Thursday Morning Rock N Roll: The Band
Tied with Big Star's "Jesus Christ" as my favorite religious rock song by an otherwise non-religious rock band is The Band's "Christmas Must Be Tonight", a track which takes much of its lyrics directly from the King James. In fact, I'd say it's right up there with The Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" as one of the greatest Christmas rock songs of all time. A few bits of trivia: "Christmas Must Be Tonight" is the only Band song that lead guitarist/songwriter Robbie Robertson - the world's only half-Jewish, half-Mohawk Canadian rock star - ever re-recorded after he left the group. And he did so twice! (Once for the soundtrack of Bill Murray's Scrooged.) Enjoy:
One more "only": The Band's organist Garth Hudson is the only musician I know of to have made the successful transition from Anglican organist to rock star. He's quoted as saying, "The Anglican church has the best musical traditions of any church that I know of. It's the old voice leading that gives it the countermelodies and adds all those classical devices which are not right out there, but which add a little texture." In that spirit:
One more "only": The Band's organist Garth Hudson is the only musician I know of to have made the successful transition from Anglican organist to rock star. He's quoted as saying, "The Anglican church has the best musical traditions of any church that I know of. It's the old voice leading that gives it the countermelodies and adds all those classical devices which are not right out there, but which add a little texture." In that spirit:
posted by DZ at
9:59 AM
5 Comments:
Love it!
and by the way, Levon Helm's new stuff is rather good, too.
Check this quote from Garth:
"There is a view that jazz is 'evil' because it comes from evil people, but actually the greatest priests on 52nd Street and on the streets of New York City were the musicians. They were doing the greatest healing work. They knew how to punch through music that would cure and make people feel good."
way to be DZ!
Love the Band....
mpm
btw- ever consider a piece on Voltron for describing the Body of Christ? Came up in a men's group and it sounded very Mockingbird...
Thanks Matt! I'm super into The Band at the moment. It's all I'm listening to in fact. I hope to cook up another post on them soon.
Voltron = Body of Christ sounds like very fertile ground. You should write something and send it to me! Pretty please?
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