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Rock of Ages (The Band album)

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This article is about the Band album. For other albums with the same title, see Rock of Ages (disambiguation).
Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Robert ChristgauB[2]
MusicHound[3]
Rolling Stone(not rated)[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]

Rock of Ages: The Band in Concert is a live album by the Band, released in 1972. It was compiled from recordings made during their series of shows at the Academy of Music in New York City, from December 28 through December 31, 1971. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was certified a gold record by the RIAA.[6] A more comprehensive release of recordings taken from the same series of shows was released in 2013.

Content

The Band booked a residency at the Academy of Music for the last week of 1971, culminating in a New Year's Eve performance. Robbie Robertson had commissioned New Orleans songwriter and arranger Allen Toussaint to compose horn charts for their recent single "Life Is a Carnival" from the album Cahoots, and decided to have Toussaint write special charts for a five-man horn section to augment the group on their upcoming concerts.[7] Charts written by Toussaint in New Orleans were in luggage lost at the airport, and a new set was composed in a cabin near Robertson's house in Woodstock.[8] Robertson selected eleven songs to receive horn charts, and all are included on the released album.[9] The horns do not play on "Get Up Jake", "Stage Fright", "This Wheel's on Fire", "The Weight", "The Shape I'm In", and "The Genetic Method." Selections on the bonus disc also do not feature horn arrangements, although the horn section added spontaneous flourishes to "Down in the Flood" and "Rolling Stone."

The repertoire consisted of material from all four of The Band's studio albums up to that point, which were framed on the album by covers of the 1964 Motown hit single "Baby Don't You Do It" by Marvin Gaye, and the b-side "(I Don't Want to Hang Up) My Rock and Roll Shoes" to the final single by Chuck Willis in 1958, "What Am I Living For." Four nights from December 28 through 31 were recorded, and the balance of the recordings on the released album were derived from the final two nights.[10] Their previous employer Bob Dylan made a surprise visit on the New Year's Eve show, playing four songs with the group in the early morning hours of January 1, 1972.[11]

Originally released in 1972 as a double album, it was reissued in 1980 as two separate LPs, titled Rock of Ages, Vol. 1 and Rock of Ages, Vol. 2. The first edition for compact disc in 1987 ostensibly edited several tracks to fit the program onto a single disc; an unedited two-disc version followed in 1990. On May 8, 2001, an expanded and remastered two-disc edition appeared, with the original album on one disc, and an additional ten tracks on a bonus disc. Included on the bonus disc were the four songs featuring Dylan and another Motown cover, the 1966 hit single "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" by The Four Tops.

The 2005 retrospective Band box set A Musical History contains several Rock of Ages tracks newly remixed from the multitrack tapes, as well as a previously-unissued performance of the song "Smoke Signal" from the December 28 show. A hybrid SACD reissue of the original album was released on the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab label in 2010.[12] The song "Chest Fever" from this album is available as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band.

In 2013, Capitol released Live at the Academy of Music 1971: The Rock of Ages Concerts, a box set consisting of four CDs and one DVD (mostly only audio), and containing all previously released material from the concerts as well as numerous unissued performances (including the December 31 show in its entirety) presented in new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes.[13]

Track listing

All songs written by Robbie Robertson unless otherwise indicated; concert dates as indicated.

Side one

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Introduction by Robertson" 1:22
2."Don't Do It" (December 29)Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland Jr.5:00
3."King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" (December 31) 4:04
4."Caledonia Mission" (December 30) 3:38
5."Get Up Jake" (December 30) 3:33
6."The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show" (December 31) 3:54

Side two

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Stage Fright" (December 31) 4:38
2."The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (December 29) 4:34
3."Across the Great Divide" (December 30) 3:59
4."This Wheel's on Fire" (December 29)Rick Danko, Bob Dylan4:07
5."Rag Mama Rag" (December 31) 4:33

Side three

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Weight" (December 30) 5:32
2."The Shape I'm In" (December 31) 4:14
3."The Unfaithful Servant" (December 31) 4:48
4."Life Is a Carnival" (December 30)Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko4:17

Side four

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Genetic Method" (December 31)Garth Hudson7:48
2."Chest Fever" (December 28) 5:24
3."(I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes" (December 29)Chuck Willis4:20

2001 bonus disc track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" (December 29)Stevie Wonder, Ivy Jo Hunter3:28
2."I Shall Be Released" (December 30)Bob Dylan4:03
3."Up on Cripple Creek" (December 30) 4:38
4."The Rumor" (December 30) 5:02
5."Rockin' Chair" (December 29) 4:06
6."Time to Kill" (December 28) 4:07
7."Down in the Flood" (January 1)Bob Dylan5:25
8."When I Paint My Masterpiece" (January 1)Bob Dylan4:17
9."Don't Ya Tell Henry" (January 1)Bob Dylan4:38
10."Like A Rolling Stone" (January 1)Bob Dylan5:24

Personnel

The Band at the Academy of Music concerts
  • Levon Helm
    Levon Helm
  • Richard Manuel
    Richard Manuel
  • Robbie Robertson
    Robbie Robertson
  • Garth Hudson
    Garth Hudson
  • Rick Danko
    Rick Danko
Additional musicians
Production personnel

Charts

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1972 "Don't Do It" Pop Singles 34

References

  1. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine (1972-08-15). "Rock of Ages - The Band | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  2. ^ "CG: The Band". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  3. ^ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 72. ISBN 1-57859-061-2. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-02. Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Brackett, Nathan, with Hoard, Christian (eds) (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th edn). New York, NY: Fireside. p. 42. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  6. ^ "RIAA Gold and Platinum database". Riaa.com. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  7. ^ Bowman, Rob. Rock of Ages. 2001, 72435-30181-2-2, liner notes, p. 2.
  8. ^ Bowman, pp. 3-4.
  9. ^ Bowman, p.5
  10. ^ Academy of Music box set liner notes, retrieved from The Band website 4 December 2016
  11. ^ Bowman, p. 11
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-03-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ "Music News & Concert Reviews". JamBase.com. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
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