Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks The Roulette Years
(2 CDs)
- Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks The Roulette Years Dvd
- Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks The Roulette Years Cast
- Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks The Roulette Years Full
This is probably the Hawkins CD most worth hunting down for Band fans. It has everything on the Rhino album (except for cut 18, which is a track recorded in 1970).The two-CD set contains a lot of stuff with Levon drumming, and a fair bit of stuff with Robbie and Rick, and several songs with Garth and Richard too. Altogether there are six songs that feature the complete Band lineup backing Hawkins. Three of the songs are shelved recordings from the early 60's with the young Levon singing lead and Robbieand Rick on instruments (along with saxman Jerry Penfund), including anengaging version of 'Further on up the Road'. Quite a few ofthe songs have the complete Band/Hawks lineup in place (with one interesting substitution: Roy Buchanen plays bass and Rick Danko is on Rhythm guitar on versions of 'Bo Diddley' and the version of 'Who Do You Love?' that appears also on the Across the Great Divide box set).Garth Hudson contribute a few things to several cuts on this compilation (he is not playing on the Rhino collection), including a wild series of organ fills to 'Bossman' in which you can hear intimations of the Garthhood to come. The CD pair contains acomplete record of all the participants in the recording sessions Hawkins played in while with Roulette from 1958 to 1963.
The compilation includes'Suzie-Q', a good, but not great, cover of Ronnie's cousin Dale's hit,the Helm/Robertson/Danko/Penfound song 'What a Party','There's a Screw Loose' (there sure is, this track is worth the CD price), and'Kansas City' by Rockin' Ronald, although Ronnie says it's not him singing on that one.
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for RONNIE HAWKINS AND THE HAWKS - THE ROULETTE YEARS -CD at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products! Ronald Cornett (Ronnie) Hawkins, a rock and roll singer and bandleader, is known primarily for starting the group the Hawks, which later became the Band. Ronnie Hawkins was born on January 10, 1935, in Huntsville (Madison County). His father, Jasper Hawkins, was a barber, and his mother, Flora Cornett Hawkins, was a schoolteacher. In 1945, the family, which included Hawkins’s older sister. The Roulette Years (2 CDs) UK: Sequel WED CD 266: 1994: Folk Ballads of Ronnie Hawkins: UK: Edsel 2. RONNIE HAWKINS, THE HAWKS, THE BAND AND STAR GUESTS. He recruited a group and called them the Hawks. Gradually, with changes, this band came to be what we now know as the Band. They left Hawkins in `64 to form an act of their own. Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks recorded for the US label Roulette from 1959 to 1964. This compilation is one of several covering that period. In my eyes it's the best.
Peter Viney on the tracks featuring The Band:
'The Roulette Years' is an essential album to have. There are somedoubts as to the 100% accuracy of the notes but they list sessiondates and who did what. In the sense of 'The Band' as the fivemembers, I'm not sure there are any. The tracks include JerryPenfound, the sixth Hawk. So that's the 7/5/63 session (dates are inBritish order) with the six Hawks: Bossman, High Blood Pressure,Instrumental intro, There's A Screw loose. Then there's a session on2/2/62 mastered at a much later date with Arkansas (version 2), andtwo takes of Mojo Man. That's seven tracks, but five 'songs.'The 1963 session that yielded Who Do You Love & Bo Diddley has four +Jerry Penfound, but no Garth. It adds Roy Buchanan and King Curtis.
Before that you're into three (Rick, Robbie, Levon) plus Jerry. 5tracks from 18/9/61, five from 13/9/61, one from 15/9/61. There isn'ta keyboard player listed on these at all. Go back earlier and you getjust Levon & Robbie, and earlier still, just Levon.
