Customer Reviews

A Musical History (W/DVD)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of course, the material on "A Musical History" is excellent, The Band being one of the finest rock groups ever. Moreover, this box really does chart the musical history of The Band in chronological order, including material with Ronnie Hawkins and Dylan as well as material as Levon and the Hawks. Although it is comprehensive, the greatest flaw of "A Musical History" is that it has too much material for the casual fan and too little for the hard-core fan of The Band.

The biggest problem is that "A Musical History" does not present the full musical picture of The Band. There are a lot of gaps in the story: nothing form the two albums with John Hammond, none of the songs with Tiny Tim, and not enough songs from their later studio albums (no "Hobo Jungle", no "Knockin' Lost John," no "A Change is Gonna Come"). This set selects the same songs from the albums as other anthologies. Moreover, it would have been nice to include songs from side projects and maybe even solo albums as well as material from the post-Last Waltz edition of The Band, but I can see why they wouldn't do so.

Moreover, I have a problem with the selection of material. They include two versions of "Don't Do It," both previously released, but exclude only one song from "Stage Fright" - "Sleeping," one of the highlights of the album. The set also includes vastly inferior versions of album songs like the jazzy version of "Lonesome Suzie" which John Simon himself describes as "inappropriate." These kind of inclusions and omissions show that this set cannot be regarded as the full musical portrait of The Band.

The unreleased live material that is included is excellent (esp. "Smoke Signal" and the version of "Forbidden Fruit" with horns) and a real treasure, but it would be nice to hear the entire Royal Albert Hall concert. For some reason, they remixed the songs from "Rock of Ages," and I don't think it's an improvement. In addition, I would have loved to hear a live version of "Saved" from the 1973 shows at Watkins Glen or Roosevelt Stadium, which are some of the best among The Band's live gigs.

Another big problem is that the set relies on material already released on the remastered albums. Also, it seems like much of the unreleased material is just leftovers. Though it is no leftover, I doubt that the live "Smoke Signal" was just discovered, but rather I think they purposely held it back for this box set, as they probably did with other cuts. I think that there is probably more material in the vaults.

A lot of the so-called unreleased material is often barely so: the original mix of the disappointing "Key to the Highway," from the "Big Pink" remaster. The live "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is only a rarity, as it is available on the Bob Dylan "Masterpieces" three-CD set. Yet, there are a few gems: the unreleased Richard Manuel composition "Words and Numbers." Another great performance is The Band's cover of "Baby Lou," a little known song by Jimmy Drew.

One of the Rick Danko compositions was really great - "Home Cookin" - the lyrics are pure Rick and among his best songs. Great guitar solo from Robbie too. Indeed, "Home Cookin" should have made the cut for "Islands," as it's better than many of those songs. On the other hand, the "Two Piano Song" from Robertson's aborted "Works" project is forgettable, better than the horrific elevator muzak of "Islands" but not as good as the "Theme from the Last Waltz."

It would have been nice to hear more material with Bob, especially more Basement Tapes material, different selections from "Planet Waves," more unreleased songs from TOur '74, like "Hero Blues" or somehting.

The DVD should have included more footage as well. I know there is more video footage: "Up on Cripple Creek" on Ed Sullivan and their Woodstock performance, at least.

Though the package is handsome (the nicest I've ever seen), the housing for the CD's is annoying. Moreover, Bowman simply reused the bulk of the liner notes from those for the remastered series, and his notes are unsatisfactory and frequently just fluff.

I know that most of these complaints are relatively minor, but they add up to an incomplete picture of The Band's legacy. Again the biggest problems are the dearth of unreleased material and the gaps in the musical history. If Levon and The Hawks are going to be getting eight CD's in the forthcoming Other People's Music set, shouldn't The Band have gotten more than five or six? In the end, this set does not complete the story of The Band - you still need the studio albums, of course. Thus, "A Musical History" is not complementary but supplementary, but it is still a welcome supplement to any true fan of The Band; it seems that Capitol is finally showing The Band the respect they deserve.

