The Giant Panther

I've been sifting through my stacks of CDs I've been meaning to rediscover lately and came across this self titled debut solo release from Robbie Robertson. Released on either New Year's Day 1987 (according to Amazon.com) or October 27, 1987 (according to Wikipedia.com), depending on which allegedly reputable source you trust. I remember thinking how much I loved this record way back when. According to my database I bought 149 CDs as a scrawny 27 year old, but I d0 remember listening to this record incessantly that year. Legends Peter Gabriel and Bono joined a Wisconsin band called The BoDeans (score two points at home if you own even a single BoDeans CD....I just went and checked and apparently I own three....the first two and their fifth....I hate when I have gaps in my collection....stupid economy....say it like Homer Simpson) in support of this record. It didn't sell as well as it should have as I recall.

I don't have access to sales figures, but it did eventually win a Grammy for one of those useless categories nobody remembers. You and I would like to think big stars like Robertson, Gabriel and Bono just happened to be palling around in some swampy southern locale, but the circumstances aren't quite so mysterious. Apparently, at the time, now legendary record producer Daniel Lanois was working Gabriel and U2 at the same time he was messing around with The Band's lead song writer trying to make this record. You may have heard of a couple of minor projects Lanois was working on at the time called So and The Joshua Tree by now. Can you imagine! Talk about monster records. He was on his way and making it (Big Time). Thank you very much on both counts. And Robbie's record makes three great production jobs inside of a year. I was reading Chronicles Volume I by Bob Dylan last summer (absolutely riveting book if you haven't read it...the detail is outrageous. How does he remember what someone was wearing 40 years ago? I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday) and there was a whole chapter dedicated to Dylan working with Lanois during the recording of Dylan's 1989 release Oh Mercy. I know he had some help from Brian Eno on The Joshua Tree, but that's pretty heady territory for a Canadian who basically got his start producing tracks for local bands like his sister Jocelyne's Martha & The Muffins (of Echo Beach fame). Anyway...

The Giant Panther and I agree on one thing for certain; The Band were tremendous. I just happened to catch The Last Waltz, again, on VH1 Classics about three weeks ago on a Friday night. I just cracked a bottle of wine, sliced up a hunk of cheese and thoroughly enjoyed the heck out of the next three hours...again. They really had such a slice of Americana going it was hard to resist. Levon Helm was apparently the only American in The Band, but I would have never known that if I hadn't done a little research on them many years ago. The Band formed officially in 1967 and packed it in, after eleven years on the road, in 1978. I don't want to presume what Robertson was up to for nearly a decade before releasing his solo debut, but did you know Robbie Robertson was allegedly the primary guitarist for the Blonde on Blonde sessions after replacing Mike Bloomfield? Let's just say, as a session musician, if he needed or wanted work, it was there for him. Did you also know he ranked 78th on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time not all that long ago? I don't usually pay much attention to rankings like that lest I lose my mind, but that's pretty impressive when you think about it. I do know he spent time producing Neil Diamond and scoring a couple of movies, one of which was Raging Bull, after The Band broke up, but his debut CD was pretty cool. There is no mistaking the voices of Gabriel and Bono, but probably the best track on this record was Somewhere Down The Crazy River and it had Robertson written all over it. Back when local alterna-rock radio station WFNX was cool, it played songs like this one and Robert Cray's Don't You Even Care right next to The Cure, Talking Heads, New Order, Echo & The Bunnymen and Big Audio Dynamite. Ah Blues and Rock side by side. Yes! Again, sadly those were different times...

It's not like this record was a one hit wonder though. It had another favorite of mine called Showdown at Big Sky and several fairly recognizable cuts in Broken Arrow, American Roulette, Testimony, Sweet Fire of Love and Fallen Angel. It's a subtle and forgotten beauty of a CD. I went back to the reviews on Amazon.com and the preaching to the choir section was handing out stars like this baby was Blood On The Tracks. Know what? I'm glad it was for somebody because I've been enjoying the heck out of it lately myself. How can you go wrong with an intersection of Rock & Roll Hall of Famers like Peter Gabriel, U2 and The Band? Now take a little stroll with me to a much quieter time...in an abandoned '59 Chevy...layin' in the backseat listening to Little Willie John...yeah, that's when time stood still...