Nineteen seventy-three found The Band unable or unwilling to release an album of original material. The same situation in 1972 produced the excellent live album, Rock Of Ages<\/i>. They travelled a different journey in 1973 and released an album of cover songs. <\/p>\n
Moondog Matinee<\/i> took its name from an old Alan Freed radio show. The original intent was to return to their early rock \u2018n\u2019 roll days when they were known as Levon And The Hawks. Unfortunately, it did not reach fruition as they were now far from the sound of those days. What did result was an excellent album of unique covers by one of the best rock bands in the world. <\/p>\n
The instrumental expertise of Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson drive the album\u2019s music along. Robertson was an under the radar guitarist who was improving with each release. His solos were now confident as well as creative. Garth Hudson was one of the better keyboardists in rock music and his use of an organ sound to enhance, and at times dominate, a rock band was both unique and inspirational. <\/p>\n
While The Band had four exquisite voices, it was Richard Manuel that came closest to being the lead singer. The Platters classic hit, \u201cThe Great Pretender,\u201d is given a soulful vocal by Manuel. He was one of those rare singers who could take a song and make it a personal experience for the listener. The Leiber and Stoller tune, \u201cSaved,\u201d is taken in a gospel direction by Manuel. He explores the textures of this song with just his voice. <\/p>\n
The Band pays tribute to former contributor Allen Toussaint by giving his song, \u201cHoly Cow,\u201d a workout. Rick Danko\u2019s vocal leads the assault on this track. Danko also shows an ability to translate a straight rhythm & blues song, \u201cA Change Is Gonna Come,\u201d into a rock setting. <\/p>\n
The old movie song, \u201cThe Third Man Theme,\u201d was an odd and ultimately brilliant choice for inclusion on the album. The original featured a zither. Here, Garth Hudson, turns his organ loose with interesting results. <\/p>\n
Other songs of note include a rocking version of Chuck Berry\u2019s, \u201cThe Promised Land,\u201d a unique take on the old Elvis song, \u201cMystery Train,\u201d which appears with some new lyrics, and a funky \u201cAin\u2019t Got No Home\u201d with Levon Helm as the frog. <\/p>\n
Moondog Matinee<\/i> may have found The Band in a holding pattern in 1973, but the album proves a nice place to visit. It ended up being a unique release in The Band\u2019s catalogue and remains interesting and very listenable today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":31951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5698],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43680","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-band","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43680"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}