The Band - Endless Highway (1973)

Most people probably already know the history of The Band, but a brief recap is always handy. The members of the group gradually came together in the Hawks, the backing group for Toronto-based rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins, with a line up of Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson when they eventually left Hawkins' band in 1963. In late summer 1965, Bob Dylan was looking for a backup band for his first U.S. 'electric' tour, and Levon And The Hawks (as they were then known) were recommended by blues singer John Hammond Jr., and although Dylan originally only wanted to hire Helm and Robertson, they told Dylan that out of loyalty to their bandmates that they would only continue with him if he hired all of the Hawks. Dylan accepted and invited Levon And The Hawks to tour with him. The band recorded some tracks with Dylan, and others feature one or two members, but they were mainly employed as his live backing band. On July 29, 1966, while on a break from touring, Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident that precipitated his retreat into semi-seclusion in Woodstock, New York, and for a while The Hawks returned to the bar and roadhouse touring circuit. In February 1967 Dylan invited The Hawks to join him in Woodstock, and Danko, Manuel and Hudson rented a large pink house, which they named 'Big Pink', in nearby West Saugerties, where they started to record the songs which would later be bootlegged as 'The Basement Tapes'. The Hawks were also writing their own songs by this time, and in 1967 they went into the recording studio, even thouhg they still didn't have a name. After some rejected suggestions Robertson mentioned that during their time with Dylan everyone just referred to them as "the band" and the name stuck. 
'Music from Big Pink' was released in 1968 and was widely acclaimed, being followed by a series of well-received albums throughout the late 60's and early 70's. During the recordings there were usually one or two songs left over, and this album collects all the out-takes from those sessions, along with a few from the Basement Tapes period were the Band recorded without Dylan, but in a different form to the versions released on 'The Basement Tapes'. For 'Orange Juice Blues' Manuel and Danko laid down the basic track in Woodstock in 1967, and the contributions of the rest of the Band were overdubbed eight years later, but this take is the original performance, without overdubbing. It's been suggested that 'Bessie Smith' was recorded sometime between their 1969 second album and 'Stage Fright', although others says that it was recorded by the Band in 1975 in their Shangri-La studio in Los Angeles, as 'The Basement Tapes' was being prepared for official release. 'Long Distance Operator' was written by Dylan, and is an outtake from the 'Music from Big Pink' sessions, even though it appeared on 'The Basement Tapes', but this take is the longer version with an extra verse. The rest of the tracks were recorded by the group between 1971 and 1973 (or 1975 if you think 'Bessie Smith' is a later recording), and as their sound never really changed that much during their career then this album stands up pretty well as a Band record in its own right.  

Track listing

01 Long Distance Operator  
02 Orange Juice Blues (Blues For Breakfast)
03 Get Up Jake   
04 Endless Highway  
05 Baby Lou  
06 Bessie Smith  
07 Don't You Do It  
08 Didn't It Rain  
09 Crying Heart Blues  
10 Shakin'  
11 What Am I Living For   
12 Going Back To Memphis  


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