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Ophelia (The Band Song)
"Ophelia" is a song written by Robbie Robertson that was first released by The Band on their 1975 album '' Northern Lights – Southern Cross''. It was the lead single from the album. It has also appeared on several of the group's live and compilation albums, and has been covered by such artists as Vince Gill and My Morning Jacket. Lyrics and music The lyrics tell of the singer's attempt to find the heroine Ophelia. The relationship between the singer and Ophelia is never made explicit. Author Craig Harris refers to her as the singer's old friend, while music critic Nick DeRiso considers her his lover. But he finds out that Ophelia has left town, apparently in a hurry. According to Band biographer Barney Hoskyns, the name Ophelia for the song did not come from Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' but rather from Minnie Pearl's real name. But Shakespeare scholar Stephen M. Buhler sees some Shakespearean echoes in "Ophelia," particularly related to '' Othello''. In particular, Buhle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Life Is A Carnival
"Life is a Carnival" is the opening track of the Band's fourth album, ''Cahoots''. Written by Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson, the song features horn arrangements by New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint. The song is the only track from the ''Cahoots'' album included on the original releases of ''Rock of Ages'' and ''The Last Waltz''. The song was featured in the Bill Murray movie '' Larger Than Life''. '' Billboard'' called it a "funky beat swinger with a potent lyric line." '' Cash Box'' said that the "lyrics are of utmost importance." '' Record World'' said "With the funkiest introduction, premier underground act will greatly add to their legion of fans." Musical notation for this song is printed on a wall behind Levon Helm's grave in Woodstock, New York. Personnel Credits are adapted from the liner notes of ''A Musical History''. * Robbie Robertson – electric and acoustic guitars * Garth Hudson – Lowrey organ * Richard Manuel – Hohner Pianet electric p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a pianist and one of three lead singers in The Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Manuel's singing alternated between a soul-influenced baritone that drew frequent comparisons to Ray Charles and a delicate falsetto. Though The Band had three vocalists sharing lead and harmony parts, Manuel was sometimes seen as the group's primary vocalist. Biography Early life and career Manuel was born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. His father, Ed, was a mechanic employed at a Chrysler dealership, and his mother was a schoolteacher. He was raised with his three brothers, and the four sang in the church choir. Manuel took piano lessons beginning when he was nine, and enjoyed playing piano and rehearsing with friends at home. Some of his childhood influences were Ray Charles, Bobby Bland, Jimmy Reed and Ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lowrey Organ
The Lowrey organ is an electronic organ named for its developer, Frederick C. Lowrey (1871–1955), a Chicago-based industrialist and entrepreneur. Lowrey's first commercially successful full-sized electronic organ, the Model S Spinet or ''Berkshire'' came to market in 1955, the year of his death. Lowrey had earlier developed an attachment for a piano, adding electronic organ stops on 60 notes while keeping the piano functionality, called the ''Organo'', first marketed in 1949 as a very successful competitor to the Hammond ''Solovox''. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lowrey was the largest manufacturer of electronic organs in the world. In 1989, the Lowrey Organ Company produced its 1,000,000th organ. Up until 2011, modern Lowrey organs were built in La Grange Park, Illinois. In 2011, it was announced that production of a few models was to be moved to Indonesia. History and notable users History Frederick Lowrey experimented with electronic organ design, trying different met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rick Danko
Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. During the 1960s, Danko performed as a member of the Hawks, backing Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan. Then, between 1968 and 1977, Danko and the Hawks, now called the Band, released seven studio albums before breaking up. Beginning with the group's reformation in 1983 and up until his death, Danko participated in the Band's partial reunion. Biography Early years (1943–1960) Danko was born on December 29, 1943 in Blayney, Ontario, a farming community outside the town of Simcoe, the third of four sons in a musical family of Ukrainian descent. He grew up listening to live music at family gatherings and to country music, blues and R&B on the radio. He especially liked country music, and often his mother would let him stay up late to listen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Musical History
''A Musical History'' is the second box set to anthologize Canadian-American rock group the Band. Released by Capitol Records on September 27, 2005, it features 111 tracks spread over five compact discs and one DVD. Roughly spanning the group's journey from 1961 to 1977, from their days behind Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan through the departure of Robbie Robertson and the first disbanding of the group. The set includes highlights from each of the group's first seven studio albums and both major live recordings and nearly forty rare or previously unreleased performances. Capitol released a single CD+DVD abridged version titled ''The Best of A Musical History'' in 2007. It included a selection of what the compilers felt were the best tracks of the five CDs, as well as a shorter version of the DVD. Contents Disc one The first disc focuses on the period from 1961 through 1968, giving the first legitimate release on compact disc to four of five single sides the group recorded in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodwind
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed instruments (otherwise called reed pipes). The main distinction between these instruments and other wind instruments is the way in which they produce sound. All woodwinds produce sound by splitting the air blown into them on a sharp edge, such as a reed or a fipple. Despite the name, a woodwind may be made of any material, not just wood. Common examples include brass, silver, cane, as well as other metals such as gold and platinum. The saxophone, for example, though made of brass, is considered a woodwind because it requires a reed to produce sound. Occasionally, woodwinds are made of earthen materials, especially ocarinas. Flutes Flutes produce sound by directing a focused stream of air below the edge of a hole in a cylindrical tub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brass Instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin and Greek elements meaning 'lip' and 'sound'. There are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument. Slides, valves, crooks (though they are rarely used today), or keys are used to change vibratory length of tubing, thus changing the available harmonic series, while the player's embouchure, lip tension and air flow serve to select the specific harmonic produced from the available series. The view of most scholars (see organology) is that the term "brass instrument" should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above, and not by whether the instrument is actually made of brass. Thus one finds brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn, the cornett, the serpent and the didgeridoo, while s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI. Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II, which was controlled with punch cards and used hundreds of vacuum tubes. The Moog synthesizer, developed by Robert Moog and first sol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garth Hudson
Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a principal architect of the group's sound, described as "the most brilliant organist in the rock world" by ''Keyboard'' magazine. With the deaths of Richard Manuel in 1986, Rick Danko in 1999, and Levon Helm in 2012, Hudson is one of only two living original members of the Band, with the other being Robbie Robertson. A master of the Lowrey organ, Hudson's other primary instruments are piano, accordion, electronic keyboards, and saxophones (alto, tenor, soprano, baritone, bass). He has been a much-in-demand and respected session musician, performing with dozens of artists, including Elton John, who has cited him as an early influence. Biography Early life Hudson was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. His parents, Fred James Hudson an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Up On Cripple Creek
"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. A 1976 live performance of "Up on Cripple Creek" appears in the Band's concert film ''The Last Waltz'', as well as on the accompanying soundtrack album. In addition, live performances of the song appear on '' Before the Flood'', which records the Band's 1974 tour with Bob Dylan, as well as on the 2001 expanded edition of ''Rock of Ages'', originally released in 1972. The Band performed the song on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' in November 1969. Writing and recording Robertson said of writing the song: I had some ideas for ‘Up On Cripple Creek’ when we were still based in Woodstock making Music From Big Pink. Then after Woodstock, I went to Montreal and my d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style, highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as " The Weight", " Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Helm also had a successful career as a film actor, appearing as Loretta Lynn's father in '' Coal Miner's Daughter'' (1980), as Chuck Yeager's friend and colleague Captain Jack Ridley in '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), as a Tennessee firearms expert in '' Shooter'' (2007), and as General John Bell Hood in '' In the Electric Mist'' (2009). In 1998, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer which caused him to lose his singing voice. After treatment, his cancer eventually went into remission, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
