Band, The - Chest Fever Lyrics






I know she's a tracker, any scarlet would back her
They say she's a chooser, but I just can't refuse her
She was just there, but then she can't be here no more
And as my mind unweaves, I feel the freeze down in my knees
But just before she leaves, she receives

She's been down in the dunes and she's dealt with the goons
Now she drinks from the bitter cup, I'm trying to get her to give it up
She was just here, I fear she can't be here no more
And as my mind unweaves, I feel the freeze down in my knees
But just before she leaves, she receives

It's long, long when she's gone, I get weary holding on
Now I'm coldly fading fast, I don't think I'm gonna last
Very much longer

"She's stoned" said the Swede, and the moon calf agreed
I'm like a viper in shock with my eyes in the clock
She was just there somewhere and here I am again
And as my mind unweaves, I feel the freeze down in my knees
But just before she leaves, she receives





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Band, The Chest Fever Comments
  1. R.... G....

    Few things are better than the sound of a Hammond Organ. going through a Leslie speaker. A masterpiece. The great cover band Three Dog Night does fabulous version of this on their "Captured Live At The Forum" album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpHm7eGYCGA Jimmy Greenspoon does justice, (albeit abbreviated), to Richard Manuel's keyboards, and the body of the song is actually better by TDN, (like TDN often did to covers), but ofcourse they owe everything to this, the original.

  2. S.... F....

    I agree. Best ever. Foley

  3. D.... L....

    Sorry y'all I still like the # dog night version better

  4. P.... S....

    ❤❤❤❤❤

  5. b.... ....

    The production value on this record was ahead of everybody else.

  6. G.... A....

    The Band. Timeless....

  7. P.... P....

    Great song, great band. Thanks to my brother Jim for playing this in his bedroom next to mine!

  8. A.... C....

    Love this song! Three Dog Night does a great version too!

  9. U.... i....

    Metropolis zone?

  10. G.... T....

    I can hear the 'Leslie'

  11. s.... ....

    How a Hammond is SUPPOSED to sound!

  12. M.... D....

    My guitar teacher John Thomas told me to buy this album in 1968 took it to show a friend in high school in Toronto and he fell over Robbie is his first cousin 😁 guitar teacher played the bars back in the day and of course they all knew each other

  13. r.... g....

    Damn, Levon's snare!

  14. W.... ....

    if I won the lottery I'd spend it all buying a hockey rink, just to play this on the organ.......

  15. d.... t....

    @washsox, ThankYou for upLoading This Purrefect in EveryWay BAND Song! From the day This Was ReLeased (& until i tank) Starting w/ ROYALTY Humble Garth Hudson's GREAT INTRO UnTill The Fini. This & ALL BAND Tunes ALLWays Spark Rushes Of JOY~(G _..., GoGo Johnny&GaiL~Thanks) & ComRADness! Best, dtf🕴, Chgo. Where The 📻 & 💃🏻💃💃🏿💃🏼💃🏽GRRL's & The Bourbon (& MaLort) & Homade Vodka is Always 100 Proof In Madison WisConSin/Ohio & Milwaukee & ChicaGoGo, Peace & Love Mofo's & MoJoJoe's & o+'s, PoGo~GO🌀

  16. j.... ....

    Sqozeart a big bag with a funny nozzle

  17. �.... �....

    Might just take your life clearly, not child in time.

  18. B.... L....

    Listened to this on a battery operated cassette deck on an east coast seashore, slaying C cell batteries, 4 at a time, listening to this in 1968, from 3 Dog Night, and finally saw them do it live in Boston. Never seeing The Band live, I can't compare heads up. But emotionally, intro aside, I'd go with the original.

    B.... L....

    3 dog night was my first listen on this one

  19. j.... m....

    1968. Compared to this most other bands were in a different decade

  20. R.... ....

    Second City TV. Edna Boyle is auditioning new organists to replace her estranged husband. Hippy-looking Rick Moranis comes on and starts with the beginning of this song. Edna: "Can YOU play better than that??!"

  21. b.... ....

    Rich Manuel gotta be one of most underrated vocalists in music...
    But hey whatever I'm still Twitter-following Ariana Grande and FB friends with Cardi B so I'll be ok 😁

  22. m.... ....

    It took me awhile to realize what I was hearing, but Paranoid sounds a lot like the opening of Chest Fever.

  23. G.... G....

    hi sounds great I love it thank you the best the band

  24. K.... H....

    A friend referred me to The Band for the awesome guitar playing of Robbie Robertston-- damn, I wasn't expecting kick ass organ playing like this-- great song!

  25. B.... S....

    Suddenly Keith Emerson, Mathew Fisher and Mark Stein took up the saxophone.

  26. K.... W....

    Brilliant!

  27. r.... h....

    Who're the twenty nine Helen Keller's?

  28. I.... ....

    This might be the best album ever made

  29. S.... T....

    I know Dewey Bunnell musta been groovin on this song in 1971 when Horse With No Name came out, huh? I can hear the organ riffs he turned into la la's lol!

  30. W.... ....

    Who is playing the keyboards?!!!

    W.... ....

