#chest fever

The Genetic Method / Chest Fever (Live At The Last Waltz) - The Band (1976)

Chest Fever :: The Band

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[Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of the Band and one of the most inventive keyboardists in the history of rock & roll, has died at age 87.]

That organ intro on “Chest Fever”…. That honky-tonk piano on “Rag Mama Rag” … that sax on “It Makes No Difference”… that organ AND all the horns on “Ophelia”… that accordion on “Rockin’ Chair”… and that amazing jam he led on the organ at “The Last Waltz” … and those piano solo songs on that late solo album “The Sea To The North” …

Garth’s style… always kinda ethereal…sometimes downright screechy…. very carnival-like… but all his own…nobody else anything like him…

And even though he should solely absorb all worthy tribute at his death, he can’t escape being the representer for the whole Band with his exit… since he is the last…

There’s such a heavy closing feeling … like when you finish this great book and you are sad because you have to part with characters you’ve fallen in love with.

Only this love for me goes deeper since this feels like a whole shelf of books. I have so many of my own life’s chapters that have Band music playing in the background of them… for well over fifty years, the music of The Band has been in my head and heart.

It’s fitting that it would be Garth left to take the final bow for the group… after all the infighting and bad blood, and all that they all had to say about it all, it is the near-silent one who was left to turn the lights out.

I love a quiet genius… the very definition of a guy who let his gift do the talking… that was and remains Garth’s role…

The immortality of the recordings keeps everybody alive and all the rest of everything else just falls away, forever, each and every time with each and every song…

Good morning and happy Wednesday.

Such sad news yesterday. The last of The Band, Garth Hudson has passed at 87. In my opinion, The Band may be the best "American" band (I know 4 of the 5 were Canadian) of all time. Think I'm gonna through in a bunch of their music today, not to morn the dead, but to celebrate their lives. RIP Garth.