Rick Danko Discography

Rick Danko was — and will forever be known as — one of the three singing members of the Band, as well as their bassist. Their principal lead singer on the first album, he was second of the members to join the group back in its days backing Ronnie Hawkins, and the second of its members to pass away.

He was born Richard Clare Danko on December 29, 1942, in Greens Corner, Ontario, Canada, near the town of Simcoe. Danko`s whole family played or sang, and he was playing banjo for his classmates as early as the first grade. As a boy, he listened to Hank Williams, among other country artists of the late `40s and early `50s, in addition to gospel and R&B, with Sam Cooke and Fats Domino both strong influences during his teen years. He gave up school to go into music full-time when he was in his mid-teens, and made the jump to the big time — relatively speaking — by joining Hawkins` backing band, the Hawks, at age 17. Guitarist Robbie Robertson was already a member of a couple of years` standing at that point, and Danko was initially the group`s rhythm guitarist, but he soon learned to play bass and switched to the four-string instrument. He not only mastered the electric bass but also the upright acoustic bass, and became an amazingly accomplished player on both instruments at a very young age.

Danko`s bass work was distinctive enough, but along with Levon Helm and Richard Manuel, he was also one of the three singing members of the group, and his lead vocals were all over their debut album, Music from Big Pink. But Danko was badly injured in an automobile accident soon after that album`s release — people write about Dylan`s motorcycle accident from this era, but relatively few realize that the man who sang lead on most of Music from Big Pink broke his neck and back in nine places, and spent months in traction recovering. He was back for their second album, The Band, and he became one of the most memorable new vocalists in rock during this period, his performances on songs such as "The Shape I`m In" and "It Makes No Difference" among the most searingly beautiful in late-`60s rock.

After a long struggle with heroin and a life-long pain resulting from his 1968 auto accident, Rick Danko died of heart failure just under three weeks before what would have been his 57th birthday.