The Band – Blue Highways Oil Well – RSC 144

The Band – Blue Highways
Oil Well – RSC 144

1 The Shape I'm In 5:13
2 The Weight 4:21
3 Stage Fright 4:51
4 I Shall Be Released 3:27
5 Don't You Do It 5:56
6 Endless Highway 5:14
7 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 4:17
8 Across The Great Divide 3:13
9 The Wheels On Fire 3:43
10 Saved 6:06
11 Life Is a Carnival 5:06
12 W. S, Walcott Medicine Show 4:08

Note:
All songs by Robbie Robertson unless noted
Live in Jersey City, NJ - February 16, 1973 
Live in Jersey City, NJ  at Roosevelt Stadium on July 31, 1973

Lineup:
Bass, Vocals – Rick Danko
Drums, Vocals – Levon Helm
Guitar, Vocals – Robbie Robertson
Organ, Vocals – Garth Hudson
Piano, Vocals – Richard Manuel

This bootleg is a digital clone of:  "Old Dixie" - I Miti del Rock MRL 030 - Fabbri Editori.
This is also a partial clone of: "This Wheel’s On Fire" - Oh Boy – OH BOY 1-9051
This Oil Well version has a fine cover, fine quality. On the front cover Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko performing live in concert. Limited to 200 copies only. Passable to fair soundboard. Some dropouts and crackling. A popular show in spite of the less-than-stellar sound. Which, however, acts as a document regarding the performances of The Band in 1973 - a period not so detailed by the official publications of the Robertson band. This concert is based on the small tour that the group made with Grateful Dead - another cult band of the time.
Read below for more informations!
Recommended songs: Saved, The Weight, Don't Do It.

Audio quality: 
Quality content: 
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The Band a biography
For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, The Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan. Although The Band retired from touring after The Last Waltz and disbanded several years later, their legacy thrived for decades, perpetuated by the bandmates' respective solo careers as well as the enduring strength of The Band's catalog. The group's history dates back to 1958, just about the time that the formative Beatles gave up skiffle for rock & roll.

The group's history dates back to 1958, just about the time that the formative Beatles gave up skiffle for rock & roll. Ronnie Hawkins, an Arkansas-born rock & roller who aspired to a real career, assembled a backing band that included his fellow Arkansan Levon Helm, who played drums (as well as credible guitar) and had led his own band, the Jungle Bush Beaters. The new outfit, Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, began recording during the spring of 1958 and gigged throughout the American south; they also played shows in Ontario, Canada, where the money was better than in their native south. When pianist Willard Jones's left the lineup one year later, Hawkins began looking at some of the local music talent in Toronto in late 1959. He approached a musician named Scott Cushnie about joining the Hawks on keyboards. Cushnie was already playing in a band with Robbie Robertson, however, and would only join Hawkins if the latter musician could come along.

In 1964, they separated from Hawkins (and subsequently The Hawks), after which they toured and released a few singles as Levon and the Hawks and the Canadian Squires. The next year, Bob Dylan hired them for his U.S. tour in 1965 and world tour in 1966. Following the 1966 tour, the group moved with help from Dylan and his manager, Albert Grossman, to Saugerties, New York, where they made the informal 1967 recordings that became The Basement Tapes, the basis for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink. Because they were always "the band" to various frontmen and the locals in Woodstock, Helm said the name "the Band" worked well when the group came into its own. The group began performing as the Band in 1968 and went on to release ten studio albums. Dylan continued to collaborate with the Band over the course of their career, including a joint 1974 tour.

Across The Great New Jersey (no label)
When The Band returned to live performance after their eighteen-month hiatus, they did so in a big way by playing at the legendary Watkins Glen festival in upstate New York on July 28th, 1973.  Along with the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, they played a three-hour set in front of an estimated 600,000 attendees. They followed that with two concerts at Roosevelt Stadium, a minor league baseball park in Jersey City again supporting the Grateful Dead.

Across The Great New Jersey is a four-disc set containing soundboard recordings from each of the shows.  The July 31st show, which has the reputation as being THE worst The Band show, has seen many previous releases.  One of the earliest is Blue Highways (Oil Well RSC 144CD), a one disc set with a majority of the tape, from “The Shape I’m In” through “Life Is A Carnival” and “W.S. Wolcott Medicine Show.” This Wheel’s On Fire (OH BOY 1-9051), released in 1999, contains most of this tape, omitting “Back To Memphis” and “Share Your Love With Me” to “Chest Fever.”  Finally this was included with the following day’s concert on a three CDR set was released in 1999 titled Roosevelt Stadium (Old Brown Boot) which is missing “Back To Memphis.”

The first two discs cover the first of the two concerts.  This particular performance has the reputation as being THE worst concert staged by The Band.  Richard Manuel was inebriated, the band were still tired from the Watkins Glen festival, and the deliver a lackluster performance all around.  The tape is very good sounding.  The first song, the cover of Chuck Berry’s “Back To Memphis,” is cut half way through and the fragment that does exist contains several cuts and dropouts.  The second song, “Love You” cuts in right when the vocals begin and the rest of the set is musically complete.
The vocals cut out half way through “Shape I’m In” and half of the song is played as an instrumental.  “I Shall Be Released,” Manuel’s main vocal number, sounds very uninspired.  Levon Helm also has some problems when he comes in late for “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”  Even this tepid version retains some its unique beauty.  A virtue of this tape is having an excellent live recording of the Lieber Stoller song “Saved” at the beginning of disc two.

The Band recorded it for their covers LP Moondog Matinee and the only other live recording is the fair audience recording from Watkins Glen.  The latter part of this concert is an improvement with Garth Hudson’s standout “The Genetic Method” and “Chest Fever.” The second disc ends with three bonus tracks.  The location and date are not noted on the artwork, but this comes from a fair to good audience tape from the Watkins Glen Festival on July 28th.  “Back To Memphis” and “Loving You” are, just like the New Jersey shows, the opening two tracks.  On this tape one can clearly hear the arrangement of the second song is different than is present on the soundboard recordings.

Watkins Glen, “Loving You” begins with the group kicking the song together, while in New Jersey the song begins with a Rick Danko bass groove.  This new arrangement is heard clearly on the second show (since the beginning of the song is cut in the first).  The third song is the only live record of The Band playing the rock standard “Slippin’ & Slidin’.”  The song was played very late in the main set, after “WS Wolcott Medicine Show” and “Rag Mama Rag.”  It isn’t clear why this three-song fragment was included except for filler.  It would have been good if the label made note of its presence since it is confusing at first listen.


July 31, 1973  Jersey City, NJ , Roosevelt Stadium

Just days after Watkins Glen Summer Jam (7/27-28/73), the Band performed two more shows with the Grateful Dead in the tri-state area. These appearances took place at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. Roosevelt Stadium, a decaying one-time minor league baseball park continued to draw big crowds for concerts, and since the Watkins Glen buzz was still happening, was able to accomodate the sold out crowd.

The Band opened both shows, and played sets similar to Watkins Glen. The 7/31/73 set is an audience recording. Although a soundboard version exists, I feel that the audience version is vastly superior. This audience version contains more music including John Scher's introduction and "Going Back To Memphis" which was missing in the soundboard. Also present here for the first time is the encore "Slipping and Sliding." The 8/31/73 set is also a little more complete than the bootleg, containing more between song tune-up and banter. This recording is from the soundboard and has been remastered for maximum sound quality. My memory...The Band opened, and it poured rain during at least the last part of their set. i recall them doing "The Night they Drove Old Dixie down in a downpour. Dead came out...and the sun came out. - Mike Jarboe


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