In 1972, the Band released the double-live album Rock of Ages. While the Band's songwriting and performances are exceptional, Rock of Ages is best remembered for Allen Toussaint's horn charts, which appear on two thirds of the album. He neatly interweaves a five-piece horn section, including jazz notables Howard Johnson and JD Parran, around the Band's performances. The players seem to interweave effortlessly, with the horns tastefully augmenting the songs and playing. The horns play a prominent role on the cover of "Don't Do it", which opens the album and was released as its memorable single. Garth Hudson also gets a feature here, with his extended solo on "The Genetic Method". Rock of Ages shows off the group's incredible ensemble playing, and their ability to execute it consistently in live concerts. While the vocal harmonies are impressively strong, the lead vocals sometimes lack the narrative quality that makes the studio album performances so special — it's obviously difficult to sing with that level of thespian personality while playing. The recordings lack the magical feeling of the first two Band albums that almost seem found — they sound instead more like a conventional concert recording. The gold-leaf inlay on the cover and the triple-gatefold give the package a nice majesty, which the music obviously lives up to.
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