Rick Danko Fan Club

[Border]

I would like a number! I have been a big fan of Rick and the band for years. Remember the first time I saw the Last Waltz back in the late 70s and was completely blown away. Love his playing, love his style.

 

[winston]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman! Today is the 58th anniversary of the release of Music from Big Pink.
I've been aware of The Band's music much of my life, but never really dove in deep until a couple weeks ago.

I saw Bob Dylan at the Greek Theater here in Berkeley last month, and wondered "When in his career has Bob played with folks on/near his level creatively?" Not to diminish his fantastic backing bands - and that lead me to really dig into The Band's albums.

It's hard to think of a group who, for a time, served the songs and music so selflessly, The Band had a five fingers on one hand, flock of birds, school of fish connection born from playing together for thousands and thousands of hours. And the songs, sounds, grooves, and vocals were just so good!

Before this I hadn't really known who besides Levon Helm was singing what, or how much Richard Manuel's compositions contributed to the soulful brilliance of the early albums, how selfless Robbie Robertson's guitar playing was compared to almost every other rock player at the time, or what a complete mutant otherworldly musical genius Garth Hudson was.

It's sad that "Tears of Rage" was the first thing people heard from The Band, and that in many ways it's an apropos descriptor for the latter years of Richard, Rick Danko, and Levon's careers. At the same time, they all made life choices and got addicted to heroin, which I can see became untenable to Robbie as time went on. I won't get into the squabbles about credit and money, and I understand the critical views on "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" that have arisen over the years.

On happier notes, I really understand why people say Rick Danko is one of the all-time great singing bassists!
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on "We Can Talk About It Now", the version released on Big Pink was lucky take 13 out of 14, see 2nd vid below. Other takes are good to excellent, but the stars aligned on this one: the endlessly rising organ figures; Rick's cheeky octaves, 3rds, hammer-on scoops and offbeat syncopations; and simply one of the most exuberant 3-way vocal performances I've heard in my life.

Thanks for the music, Rick and Co!

 

[TomB]

Excellent post! The chemistry of their early work (later stuff isn’t bad either) rivals that of the Beatles in my mind, like a perfectly mixed cocktail. I still get the same thrill every time I’m about to cover one of their tunes. For sure, Rick was a huge influence on me - I hear him in my playing a lot. Where did you find the recording session info? Is there more?

 

[winston]

Excellent post! The chemistry of their early work (later stuff isn’t bad either) rivals that of the Beatles in my mind, like a perfectly mixed cocktail. I still get the same thrill every time I’m about to cover one of their tunes. For sure, Rick was a huge influence on me - I hear him in my playing a lot. Where did you find the recording session info? Is there more?

Thanks! Session info was on that 2nd YouTube in the video description, that poster seems to be a fount of knowledge for this stuff.
And just like The Beatles Anthology proved (to my ears) - The Band had an uncanny sense of what the best takes were and put those out (also bolstered by expanded reissues I've heard by The Band).

Other interesting tidbits I've found:
- A TB'er (I believe) wrote this cool "How to Danko" article How to Danko: A Lesson in the Style of Rick Danko by Rob Collier
- Another TB'er @mark107 built at least one lightweight semi-hollow bass for Rick in his later years, IDK if they also made the 5 string semi-hollow fretless P he used, details in this post: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/rick-danko.1299339/page-4#post-24996572

Listening to the remastered Big Pink - in the choruses to "In A Station" - does anyone else hear low-string double stops (like G and C on the 3rd fret of E/A strings) - implying the sound of a low C like you get at first fret on a B string?
Like around 0:43 first chorus under "Wonder could you" "Know the reason" and "Is there nothing"
Or maybe that was something that Garth or Richard played low on a keyboard (but doesn't match their timbre, def sounds like bass).
I vote for clever instinctual psychoacoustics on Rick's part, where a 5th and the upper octave root imply the (unplayed) lower octave root.

 

[TomB]

Thanks! Session info was on that 2nd YouTube in the video description, that poster seems to be a fount of knowledge for this stuff.
And just like The Beatles Anthology proved (to my ears) - The Band had an uncanny sense of what the best takes were and put those out (also bolstered by expanded reissues I've heard by The Band).

Other interesting tidbits I've found:
- A TB'er (I believe) wrote this cool "How to Danko" article How to Danko: A Lesson in the Style of Rick Danko by Rob Collier
- Another TB'er @mark107 built at least one lightweight semi-hollow bass for Rick in his later years, IDK if they also made the 5 string semi-hollow fretless P he used, details in this post: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/rick-danko.1299339/page-4#post-24996572

Listening to the remastered Big Pink - in the choruses to "In A Station" - does anyone else hear low-string double stops (like G and C on the 3rd fret of E/A strings) - implying the sound of a low C like you get at first fret on a B string?
Like around 0:43 first chorus under "Wonder could you" "Know the reason" and "Is there nothing"
Or maybe that was something that Garth or Richard played low on a keyboard (but doesn't match their timbre, def sounds like bass).
I vote for clever instinctual psychoacoustics on Rick's part, where a 5th and the upper octave root imply the (unplayed) lower octave root.

I’ve got homework to do .