No Vaccine Yet for ‘Chest Fever’ by The Band
‘200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs Vol. 2’ Book Excerpt
“Chest Fever,” from The Band’s debut LP Music from Big Pink, was written by Robbie Robertson and displays the virtuosity of keyboardist Garth Hudson. Remarkably, the song’s organ solo introduction, inspired by Bach, was an afterthought.
“The intro to ‘Chest Fever’? We had the song all done, but John Simon, who produced Music from Big Pink, wanted an intro,” Hudson told Terje Mosnes.
“We put the Leslie cabinet, a 145, in a small cubicle and opened it up completely. I played the first three notes from Bach’s ‘Toccata and Fugue in D minor’ and then I improvised. The intro is longer than what you hear on the album. John edited it down.”
The intro, later titled ‘The Genetic Method,’ would be extended to several minutes when performed live. “‘The Genetic Method’ is one of several methods for studying folk music,” said Hudson. “It has nothing to do with ‘Chest Fever’ or the Lowrey organ, it’s just added to give people something to think about.”
“I’m not sure that I know the words to ‘Chest Fever,” Robertson said in the liner notes of The Band’s Anthology Vol. 1. “I’m not even so sure there are words to ‘Chest Fever.’
“‘Chest Fever’ was like, here’s the groove, come in a little late. Let’s do the whole thing so it’s like pulling back, then it gives in and kind of kicks in and goes with the groove a little bit. If you like ‘Chest Fever,’ it’s for God knows what reason, it’s just in there somewhere, this quirky thing. But it doesn’t make particularly any kind of sense in the lyrics, in the music, in the arrangement, in anything.”
Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 60s Rock Songs Vol. 2 and Fillmore East, The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