Is this a great time to be a Canadian or what? Gordon Lightfoot is back on tour and in the studio, Joni Mitchell is re-considering her retirement, Neil Young has just released a watershed CD, Ashley Mac Isaac and Lennie Gallant have CDs on the horizon, even my Stephenson cousins in Aylmer are having thetime of their lives. And then along comes HISTORY. This is as complete and as balanced a review of the career of an amazing band as you'll ever cull into a box set. The novice isn't likely to embrace this, so it's pitched at the choir and the gems herein are a revelation. Beginning with their early start as Levon & The Hawks, through the Ronnie Hawkins and Dylan apprenticeships, their rise in the North American Collective Unconscious is so well documented that this really is archival, seminal, nearly anthropological in scope and breath. An entire epoch on the North American shelf was chronicled in these songs and in the course of the lives of these 4 Canadians and their Arkansas brother.
And what a history it has been. Their well known are wellprepresented, sometimes in alternate takes, and their swan song is echoed as the set comes to a conclusion appropriately with their collaboration with Emmylou Harris on "Evangeline" and the Staples on "The Weight." Roots music was never this good again.
And too often it seems like this is just part of the Robbie Robertson story, but this set sets that assumption to rest. Their post Band careers bore out that it was the synthesis of the 5 of them that created this history. The emotionally and psychologically fragile Richard Manuel gave them a vocie of terror at the weight of the world. Levon Helm brough an authenticity that could only have come from someone who knew what it was like to scratch the earth and hope for crops. Rick Danko brought a wizened view, remarkable for his age. Hudson made it all that much more incendiary by playing everything. The box set leaves no one uncredited for how and why this Band was so great.
In the years since, first Manuel, then Danko have left us. Danko had an important career going with Eric Andersen and Jonas Fjeld, but his heart gave out. Any of those trio records are worth seeking out - they came closest to surpassing what he did in the Band. Robbie has virtually disappeared behind his archive. Helm and Hudson have barely survived bouts with cancer, bankruptcy and heart disease. Like The Beatles, as they leave this world, they remind us how special their gifts to us were. And this is a worthy addition to their canon for the long view it gives of their creative genius.

The first Band box-set, "Across the Great Divide," was a disappointing ripoff, so this is long overdue. And it's also worth the wait! Others have criticized this set for having nothing completists won't already have. I disagree. I've been a serious Band fan for about a decade, and there are rarities on here that I'd never even heard of until now. So for all but the hardest of hardcore fans, this is a welcome surprise. Not perfect, but close enough.

If the accompanying book is correct, even the Band members themselves had forgotten about a couple of the previously unreleased tracks. As for the rest of us, if there's a mid-60s recording you've heard of but never heard up to now, chances are it's here. The 1964 single "Uh Uh Uh"/"Leave Me Alone" - which was considered "lost" a few years ago - is here, and it sounds terrific. All three of the 1965 Atco sides are here (only one, "He Don't Love You," was previously available on CD). The studio recording of their cover of Bobby Blue Bland's "Honky Tonk" was an especially nice surprise for me; I'd heard an extremely low-fi live recording of it before but didn't know they'd ever officially recorded it. There are a few surprises among their better-known work as well, notably the newly restored coda in "To Kingdom Come."

What is less satisfying is the selection of previously released tracks. I know no box set is ever going to satisfy all of a given act's fans, but the previously-released portion of this set seems particularly haphazard, especially the recordings with Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan. Where is "High Blood Pressure," the only Hawkins single on which Robbie, Levon, Rick, Richard and Garth all played? What about the myriad still-unreleased Basement Tapes that are rumored to exist? (There are a few new releases from those sessions here, including a great early version of "Caledonia Mission," but if the rumors are true it's still a drop in the bucket.) And why does every Band best-of have to include the supremely overrated "It Makes No Difference" and omit the beautiful "Hobo Jungle"?

Minor complaints, I concede, especially since anyone who likes the Band well enough to shell out for this collection will probably also have most or all of their original albums anyhow. The DVD is a great addition as well, particularly the Saturday Night Live performances from just a few weeks before The Last Waltz. Seeing the guys play together at that late date is almost surreal for those of us who know, er, the shape they were in, if you will. If you want everything, this will get you close to it, at least.

Being a big fan of The Band, I saved up my nickels and dimes and shelled out the money for A Musical History. I got just about what I already expected I'd get--(like one other reviewer put) perhaps a discs worth of early/unreleased material, an excellent DVD with some great live performances, and a large paperback book with a lot of really great pictures. The rest, from (essentially) the entirety of their first three albums to greatest hits of the rest, and the somewhat fairytale narrative in the book (primarily cobbled together from the liner notes of the remastered Band albums), I already had from buying those remasters. Was it worth it? Yeah. But I'm a pretty big fan of The Band, and a completist besides that. After listening to this compilation straight through a few times, I think it's best purchased by big fans and collectors; the extra material is not so revelatory to call it essential, the so-called "hits" are better heard complete, in their original albums (The Band was never a singles group, so why carve up their albums into re-sequenced compilations?), and considering the cost (over $80 new), most casual fans really won't be interested in shelling out that money for a group they're not obsessed with.