--from The Band guestbook, November 2011
Tracks
Disc 1
| 1. | Ruby Baby | |
| 2. | Forty Days | |
| 3. | Horace | |
| 4. | One of These Days | |
| 5. | Whatcha Gonna Do | |
| 6. | Wild Little Willy | |
| 7. | Mary Lou | (233K) |
| 8. | Oh Sugar | |
| 9. | Odessa | |
| 10. | Need Your Lovin' | |
| 11. | Red Hot | |
| 12. | Dizzy Miss Lizzy | (249K) |
| 13. | Hay Ride | |
| 14. | C-Riff Rock | |
| 15. | Baby Jean | (239K) |
| 16. | Southern Love | |
| 17. | Someone Like You | |
| 18. | Hey Boba Lou | |
| 19. | Love Me Like You Can | |
| 20. | You Cheated, You Lied | |
| 21. | Dreams Do Come True | |
| 22. | Lonely Hours | |
| 23. | Clara | |
| 24. | Honey Don'T | |
| 25. | Sick And Tired | |
| 26. | Ballad of Caryl Chessman | |
| 27. | Summertime | |
| 28. | You Know I Love You |
Disc 2
| 1. | Sexy Ways | |
| 2. | Come Love | |
| 3. | Searchin' | |
| 4. | Honey Love | |
| 5. | I Feel Good | |
| 6. | Suzie-Q | |
| 7. | Matchbox | |
| 8. | What a Party | |
| 9. | Bo Diddley | |
| 10. | Who Do You Love | (245K) |
| 11. | Bossman | |
| 12. | High Blood Pressure | |
| 13. | There's a Screw Loose | |
| 14. | Arkansas | |
| 15. | Mojo Man | |
| 16. | Further on up the Road | |
| 17. | Nineteen Years Old | |
| 18. | Kathy Jean | |
| 19. | Mojo Man | |
| 20. | Sexy Ways | |
| 21. | Ruby Baby | |
| 22. | Forty Days | |
| 23. | Hay Ride | |
| 24. | Light in the Window | |
| 25. | My Heart Cries | |
| 26. | Look for Me | |
| 27. | Love It up | |
| 28. | Your Love Is What I Need | |
| 29. | Kansas City |
Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks: The Roulette Years - 1995 - Sequel Records, UK, WED CD 266
The History of The Band
[Prev: Introduction] [Next: The Pre-Band Groups] [History Index]by Rob Bowman
From the article 'Life Is A Carnival',Goldmine magazine, July 26, 1991, Vol.17, No.15, Issue 287.© Rob Bowman and Goldmine magazine.Reprinted with permission.
All five had started playing early on, working their way through a string ofensembles bearing a wealth of evocative names. Helm (born May 26, 1940) hadplayed guitar in a two-guitar, stand-up bass and drums ensemble called theJungle Bush Beaters that wreaked havoc in the Marvell-Helena area before hehooked up with the would-be legend Ronnie Hawkins, Jimmy Ray 'Luke' Paulman and Willard 'Pop' Jones. It was with Hawkins that Helm first started beating the skins.
Guitarist Paulman had previously played with Conway Twitty, who was regularly booked a thousand miles north by an enterprising character from Hamilton,Ontario who went by the name of Colonel Harold Kudlets. Kudlets had a setupgoing whereby he booked bands from the South through Conway Twitty to play inSouthern Ontario, Quebec, and points along the Ontario/U.S. border such asDetroit, Cleveland and Buffalo. Conversely, he also sent groups from Ontariothrough Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks worked their way up to Canada a few times beforeHawkins realized that in the South they were one of several good band playing arockabilly style that was rapidly becoming dated, whereas up in Toronto the sound was unique. As far as hipper Torontonians felt, they played thefastest, most violent rock'n'roll ever heard. Logic and money being what theyare, the Hawks made Toronto their adopted home in 1958.
One by one, the other members of what would be the Band entered the fold asvarious original Hawks succumbed to homesickness and headed back south. JaimeRobbie Robertson (born July 5, 1943) was one of the first recruits. A refugee from Robbie and the Robots, Thumper and the Trambones and Little Caesar and theConsuls, Robertson, a few months shy of his sixteenth birthday, joined earlyin 1960, initially on bass. For a while he was being groomed forthen-guitarist Fred Carter Jr.'s job, as Carter had already given his notice.
