Its so fitting thatGarth Hudsonwas the last man standing fromthe Band.
He came on like a woodsy sage whod landed in a band by mistake.
As a classically trained virtuoso, he wasnt so sure he wanted to join these rowdy kids at first.
Hudson in 1974Michael Putland/Getty Images
The rest of the Band could never really figure out this guy.
He rarely said a word in interviews, doing his talking with his fingers.
The mad professor could play organ, piano, accordion, horns anything to serve the song.
He could just as easily have played with John Coltrane or the New York Symphony Orchestra as with us.
Only he could make it so simple and unshowy, yet so powerful.
and How about switching it off?
But for the finale, the band shuts them up with Ballad of a Thin Man.
When he sings Who isthatman?, the question seems aimed at the bearded weirdo at the organ.
They lived together communally in upstate New York, in the Saugerties housethey called Big Pink.
Their image was set by their classicRolling Stonecover photofrom August 1968, taken by Elliott M. Landy.
We dont see their faces, just their old-man hats and coats.
They were brothers bonded by the music.
Its got the loose, frisky feel that none of the many Band imitators found a way to copy.
That yowl was Hudsons organ.
He grew up in Ontario, in a farming family.
I guess I began to play the piano when I was about five.
He studied classical, but he was schooled in country.
He pissed off Danko by suggesting he practice his scales.
But he shaped up their musicianship.
Temperamentally (and visually), he stood out like a sore thumb.
He was always inventing something, figuring something out.
Ronnie Hawkins, like everybody else, had no idea what to make of this strange cat.
Garth was different, Hawkins said.
He wasnt a rock & roll person at all, but it fitted.
The Hawks split off from Hawkins, backing up Dylan, then going on as the Band.
His big live showstopping, showcase moment wasThe Genetic Method,his extended eight-minute Bach-style intro to Chest Fever.
Even by Sixties hippie standards, this guy stood out as a real character.
Like Kooper, Hudson did some of his wildest playing with Dylan.
Hes the mercury in Dylans thin wild mercury sound.
Thats where they and Dylan spent the Summer of Love, making their legendaryBasement Tapes.
He turned the cinder-block cellar into a clubhouse where they could jam.
He set up a two-track tape recorder and a mixer, so they could record in stereo.
It was a funky down-home sound.
The only problem might have been the furnace going on, HudsontoldRolling Stones David Brownein 2014.
He recorded the sessions on reel-to-reel tapes, widely bootlegged almost immediately.
(Everybody but Manuel.)
Garth, more than anyone, made the Band the friendship that everyone else wanted desperately to share.
But he elevated everything he played on.
He was married for 43 years to his wife Maud, who passed in 2022.
He always seemed devoid of ego, a kindly presence from a world of his own.
AsRolling Stonelovingly called him in the Seventies, he was always the enigmatic forehead.
Garth was the last remaining member of the Band, and his death marks the end of their brotherhood.
He truly belonged in the Band.
Thats why the world is mourning Garth Hudson now he represented something profound and ancient in the American spirit.
