TS: Bob Dylan vs. The Band

I thought this was interesting:

"In [Dylan's] approach, the poetry aspect of it, poetic license in songwriting. It's a culmination of a whole bunch of things but because we were working with Bob it was really obvious. I didn't pay attention to a lot of the things that he wrote, though. It was too talky for me. It was just like I was getting lost and this was like reading subtitles to a song. I was saying if this thing could be more soulful and simplified...Later on things like `Just Like A Woman' came, things that I thought were realy touching.

"I was afraid to write like that. I thought it was just going to be blah, blah, blah. When we would play with Bob he would do this acoustic set and then the electric set. In the acoustic set it was just blah, blah, blah, blah all the way through. Not that he wasn't saying amazing things, it was just too much. I didn't want to listen to that many words from anybody - anybody! That was just somebody that talked too much. It was brilliantly done.

"But, from my background, I came in on a rock'n'roll train, blues and country music mixed together where the music played a part of it. There was a sound, there was an effect to this whole thing and it all added up. That's what made rock'n'roll to me. You mix this and you mix that and a little bit of this and a little bit of that and you get something and God knows what it is. It's just magical when you put it all together. I wasn't getting that out of [Dylan's] music.

"Curtis Mayfield was a tremendous influence on me. I remember playing Curtis Mayfield for Bob Dylan, saying `Listen to this, listen to the mood, listen to the sound quality.' I was trying to get him into the idea of making records, not going in there and just bashing inthe studio and whatever everybody plays, that's what the record is; that there's actually a sound quality to it. We would talk about early rockabilly records and stuff like that.

"Between all our influences, my influences, Bob's opening up this door, it was like a calling. It was like adding up these pieces together where you actually are going to hear the humor of Little Willie John's `All Around The World' and you're going to hear these voices doing Staple Singers stuff, and a high singer like Smokey Robinson, but with these kind of lyrics, the Hank Williams-influenced things. All of these things add up - you mix them all in a big pot and you stir them with a spoon and you get the Music From Big Pink and The Band albums." - Robbie Robertson of The Band


taken from the history of The Band

i like dylan and the band but someone shd put gaffertape over r.robertson's mouth whenever a "rock historian" hoves into view, you'd think the only reason he picked up a guitar in the first place was to ensure his place in a cultural studies module

Spot on. Also "In the acoustic set it was just blah, blah, blah, blah" Err - Robbie - shut up. I like Robbie's playing and all, I mean the guy can fucking play but he talks too much. And his solo work is mostly wack. He clearly needed guys like Manuel and Helm, and of course Zimmerframe to keep his galactic ego in check.

Yep, Robbie's a problem. The Band would be nothing without that rhythm section -- it took them (not to mention Levon's fine, fine voice) to make Robbie's songs, which are, admittedly, great, work. If I had to pick between them... I dunno. I think the Band does Dylan songs better than Dylan does. But Bob's done so many more things. I call it a tie.

'Live 1966' 's electric set grabs you by the balls. Great rock n'roll.

note: The Band had a career going before they started playing with Dylan