The riff, which was performed by Garth Hudson, is heard after each chorus of the song – and set a trend that was followed in lots of funk music in the 70s.
“Up On Cripple Creek” is also notable for breaking ground in featuring a Hohner clavinet played with a wah-wah pedal. He could take a song and do his own impression of it that was so odd and outside the box – and in many cases hilarious. “I thought the way that he treated music was a healthy thing. “Yeah, I was a Spike Jones admirer,” says The Band’s songwriter. Robertson is still enthusiastic about his affection for the music of Spike Jones And The City Slickers. Now me and my mate were back at the shack Robertson penned the following lines in “Up On Cripple Creek” in tribute to this musical innovator: He even sang a satirical song about Adolf Hitler that included blowing raspberries at the Nazi leader. It’s sometimes hard to describe where lyrics come from.”Īnother memorable line is about Spike Jones, a bandleader, and musician whose zany songs made him a cult hero in the 40s and 50s.
“The doughnut line just sounded good to me at the time and I didn’t hear anybody writing in that kind of way. Robertson laughs as he recalls the phrase. In one verse he sings, “Now there’s one thing in the whole wide world/I sure would like to see/That’s when that little love of mine/Dips her doughnut in my tea.” The final recording featured drummer Levon Helm as the lead vocalist.
#BAND IN A BOX COUNTRY SONGS FULL#
The lyrics are full of wordplay and alliteration – as well as the title, there are repeated references to “a drunkard’s dream” – and contain some wonderfully vivid imagery.
I don’t remember where I sat down and finished the song, though.” I think it was really pieces and ideas coming on during that travelling process that sparked the idea about a man who just drives these trucks across the whole country. We had been snowed in at Woodstock and in Montreal it was freezing, so we went to Hawaii, really as some kind of a way to get some warmth, and to begin preparing for making our second album. “Then after Woodstock, I went to Montreal and my daughter Alexandra was born. “I had some ideas for ‘Up On Cripple Creek’ when we were still based in Woodstock making Music From Big Pink,” recalls Robertson.
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