La Matriarca The Libertine (1968)

The Band was a Canadian-American roots rock group including Rick Danko (bass guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (keyboards, drums, vocals), Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals), and Levon Helm (drums, vocals, mandolin, guitar). Their time backing Bob Dylan was when they first reached prominence (as well as providing The Band their name), but they were originally formed as The Hawks, a backing band for rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins…

For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan. Although the Band retired from touring after The Last Waltz and disbanded several years later, their legacy thrived for decades, perpetuated by the bandmates' respective solo careers as well as the enduring strength of the Band's catalog…

Tensions were growing within the Velvet Underground following the release of their sophomore album, White Light, White Heat: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for its work, and Lou Reed and John Cale were pulling the group in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording sessions the band had with Cale in 1968: three pop-like songs in Reedx27s direction (Temptation Inside Your Heart, Stephanie Says and x27Beginning to See the Light) and a viola-driven drone in Calex27s direction (Hey Mr. Rain)n Reed told Sterling Morrison and Mo Tucker that Cale was out, and while neither was happy with the idea, faced with a choice of either no Cale or no band at all, the pair reluctantly sided with Reed. Cale played his last show with the Velvets at the Boston Tea Party in September 1968, and was fired shortly afterwards.Before work on their third album started, Cale was replaced by musician Doug Yule, formerly of the Boston group the Grass Menagerie, who had been a close associate of the band.