Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

?ÄúAnd the sun don?Äôt shine any more/And the rains fall down on my door.?Äù
?Äì The Band, ?ÄúIt Makes No Difference,?Äù written by Robbie Robertson

First weekend of 2008 in Vallejo. Rain. Lots of it. Two power outages.

The first outage occurred around ten a.m. as I was getting ready to download a 1988 Rick Danko concert at Nightstages in Cambridge, MA from www.captainsdead.com. This website is a cybergoldmine of information regarding rock bands new and old and regularly posts concerts for free and legal downloading.

I decided to listen to the first few tracks before downloading the gig and burning it onto a CD. As with all of Danko?Äôs music, solo and with The Band, I was locked into a state of bliss after the first note.

I also found myself recalling going to see ?ÄúThe Last Waltz,?Äù the 1978 Martin Scorcese documentary on The Band?Äôs final concert, when the movie was initially released in theaters. Then and now, its defining moment for me took place during the song ?ÄúIt Makes No Difference?Äù while Danko played his bass and sang, ?ÄúThese old love letters/Well, I just can’t keep/’Cause like the gambler says/Read ‘em and weep.?Äù

My reverie fast-forwarded to a year later when I was at the Oakdale, CA rodeo fairgrounds attending an outdoor rock festival headlined by Danko, a barely-remembered festival of the damned that featured drunken cowboys hurling beercans at roadies and musical equipment at the end of a way-too-brief six-song set by Danko. In between the other five bands?Äô sets, I pulled a recent letter from The One Who Got Away out of my back pocket and read about how she was so sad about our being apart and how she felt it was best for us to remain that way. Read ?Äòem and weep later. Finally it was time for Danko to play: he was escorted onstage by Dennis Hopper, whose hand was firmly grasping a bottle of Jack Daniels. Hopper left, Danko picked up an acoustic guitar and began to play a solo version of ?ÄúIt Makes No Difference,?Äù the kind of performance that defines the word ?Äúheartbreak.?Äù I expected my back pocket to spontaneously combust.

The version of ?ÄúIt Makes No Difference?Äù from the Nightstages gig may be the best of all. Danko?Äôs vocal is augmented by a shimmering pedal steel guitar solo by Buddy Cage, best known for his work with Bob Dylan (he played the pedal steel solo on ?ÄúMeet Me in the Morning?Äù from Dylan?Äôs ?ÄúBlood on the Tracks?Äù recording) and The New Riders of the Purple Sage, and an outstanding harmonica solo by Woodstock local Sredni Vollmer that recalled both Robbie Robertson?Äôs guitar solo and Garth Hudson?Äôs soprano sax showcase from the song?Äôs original version on The Band?Äôs ?ÄúNorthern Lights-Southern Cross?Äù album. Cage gave a clinic on playing pedal steel every time he soloed and Vollmer played what could only be called ?Äúsacred harp?Äù all night long.

Danko attempts the first twenty-five seconds of ?ÄúDaniel and the Sacred Harp?Äù before he stops and explains how he cannot remember any more of it. He fares much better on a pair of other classics by The Band, ?ÄúCaledonia Mission?Äù and ?ÄúThe Long Black Veil,?Äù both songs originally from ?ÄúMusic from Big Pink.?Äù These songs are joined by some of rock and roll?Äôs touchstones, ?ÄúC.C. Rider,?Äù ?ÄúMy Baby Left Me,?Äù and a ?ÄúMannish Boy?Äù-sounding arrangement of ?ÄúLittle Red Rooster.?Äù Danko and the band even present a version of ?ÄúThe Blue Tail Fly?Äù; it includes a chorus of ?ÄúJimmy smoke crack and he don?Äôt care?Äù that never made it into Burl Ives?Äôs version of the song. Or Eminem?Äôs. Lesser-known tunes, among them ?ÄúWhen I Get My Reward?Äù and ?ÄúWish You Were Here with Me,?Äù match up well with the well-known ones on the setlist.

The concert ends with an a cappella version of ?ÄúRivers of Babylon?Äù and Danko asking the audience to ?Äúwatch out for the other guy?Äù at the end of the show. A public service announcement or a plea for human charity? It makes no difference.

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