SOD: The Band "Time To Kill"

I love The Band. It's pretty much that simple. Perfect name for the quintessential well, "band." Whether it was backing Ronnie Hawkins or Bob Dylan, there was no better guys to have behind you in their heyday. Of course their best stuff came when they were simply backing themselves. Their sound was distinctive, layered, and just plain old fun. The songwriting is credited to Robertson, but he's an asshole and did his best to cut everyone else out of credit and rights as much as possible. So in my biased opinion, he's no more important than any other member of the group, and a hell of a lot more controversial.

I could sit here and talk about the history of this great group for the next few hours, and enjoy every minute of it. But that would be a bit presumptuous on my part, as not everyone shares my sentiments. I will however say, that at the time the album Stage Fright came out in 1971, the expectations and pressures on The Band were enormous. Music From Big Pink and The Band, were two incredibly successful and well crafted albums. There wasn't a weak point in either of them. To say they had a lot to live up to was an understatement. But in my opinion, they did.

Stage Fright is seen as a more straightforward "rock" effort from the band, but I still wholly get that same feeling of rootsy and folky music that I got from the first two. The classic vocal harmonies the group is known for are ever present, even if they're a bit more repressed (though they're very present in this track), and the instrumentation and musicianship is always of the highest caliber. In this particular track I love the rolling, playful piano, and as Matty pointed out to me, it is one of their best guitar intros. It's definitely a guitar based song, but don't let that distract you from all the other things going on. Multiple listens are absolutely required.

Overall, I think it's a great rock n' roll tune that I don't really hear played much, and so it seemed a more appropriate choice than the more commonly sought after "The Shape I'm In" or "Stage Fright." Another one of my personal favorites off this album is Daniel and the Sacred Harp (talk about a wacky cool intro), but in fairness to the group and yourself, just listen to the whole album.