Rock of Ages (The Band album)

Rock of Ages: The Band in Concert is a live album by the Band, released in 1972. It was compiled from recordings made during their series of shows at the Academy of Music in New York City, from December 28 through December 31, 1971. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was certified a gold record by the RIAA.[8] An expanded release of recordings taken from the same series of shows, called Live at the Academy of Music 1971, was released in 2013.

Rock of Ages
Live album by The Band
Released	August 15, 1972
Recorded	December 28–31, 1971
Venue	Academy of Music, New York City
Genre	Roots rock
Length	78:19
Label	Capitol SABB 11045
Producer	The Band
The Band chronology
Cahoots (1971) Rock of Ages (1972) Moondog Matinee (1973)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	B[2]
DownBeat	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	A[4]
MusicHound	5/5[5]
Q	[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[7]

Content

The Band booked a residency at the Academy of Music for the last week of 1971, culminating in a New Year's Eve performance. Robbie Robertson had commissioned New Orleans songwriter and arranger Allen Toussaint to compose horn charts for their recent single "Life Is a Carnival" from the album Cahoots, and decided to have Toussaint write special charts for a five-man horn section to augment the group on their upcoming concerts.[9] Charts written by Toussaint in New Orleans were in luggage lost at the airport, and a new set was composed in a cabin near Robertson's house in Woodstock.[10] Robertson selected eleven songs to receive horn charts, and all are included on the released album.[11] The horns do not play on "Get Up Jake", "Stage Fright", "This Wheel's on Fire", "The Weight", "The Shape I'm In", and "The Genetic Method." Selections on the bonus disc also do not feature horn arrangements, although the horn section added spontaneous flourishes to "Down in the Flood" and "Rolling Stone."

The repertoire consisted of material from all four of The Band's studio albums up to that point, and one new original song, "Get Up Jake", which were framed on the album by covers of the 1964 Motown hit single "Baby Don't You Do It" by Marvin Gaye, and "(I Don't Want to Hang Up) My Rock and Roll Shoes", the b-side of Chuck Willis' final single. Four nights from December 28 through 31 were recorded, and the balance of the recordings on the released album were derived from the final two nights.[12] Their previous employer Bob Dylan made a surprise visit on the New Year's Eve show, playing four songs with the group in the early morning hours of January 1, 1972.[13]

Originally released in 1972 as a double album, it was reissued in 1980 as two separate LPs, titled Rock of Ages, Vol. 1 and Rock of Ages, Vol. 2. The first edition for compact disc in 1987 was released as an "abridged version"; "The Genetic Method" (Garth Hudson's instrumental solo/introduction to "Chest Fever") was omitted, but later re-instated on the unedited two-disc version released in 1990. On May 8, 2001, an expanded and remastered two-disc edition appeared, with the original album on one disc, and an additional ten tracks on a bonus disc. Included on the bonus disc were the four songs featuring Dylan and another Motown cover, the 1966 hit single "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" by The Four Tops.

The 2005 retrospective Band box set A Musical History contains several Rock of Ages tracks newly remixed from the multitrack tapes, as well as a previously-unissued performance of the song "Smoke Signal" from the December 28 show. A hybrid SACD reissue of the original album was released on the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab label in 2010.[14] The song "Chest Fever" from this album is available as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band.

In 2013, Capitol released Live at the Academy of Music 1971: The Rock of Ages Concerts, a box set consisting of four CDs and one DVD (mostly only audio), and containing all previously released material from the concerts as well as numerous unissued performances (including the December 31 show in its entirety) presented in new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes.[15]

Track listing

Side one

All tracks are written by Robbie Robertson except where noted; concert dates as indicated.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"Introduction by Robertson"			1:22
2.	"Don't Do It"	Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland Jr.	December 29	5:00
3.	"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"		December 31	4:04
4.	"Caledonia Mission"		December 30	3:38
5.	"Get Up Jake"		December 30	3:33
6.	"The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show"		December 31	3:54

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"Stage Fright"		December 31	4:38
2.	"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"		December 29	4:34
3.	"Across the Great Divide"		December 30	3:59
4.	"This Wheel's on Fire"	Rick Danko, Bob Dylan	December 29	4:07
5.	"Rag Mama Rag"		December 31	4:33

Side three

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"The Weight"		December 30	5:32
2.	"The Shape I'm In"		December 31	4:14
3.	"The Unfaithful Servant"		December 31	4:48
4.	"Life Is a Carnival"	Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko	December 30	4:17

Side four

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"The Genetic Method"	Garth Hudson	December 31	7:48
2.	"Chest Fever"		December 28	5:24
3.	"(I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes"	Chuck Willis	December 29	4:20

2000 reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Recording date	Length
1.	"Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever"	Stevie Wonder, Ivy Jo Hunter	December 29	3:28
2.	"I Shall Be Released"	Dylan	December 30	4:03
3.	"Up on Cripple Creek"		December 30	4:38
4.	"The Rumor"		December 30	5:02
5.	"Rockin' Chair"		December 29	4:06
6.	"Time to Kill"		December 28	4:07
7.	"Down in the Flood"	Dylan	January 1	5:25
8.	"When I Paint My Masterpiece"	Dylan	January 1	4:17
9.	"Don't Ya Tell Henry"	Dylan	January 1	4:38
10.	"Like A Rolling Stone"	Dylan	January 1	5:24

Personnel

The Band at the Academy of Music concerts

• 
  Levon Helm
• 
  Richard Manuel
• 
  Robbie Robertson
• 
  Garth Hudson
• 
  Rick Danko

The Band

• Robbie Robertson – guitar, backing vocals, introduction
• Garth Hudson – organ, piano, accordion, tenor and soprano saxophone solos
• Richard Manuel – vocals, piano, organ, clavinet, drums
• Rick Danko – vocals, bass, violin
• Levon Helm – vocals, drums, mandolin

Additional musicians

• Howard Johnson – tuba, euphonium, baritone saxophone
• Snooky Young – trumpet, flugelhorn
• Joe Farrell – tenor and soprano saxophones, English horn
• Earl McIntyre – trombone
• J.D. Parron – alto saxophone and E-flat clarinet
• Bob Dylan – vocals, guitar on "Down in the Flood," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," "Don't Ya Tell Henry," and "Like a Rolling Stone"

Production

• Allen Toussaint – horn arrangements
• Phil Ramone – engineer
• Mark Harman – engineer

Charts

Singles - Billboard (United States)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1972	"Don't Do It"	Pop Singles	34

References

1. Stephen Thomas Erlewine (1972-08-15). "Rock of Ages - The Band | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
2. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: B". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
3. "The Band: Rock of Ages". DownBeat: 66. October 2001.
4. "The Band: Rock of Ages". Entertainment Weekly: 81. May 25, 2001.
5. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 72. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
6. "The Band: Rock of Ages". Q: 130. July 2001.
7. Brackett, Nathan, with Hoard, Christian (eds) (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th edn). New York, NY: Fireside. p. 42. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
8. "RIAA Gold and Platinum database". Riaa.com. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
9. Bowman, Rob. Rock of Ages. 2001, 72435-30181-2-2, liner notes, p. 2.
10. Bowman, pp. 3-4.
11. Bowman, p.5
12. Academy of Music box set liner notes, retrieved from The Band website 4 December 2016
13. Bowman, p. 11
14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2010-03-05.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
15. "Music News & Concert Reviews". JamBase.com. Retrieved 2016-07-28.