The 'Garth album': Northern Lights, Southern Cross

The Band's keyboard, woodwind, and technology wizard (and last surviving member) passed away last week.

Writing about Garth Hudson's work on The band's 1976 album Northern Lights, Southern Cross, Greil Marcus said "I heard the album only when I began to hear him." That strikes me as key to understanding the master keyboard player's brilliance. There are times when his piano or 'souped up' Lowry organ comes darting out of the mix, like a mad pony on a carnival midway, leading you deeper into the song. But more often you have to make an effort, listen for his washes of sound or his countermelodies and then hold on to that.

Hudson was especially influential on the recording of Northern Lights, Southern Cross. Because the album was recorded and mixed at Shangril-La, the 24 track studio that was built in Malibu by Rob Fraboni for Dylan and The Band's use, the group was able to record whenever they wanted to, and more time was spent mixing the record because there was no studio time deadline. Garth made use of the state of the art synthesizers that were at the studio, and he was able to overdub some of his keyboard parts, creating little arrangements. Recorded in this environment, NLSC creates a modern sound for The Band, one that is updated but which still contains its most important elements.

Take the album's opener, "Forbidden Fruit", a song that is in many ways a typical Band rock- infused R&B groove. It's well constructed, but on first listen it could come off as a little subdued and flat. But listen again as Garth begins to assert himself a little more on each verse, each chorus, until you realize that he is driving the entire track--he is playing an arrangement. Everyone likes to think of Garth Hudson as a kind of musical madman genius, and that's at least a little true, but he is perfectly capable of playing an arrangement that could, if desired, be transcribed and arranged for a horn section or any other group of instruments. Shortly after the three minute mark, he introduces Robbie's guitar solo, which is perhaps one of his most declamatory solos on record.

"Hobo Jungle" is, as Marcus suggests, a heavily sentimental song, but it is helped by its presentation as a piano and vocal showcase for Richard Manuel, who sings its marvelously. Garth is never overly noticeable on that track, until the third verse, where his organ swells into a full string section, bolstering Manuel's vocal and Robbie Robertson's lovely guitar fills.

With "Ophelia" we have to discuss another facet of Garth Hudson's monumental talent, and that is his work as a woodwind and reed player. He has been heard before in this regard--check out his revved-up R&B tenor sax wailing on Moondog Matinee's "Ain't Got No Home," where he both solos and overdubs himself into a sax section. But on Northern Lights he again had more time and more inclination to add elements to these songs. And so on "Ophelia," a song with a strong New Orleans jazz influence, he's both the keyboard player and the horn section. He overdubs himself on brass and woodwinds, sometimes doubling up on his lines with organ or synthesizer. The result is amazing. Listen to it and realize that almost everything happening is Garth. Remember on tunes like 'Rag Mama Rag' when everyone would play whatever they could and John Simon played the tuba part? It's a bit like that, except most of it is overdubbed Garth Hudson. "Ring Your Bell" has a similar vibe and finds him playing backup ensemble once again.

His woodwind playing shows up all over the album. On Robertson's epic "Acadian Driftwood' he plays the marching piccolo part that becomes part of the track's signature. His soprano sax solo, trading choruses with Robertson, on "It Makes No Difference" adds to the song's sense of hopelessness and heartbreak. He plays it sweet and melancholy here, but his performance of it on The Last Waltz will surely have tears streaming down your face.

Though other members of the group lived close by, the post production seems to have fallen primarily to Robbie Robertson, as it always would, and to Garth. Some listeners feel that while the material and overall performance on Northern Lights, Southern Cross are solid, the album is too slick in its sound and its production, but that's trying to trap the band in the amber of the past. By '75, the sound of rock music was vastly different than it had been when the band had last recorded an album of new material, 1971's Cahoots. The studio effects and surreal lyrics of psychedelia, which The Band had partly been rebelling against on Music From Big Pink, was gone, replaced by a more natural sound, and with more sophisticated overdubbing and studio production. The music from this era has a warmth that is not merely due to its being pressed onto vinyl, but also because of the care and attention to detail that went into its production.

The last two tracks are filled with Garth's musical magic as well. "Jupiter Hollow" is a feature for Garth, he just makes it sound like he's opening a can of rainbow on everyone. Levon Helms' comments on this track say it all:

"One number, Jupiter Hollow, was a showcase for Garth, who really earned his nickname of H.B. (Honey Boy) on that album, because he was the one who put in the studio time that sweetened the record and put it in that state-of-the-studio mode. Shangri-La had twenty four tracks, and Garth used that leeway to craft as many as half a dozen keyboard tracks on a single song using the ARP, Roland, Mini-Moog and other synthesizers he was working with. A lot of this stuff was tied together with a computer keyboard, which Garth wielded like the wizard he is, giving the music an almost orchestral overlay."

On the original vinyl release of Northern Lights, Southern Cross, "Jupiter Hollow" is the final track, preceded by "Rags and Bones." However, on subsequent pressings the order changed to make "Rags and Bones" the final track. It's a song about the way music comes from the street, from real life, from history. It could have been one of the songs Robbie Robertson wrote for Neil Diamond's Beautiful Noise album. It was recorded at Shangri La in 1975-76 and released in 1976, ahead of The Last Waltz. Robbie produced the album and Garth played his signature Lowry as well as some Hammond organ.

In the post Last Waltz days, both before and after The Band reconvened without Robertson, Hudson appeared as a guest or studio musician on a number of tracks by musical friends and fellow travelers. Invariably when listening to a record I had no idea Garth was playing on, I'd hear maybe a certain bounce to the piano or a swirling sound wash or maybe a little pixie of a musical figure that reminds me of the circus or the carnival and I'll suddenly think 'that's Garth' as I scramble for the album jacket or CD case.

You can hear a song that Hudson plays on and maybe not notice--I mean, I can't but maybe you can. But once you hear some of the telltale playing that gives him away, you can ever un-hear it. You'll never hear that track again without noticing what Garth Hudson is playing at every single moment. Back to Greil Marcus, whose March 1976 review for Creem I quoted at the start of this piece: "He is simply a presence, painting his tapestries in the background, letting a listener catch glimpses between the cracks left by the other musicians, until finally you see the tapestry whole." That sounds like it could also be a description of God or Nature or whatever living force to which you ascribe the workings of the universe. But all of that power rested in the hands, mind, and spirit of a gentle and self-effacing individual who was the ultimate team player.

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