"Up on Cripple Creek" is the fifth song on The Band's eponymous second album, The Band. It was released as a (edited) single on Capitol 2635 in November 1969 and reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Up on Cripple Creek" was written by Band guitarist and principal songwriter Robbie Robertson, with drummer Levon Helm singing lead vocal.
A live performance of "Up on Cripple Creek" appears in The Band's live concert film The Last Waltz, as well as on the accompanying soundtrack album. In addition, a live version of the song appears on Before the Flood; a live album of The Band's various concerts and shows with Bob Dylan while touring together in 1974.
"Up on Cripple Creek" is notable as it is one of the first instances of a Hohner Clavinet being played with a wah-wah pedal. The riff can be heard after each chorus of the song. The Clavinet, especially in tandem with a wah pedal was a sound that became famous in the early to mid '70s especially in funk music, and continues to be popular to this day.
Read more about Up On Cripple Creek: Lyrics, Chart Performance, Personnel, Covers
Famous quotes containing the words cripple and/or creek:
“A cripple or blind they will ca’ me,
While we shall be merry and sing.’”
—Unknown. The Gaberlunzie Man (l. 79–80)
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)