‘The Band’ member Canadian Garth Hudson dead at 87

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) - Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of the Canadian-American rock icon group, ‘The Band,’ died Tuesday. He was 87.

“The greatest organist in rock history,” respected rock music critic Steven Hyden wrote on X.

Hudson died at a nursing home in Woodstock, New York.

Along with Canadians Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and guitarist Robbie Robertson and American drummer Levon Helm, Hudson formed The Band in 1967.

Hudson played organ on ‘Music From Big Pink,’ the group’s first album. The classically-trained musician from London, Ontario, was famed for his introduction to the album.

The Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend heard the intro while he was at the home of The Monkees’ Peter Tork and was astounded.

“I realized I was listening to something ground-breaking,” Townshend told Clash magazine in 2019.

Recently, Elton John went as far as to say ‘Music From Big Pink’ transformed him due to The Band in general and Hudson in particular, thanks to Hudson’s “incredible intro work on the organ,” according to the The Globe and Mail newspaper.

Helm once referred to Hudson as “the soul and presiding genius of our band.”

The group, famous for rock gems like ‘The Weight’, ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ toured with Bob Dylan during his 1966 world tour.

They released the 1977 album ‘Islands,’ but called it a day with their farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in 1976. Known as ‘The Last Waltz,’ it was produced by Hollywood icon Martin Scorsese and featured guest artists like Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton Neil Diamond and Van Morrison.​​​​​​​

The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.​​​​​​​