Up On Cripple Creek

I see a lot of discussion of origins and influences here. The fact of the matter is that it really doesn't matter what the nationality of the members is. If you read or listen to interviews the group they all mentioned heavy influence from Southern bluesmen folk music, in much the same way that many of the popular UK bands of the era were influenced (Cream, the Rolling Stones, etc.). When Robbie Robertson came to the states one of his first jobs was as a guitarist for Ronnie Hawkins play hardcore Rockabilly and electrified Blues and he incorporated this into much of his writing. I think the only thing that Levon's nationality lends to it all is a bit of credence and legitimacy for certain songs (not the least of which being The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down).

What sets the group, as a whole, apart from many others though is that they repeatedly defy quantification. It's virtually impossible to tie down their music, or even individual songs, to any one genre of school of influence. Cripple Creek, for example, is essentially a folk song bordering on bluegrass- Flatt and Scruggs could easily pick this on banjo and six-string and it would be wonderful. The lyrics are very much in that vein- they're pretty straight forward in the story, littered with colloquialisms, and on the whole very simple (ie. the singer is a traveling man- probably a salesman, trucker, riverboat man- who is an alcoholic and who has a definite contempt for the hectic world around him. His solace comes in the form of a Louisiana woman he befriended- Bessie). What makes the song more difficult to define is the mishmash of styles that come into play during the orchestration. You have Robertson and Danko playing a very folksy/river music rhythm, Manuel's piano is definitely blues, and Helm adds a a very interesting back beat that he believed made it more "danceable". The real monkey wrench in the idea of "theory", though, comes from Hudson and his Clavinet. He mainly plays it in verses and it adds this very odd funky feel to the music that most people would identify more with, say, the work of Stevie Wonder several years later. For the choruses he shifts to the mellow organ- not dressed up, just steady and cool, which offers a reprieve and a sense of serenity (which is appropriate based on the lyrics). So, the bottom line is you have a Southern folk song fused with Motown/Funk, and a groovy (there really is no other word for it) beat. The bottom line of this being that, regardless of their influences, the Band encompassed the entirety of the American music experience, and probably more so than any other group. Not only did they refuse to stick to a single genre on the whole, they would often change styles in the middle of a single song. I think this is what allowed them to be so endearingly popular with people from all cultures and genres. Even Roger Waters from Pink Floyd has been quoted as saying that during the Post-Barrett, Pre-Dark Side period one of the albums played most while the band was at work was Music from Big Pink.

I suppose this ended up being a bit off topic and for that I apologize- and no, I'm not entirely sure what the doughnut line means, but I prefer not to dissect it too much.