A Brief Word On The Passing Of The Band’s Multi-Instrumentalist Garth Hudson, RIP

*Image taken from the internet and likely copyrighted

Alas, I heard the news today that the last standing member of the legendary band, The Band, has moved on when Garth Hudson passed away “peacefully in his sleep.” Garth was the most soft spoken of the members of the Band and was the only member who didn’t contribute vocals to any songs. He could play virtually anything from organ, piano, accordion to saxophone. His musical contributions to their sound were momentous and he truly shaped their sound. If I’m not mistaken he was also the group’s arranger. He’s one of those rock n roll guys that was a bit of an unsung hero. He was a great musician, great guy but always hung in the background while helping make The Band who they were.

I was never into the Band until I moved to Ft. Smith, Arkansas right out of college. You can’t live in Arkansas and not hear about local son, drummer Levon Helm. It was down there that I picked up some of their legendary LPs: Music From Big Pink, The Band (the self-titled second album is my favorite), and The Last Waltz to name but a few. They had so many more great LPs from Stage Fright to Northern Lights – Southern Cross. They actually had more than one great live album beyond The Last Waltz with Rock Of Ages also being a phenomenal live document. Their concerts were more like recitals than shows and that’s probably because of the precision with which Garth Hudson played.

Other than drummer Levon Helm, the rest of the band were Canadian. Besides Garth who played mostly keyboards, there was guitarist Robbie Robertson (who we just lost), bassist/singer Rick Danko, and keyboard player Richard Manuel. One by one each of them joined the Hawks who were Southern blues-rock screamer Ronnie Hawkins’ backing band. When Hudson joined the band he was paid an extra $10 dollars a week as the nominal “music instructor” for the rest of the band. They did that in order to convince his parents to let him go on tour. And let’s face it, he was the most accomplished, trained musician amongst them.

The Band went on to famously back Bob Dylan as he went electric. In fact, that’s how they settled on their name. Angry folk music fans would ask derisively, “Is that the band?” Levon couldn’t take all the haters and quit the band and went back to Arkansas. After the tour was over the Canadians all moved to Woodstock, New York with Dylan after his famous motorcycle accident where they holed up in a house they nicknamed “Big Pink.” Dylan would come over every afternoon and they’d jam on new material and old classics. Garth Hudson was actually the tape engineer on those sessions and made sure they captured all of it. It was Hudson who later discovered all of the old tapes that had been accidentally left at Big Pink which led to the epic Dylan Bootleg Box, The Basement Tapes.

While at Big Pink, jamming with Dylan, the Band wrote the songs that would make up their landmark debut album, Songs From Big Pink. It contains one of their signature tracks, “The Weight.” It truly is a monumental debut album (but of course we love debut albums here). They went on to a storied career which lasted over a decade and which came (effectively) to an end with their Thanksgiving concert in San Francisco with many of their friends and inspirations, The Last Waltz. Garth lays down a wonderful sax solo on “It Makes No Difference” on that live album. After that, the Band broke up.

They tried to get back together in the 80s & 90s but the magic was gone. Richard Manuel ended up hanging himself in a hotel room. Danko had a heart attack years later. Helm and Robertson’s feud got worse and worse, to the point where Levon wouldn’t walk into Danko’s funeral because Robertson was there. Eventually we lost Levon too and then in ’23 we lost Robertson. It seems that during all of that feuding and acrimony Garth was like the Ringo of the Band and always seemed to get along with the warring factions.

I know he did some solo stuff but I’m not familiar with any of it. He’d occasionally pop up in the liner notes of an album I’d be listening to, which artists I don’t rightly remember. I saw him with remnants of the Band in Berlin in 1990 when they were the opening act for Roger Waters’ performance of The Wall at the Berlin Wall. By that point it was just Helm, Danko and Garth left from the original lineup.

I just wanted to pause my life for a second and celebrate the life and career of Garth Hudson on this the day we lost him. RIP Garth. He wasn’t the most famous rock star, I think he preferred it in the background but one more legend who walked amongst us is gone. It’s those little known guys or marginally known guys who are out there doing what they do who made rock n roll that much stronger for them having played it. I guess I’m thinking about John Donne, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee” when I think about this loss.

Cheers!