Across the Great Divide: The Band and America - Hardcover

Hoskyns, Barney

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1562828363 ISBN 13: 9781562828363

Publisher: Hyperion, 1993

Synopsis

Recounts the turbulent career of The Band--Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, and Levon Helm--from their beginnings playing in seedy bars to their rise to international stardom.

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Reviews

In a saga spanning three decades, British journalist Hoskyns ( From a Whisper to a Scream: The Great Voices of Popular Music ) chronicles the story of the critically acclaimed rock group, the Band. As the 1960s dawned, a shared interest in the music of the American South brought Arkansas drummer-vocalist Levon Helm together with four Canadians: guitarists Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko, vocalist Richard Manuel and keyboardist Garth Hudson. Known as the Hawks, they backed up Bob Dylan after his notorious acoustic-to-electric switch; later, they perfected a style of their own at a Woodstock, N.Y., house dubbed "Big Pink." In 1968, their first album as the Band was released, and subsequent hits included "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." This account relies heavily on quotations from the likes of critic Greil Marcus, performer Eric Clapton and late promoter Bill Graham. Where-are-they-now final chapters investigate the years after the Band's 1976 split: Robertson pursued Hollywood interests, Manuel committed suicide in 1986 and the others continued solo work. Of the Band's lineup, Robertson proves by far the most loquacious, making this volume a bonanza for his fans in particular, as well as for Dylan aficionados. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

British journalist Hoskyns (Vogue, Spin, etc.) wends his way through 60's mythology and the mystique of the remarkable rock group known as ``The Band'' to deliver a nicely readable, straightforward bit of pop-music history. The compelling irony of The Band's career, Hoskyns shows, is that they achieved their greatest celebrity by breaking up: Martin Scorsese's film of their final concert, The Last Waltz (1978), ``transcended the limitations of the genre and...caught both the sweep of the band's history and the edgy reality of live performance.'' The four Canadian members of The Band (Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson) and their Arkansan drummer, Levon Helm, had backed singer Ronnie Hawkins as the ``Hawks'' since the late 1950's, when most of them were still in their teens. Their striking out from the domineering and limited Hawkins--plus guitarist Robertson's strong desire to be part of ``something more vital...than a travelling alcoholic freakshow''- -led these talented musicians (each played a variety of instruments, and most sang) to a historic hookup with Bob Dylan and to his switch from acoustic folk to electrified rock. The first year with Dylan was a frenetic mix of world travel, often hostile audiences, drugs, and mayhem in the midst of an explosion of creativity that ``was pop...rock 'n' roll...and R&B...fused with an avant-garde, anti-mainstream sensibility.'' The release, in 1968, of The Band's Music from Big Pink album offered down-home, gut- bucket country blues--a notable departure from the hard-and-acid rock of the day. As Hoskyns says, the group's very name was ``born of a beguiling mixture of humility and arrogance. They were just `the band' but they were THE band.'' Though relying heavily on others' material, a well-written, enjoyable account of a 60's legend. (Eight pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Implicit within the redemptive qualities commonly ascribed to rock'n'roll is the metaphor of the band/musician as leaders in a spiritual search. The hyperbole that typically ensues from such metaphors is entirely appropriate in reference to The Band, the seminal folk/country/rock group whose recordings, made from 1968 to 1978, psychically imprinted an entire generation. That a predominantly Canadian group should have been so transfixed by, and subsequently successful at, articulating deeply rooted American themes is just one of the seeming paradoxes that Hoskyns explores in this first major study. Borrowing heavily from both previously documented and self-conducted interviews, Hoskyns connects the dots that link The Band with Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Woodstock, and the concert film The Last Waltz (1978). Cumulatively, the effect of this treatment is ponderous; Greil Marcus's classic essay "The Band: Pilgrims' Progress" in Mystery Train ( LJ 4/1/75), from which Hoskyns liberally borrows, is more revelatory. Still, this solid treatment of an influential group belongs in most popular music collections.
- Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., Tex.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1562828363
• ISBN 13: 9781562828363
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416