A Musical History : The Band : Review : Rolling Stone

It's a monumental history indeed -- five CDs, 102 tracks, a 108-page book, a nine-performance DVD -- and clearly not intended for the casual fan. But then the Band, who revolutionized popular music while backing Bob Dylan in the mid-Sixties and then with the 1968 release of their debut album, Music From Big Pink, don't really have casual fans. The group's devotees will find much to enjoy on this set, and their pleasures won't be limited to the thirty-seven previously unreleased tracks and film clips.

Beginning in 1963, the first fourteen songs on Disc One document the group in its original incarnation as the Hawks, playing unvarnished bar-room blues (a searing "Who Do You Love," a previously unreleased cover of Bobby Bland's "Honky Tonk") on their own and while backing singer Ronnie Hawkins. A rambunctious version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" captures all the chaotic brilliance of Dylan and the Hawks' 1966 English tour. And to provide a career through-line, Music From Big Pink, The Band and The Basement Tapes are all generously represented, occasionally by alternate versions of familiar songs. Robbie Robertson, of course, was the group's lead guitarist and primary songwriter, but this set makes vividly clear how extraordinary an ensemble the Band were. As musicians and vocalists, drummer Levon Helm, pianist Richard Manuel and bassist Rick Danko were somehow able both to evoke highly distinctive moods and characters ("The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down") and to disappear into these songs' meticulous arrangements. Organist Garth Hudson is a constant wonder, a never-ending font of jaw-dropping musical ideas. "Genetic Method," his lengthy introduction to "Chest Fever" (included in two live versions here), is only his most obvious moment of mastery.

It was the Band's unique gift to sound at once loose and tight, instinctively responsive and eminently in control. By the time you arrive at the end of the fifth CD -- a soulful version of "The Weight," performed with the Staple Singers for The Last Waltz in 1977 -- you feel as though you've traveled every back road of American music. Blues, R&B, country, folk, gospel and ecstatic rock & roll: The Band made them all sound thrillingly new, and as if they had been there forever.

ANTHONY DECURTIS

(Posted: Oct 6, 2005)

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Track List

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Who Do You Love (track not available in Rhapsody)
You Know I Love You (track not available in Rhapsody)
Further On Up The Road (track not available in Rhapsody)
Nineteen Years Old (track not available in Rhapsody)
Honky Tonk (track not available in Rhapsody)
Bacon Fat (track not available in Rhapsody)
Robbie's Blues (track not available in Rhapsody)
Uh Uh Uh (released as: Canadian Squires) (track not available in Rhapsody)
This Wheel'S On Fire (track not available in Rhapsody)
Leave Me Alone (released as: Canadian Squires) (track not available in Rhapsody)
(I Want To Be) The Rainmaker (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
I Ain'T Got No Home (Live)
The Stones I Throw (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Go Go Liza Jane (track not available in Rhapsody)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window Bob Dylan (single version) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Tell Me Mama - Bob Dylan (track not available in Rhapsody)
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Bob Dylan (track not available in Rhapsody)
Beautiful Thing (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Words And Numbers (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
You Don't Come Through (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Caledonia Mission (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Odds And Ends (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ferdinand The Imposter (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ruben Remus (track not available in Rhapsody)
Will The Circle Be Unbroken (track not available in Rhapsody)
Katie's Been Gone (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ain't No More Cane (track not available in Rhapsody)
Don't Ya Tell Henry (track not available in Rhapsody)
Tears of Rage (track not available in Rhapsody)
To Kingdom Come (full-length version) (track not available in Rhapsody)
In A Station (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Weight (track not available in Rhapsody)
We Can Talk (track not available in Rhapsody)
Long Black Vail (track not available in Rhapsody)
Chest Fever (track not available in Rhapsody)
Lonesome State (track not available in Rhapsody)
This Wheel's On Fire (track not available in Rhapsody)
I Shall Be Released (track not available in Rhapsody)
Yazpoo Street Scandal (track not available in Rhapsody)
I Ain't Got No Home (track not available in Rhapsody)
Orange Juice Blues (track not available in Rhapsody)
Baby Lou (track not available in Rhapsody)
Long Ditance Operator (track not available in Rhapsody)
Key To The Highway (track not available in Rhapsody)
Bessie Smith (track not available in Rhapsody)
Across The Great Divide (track not available in Rhapsody)
Rag Mama Rag (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Night They Drove Ol Dixie DOwn (track not available in Rhapsody)
When You Awake (track not available in Rhapsody)
Up On Cripple Creek (track not available in Rhapsody)
Whispering Pines (track not available in Rhapsody)
King (Has Surley Come) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Get Up Jake (track not available in Rhapsody)
Jemima Surrender (track not available in Rhapsody)
Daniel & The Sacred Harp (alternate take) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Time To Kill (track not available in Rhapsody)
All La Glory (early version) (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Shape I'm In (track not available in Rhapsody)
Stage Fright (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Rumor (track not available in Rhapsody)
Slippin' & Slidin' (track not available in Rhapsody)
Don't Do It (track not available in Rhapsody)
Strawberry Wine (track not available in Rhapsody)
Rockin' Chair (track not available in Rhapsody)
Look Out Cleveland (track not available in Rhapsody)
4% Pantomime (track not available in Rhapsody)
Life Is A Carnival (track not available in Rhapsody)
When I Paint My Masterpiece (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Moon Struck One (track not available in Rhapsody)
The River Hymn (track not available in Rhapsody)
Don't Do It (track not available in Rhapsody)
Caledonia Mission (track not available in Rhapsody)
Smoke Signal (track not available in Rhapsody)
Unfaithful Servant (track not available in Rhapsody)
W.S. Walcott Medicine Show (track not available in Rhapsody)
Genetic Method (track not available in Rhapsody)
Chest Fever (track not available in Rhapsody)
(I Don't Want To Hang Up My) Rock `N' Roll Shoes (track not available in Rhapsody)
Loving You (Is Sweeter Than Ever) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Endless Highway (track not available in Rhapsody)
Move Me (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Two Piano Song (track not available in Rhapsody)
Mystery Train (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ain't Got No Home (track not available in Rhapsody)
Share Your Love (track not available in Rhapsody)
Didn't It Rain (track not available in Rhapsody)
Forever Young-Bob Dylan (track not available in Rhapsody)
Rainy Day Women & 35-Bob Dylan (track not available in Rhapsody)
Highway 61 Revisited-Bob Dylan (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ophelia (track not available in Rhapsody)
Acadian Driftwood (track not available in Rhapsody)
It Makes No Difference (track not available in Rhapsody)
Twilight (song sketch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
Christmas Must Be Tonight (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Saga Of Pepote Rouge (track not available in Rhapsody)
livin' In A Dream (track not available in Rhapsody)
Forbidden Fruit (track not available in Rhapsody)
Home Cookin' (track not available in Rhapsody)
Out Of The Blue (track not available in Rhapsody)
Evangeline (w/ Emmylou Harris) (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Weight (w/ The Staples) (track not available in Rhapsody)