It’s still a fantastic album—timeless, really. “Still of the Night,” “Here I Go Again '87”, “Is This Love,” “Bad Boys,” “Crying in the Rain '87” and “Give Me All Your Love” are all banging tracks. Classics through and through.
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Garth Hudson, the oldest and last surviving member of The Band, died early today.
Information taken from “Woodstock Council of Elders” Facebook feed:
Garth Hudson performed with The Band at Woodstock 1969, and was the sole surviving member of that group until this morning January 21, 2025 when he passed away at the age of 87.
Eric “Garth” Hudson CM (August 2, 1937 - January 21, 2025) was a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a principal architect of the group’s sound, described as “the most brilliant organist in the rock world” by Keyboard magazine. With the deaths of Richard Manuel in 1986, Rick Danko in 1999, Levon Helm in 2012, and Robbie Robertson in 2023, Hudson joined his bandmates this morning and closed the books on one of the most iconic chapters in the history of music. Peace be with you always Garth.
Photo by Elliot Landy Photography.
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Chest Fever from The Band’s first album, Music From Big Pink, is IMHO the best organ intro l have ever heard. I would often turn the lights off at night and crank this up full for the first minute, then play it again and again. It is a work of rare genius. RIP Mr. Garth Hudson.
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And that’s not a Hammond B3 he’s channeling Bach on, either - it’s a Lowrey Festival organ.
The Wikipedia entry for Chest Fever is very informative, about Garth’s importance to the band as well as about Robbie Robertson’s undervaluing of him.
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Apparently no overdubs on that album. Incredible.
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I have long heard about the feud between Levon Helm and Roberston over royalties. A woman l worked with in China claimed to have inside knowledge of the feud, but l doubt that she knew very much. Certainly Levon Helm blamed Robertson for stealing song writing credit and royalties, a situation made more critical for Helm in later years by his poor financial circumstances. Both men have talked about it. Helm carried a grudge, Robertson didn’t and did offer to help Helm with some money. Helm never forgave him.
As for Chest Fever itself? In 1971 l had a gap year, before l started at Swinburne. At first l looked for work, but it took me until Easter to find something, work in the Prahran branch of the Bank of New South Wales in Chapel St. I didn’t last out the 6 month probation period, as l recognized that the work wasn’t for me. Come November l headed off to Waikerie on the Murray in SA to pick fruit with a mate. During that time l attended a couple of open air concerts, some featuring Fraternity. This was a loose amalgamation of players, who turned up at gigs in one of those old Pioneer Clipper buses, the type that has a rounded rear end and no rear window. They featured Bon Scott on vocals, he was in between his Valentine and AC/DC gigs. Fraternity were a good band, living a commune type existence in the Adelaide Hills. The highlight of their set was a 20 minutes version of Chest Fever. I doubt anyone ever recorded their live version, but l would love to hear one if anyone had.
RIP Mr. Hudson.
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Helm was critical of The Last Waltz as well, saying it made them all look like Robertson’s sidemen.
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The book ‘Across the Great Divide’ attempts (pretty well) to recount The Bands’ story but it’d need seven volumes of footnotes to cover off on the varying feuds and diversity of accounts about who wrote what. Chest Fever is sensational as are the Big Pink/The Band albums.
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off The Record with Brian Wise doing a Garth Hudson tribute right now, open with Chest Fever, naturally enough.
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Levon called Garth “Honey Boy”.
Levon knew about these things.
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“Small Town Talk” by Barney Hoskyns is also worth a read ~ as is John Simon’s “Truth, Lies and Hearsay”.
John Simon had a lot to do with pinning down the sound of The Band.
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She certainly lived a life. Read her autobiography years ago, a very compelling read.
One of the more distinctive voices in music. RIP.
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In the end I think she ended up with more musical cred than Mick If some of my prudish friends visit I still put on Why D’ya Do It?, just as shocking as it was 50 years ago.
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God, I wish death would just bugger right off.
Why D’ya Do It, indeed!
She was an absolute force of nature x
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RIP…
Mars Bars all over the world give a sigh of relief#…
#Yes, yes… I know it’s an urban myth and has been debunked…
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This is one that really hits me…I’ve been a huge Marianne Faithfull fan since the release of Broken English way back in 1979.
Just so under appreciated for the talent she had.
Amazing that she lasted as long as she did.
RIP 
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So long Marianne.
Loved Broken English.
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I loved Broken English and Dangerous Acquaintances. What a life she must have had.
My Broken English album was completely missing the track “Why D’Ya Do It?” Was considered too rude for our sensitive ears at the time.
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