Rick Danko

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Richard Clare "Rick" Danko (December 29, 1942 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician and singer, probably best known as a member of The Band.

1 Early years (1942-1967)
2 One of The Boys in The Band (1968-1977)
3 Later Years (1977-1999)
4 Albums
5 External links

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Early years (1942-1967)

Danko was born at the tail end of 1942 in Green's Corner, a farming community outside of the town of Simcoe, Ontario, to a musical family of Ukrainian-Canadians. Growing up, as his future bandmates' also did, in front of the family radio, he was exposed to country and R&B music at an early age. At the age of fifteen, he dropped out of school and found a job as an apprentice butcher. At the age of seventeen, already a five-year veteran of playing music, he booked himself to be an opening act for Ronnie Hawkins, an American rockabilly singer whose group, The Hawks were considered to be one of the best in Canada. Among those already in the group were drummer Levon Helm, who had joined Hawkins in 1957 (before Hawkins ventured north) and lead guitarist Robbie Robertson, who had joined in 1960.

Hawkins, quite taken with Danko, asked the lad to join The Hawks as rhythm guitarist. Danko agreed, in spite of the fact he only knew four chords on the instrument. Around this time, Hawks bassist Rebel Paine was fired by Hawkins, who, wasting no time, had Danko learn the bass, and by September 1960, Danko was Hawkins' bassist, using the Fender VI six-string baritone guitar model, later graduating to a Fender Jazz Bass.

Soon joined by pianist Richard Manuel and organist/reedsman Garth Hudson, The Hawks played concerts with Hawkins through mid-1963, when an altercation between Danko and Hawkins led Danko, Helm, Robertson, Manuel and Hudson, as well as reedsman Jerry Penfound and occasional singer Bruce Bruno to hand in their two-week notices. Initially performing as the Levon Helm Sextet (as Helm had accumulated the most time with Hawkins), they later became The Canadian Squires before finally being called Levon and the Hawks.

Playing a circuit that stretched in an arc from Ontario to Arkansas, they became known as "the best damn bar band in the land". By 1965, with two singles under their belts and Penfound and Bruno long gone, they met the legendary blues harmonicist and vocalist Sonny Boy Williamson, and planned a collaboration with him, just as soon as he returned to Chicago. Unfortunately for the group, who went to play a four-month stand of gigs in New Jersey immediately afterward, Williamson died within days of their meeting, and the collaboration never happened.

At the same time, however, Bob Dylan contacted the group, who eventually all joined up with Dylan as his backing group (though it quickly became too much for Helm, who departed in November). Through May of 1966, Dylan and the remaining foursome with pick-up drummers, traveled across America, Australia and Europe, playing new versions of Dylan classics. After the final shows in England, Dylan retreated to his new home in Woodstock, New York, and the Hawks joined him shortly thereafter.

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One of The Boys in The Band (1968-1977)

It was Danko who had found the pink house on Parnassus Lane, just off of Stoll Road. He, Hudson and Manuel quickly moved in, with Robertson ensconsing himself nearby. The music that the group had been performing with Dylan at his house was moved to the basement of the hangout quickly dubbed "Big Pink". The sessions, which began about May 1967 ended about October 1967. At that point, Dylan and his backing group parted ways, with Dylan going off to Nashville to record John Wesley Harding and The Hawks started to record demo recordings for their first album. Songs like "Yazoo Street Scandal", "You Don't Come Through", "Ferdinand The Impostor", "Beautiful Thing" and "Words And Numbers" were completed by January 1968 (with Helm returning to the fold sometime between August and November), and at that time their manager, Albert Grossman, secured them a recording deal with Capitol Records.

Working over the next few months, the five-piece churned out what would be their debut album, Music From Big Pink. Released with a childlike painting by their former boss, it single-handledly contributed to help rockers damaged by the excess of the Summer of Love to find the roots of popular music. Touring behind the album, however, was not to be, as Danko injured himself in a car accident, putting himself into traction for months. It would be April 1969 when the group finally debuted in concert as The Band, at Bill Graham's Winterland in San Francisco.

By this time, they were already hard at work on their eponymous second album, The Band (album), considered by many to be their magnum opus. Danko, who had sung lead on all or parts of five of the eleven tracks on the first album only sang lead on two of the tracks for the second album. This would tend to be the standard on the albums, with Manuel or Helm handling the great majority of lead vocals on all but one (see Cahoots) of the Band's remaining studio albums recorded before 1978.

The Band's albums were defined by each member- Robertson's lyrics and guitar work, Helm's "bayou folk" drumming and Southern voice, Manuel's Ray Charlesesque vocals and rhythmic piano and Hudson's arranging and his genius behind whatever he fancied playing. However, the best selling point it had was Danko's bass style that set the group apart from others. Jazzy, funky, countrified... trading in his Fender Jazz Bass for an Ampeg fretless model (and later a Gibson G-3), his bottom end was like no other.

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Later Years (1977-1999)

Yet, by 1976, Danko wanted out. He needed to find his own voice, and with a contract from Arista Records, he had the chance to record at least one solo album. Issued in 1977, his self titled release Rick Danko featured each of his bandmates as well as a Ron Wood and Eric Clapton. Primarily recorded at the Band's California Studio, Shangri-La, it is the best and most accessible example of a member of The Band's solo career. The dismal showing of the album, however, barely cracking the Billboard 200, destined it for rarity status, and Danko, though having recorded a follow-up, was dropped from Arista. The follow-up was presumed lost for many years, but finally released as a part of 2005's Cryin' Heart Blues.

From 1983 to 1999, Danko alternated between a reformed version of The Band featuring Helm, Hudson, guitarist Jim Weider and from 1983 to 1986 Manuel, a solo career and occasional work with Eric Andersen and Jonas Fjeld. Recording demos throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, it took him until 1997 to follow up his first album with a proper second album (Rick Danko in Concert). Two years later, a third album (Live on Breeze Hill featuring Hudson was released, and he was busy at work at a fourth (Times Like These), which he sadly left uncompleted. Meanwhile, The Band recorded three albums of their own and Danko teamed with Fjeld and Andersen for two trio albums, Danko/Fjeld/Andersen in 1991 and Ridin' on the Blinds in 1994.

By the end of 1999, a lifetime of pushing himself over the edge left Danko out of shape -- huge -- barely recognizable. One day after a brief tour of the midwest that included 2 shows in the Chicago area and a final gig in Michigan, on December 10, 1999, a few weeks before turning 57, his heart finally gave out, and he died in his sleep. Danko, like Manuel, was a long time drug user; in 1997 he was found guilty of trying to smuggle heroin into Japan and told the presiding judge that he had begun using the drug to fight pain resulting from a 1968 auto accident. At the time of his death however, he was clean.

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