The Band / YMMV - TV Tropes

Accidental Innuendo: The line "take a load off, Fanny" from "The Weight" can easily become this trope, given the slang meaning of "fanny" in the UK and elsewhere.
Award Snub: Not even a nomination for The Last Waltz for the Best Documentary Oscar in 1978? How about "Evangeline" getting nominated for Best Original Song? Also no?
- The Band were also never nominated for a competitive Grammy Award, although they did get a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 and Helm's solo effort Dirt Farmer won for Best Traditional Folk Album that same year.
Broken Base: The release of Levon Helm's autobiography in 1993, in which he accused Robbie Robertson of ripping off the other members of the group by taking sole credit for songs that they had all collaborated on, drove a massive wedge into the fanbase. Some—namely, those who felt that Robertson was attempting to hog the limelight in the wake of The Last Waltz—felt that Helm had a legitimate grievance, and that the other members should have been given credit for their work. Others pointed out that most of what Helm had cited as "stolen" were ideas for arrangements, which aren't traditionally considered eligible for songwriting credit, while the actual melodies and lyrics to the songs in question were indeed Robertson's.
Concept Album: According to an interpretation from Greil Marcus, Music from Big Pink (excluding "I Shall Be Released" and "This Wheel's on Fire") is all sang by the same protagonist, which he dubs the "Worried Man", with all the songs fitting into a loose narrative. He claims that Worried Man also shows up on a couple of songs on their next two albums. It's debatable whether this was intentional.
Covered Up: People are often surprised to learn that Joan Baez didn't write "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".
Epic Riff: "Chest Fever"
Genius Bonus: In a nod to their Canadian background, "Ferdinand the Imposter" has to be the only rock song ever to make a reference to the Doukhobors.
Claimed he was a Doukhobor
But they never heard of that in Baltimore
Harsher in Hindsight: Robertson's musings in The Last Waltz about touring being "a goddamn impossible way of life" take on more meaning after Manuel's suicide during a tour.
- Manuel's song "The Shape I'm In", about a man contemplating suicide, is another example. There's also a line from "Jupiter Hollow", which is mostly lead by Helm, where Manuel comes to the forefront to sing "Nobody cares when a man goes mad and tries to free the ghost within".
Mainstream Obscurity: They were hugely influential and have a small-but-enthusiastic fanbase, but "The Weight" is their only widely-known song.
Misattributed Song: When the early white label promo copies of Music from Big Pink were sent out, sans any credits, the recipients were aware that there were some previously unrecorded Bob Dylan songs on it, and practically all of them figured "The Weight" was one of them, and were shocked to later learn that it was a Robbie Robertson original.
Narm: "The Moon Struck One" is musically one of Robertson's most beautiful songs. Lyrically, it's a would-be Tear Jerker done in by some clumsy phrasing ("stung by a snake"?) and strained rhymes like "Durango" and "triangle".
Posthumous Popularity Potential: After their deaths, the contributions of Richard Manuel and Rick Danko to the group got some renewed appreciation. Levon Helm already had a strong reputation, but his death received a pleasantly surprising amount of mainstream media coverage. After Robbie Robertson's death, there was a big streaming spike for their songs, and Robertson's memoir Testimony also saw a dramatic increase in sales.
Refrain from Assuming: Their Signature Song isn't called "Take a Load Off, Fanny" nor is it "The Load", it's called "The Weight".
Signature Song: With its sing-along chorus, vocal harmonies, and status as a classic campfire song, "The Weight" is easily The Band's signature tune.
Stuck in Their Shadow: The public perception of the band in later years, at any rate, was that Robertson was the leader, especially in the wake of The Last Waltz, in which he has more camera time than the others. Levon Helm was not happy about this, and some fans regard him as the leader, especially in the light of his memoir. But Helm himself emphasized that their musical leader was Garth Hudson; although relatively shy and soft-spoken, he was the oldest and most musically-educated member; his ability as a multi-instrumentalist meant that he played the most significant role in determining what they sounded like. Then again, Robertson did write most of the music, especially after Richard Manuel dried up as a songwriter after Music from Big Pink.
Values Dissonance: There's been some recent debate about "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and whether it glorifies the Confederacy and Lost Cause mythology. A close examination of the lyrics shows that the song doesn't address slavery or other moral issues in the war at all; it's a Shell-Shocked Veteran reflecting on the devastation the war caused for him, his family and his way of life. And since they were written by a Canadian, there's a certain amount of distance in them as well.

YMMV / The Band

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