April 26, 2024 —– Chart #243
Hello Music Friends,
Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Today’s song may not be one that you are familiar with unless you are a deep cut fan of The Band. Well if this one is new to you, sit back and enjoy because it is a great song. “It Makes No Difference” is a song written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Rick Danko that was first released by The Band on their 1975 album Northern Lights – Southern Cross. It has also appeared on live and compilation albums, including the soundtrack to the film The Last Waltz. Among the artists that have covered the song are Solomon Burke, My Morning Jacket, The Icicle Works, Trey Anastasio, Over the Rhine and Eric Clapton.
The Band biographer Craig Harris considers it “one of pop music’s saddest songs.” Music critic Nick DeRiso similarly states that “The Band, as a whole, has never constructed a sadder moment, nor one with more direct specificity.” The song’s theme is the singer’s inability to get over a failed relationship. Among the metaphors used to portray the singer’s sadness are images of weather, such as the sun never shining, constant rain and clouds hanging low.
Critics have attributed much of the success of “It Makes No Difference” to Rick Danko’s lead vocal. Hoskyns considers that “there is something so elemental” in how Danko expresses his loss that it “transcends self-pity”. According to DeRiso, Danko’s vocal manages to express the “lonesome bottom of this song while retaining its sense of reckless emotional abandon,” without ever sounding resigned to his fate. Levon Helm and Richard Manuel add harmony vocals on the refrain, adding to the sense of pain. Hoskyns and DeRiso also credit Robertson’s and Garth Hudson’s “anguished” guitar and saxophone solos for complementing the effect of the vocals. According to DeRiso, Danko, Hudson and Robertson are all “walking the same fine line — Danko, between torment and utter heartsick disaster; Hudson and Robertson between stabbing attempts at redemption and a reluctant acceptance.”
The Band Live: https://youtu.be/ZfBqWNFOVo8?si=tlGm8_NnFhQ6w-o3
According to Robertson, “I wrote this song specifically for Rick to sing and when we first started discovering the possibilities, it kept expanding to more levels of emotion. What Garth and I could add to finalize the statement of this song was purely instinctual.”
If you have ever had your heart broken or loved someone who did not share your love, this song paints that emotion like a tear filled tapestry. Try playing this one and you will be hooked. I did, and now and can’t get out of of my head. Enjoy this one.
Keep Rockin’,
Stan Bradshaw