"Up on Cripple Creek" is the fifth song on The Band's eponymous second album, The Band. It was released as an (edited) single on Capitol 2635 in November 1969 and reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Up on Cripple Creek" was written by Band guitarist Robbie Robertson, with drummer Levon Helm singing lead vocal.
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In a way that no prior rock act had done, the Band assimilated, remade, and contagiously celebrated the rich, deep tributaries of American vernacular music. Blues, country, jazz, folk, gospel, soul, rock'n' roll the members soaked it all up, distilling what they heard and felt into an alchemical brew all their own. Via this vibrant concoction, the group Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson reshaped popular music, creating the genre now known as roots rock and giving us classic songs like "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The Band wove a history that rivals the epic scenes they sang about: from their early years as rockabilly wild man Ronnie Hawkins's group the Hawks, and their groundbreaking tours and Basement Tapes period with Bob Dylan, through their emergence as the Band with 1968's landmark album Music from Big Pink , they reigned as one of rock's most popular acts, culminating with rock's greatest concert movie, The Last Waltz , and their 1980s reunion and ultimate demise with the tragic deaths of Manuel and Danko. The Band FAQ digs deep to discuss different facets of the Band's collective and individual stories providing intensive analysis of their recordings; highlighting their key concerts, collaborations with Bob Dylan, outside projects, musical and non-musical influences, and their contemporary artists; and examining the group's formidable effect on popular music and their still-thriving legacy. A host of rare images rounds out the book, which is a must-have for new and longtime fans.
ReplyDeleteThe Band FAQ: All That's Left to Know about the Fathers of Americana - Peter Aaron Book
A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm––the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band.
ReplyDeleteHe sang the anthems of a generation: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "Life Is a Carnival." Levon Helm's story––told here through sweeping research and interviews with close friends and fellow musicians––is the rollicking story of American popular music itself.
In the Arkansas Delta, a young Levon witnessed "blues, country, and gospel hit in a head-on collision," as he put it. The result was rock 'n' roll. As a teenager, he joined the raucous Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then helped merge a hard-driving electric sound with Bob Dylan's folk roots, and revolutionized American rock with the Band. Helm not only provided perfect "in the pocket" rhythm and unforgettable vocals, he was the Band's soul.
Levon traces a rebellious life on the road, from being booed with Bob Dylan to the creative cauldron of Big Pink, the Woodstock Festival, world tours, The Last Waltz, and beyond with the man Dylan called "one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation."
Author Sandra B. Tooze digs deep into what Helm saw as a devastating betrayal by his closest friend, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson––and Levon's career collapse, his near bankruptcy, and the loss of his voice due to throat cancer in 1997. Yet Helm found success in an acting career that included roles in Coal Miner's Daughter and The Right Stuff. Regaining his singing voice, he made his last decade a triumph, opening his barn to the Midnight Rambles and earning three Grammys. Cancer finally claimed his life in 2012.
Levon is a penetrating, skillfully told tale of a music legend from Southern cotton fields to global limelight.