Moondog Matinee

Moondog Matinee
Studio album by The Band
Released	October 15, 1973
Recorded	March–June 1973 at Bearsville Sound Studios, Bearsville, NY; Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; New York, NY
Genre	Rock
Length	35:09
Label	Capitol
Producer	The Band
The Band chronology
Rock of Ages (1972) Moondog Matinee (1973) Planet Waves (with Bob Dylan) (1974) Reissue cover Australian alternate cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	B+[2]
MusicHound	[3]
Rolling Stone	(mixed)[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[5]

Moondog Matinee is the fifth studio album by Canadian/American rock group the Band, released in 1973. It consists entirely of cover material reflecting the group's love of R&B and blues music, with one exception in their interpretation of the theme from the film The Third Man.

In a 2002 interview, Levon Helm described the reasoning for recording an album of covers: "That was all we could do at the time. We couldn't get along—we all knew that fairness was a bunch of shit. We all knew we were getting screwed, so we couldn't sit down and create no more music. 'Up on Cripple Creek' and all that stuff was over—all that collaboration was over, and that type of song was all we could do."^[6]

The original idea had been to replicate the group's setlists of the mid-'60s when they had been known as Levon and the Hawks, playing clubs throughout Canada and the US. Of the ten tracks, only one, "Share Your Love (With Me)" had been performed by the group in the mid-'60s. The rest were merely tracks the group admired, two of them, "Holy Cow" and "A Change Is Gonna Come", chronologically coming after the group's club days.

Rhapsody praised the album, calling it one of their favorite cover albums.^[7]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Ain't Got No Home"	Clarence "Frogman" Henry	Levon Helm	3:20
2.	"Holy Cow"	Allen Toussaint	Rick Danko, Helm	3:15
3.	"Share Your Love (With Me)"	Deadric Malone, Alfred Braggs	Richard Manuel	2:50
4.	"Mystery Train"	Junior Parker, Sam Phillips	Helm	5:35
5.	"Third Man Theme"	Anton Karas	Instrumental	2:43

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
6.	"Promised Land"	Chuck Berry	Helm	3:00
7.	"The Great Pretender"	Buck Ram	Manuel	3:07
8.	"I'm Ready"	Fats Domino, Al Lewis, Sylvester Bradford	Helm	3:22
9.	"Saved"	Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller	Manuel	3:42
10.	"A Change Is Gonna Come"	Sam Cooke	Danko	4:15

Bonus Track listing from 2001 re-release

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
11.	"Didn't It Rain (Outtake)"	Traditional	3:16
12.	"Crying Heart Blues (Outtake)"	Joe Brown	3:29
13.	"Shakin' (Outtake)"	Sam Cooke	3:31
14.	"What Am I Living For (Outtake)"	Chuck Willis	5:04
15.	"Going Back to Memphis (Outtake)"	Chuck Berry	5:02
16.	"Endless Highway (Studio version)"	Robertson	5:09

Personnel

• Rick Danko - bass guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
• Levon Helm - drums, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
• Garth Hudson - organ, piano, accordion, synthesizer, clavinet, tenor saxophone
• Richard Manuel - acoustic and electric piano, drums, vocals
• Robbie Robertson - guitars

Additional personnel

• Billy Mundi - drums (brushes) on "Mystery Train"^[8]
• Ben Keith - pedal steel guitar on "The Promised Land"
• Mark Harman - engineer
• Jay Ranellucci - engineer
• John Wilson - engineer
• Edward Kasper - artwork

References

1. link
2. link
3. 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.
4. link
5. 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.
6. Lopate, Mitch. "He Shall Be Levon...: The Band's Levon Helm Is Rocking Harder Than Ever With The Barnburners", GRITZ magazine, Fall 2002.
7. Rhapsody’s Favorite Covers Albums retrieved 01-08-10.
8. http://theband.hiof.no/albums/moondog_matinee.html