The Band (album)

The Band
Studio album by The Band
Released	September 22, 1969
Recorded	Early-to-mid 1969 8841 Evanview Drive West Hollywood, CA
Genre	Rock, roots rock, Americana, Southern rock
Length	43:50
Label	Capitol
Producer	John Simon
The Band chronology
Music from Big Pink (1968) The Band (1969) Stage Fright (1970)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	(A+)
Rolling Stone

The Band is the eponymous second studio album by The Band, released on September 22, 1969. It is also known as The Brown Album. According to Rob Bowman's liner notes for the 2000 reissue, The Band has been viewed as a concept album, with the songs focusing on people, places and traditions associated with an older version of Americana. Thus, the songs on this album draw from historic themes for "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and Richard Manuel's "Jawbone" (which was composed in the unusual 6/4 time signature.)

Release

The album was originally released as an LP on September 22, 1969. After a number of reissues on cassette tape and CD, it was remastered and rereleased in a process overseen by Robbie Robertson in 2000. The 2000 re-release has also been packaged as a double CD with The Band's debut album Music from Big Pink.

The album was also reissued in 2009 by Audio Fidelity as a limited edition gold CD. Remastered from a 1980's CD pressing^{[citation needed]}, the album also included a single b-side "Get Up Jake" as a bonus track. Originally slated for the album was "Get Up Jake", which was dropped from the original album line-up at the last minute either because the band felt it was too similar to another track on the album, or because there physically wasn't enough room on the album.

Reception

The album includes many of The Band's best-known and critically acclaimed songs, including "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which Rolling Stone named the 245th greatest song of all time (in the updated version, it was the 249th greatest song of all time). In 2003, the album was ranked number 45 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted The Band the 76th greatest album of all time. TIME magazine included it in their unranked 2006 list of the 100 greatest albums. Robert Christgau, having been disappointed with their debut, had expected to dislike the record, and even planned a column for The Village Voice to castigate their followup. Upon hearing the record, however, he declared it better than Abbey Road, which had been released four days following, writing The Band's LP is an "A-plus record if I've ever rated one."

The Band peaked at #9 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. In 2000, it recharted on Billboard's Internet Albums chart, peaking at #10. The singles "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" peaked on the Pop Singles chart at #57 and #25 respectively.

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1970	Pop Albums	9
2000	Top Internet Albums	10

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1970	"Rag Mama Rag"	Pop Singles	57
1970	"Up on Cripple Creek"	Pop Singles	25

In 2009, the album was preserved into the National Recording Registry because the album was "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or informs or reflects life in the United States."

Track listing

Note: Many of the songs credited solely to Robbie Robertson were disputed by Levon Helm.

Side One

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Across the Great Divide"	Robbie Robertson	2:53
2.	"Rag Mama Rag"	Robertson	3:04
3.	"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"	Robertson	3:33
4.	"When You Awake"	Richard Manuel, Robertson	3:13
5.	"Up on Cripple Creek"	Robertson	4:34
6.	"Whispering Pines"	Manuel, Robertson	3:58

Side Two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Jemima Surrender"	Levon Helm, Robertson	3:31
2.	"Rockin' Chair"	Robertson	3:43
3.	"Look Out Cleveland"	Robertson	3:09
4.	"Jawbone"	Manuel, Robertson	4:20
5.	"The Unfaithful Servant"	Robertson	4:17
6.	"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"	Robertson	3:39

Bonus Track listing from 2000 re-release

All songs by Robbie Robertson unless otherwise noted.

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Get Up Jake (outtake - stereo mix)"	2:17
14.	"Rag Mama Rag (alternate vocal take - rough mix)"	3:05
15.	"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (alternate mix)"	4:16
16.	"Up on Cripple Creek (alternate take)"	4:51
17.	"Whispering Pines (alternate take)" (Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson)	5:09
18.	"Jemima Surrender (alternate take)" (Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson)	5:09
19.	"King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (alternate performance)"	4:28

Personnel

• Rick Danko – bass guitar, fiddle, trombone, vocals
• Levon Helm – drums, mandolin, rhythm guitar, vocals
• Garth Hudson – electronic organ; clavinet; acoustic piano; accordion; melodica; soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones; slide trumpet; bass pedals
• Richard Manuel – acoustic piano, drums, baritone saxophone, harmonica, vocals
• Robbie Robertson – electric and acoustic guitars, engineer

Additional personnel

• John Simon – producer, tuba, electric piano, baritone horn, tenor saxophone, "high school and peck horns", engineer
• Tony May – engineer
• Joe Zagarino – engineer
• Elliot Landy – photography

See also

• Classic Albums