BEST OF THE BAND

Discography / Life Is a Carnival

Life Is a Carnival

The opening track on Cahoots, and the clearest bright spot on an otherwise strained record. Co-written by Helm, Danko, and Robertson, the song is built around one of the most distinctive horn arrangements in the group's catalog, courtesy of New Orleans producer Allen Toussaint, who hadn't actually heard of the Band before Robertson called him, but agreed to write charts for the track anyway. The collaboration went well enough that the group brought Toussaint back the following year to score their entire horn-augmented live run at the Academy of Music, released as Rock of Ages.

The song opens with just drums, guitar, and handclaps before the horns crash in, seven players deep, and the arrangement counterbalances the rhythm section's syncopation throughout. Levon Helm sings lead, with the rest of the group dropping in and out on harmonies as the song builds. The carnival-as-metaphor-for-life idea is a common one in songwriting, but the group's performance, together with Toussaint's horns, elevates it well past the cliché, turning a fairly simple conceit into one of the most purely enjoyable tracks the group ever recorded.

Notable versions