Moondog Matinee

{{Infobox album

| name = Moondog Matinee

| type = Cover Album

| artist = the Band

| cover = Moondog Matinee, The Band, original cover.jpg

| alt =

| released = October 15, 1973

| recorded = March–June 1973

| venue =

| studio = {{hlist|Bearsville (Woodstock, New York)|Capitol (Hollywood)}}

| genre = Rock

| length = 35:09

| label = Capitol

| producer = The Band

| prev_title = Rock of Ages

| prev_year = 1972

| next_title = Planet Waves

| next_year = 1974

| misc = {{Extra album cover

| header = Reissue cover

| type = album

| cover = MoondogCover.jpg

| border =

| alt =

| caption =

}}

{{Extra album cover

| header = Australian alternate cover

| type = album

| cover = Moondog Matinee, The Band, Australian cover.jpg

| border =

| alt =

| caption =

}}

}}

{{Album reviews

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|2|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r29848|pure_url=yes}} link]

| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev2Score = B+{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: B|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=B&bk=70|accessdate=February 21, 2019}}

| rev3 = DownBeat

| rev3Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite magazine|date=October 2001|title=The Band: Moondog Matinee|magazine=DownBeat|pages=66}}

| rev4 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev4Score = B+{{cite magazine|date=May 25, 2001|title=The Band: Moondog Matinee|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|pages=81}}

| rev5 = MusicHound

| rev5Score = 5/5{{cite book|editor-last1=Graff|editor-first1=Gary|editor-last2=Durchholz|editor-first2=Daniel|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|isbn=1-57859-061-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612/page/72 72]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612/page/72}}

| rev6 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev6Score = {{Rating|3|5}}Brackett, Nathan, with Hoard, Christian (eds) (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lRgtYCC6OUwC&q=cahoots&pg=PA42 The New Rolling Stone Album Guide] (4th edn). New York, NY: Fireside. p. 42. {{ISBN|0-7432-0169-8}}.

| rev7 = Q Magazine

| rev7Score = {{Rating|4|5}}

}}

Moondog Matinee is the fifth studio album by Canadian/American rock group the Band, released in 1973. It consists entirely of cover material reflecting the group's love of R&B and blues music, with one exception in their interpretation of the theme from the film The Third Man.

In a 2002 interview, Levon Helm described the reasoning for recording an album of covers: "That was all we could do at the time. We couldn't get along—we all knew that fairness was a bunch of shit. We all knew we were getting screwed, so we couldn't sit down and create no more music. 'Up on Cripple Creek' and all that stuff was over—all that collaboration was over, and that type of song was all we could do."Lopate, Mitch. [http://theband.hiof.no/articles/lh_interview_gritz_fall_2002.html "He Shall Be Levon...: The Band's Levon Helm Is Rocking Harder Than Ever With The Barnburners"], GRITZ magazine, Fall 2002.

The original idea had been to replicate the group's setlists of the mid-'60s when they had been known as Levon and the Hawks, playing clubs throughout Canada and the US. Of the ten tracks, only one, "Share Your Love (With Me)" had been performed by the group in the mid-'60s. The rest were merely tracks the group admired, two of them, "Holy Cow" and "A Change Is Gonna Come", chronologically coming after the group's club days.

Rhapsody praised the album, calling it one of its favorite cover albums.[http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/02/great-covers-albums.html Rhapsody’s Favorite Covers Albums retrieved 01-08-10] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731012250/http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/02/great-covers-albums.html |date=2010-07-31 }}. John Bauldie in Q Magazine called the re-issued album 'funny, affectionate and immaculately polished' in 1991.{{Cite magazine |last=Bauldie |first=John |date=5 March 1991 |title=Stories |magazine=Q Magazine |volume=84 |pages=10}}