    Garth Hudson🙄😏

  31. s.... ....

    still UN fuckn bee lee vaybul listen to this 50 years ago

  32. G.... ....

    This band must've inspired Spooky Tooth!

    G.... ....

    IDK if you are familiar their work, they made many great songs look up other songs by "The Band" its worth it .

    G.... ....

    You broke my heart so ..

  33. G.... ....

    If we have this song to thank for Might Just Take Your Life (Deep Purple), thank you, The Band. This is brilliant.

  34. B.... B....

    Their best song I think

  35. l.... ....

    One bad ass intro!

  36. T.... z....

    SO SHWEEEETTT...much love Tee with LIONS NAMED LEO.[the music worldwide}

  37. j.... s....

    very much longer or very much on her. what do you hear?

  38. F.... R....

    The Band!!! Nothing more needs to said.

  39. P.... H....

    The right reverent Garth...

  40. A.... W....

    wish i could draw like that

    A.... W....

    Adam Wagner hahaha

  41. T.... C....

    For more Garth Hudson here's my Mississippi Flood written for The Band http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasTzzVb0pM

  42. A.... A....

    This was played at Goldy McJohn's funeral. Goldy McJohn was the organist for Steppenwolf & another awesome classic rock organist. He loved The Band.

    A.... A....

    Garth, Goldy, Jon Lord, and Rick Wakeman. I am a 50-yr guitar player but I would give up both nuts to play like any one of those gentlemen.

  43. A.... C....

    This is one of those songs I heard once when I was very young. I did not pay attention to who it was but I remembered the main riff. That riff stuck in my mind... I could never place it for decades but to me, it was so foundational to the kind of music I liked. I began to think it was just a product of my imagination and that no riff like this actually existed until I heard this song on Tom Petty's Burried Treasure show just recently. It connected me with an old memory and I finally realized where it came from.

  44. F.... R....

    What a wonderment. This life's journey We are on.

    F.... R....

    the band the beatles dylan got me thru a troubled youth have-not heard this for ages, so far ahead of everything. most those guys gone too bigger souls for this world

  45. F.... R....

    How can you NOT.

  46. G.... K....

    Bury My Dog !!!

  47. S.... F....

    Thank you 1968 Kmart bought Music from Big Pink. Not a Blue Light Special Shoppers !

  48. W.... ....

    I have a chest fever and the cure is more cow bell, and organ.........

    W.... ....

    you should go to the pharmacy and tell them you have a prescription for more cowbell.

  49. G.... P....

    Fantastic! I haven't heard this in ages.

  50. S.... R....

    Love this. Classic.

  51. m.... k....

    Confederates

  52. D.... P....

    Fell in love with this song ever since I first heard it on Music Choice.

  53. L.... W....

    This song can't ever get long enough or loud enough. Beautiful.

  54. G.... W....

    classic song--love that 3:00 to 3:50 break

  55. G.... W....

    That first 0:30 awesome

  56. G.... W....

    The 80s before it was fashionable.

  57. B.... H....

    Garth makes the room swirl

  58. N.... S....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74yUsqHTgWU @2:15 ;0... "that's right edna!"

  59. G.... G....

    hi great song the band thank you

  60. b.... t....

    Must be a lot of insider information in these lyrics.

  61. C.... B....

    Is there a swampier drum track than Levon Helm's on this? Genius!

    C.... B....

    Chris Boylan Levon was the master. Those old wood rims were the shit! Never will his sound be duplicated ....... RIP 💔

  62. T.... W....

    Great song from the Band! An obscure classic "Gem" (for lack of exposure)because it didn't fit the mold.

  63. s.... n....

    This is Garth's world...

  64. J.... D....

    Every time I hear this song I just want to hook my thumbs behind my suspenders and strut across the dance floor. Rocky Mountain Way does the same thing to me.

  65. J.... D....

    A Lowrey FL and a Leslie speaker - outside of a cathedral, the king of really BIG sound.

  66. j.... c....

    Very good

  67. E.... W....

    This is rock & rock!!!

  68. G.... K....

    Get High !

  69. P.... H....

    50 years old and still as fresh as spring water.

  70. L.... S....

    Cool tune this and stagefright.

  71. o.... ....

    40 years later,and no one has done a version of this great song that comes close to this.Garth has a lot of credit for that,along with The Band's twisted harmony.

  72. H.... ....

    Perhaps their best single. Great song to get stoned by.

  73. F.... Q....

    I remember Dolly Parton as a guest on Lettermen. Paul and his band played her on to the stage with Chest Fever intro. Get it????

    F.... Q....

    Fred q Is that a real thing?

  74. L.... L....

    "Garth Hudson" ladies and gentlemen on Organ.  Like it or not this cannot be beaten.

    L.... L....

    Except by nearly every Deep Purple, ELP, The Spencer Davis Group, Procul Harum, Moody Blues and Yes song.

    L.... L....

    @Uisce Preston Sorry UP wrong a mundo, they are all good but this is what they call Out of Sight!

  75. J.... P....

    Few songs from the 60's could rock like this one did.....The Band, The Best!

