Across the Great Divide: The Band and America
by Barney Hoskyns
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"The Band was one of the most celebrated and influential groups to arrive on the music scene in the late sixties, creating some of the most profoundly stirring albums of the era, the myths and emotions of rural America their abiding themes." "The Band's members - four Canadians: Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, and one drummer from Arkansas, Levon Helm - fashioned something magically new out of components that were musically traditional: old-time country and show more gospel, Preservation Hall jazz, medicine-show vaudeville. They started as The Hawks, a teenage backup group for rockabilly renegade Ronnie Hawkins, touring the endless highways through the heart of the South. Eventually they headed north, where they left Hawkins to become Bob Dylan's band on the revolutionary electric tours of 1965 and 1966. From there they retreated to Woodstock, and, during a period of intense personal closeness and creativity, produced two of the most revered and hallmark albums of the era - Music from the Big Pink and The Band. These were part of a remarkable series of recordings, full of poetry and musical inspiration, an earthy fusion of country, gospel, and rock 'n' roll that set them solidly apart from the sonic overkill of their psychedelic contemporaries." "When The Band finally emerged from the shell of their Woodstock home they found themselves ill-equipped to deal with the realities of fame and the music business. Stage fright, drug addictions, and growing bad feelings within the group led them to quit with the star-studded farewell of "The Last Waltz" in 1976. A few years later Richard Manuel tragically hung himself in the bathroom of the Winter Park Quality Inn." "Across the Great Divide is a vivid and rollicking biographical journey of five unforgettable men. It spans the entire course of American rock and roll, from rockabilly to sequencers, from dirtbox roadhouses on lost highways to mind-bending psychedelia, with a supporting cast that includes Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Martin Scorsese, U2, and Bill Graham. Barney Hoskyns brilliantly captures the raw magic and complex personalities of these "musician's musicians.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
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Set in 1876, this family-oriented wilderness adventure centers on a pair of adorable orphans who will stop at nothing to successfully navigate the rugged Rockies and trek to Salem, Oregon where they are to inherit a 400-acre ranch. The two are assisted on their dangerous but scenic journey by a shifty but good-hearted gambler. Along the way, the travelers see cuddly bears, beautiful horses and frolicsome deer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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38+ Works 1,683 Members
Barney Hoskyns is a music historian, editorial director of the online music-journalism library Rock's Backpages, and author of Hotel California, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, and an oral history of Led Zeppelin. He lives in London.
Common Knowledge
Classifications
- Genres
- Music, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 782.421660922 — Arts & recreation Music Vocal Music, Singing Secular forms of vocal music Songs General principles and musical forms Traditions of secular songs {genres} Rock songs modified standard subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography Biography Collected biography
- LCC
- ML421 .B32 .H7 — Music Literature on music Literature on music History and criticism Biography
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- Rating
- (3.54)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 2
