The Band - Greatest Hits
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Free Music Notes for Greatest Hits
Free Music Review: Not Bad!
Hit: 4 Stars
When I got this disc, I had heard no other song by The Band, than "The Weight". I love that song, but I didn't know what to expect of the other songs and didn't know if they'd appeal to me. I was actually quite impressed with the other songs. The Band is really in a class by itself. They don't really sound like anyone else and their music is a mixture of so many different genres. Rock, R & B, Country, Cajun, Folk, but it all sounds good. I'm glad that I got this disc, even though the songs are kind of different, but different doesn't mean bad. Just unique. I think The Band deserves more credit, in music history, than they've gotten. I would recommend this to any serious music lover.Free Music Review: The Band Greatest Hits
Hit: 4 Stars
I Agree with a lot of the reviews that a few more tracks or other tracks over some others would of been a good idea, but this is a great sampler.the highlights for me are Chest Fever Garth is such a great player ,you get chills down your spine with that intro,also Shape im in should of been a big hit great song The Weight,and Up On Cripple Creek are classics ,I Shall Be Released is a great gospel style song towards the end of the disc you see that the great songs were running out and them breaking up after the last waltz made sense..a great introduction if your just discovering this great band recommended.Free Music Review: The Band - Greatest Hits (-1)
Hit: 4 Stars
Great overview of The Band's history, with pretty much all of the right songs - with the exception of exclusion of "Don't Do It," which is somewhat ironic, as that I believe was their highest charting singleFree Music Review: Great CD
Hit: 4 Stars
Great purchase and a lot of songs on this album. Was very pleased with the product. However it took forever to recieve.Free Music Review: Smash Hits vol 1!!! (... Dust on Mother's Bible)
Hit: 3 Stars
The Band - perhaps the only rock 'n' roll band whose career and music Faulkner might have imagined - as defined by this predictable compilation, made their mark as one of the most important and fascinating (and sometimes maddening) American (you prefer Canadian?)rock 'n' roll bands beginning with the release of their truly audacious debut "Music From Big Pink" in 1968 until their worthy but slightly off-putting finale, the film and album "The Last Waltz", was issued almost exactly ten years later. They were not very prolific, issuing only six studio albums of original material - after "Big Pink" came "The Band" in 1969, followed by "Stage Fright" (1970), "Cahoots" (1971), "Northern Lights - Southern Cross" (1975), and "Islands" (1977). I like all of these records, but the consensus is they're an uneven lot, the best appearing early on. In addition, there's a wonderful album of covers, "Moondog Matinee" (from 1973, a year in which David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, John Fogerty, John Lennon, and The Carpenters were among the artists offering 'self-portraits' - thanks, Bob - in the form of LPs of non-original material), a superb live set, "Rock Of Ages" (1972), and "The Best Of The Band" (1976), with one new song to bait fanatics. A few more studio originals were scattered on singles and the mostly live "Last Waltz", but that's still a pretty small body of work from a group working together long before their official debut. Of course, they famously collaborated with Dylan again in 1974 (the underrated "Planet Waves, written by Bob and recorded in three days, and the live "Before The Flood").
Since "The Best Of" there have been quite a few anthologies that all contain the same 10 or so 'classics', as well as three boxed sets (they got it right the third time). What's so dispiriting about this latest comp is how it predictably shaves off all the rough edges of The Band's career, which is far more quirky and interesting than those bookended ten years suggest. Since 2000 some of that 'shadow history' has emerged, thanks to superb expanded remasters of all their albums, as well as the excellent and aforementioned boxed set, "A Musical History" (2005). The box finally delves into the group's pre-Band history, and if you think either 1976 or 2000's "The Best Of" portrays this group's range, listen to the blistering rock 'n' roll the Band, ne The Hawks, made with Ronnie Hawkins. The box offers a few savage morsels, and for a more comprehensive look at the early days, track down the 2-CD set "The Roulette Years" (Sequel/UK) issued a decade ago, offers close to 60 tracks recorded 1959 - 63. Levon was with Hawkins as far back as 1957 or '58, and all five Band members were aboard by the end of 1961. Robbie wasn't always interested in restraint as a guitar player - on those 1961 - 63 Hawkins sides he's like a cross between Hubert Sumlin and Johnny Thunders. Check out 'Suzie Q' or 'Who Do You Love' for some of the most savage rock 'n' roll guitar ever....And then we have the scattered, occasional studio tracks made with Dylan during 1965 - 66, such as the single 'Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window' (also on the box, which should have offered a few more), as incendiery as the Stones' Freudian raveup 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?'. By 1967, with Dylan off the road following his bike accident these six men were functioning as real collaborators, resulting, of course, in "The Basement Tapes" (and when will that masterpiece be upgraded and remastered?), timeless, surreal, haunting, and hilarious music written by Dylan, Richard Manuel, Robertson, Levon Helm, and Rick Danko, individually and in various combinations that would never be repeated after "Big Pink"...
Unless you define yourself as a casual music fan who wants a modest collection of quality popular music to play when guests visit (in which case you wouldn't have read this far), skip this dull anthology, which doesn't offer a single track that's not readily available on those 1968 - 77 Capitol albums (they even omitted the first "Best Of's" lone rarity, 'Twilight'). Get a few of The Band's now-expanded original albums, or read Levon Helm's autobiography; check out the boxed set, which begins around 1961. You'll find mystery, fragments of an American dream and a ghost story. And you'll come back for more.