  76. J.... P....

    I remember the first time I heard this song (1972) like it was yesterday. Standing on a railroad track in Elmore Alabama watching a freight train coming straight at me. My best friend and roommate put this song on the phonograph and turned it up really loud. I could hear it coming from the house next to the RR tracks. Thought there is a lot out there I need to figure out and walked off the tracks. I'm a retired aerospace engineer living on a beautiful ranch on SW Wyoming now. Great memory every time I hear this song. Thank you to Robbie, Levon, Rick, Garth, my old friend/roommate, ect.

  77. S.... F....

    Song til this day kicks ass in 2017

  78. K.... a....

    I know! Key boards JAM on this song-Organ & Piano. 🎶🔊🕪louder please!!!

  79. T.... H....

    I just want to break even, man. Quote from Richard Manuel, the Band, movie The Last Waltz, directed bt Martin Scorcese.

  80. B.... S....

    OH LORD OF THE AGES, I HAVE NOW FOUND THIS SONG!!!! 😊❤😊❤😊❤👍

    I would ONLY hear it very occasionally on rock radio, the only thing ONE DJ said about the song was "The Band." So, for the past 30+ years, I knew who did it, but never knew the title.

    You know how I found it just 10 mins ago?? I did a Google Search in which I literally said - and I shit you not - "that long song by the band with lots of keyboards." I was honestly down to my last hopeful breath of ever finding this amazing keyboard CLASSIC. But found it, I finally did!!!! 😊❤👍

    B.... S....

    dude! I also always loved this tune but for the life of me never knew the artist nor title... last evening, my friend played this on our way to a phish show and I grabbed his phone and looked at the screen and eureka!!! Been playing it all morning now to get my fill...

    B.... S....

    @vedran balic Yep!! It's great when this happens. 👍🏻

  81. m.... g....

    hear the organ fill at 3:58 ,{just one note maybe 2. after 1,678 listens I still can't tell how its done} that sound is equal to any sound ever produced by any guitar or needless to say any other organ player ever !!

  82. P.... ....

    My favorite song by The Band

  83. M.... H....

    Epic.....

  84. D.... C....

    I rarely compliment another guy on his organ work, but in this case, I need to make an exception! FUCKING INCREDIBLE!!!

    D.... C....

    Doug Campbell LOL

  85. M.... W....

    baby can't you feel my chest pounding out the heartbeat of america

  86. G.... B....

    what a fucking awsome song period!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  87. C.... G....

    such a cool song. good luck not getting it stuck in your head.

    C.... G....

    Cherry Garcia OOOOPS!! LOL 😉 🤘 👍

    C.... G....

    try smoke on the water deep purple it gets anything out of your head

  88. T.... N....

    Not enjoyable at all

    T.... N....

    YO,THARG NUT-GET YO EARS CHECKED IMMEDIATELY, IF THEY OK, CHECK YO HEAD

    T.... N....

    You Must not have a soul . Better get that checked out...see a witch doctor.

    T.... N....

    You, sir, are dead. I'd have that looked at. Or possibly you have suffered a joyectomy.

  89. W.... C....

    the best song ever!!!!

  90. J.... V....

    Listen to Jamie Robertson's guitar. What is that Wahwah with treble up to maximum?

  91. W.... S....

    Where's the DUGUDUGUDUGUDU?!

  92. G.... K....

    Couldn't believe Scorcese edited this classic out of The Last Waltz for the most part.

    G.... K....

    That was the single most disappointing aspect of that concert, failing to get this on the album. Still don't understand why if they can add the Staple Sings to the mix after the concert, why couldn't they have included this song. It's hard to pick a favourite Band song but this is certainly in the top 5. I've always considered this Garth's song.

    G.... K....

    Agree Scorcese was an idiot

  93. J.... K....

    Late bloomer here...I actually heard this first done by 3 Dog Night. But then again, I heard Mr. Skin by Juicy Lucy before I did Spirit

  94. d.... m....

    first 3 notes.play at my funeral. anything after that. your choice. damn, garth. I'm back at 14. I'm high. and hearing this for the first time. thinking, well, it can't get any better than this -- then . . . dom dom dunh daaa...ouch! pass me that joint...

    d.... m....

    This was played at Goldy McJohn's funeral. Goldy McJohn was the organist for Steppenwolf & another awesome classic rock organist. He loved The Band.

    d.... m....

    Don't bogart pass it back!!!

  95. W.... I....

    This organ intro influenced John Paul Jone's organ intro to Led Zeppelin's "Your Time is Gonna Come."

    W.... I....

    Ah ha.....cool

    W.... I....

    Really liked this song---one of the few I like by them. When I first heard it off a CD compilation, I liked it right away, even though I was almost sure I'd heard it somewhere before, but couldn't place it.

    W.... I....

    What I Left doesn't surprise me

    W.... I....

    That organ influenced alot more than that .....The Big Pink album was life changing to me and here I am still jamming to it

    W.... I....

    That's cool.

  96. D.... ....

    Garth Hudson and TJ Gypsy River http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_3575356
    by TJ..recorded at Levon Helm's..