In their prime, they received acclaim not only for their wondrous music but also for the close bond between the members of the group. The Band eventually started to struggle on both of those counts before their breakup in the latter half of the 70s.
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But they wouldn’t stay silenced forever. In the 90s, three key members of the original group joined with other musicians to release new Band music, leading to three late-period albums.
After the Waltz
On November 25, 1976, The Band headlined the all-star concert The Last Waltz as a way of bidding farewell. Although a new album (Islands) arrived in 1977, that was merely a collection of leftovers and songs they had dashed off in a hurry before that final concert to fulfill their contract. That show finished off their time as a unit, at least for the immediate future.
Robbie Robertson, The Band guitarist who also acted as the chief songwriter, spearheaded the decision to shut it down. He saw diminishing returns in their musical output, as some of the group members struggled to keep focus amid personal problems. But fans used to rock groups calling it quits and then reuniting didn’t believe The Last Waltz would be the end of the story.
Sure enough, in 1983, four of the five original members of The Band started playing live together again. Robertson was the lone holdout, as he was at the time concentrating on his work on Hollywood soundtracks. Chances are, the group might have made their way to the studio even quicker than they did. But tragedy intervened.
Tragedy and Reunion
After playing a small venue in Florida one night in April 1986, Richard Manuel, one of The Band’s trio of wondrous vocalists, hung himself in his hotel room. Although they had already made some tentative moves in the studio before Manuel’s death, they soon lost their record deal.
Thus, the album known as Jericho, the first studio release from The Band in 16 years, was a long time in gestating before it arrived in 1993. To create the record, the core members (Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson) joined up with four other musicians with whom they’d recently been playing to complete the lineup.
To give Jericho even more authenticity, John Simon, who had produced The Band’s early classics, helped at the boards along with Aaron Hurwitz. And Richard Manuel made an appearance via a cover of “Country Boy” that he recorded before his death.
A New Beginning
Relying on a mix of outside songwriters (including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Jules Shear) and self-written tunes (the best of which was “Caves Of Jericho”, a retelling of a coal mining disaster), Jericho does The Band’s legacy quite proud. It lacks some of the originality of the albums led by Robertson’s writing. But the winning nature of the performances never wavers.
The Band returned for two more albums: High On The Hog (1996) and Jubilation (1998). Rick Danko’s death in 1999 ended their recording career. At least those final few albums gave fans a bit more of the magic these amazing musicians delivered together throughout their career.
Photo by Patrick Ford/Redferns
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