It takes approximately three great singers and a horn section directed by Allen Toussaint to equal one Marvin Gaye, and luckily that's the configuration The Band went with in covering "Baby Don't You Do It" live (that's "Don't Do It" as in "don't mess up this sweet song"). And wisely, The Band doesn't try to do it the way Gaye did it, even going so far as to retitle it.Whereas the original is all about propulsion, The Band's version is all about holding back. And although it sounds a lot slower, that's an aural magic trick—The Band only clocks in a tad less speedy. It's as though the music itself is trying to reverse the girl's determination to break The Band's collective heart.
Starting off with Levon Helm's slippery drumming and Rick Danko's pliant bass line, The Band slides into a groove that sits a hair behind the beat. Robbie Robertson's tight guitar riff soon joins in with Toussaint's punchy horns; Helm takes lead vocal, with Rick Danko and Richard Manuel stepping in to buttress him at key moments. And maybe the song's most key moment is when Helm sings, "I tried to do my best", while Danko and Manuel back him with high harmony and Toussaint's saxes accent the phrase with a yearning three-note figure. And the second most was the decision to end the performance on a dot after Robertson's vigorous solo.
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I read "Levon Helm's slippery drumming" and thought, "what the hell does that even mean?"
ReplyDeleteThen, I listened to the song and realized that's exactly what it is.