Though three members of The Band – Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm – have passed away, the band’s legacy lives on in its recordings and their tangible influence on popular music since first hitting the scene.
The seeds were sown in 1958 when the teenage Levon, Rick and Richard joined forces with Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson as members of Ronnie Hawkins’ backing band, the Hawks. In late 1963, the Hawks struck out on their own and became Levon & the Hawks, playing and recording under this name in 1964 and 1965.
In 1965, Robertson met Bob Dylan, who was looking for an electric guitarist for his touring band. The Band was born, with all of the former Hawks backing Bob Dylan on the road from October 1965 through 1966.
After the 1966 tour concluded, The Band, without Helm who left in late 1965, worked on their sound for the next year, often in the company of Bob Dylan, forging a highly original sound that in one way or another encompassed the panoply of American roots music: country, blues, R&B, gospel, soul, rockabilly, the honking tenor sax tradition, Anglican hymns, funeral dirges, brass band music, folk music, modern rock, fused and synthesized in ways that no one had ever thought possible before. Levon
Helm rejoined The Band in 1967, as the group prepared to record their first full-length album, Music From Big Pink. The Band’s line-up remained intact until they disbanded in November 1976, following the live recording and Martin Scorsese’s filmed documentation of their final concert for The Last Waltz.
In 1989, The Band was inducted into the Canadian Juno Hall of Fame, and five years later they were accorded the same honour by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2008, The Band was honoured with The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy® Award.