Rick Danko (born Dec. 28, 1943) came into the Hawks the other way around. He hadbeen playing guitar in various bands, several featuring accordion, in theSimcoe area from the age of 12. He first saw Hawkins backed by Robertson andHelm in 1960. Quite smitten by the crazed excitement of Hawkins' camel walkand the band's frenetic and ferocious accompaniment, Danko got himself anopening slot on Hawkins' next performance in the Simcoe area the followingspring.
Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks The Roulette Years Dvd
The next night he was a Hawk, initially playing rhythm guitar before learning toplay bass after Rebel Payne departed. Richard Manuel (born April 3, 1943)entered the picture later in the summer of 1961, after graduating from the Rockin' Revols, a band of hardcore rockers from Stratford who had toured theSouth through the Harold Kudlets connection. Originally a vocalist, Manuelplayed what he described as 'rhytm piano', nothing too complicated but goodenough when combined with his unearthly, etheral voice that landed him a job as aHawk.
The last to sign up was the much sought after Garth Hudson. Hudson (born August2, 1937) was older than the rest. Classically trained as a pianist, he was alsoinfatuated with rock and roll, especially that of hard, driving tenor sax playerssuch as Big Jay McNeely and Lee Allen. He himself had started playing sax inhis teenage years (his father, a drummer in the Birr Brass Band, had a C melodysax laying around the house).
Hudson's main claim to fame prior to joining the Hawks was as leader of PaulLondon and the Kapers. Originating from London, Ontario (hence the name), PaulLondon and the Kapers had recorded one 45 for the otherwise blackDetroit-based rhytm and blues label Checkmate. Released in 1961, neither sideof Checkmate 1006 'Sugar Baby/'Never Like This (The Big Band Twist)', wasvery distinguished and the record made few waves.(Another 45 was also recorded by Paul London and the Capers, releasedon both the Fascination and the Raleigh labels.The Capers reformed, without Paul London or, obviously, Garth, in about '65. Keyboardist on the first of their two LPs was Jerry Penfound.)
To the rest of the Hawks, Hudson was in another league as a musician. LevonHelm told E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg in the excellent book TheBig Beat, 'To get Garth Hudson, that was a big day because nobody couldplay like Garth anywhere. He could play horns, he could play keyboards, hecould play anything and play it better than anybody you knew...Hawkins justfinally bought Garth's time to play with us. Once we had a musician ofGarth's caliber, we started sounding professional.'
Hawkins originally had to buy Hudson's time. The only wayHudson would agree to join the band was if he was paid to give everyonemusic lessons as well as being paid as a regular gigging member of theHawks. Apparently, Hudson's family didn't approve of his rock and roll lifestyle, but were content as long as he was teaching music. A strange arrangement, to say the least, but the fact that they all went along with it is evidence enough of the regard everyone had for Hudson's musicianship.
Hudson joined up a little before Christmas 1961, and at that point the lineup that would mutate into the Band was complete. Various other singersand horn players came in and out of the Hawks, but the nucleus was there. Itis important to keep this in mind when considering what emerged on MusicFrom Big Pink in 1968. This was anything but a new group. They wereseasoned veterans who had known and played with each other for eight years.The Band sang and played with second sight.
Ronnie Hawkins released nine(?) 45s as well as a couple of albums forRoulette from 1959 to 1963. Helm drums on every one of them. Robertson and Dankoplayed on the last three singles, Manuel on the last two, and Hudson is onlyheard on the very final outing. (King Curtis can also be heard on a number of thesetracks.)
Ronnie Hawkins And The Hawks The Roulette Years Cast
The highlight was the second to last release, pairing Bo Diddley's 'Who DoYou Love' and 'Bo Diddley'. It didn't chart (only Hawkins' first two singles'Forty Days' and 'Mary Lou' had that kind of success), but on both tracks one hears four young bucks (everyone but Hudson), and Hawkin's screams curdling blood. 'Who Do You Love', especially, crackles and sizzles with aferocity distinctly rare in the white rock'n'roll of the early '60s.
[Prev: Introduction] [Next: The Pre-Band Groups] [History Index]