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R.I.P Rick Danko

#21
Those songs might have been written by Robbie, but without the rest of those guys to flesh them out and sing, we wouldn't be talking about them today. One of the best bands ever!!!!
 
#25
1st, I also think Robertson took more credit than his due.

I didn't really know much about Danko until after I saw the documentary "Festival Express." There is a jam session on the train featuring Danko, and I was very intrigued and wanted to find out more about him -- I was sorry to learn that he had passed away.

Anyway, here is a clip with Danko singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_dkavLVcN0
And yeah, I think they are all wacked out of their minds!
 
#28
Don't let this thread get buried. This man is truly one of the best bassists in terms of playing with a band.

This video is an interesting watch to get a full history of Rick with a bit of visual interest. Though the narrators portrayal of the late Rick is a bit harsh.

He's got so many great tones from the tour with Bob Dylan, their basement tapes, to their debut album, to Cahoots, and everything onward. And that's just focusing on his bass playing. He deserves a lot more than he is given.

As far as the whole Robertson argument. I think many forget that songwriting credits on the Band albums were given by lyric writing. I don't doubt that Robertson wrote the majority of the lyrics, but I do doubt that he wrote even 50% of the music. It's generally accepted among Band fans that the whole group contributed to the music portion.(Hudson deserves a lot of the writing credits in my opinion) Though, of course, this makes it so that the rest of the band gets very little money off of the song royalties, thus you see rock legends like Levon Helm struggling with poverty.
 
#30
deaf pea said:
Robbie Robertson wrote nearly all of the Band's "hits" all by himself . . .

Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel DID co-write with Robertson on some songs . . . Garth Hudson only co-wrote one song with Robertson . . .
Click to expand...

Actually. not true. They all wrote the tunes, but he took the credit, and hence, the money, That is why none of them will have anything to do with him. I know two of them personally (used to be three), so this is not conjecture on my part.
 
#31
BTW, I built the bass that Danko used throughout the 90's until his death. I met him many times when I would play in Woodstock. One night it was mentioned to me that he had been in a car accident, and hurt his back, and the Gibson Ripper bass was just killing him. It just so happened that I built light-weight basses, as I had ALWAYS had a bad back. He was in the audience at The Tinker Street Cafe, where I had a gig. The owner said I should show my bass to Rick. I think he had it in his hands maybe 2-3 seconds before he said, "Build me one". I asked him what kind of strings he wanted, he said "whatever you are using". About a week later, he called me, and told me that he had been asked by Roger Waters to go play in a concert at the Berlin Wall, which had just "come down". I said sure, when are you leaving? He said, "tomorrow!". I stayed up all night getting it done.

For those interested, the bass is based on a strat-sized body, with a longer upper horn so as to maintain a decent balance. It's hollow in the wings, to reduce weight. It has a J-width neck, maple with an ebony board. The neck has graphite reinforcement strips in it. All Alembic pickups (J format) and electronics. Gotoh bridge and gears. The bass was under six pounds, which is pretty light for something that basically looks and sounds like that.

I still make these, so anybody who feels that heavy basses are killing them can PM me :-)
 

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#32
mark107 said:
Actually. not true. They all wrote the tunes, but he took the credit, and hence, the money, That is why none of them will have anything to do with him. I know two of them personally (used to be three), so this is not conjecture on my part.
Click to expand...


I have some strong family ties in Woodstock, with one family member being friendly with Levon. And it's pretty common knowledge in town that Robbie Robertson most likely took an undue level of credit for the songwriting in The Band. It's really tainted my own view of Robbie Robertson, and he looks like quite a tool in The Last Waltz. Especially when he's effectively directing Martin Scorsese. Add on the fact that he had his '57 Fender Strat bronzed for the event and his tool status only grows.

I was fortunate enough to see the reformed Band in the 90's at the Stone Pony in New Jersey. They had Warren Zevon as their opening act which was amazing in it's own rite. But when The Band came out? WOW! Levon and Rick Danko were in fine form with the vocals and grooved together amazingly well. Jim Weider was playing guitar and handled things incredibly. And Garth Hudson? I was simply floored by him. The term Virtuoso doesn't even begin to encompass him as a musician. And when he played the saxophone solo at the end of "It makes no difference", it was quite possibly one of the single most beautiful live performance moments I've ever been witness to.
 
#34
mark107 said:
Actually. not true. They all wrote the tunes, but he took the credit, and hence, the money, That is why none of them will have anything to do with him. I know two of them personally (used to be three), so this is not conjecture on my part.
Click to expand...
colcifer said:
:scowl:
Click to expand...
SEE POSTS #11 and #19
 
#36
wow - as the threadstarter, I apologize for being away for a while. Some amazing posts on this thread. I'm just a bass player who plays in a band up in the Hudson Valley that has The Band type musical values at the top of the list. Last weekend on WDST out of Woodstock, it was like Rick Danko memorial whatever ... on top of the John Lennon stuff down in the city. But I relate to the Danko stuff more.
 
#38
mark107 said:
BTW, I built the bass that Danko used throughout the 90's until his death. I met him many times when I would play in Woodstock. One night it was mentioned to me that he had been in a car accident, and hurt his back, and the Gibson Ripper bass was just killing him. It just so happened that I built light-weight basses, as I had ALWAYS had a bad back. He was in the audience at The Tinker Street Cafe, where I had a gig. The owner said I should show my bass to Rick. I think he had it in his hands maybe 2-3 seconds before he said, "Build me one". I asked him what kind of strings he wanted, he said "whatever you are using". About a week later, he called me, and told me that he had been asked by Roger Waters to go play in a concert at the Berlin Wall, which had just "come down". I said sure, when are you leaving? He said, "tomorrow!". I stayed up all night getting it done.

For those interested, the bass is based on a strat-sized body, with a longer upper horn so as to maintain a decent balance. It's hollow in the wings, to reduce weight. It has a J-width neck, maple with an ebony board. The neck has graphite reinforcement strips in it. All Alembic pickups (J format) and electronics. Gotoh bridge and gears. The bass was under six pounds, which is pretty light for something that basically looks and sounds like that.

I still make these, so anybody who feels that heavy basses are killing them can PM me :-)
Click to expand...

I believe thats the bass Rick played in Dublin. I always wondered what it was, couldn't work it out.. Now I know eh? Thankss..
 

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