it doesn't mean it didn't mean something to the writer. Still, it seems to me if stampeding cattle are rattling your walls, it's time to move! :grin:

Mark Hudson
Dec-02-2010, 7:55pm
Another HUGE fan of The Band here.
Never understood why more of their songs weren't covered in bluegrass (dang that sounds weird <g>). If you can't hear 'The Weight' as a bluegrass tune you're not trying hard enough ;) And that's just for starters...
Boy, picking a favorite Band tune... that is tough... It Makes No Difference has to be way up there on the list. I think maybe my favorite obscure tune is Smoke Signal, another one that Levon just rips up :-)

Mark Hudson
Dec-03-2010, 7:27am
Got my New Grass Revival station going on Pandora this morning and was reminded that Sam Bush and Levon seem to have a good connection now. Sam played with Levon for his 70th birthday at Mountain Jam and has made it to at least one of his Midnight Rambles - now that's a show I'd like to see!

Jim DeSalvio
Dec-03-2010, 7:46am
It is really great to see some conversation about The Band. I have Rock of Ages on the iPod in the car. And the work that Levon has done recently is also very good. I love "Poor Old Dirt Farmer"..................

And Garth Hudson, what can you say about the sounds that guy has created over the years. One of my favorite groups.

Jim D

jaycat
Dec-03-2010, 7:47am
I don't see it as a non-sequitur at all, just a metaphor-to go along with all the figures of speech (sun don't shine, rain falls down, etc.) I'm no interpreter of song lyrics, but I always thought the stampedin' and rattlin' had to do with what was going on in the storyteller's head in the face of a love gone bad. The 'walls' were inside his head, the stampedin' cattle-the regrets, woulda-coulda-shoulda thoughts. Makes a lot of sense, to me at least.

But as to the OP: WS Walcott, is pure genius. I love Allen Toussaint's horn arrangements on the Rock of Ages version.

Mick

Yeah, plus there's a whole "house" theme running thru the song . . . my door, empty hall, then the rattling walls. To me, the Stampeding Cattle is (are) the world outside, shaking up his home, which is now empty.

Then again, journeybear, I'm here in the cold city and you're down there in the sun . . . maybe that's the disconnect.

Now, as far as Allen Toussaint . . . don't get me started! One of my all-time favorites and, as far as I'm concerned, the last of a dying breed of showmen who just happen to be able to write a brilliant song at the drop of a hat. Had the opportunity to see him in July at an outdoor festival in Western Mass, only the 2d time I've seen him in my life. That's heaven to me!

KirkwoodCowboy
Dec-03-2010, 8:51am
I read an interview with Robbie Robertson once & someone asked him about that line in " It Makes No Differance " . He said he was writin the song in a motel room tryin to get it done on time for the recording session. He had the song almost finished & coulndn't find a finishing line for that one verse when he looked up & saw a western painting of a cattle drive on the wall & that's where he got the line " stampedeing cattle rattle the walls ".

jaycat
Dec-03-2010, 9:36am
Well that explains that. Now, does anyone know what being a peaceful man had to do with the singer's reluctance to take Jack the Dog?

journeybear
Dec-03-2010, 10:17am
Yeah, plus there's a whole "house" theme running thru the song . . . my door, empty hall, then the rattling walls. To me, the Stampeding Cattle is (are) the world outside, shaking up his home, which is now empty.

Then again, journeybear, I'm here in the cold city and you're down there in the sun . . . maybe that's the disconnect.

I used to live in New England - I repeat, used to - so I know all about that. But it ain't all fun in the sun here. We're struggling through our third cold snap of the season, and right now it's chilly here, low 60s. Last night I had to sleep with a sheet on. Oh! :disbelief:


... Robbie Robertson ... had the song almost finished & coulndn't find a finishing line for that one verse when he looked up & saw a western painting of a cattle drive on the wall & that's where he got the line ...

Sometimes I wish I didn't know where lyrics like these come from. Much as I had thought, it ain't no part of nothing. There is no meaning; just random happenstance. The Beatles did this a lot in their later songs - just writing whatever words popped in their heads - and I believe Dylan is guilty of doing this, a lot. It's like saying, "Well, that fits, it rhymes, that's good enough. Next!" It's like saying the rough draft is finished enough, when it really isn't. Songs, poems, short stories, novels - they're supposed to mean something, even if they are open to interpretation. And honestly, the interpretations I've heard here are more satisfying than the truth. :mad:

But anyway, now I know, I can stop fussing over this lyric that has been bugging me for decades. Thanks, Mikie. And Robbie - you and me are gonna have a few words when I catch up with you! :))


Well that explains that. Now, does anyone know what being a peaceful man had to do with the singer's reluctance to take Jack the Dog?

Nope. But that's OK, son, just feed him when you can. ;)

Dave Hicks
Dec-03-2010, 2:09pm
We did Walcott in a show back in the spring (sorry, no mando):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtex11El50


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtex11El50

D.H.

Tom C
Dec-03-2010, 2:18pm
I was thrilled when they got back together in the early 80's. I saw their first show on the east coast at the time. I think they played 1 or 2 out west. Saw them at "The Chance" in Pougkeepsi -real small place- and I sill get the chills thinking of the show. They did pretty good without Robertson -He already wrote the good stuff, but when Richard Manual past away, that was a huge hit. He sang with heart and many of their tunes.

jaycat
Dec-03-2010, 3:34pm
We did Walcott in a show back in the spring (sorry, no mando):



The girls look great.