Takes one to know one

For a member of a successful band/group to go on to have a successful solo career is very rare. A group benefits from the members’ combined talents, no one of them having enough talent on his own to make for a solo career. After The Beatles changed the world, bands/groups were expected to write, sing, and play---three separate talents. Before them, the best songwriters did just that---only. The best singers did that---only. The best players did that---only. In the group dynamic, you didn’t necessarily get all three.

Along comes The Band. Not only were they as good as any group around, but their individual talents were as good as any of the professionals doing only one of the above. Richard Manuel was as good a singer as any solo artist, Levon Helm as good a drummer as the guys in the L.A., New York, Memphis, and Nashville studios, Rick Danko a brilliant bass player, Robbie Robertson a very tasteful song-part guitar player, and Garth Hudson maybe the best keyboardist in the history of Rock ’n’ Roll.

After hearing Levon’s drumming, Ringo sounded flat-footed (compare his playing in The Last Waltz to that of Levon’s). After hearing Richard Manuel sing, John Lennon sounded weak and thin, McCartney lacking gravitas. Paul sounded almost like an average bass player after hearing Rick Danko’s inventive style. Rick Danko, a farm boy from Canada, was as good as the best in the world---James Jamerson, Motown’s bass player. By the time of the Band’s debut, The Beatles writing had lost it’s "magic". For me, anyway.

The Band had raised the bar so high, they were so brilliant in every way, that I now found the mediocrity in most other groups to be killing my interest in them. I now looked for songs written by the "best" songwriters, singing by the best singers, and playing by the best musicians (by that I mean those who were the best ensemble players, not virtuosos). Funny, for me it was now back to how it was before The Beatles. They had changed everything---no more producer putting a singer in a studio to record a song written by a pro writer and played by studio musicians. Except now, it was the vision of the solo songwriter/singer, not the producer, I was interested in.

And so it has remained all these years. I seek out music by the best songwriters, sung in the "best" way (best having nothing to do with range, pitch control, etc.), and accompanied by the best musicians. All my current music acquisitions are albums by solo artists, not groups. My favorite songwriters are rarely a member of a group/band, my favorite singers rarely in a group/band. If the songwriter and/or singer in a group was a "better" writer or singer, he wouldn’t need to be in a group. Ironically, all the result of The Band---the ultimate group!

@onhwy61, I agree about a band sharing songwriting credits, even though it’s a rather Communist idea ;-). The Ramones did it, I’m sure there are others.

Levon Helm’s argument was that the instrumental parts he and the others created for The Band’s songs, and his and the other’s ideas for arrangements (listen to the out-takes of their albums to hear how the songs developed and changed in the studio) were just as much a part of the song as were the chords and melody. Levon’s drum parts are chock full of signature "hooks", parts without which the songs were incomplete.

I don’t begrudge Robertson being a business man; more power to him. What I do find objectionable is the way he deliberately mislead and manipulated both the other members of The Band and John Simon, producer of the first two Band albums. Robertson came to Simon and asked him to write charts for the horn section The Band wanted for The Last Waltz. Simon hadn’t received a royalty check from Capitol Records for years, and told Robbie he was not doing any more work for which he would receive no compensation. Robertson said he would look into the matter, and came back to John with an offer: if he agreed to forfeit all future royalties from the sale of the two Band albums he produced, Capitol would pay all past royalties due him. Simon balked at that idea, but Robbie, according to John, told him that he would make a lot more money from The Last Waltz album and movie than he would from future sales of the first two Band albums. John said okay.

What John and the other members of The Band didn’t know was that Robbie was signing agreements with the company that was financing the movie, agreements making Robbie an executive producer of movie. All the producers made money off the top of the movie’s grosses, The Band members and John Simon off the net. After all production costs, advertising, etc., there was very little left. Robertson ended up making a small fortune off the movie, John Simon and The Band a pittance. Robbie KNEW that would be the case, and knowingly tricked, manipulated, John Simon into signing away his future royalties for what he, Robertson, knew would be very little. All to make himself as much money as possible, at the cost of Simon and The Band. When Robbie said "I did what I had to do", he is admitting as much.