Flashback Friday

Since the news told us the drummer of The Band, Levon Helm has passed away, I thought it'd be suitable to get familiar with their music since I haven't done that before. Moondog Matinee is their fifth album, released 1973. They played for various frontmen from Ronnie Hawkins to Bob Dylan and were popular with music journalists and fellow musicians more than with general public. These multi-instrumentalists had little variation when playing live but when recording they could make different configurations.

Although The Band wrote most of their songs themselves, Moondog Matinee is an album of cover songs. There was no tour to support the album and it got mixed reviews at its time. And I can see why, some of the tracks are brilliant and others are less so. But no matter, I believe that this kind of music never really fades away or dies, it has more heart to it than many of the albums of today combined. Their drummer Levon Helm was even said to be the only drummer who could make you cry. I think that tells a lot of this band. My personal favourite tracks are Holy Cow and Mystery Train although there's also classics like The Great Pretender that can not be ignored either.

Tracks:

1. Ain't Got No Home
2. Holy Cow
3. Share Your Love With Me
4. Mystery Train
5. The Third Man Theme
6. The Promised Land
7. The Great Pretender
8. I'm Ready
9. Saved
10. A Change Is Gonna Come
11. Didn't It Rain
12. Crying Heart Blues
13. Shakin'
14. What Am I Living For
15. Going Back To Memphis
16. Endless Highway