The Band - The Band - Greatest Hits
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Free Music Notes for The Band - Greatest Hits
Free Music Review: A lot of great music on one CD
Hit: 5 Stars
Earlier, I had an LP called "Best of the Band" that was 10 cuts and maybe 35 minutes. This is 18 well chosen cuts and double the length. There are a lot of "best of/greatest hits" type collections from veteran artists that originally came out in 70's or early 80's that had a limited number of songs and length. This IS a case where the record decided to offer more songs and give the customer a better value for their money. The music itself is 5 stars and they were a major artist due to the fact that they had 3 very good but very different lead vocalists handling the vocals. It gives the music a lot more variety and they put out a lot of fine music in their 1968-76 prime. As an aside, 3 of the Band members (Helm, Danko, and Hudson) also put out some good music in the 1990's.Free Music Review: The Band Greatest Hits
Hit: 5 Stars
Wonderful! Just like I remembered!! Thanks so much!Free Music Review: One of the finest compilation albums on the market
Hit: 5 Stars
If you're a casual fan of The Band, and just want one disc in your collection, this is for you. And if you're looking for a place to start, well, this is it as well.
Not a literal hits compilation, "Greatest Hits" brings together 77 minutes of highlights from The Band's classic albums (released 1968-1975).
The Band were an idiosyncratic outfit, blending folk, rock, country, R&B and a little bit of soul and gospel, and their tenure as Bob Dylan's legendary touring band made them a supremely tight and versatile ensemble. And this disc includes all of their best-known recordings, from the surreal folk-rock narraive "The Weight" to the vivid "Saga Of Pepote Rouge".
This is all highlights, really. The Band's wonderfully evocative cover of Bob Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece", all acoustic guitars, violins and ringing mandolins, is worth the price of admission by itself, and originals like "Acadian Driftwood", "Up On Cripple Creek" and "The Shape I'm In" are equally spellbinding.
And the musical variety is amazing, spanning gospel-flavoured New Orleans soul, country & western, straight-ahead R&B, and of course the vivid folk pastiche "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", a song which must have come to Robbie Robertson straight out of the 19th century.
This is one of the finest compilations on any artist. The quality of the music assembled here is unbelievable, and everybody with any interest in music owe it to themselves to get acquainted with The Band.
Five stars easy. Very highly recommended.
Free Music Review: A unique musical selection
Hit: 5 Stars
From their beginning as Ronnie Hawkins' backing band to their days touring with Dylan and on their own, the four Canadians and one American who made up "The Band" forged a connection between country and rock that was unique in its purity and complexity. The Band didn't go for the obvious "rock band trying to be country" approach of Gram Parsons' projects. Instead, they fused their love of roots with the emerging sound of first rockabilly and then pop. And when they were done in 1976, they had become a force to be reckoned with.
This collection culls some of (but not all) the best from the Band's discography, with the qustionable selection of the last two tunes coloring an otherwise excellent collection. The hits are spaced out with other selections that might not be so familar (for example, the beautiful "Tears of Rage", "Time to Kill", "King Harvest", etc). The overall effect reads like a great tribute to the music that these innovative men created over their career.
The sound is fantastic as well. You really feel like the music has been lovingly treated so the listener can get the best out of it. If anyone wants to know what all the fuss is about, you could probably play about five or so tracks off this collection and win a new convert to the Band.
So pick this up if you want to get some of the best American music ever recorded. Nothing beats the organ intro to "Chest Fever", the horns on "Ophelia", or the musicianship on "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". And "It Makes No Difference" is quite possibly the most beautiful torch song ever penned. Just ignore the last two tracks (which are okay but not spectacular enough to merit inclusion), and you'll enjoy every minute of this splendid album.
Free Music Review: Tough to pack it into one disk
Hit: 5 Stars
The Band is one of pop music's most glorious accidents. This was a group of road musicians that lived from nightclub to nightclub, and had little likelihood of rising much above that scene, until Bob Dylan rather whimsically decided to make them his onstage backup band to perform his newfangled "rock" songs in the mid-60s. Then, because they were neighbors in upstate NY, they played on the demos that became "The Basement Tapes." Anyone who spent that much time with Bob Dylan might well decide, "hey, I should be a songwriter," and that's what some members, chiefly Robbie Robertson, did. When it came time to record their first album, what blossomed was their road-hardened musicianship, combined with the Dylan-bred desire to make of each recording a new thing unlike anything else that has existed before. Thus, amazing tracks like "Tears of Rage" and "The Weight" came into being. Along with covers of yet-unreleased Dylan songs like "This Wheel's On Fire" and "I Shall Be Released," the "Music from Big Pink" album essentially changed the course of American pop for a few years. If Jimi Hendrix was the most influential US musician in 1967, by 1969 it was the Band, and that's a radical shift.
It turned out they didn't have a bottomless well of great songs in them, but the quality at the beginning is astonishing. Robertson (with some help from Richard Manuel) was able to fill the Band's first two albums and most of the third with nonstop classic songs. They stumbled badly with their fourth album, made a great album of covers and a great live album, both taking advantage of their superb musical skills, had a partial creative comeback with their seventh album, and then ran aground for good--Robertson essentially admitting he was out of ideas by planning the grandiose "Last Waltz."
If the question is, "are these the Band's 18 best songs," the answer is not quite. "Time to Kill" doesn't belong here, nor does "The Saga of Pepote Rouge"--the weirdest choice of the bunch. I might argue with the inclusion of "Rag Mama Rag" over "Whispering Pines," "Unfaithful Servant" or "Across the Great Divide" from the second album; and you could argue for "In a Station" or "Lonesome Suzie" instead of "Chest Fever" from the first album. "Stage Fright" seems underrepresented--where's "W.S. Walcott's Medicine Show," or "Sleeping"? I could lose "Ophelia" to make room for those. Also, why no selections from the live "Rock of Ages" album? Not only do you miss "Baby Don't Do It," but the live version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a tour de force, and belonged on this instead of the studio version.
All this really means is, you should get this (as I write, it's $7.99. They're practically giving it away!), but then go out and buy the first three albums, plus Rock of Ages, Moondog Matinee and Northern Lights, Southern Cross, and appreciate the unlikely little miracle that was The Band.