Now I'm 73 but when 19 I was lucky enough to be at Forest Hills when Dylan played for
the first time with The Band. Half of us were thrilled to hear this new sound. The other half
were confused and were yelling at Dylan to go back to his acoustic folk sound. So glad
he was brilliant and paid no attention to them.
I love the way the accordion drifts in out of nowhere and set up the theme. These five guys had so much talent and flexibility that it's hard to imagine that we will see their like again.
The Band is the greatest group of singers and instrumentalists ever assembled in one band. Case closed. Their is no band with 3 vocalists like they had. The interchangeability of instruments was without peer. They were an original masterpiece that will never be duplicated now or ever.
GOTTA HURRY ON BACK ON TO MY HOTEL ROOM...
WHERE I GOT ME A DATE WITH A PRETTY LITTLE GIRL FROM GREECE...
SHE PROMISED SHE'D BE THERE WITH ME...
WHEN I PAINT MY MASTERPIECE
While I love so much of what The Band did, for some reason their version of When I Paint My Masterpiece just seems like the finest bit of music-making they ever did. Those hints of Continental flavor in Garth's accordion and Levon's mandolin, it just seems so, well, right.