Robbie Robertson’s Storyville
Not long ago, I unearthed an old cassette of Robbie Robertson‘s Storyville album. I’m trying to figure out my thought process during the LP/cassette/early CD years. Specifically, why I ever chose to buy cassettes – the least reliable and most easily damaged format possible. Well, I know why, actually. It was the car cassette player. Tunes in the car were mandatory – and the cassette was the only way to listen to your tunes on the road.
So I’d walk out of the record store every time with either an LP and a blank tape (later a CD and a blank tape), or the officially released cassette. Storyville was released in 1991, and I opted for the cassette only.
Paying homage to the Storyville section of New Orleans, the album features a who’s who of the Louisiana sound: a handful of Nevilles, the Rebirth Brass Band, George Porter, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Big Chief Bo Dollis… and a bunch of Robertson’s friends also make appearances: fellow Band members Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, Ginger Baker, Bruce Hornsby, Neil Young, Mike Mills, David Baerwald, and on and on and on….
It’s definitely an album to be ingested as a whole, since it sets an atmosphere and takes you on a journey through some great stories and characters. One of my favorites is this tune…
Robbie Robertson – Day of Reckoning (Burnin’ for You) – from Storyville
4 Comments
Dave Lifton
Loved Storyville. One of the best Daniel Lanois albums he never produced.
Pete
Good thought – wonder what the Lanois treatment would have done to this record…
Judd6149
Pete…I have to be honest. I have never given this one the spins it deserves. I am definitely going to have a front-to-back listen this week. Thanks.
p.s. I know how you felt with wanting the sounds as soon as you walk out the store. Cassettes!? What’s next? I need a brain implant that I can store my tunes in and they play tunes in my head using my mind.
Yes, I am drinking right now.
(hope your iPhone survived the chicken soup)
Pete
YOU, Judd.. you and your proximity to London pubs!! I’d be drinking too!
The iPhone appears to have come through unscathed. All that remains is a tiny noodle fragment in the charging port. Adds character…