I'd say the earlier Hawks material is the most essential, since it's usually not included in any Band compilations. It's so much fun to hear the harder, earlier rock and roll sound they were cranking out--Robbie plays cutting lead on "Who do You Love?" and Richard Manuel howls in a way we've never heard on "Honky Tonk" and "Bacon Fat." There's also some interesting detours when the Hawks left Ronnie Hawkins, working such delightfully immature rockers as "Leave Me Alone," the oldie-sounding "Uh Uh Uh," and the romper "Go Go Liza Jane." This is some really fun stuff--it's not half as creative or accomplished as they got when they were The Band, but helps make the compilation worth the price of admission for me. There's also some great Dylan-era Hawks, like the dark Basement Tapes outtake "Words and Numbers," and the rare single "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"

The rest of the discs include unreleased tracks, live tracks and alternate versions that are at times very good but don't obviate the original album versions or reveal anything earth-shattering. A few of the unreleased tracks are phenomenal--a cleaned up studio version of the essential live favorite "Don't Do It," the funky cover "Baby Lou," unreleased Rick Danko tracks "Move Me" and "Home Cookin'" (how did "Home Cookin'" NOT make it onto the mediocre Islands--it's stronger than any other original!), and a superior version of the Manuel/Van Morrison duet "4% Pantomime" from Cahoots. A few of the live tracks kill as well--notably the Guthrie composition and Dylan collaboration "I Ain't Got No Home," ripping encore "Slippin' and Slidin'," rarities that really cook--"Look Out Cleveland," "Strawberry Wine," "Smoke Signal," and "Forbidden Fruit."

Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the unreleased material is pretty Robbie Robertson heavy and not as high-quality--he's shown a remarkable skill at self-aggrandizement, especially in rewriting his historical role in The Band. He tries to make it seem like he contributed a lot to vocals in the group, stacking the deck with unreleased tracks with himself on (weak) vocals. In actuality, he only sang on a couple tracks and his mic was always off in concert. Likewise, the liner notes are so pro-Robbie in their interview proportion and sympathy. Anyone interested in The Band's story should also read Levon Helm's autobiography This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band as a grain of salt.

The DVD is great too, with some awesome 70's concert footage and all 3 performances from their 1976 Saturday Night Live date. It's great to get some visual accompaniment.

The rest of the standard material from the albums is frustrating. A lot of times it's incomplete, with all but a couple tracks from an album, and sometimes the songs are rearranged from their original order, which is pretty weird when you're used to the superb albums the way they were meant to be. I bought this compilation for the unreleased material--there's nothing that will ever make me stop listening to The Band's albums in their full, original form (even the mediocre ones). The songs sound better in original sequence, and there are some great tracks that this compilation leaves out.

If you're new to The Band, I beg you please to experience their classic albums, Music From Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright, and Northern Lights - Southern Cross as entire albums, the way they're meant to be heard. If you're on a hunt for everything The Band ever recorded, this is a great place to pick up a bulk of extra material, despite its dubious value.

Simply put, the Band remains as one of the most influential musical groups in the history of popular music since the 1960's. If time capsules still have any meaning, "The Band, A Musical History" will allow future generations to get a strong flavor of what American music - Rock, Country, Folk, Gospel, Dixieland Jazz, Funk and Soul - was all about over the past 100 plus years (of course, future generations can always buy this box set). Although never the commerical equal of many other groups of the same era (Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys...), on a musical level, the Band was simply the best.
From the opening, electrifying guitar licks on 1963's "Who Do You Love" until Mavis Staples whispers "beautiful" at the end of the 1977 recording of "The Weight," the journey through The Band's history is one sweet ride. With five tour guides, the sights (112 page book and one DVD) and sounds (5 CD's) of America's musical heritage are all here. The Band itself occupied a special place in the evolution of popular music during the 1950's 60's and 70's. Disc 1 takes you back to the days of rockabilly roadhouse blues as the group, then known as The Hawks, tore up the highways of the American South up to the club circuit of Toronto, honing their craft much like The Beatles did all those years ago in Hamburg. "Bacon Fat," recorded in Toronto in 1964, represents the best of what the Hawks were all about back then, a powerful early blues/rock band with a cohesive sound that would carry them throughout their studio and live careers as The Band.
This first disc carries a whopping 14 previously unissued recordings. For real Band fans, this disc may be the most interesting of the five. While Levon Helm and Richard Manuel handle most of the vocals from this disc, it is interesting to hear the early development of Rick Danko as a singer as he really seems to be just finding his distintive vocal style. The other major breakthough here is the early collaboration with Bob Dylan, who clearly had a heavy influence on The Band's "Basement Tapes" and "Music From Big Pink" songs. The power of the Dylan/Hawks live sets is captured in the 1966 recording of "Tell Me, Momma."
The Band really becomes The Band early in disc 2, right after one of the highlights of Levon Helm's brilliant career, "Don't Ya Tell Henry" is followed by their very first side one cut, "Tears Of Rage."
Disc 3 contains tracks from the classic second LP, "The Band." More than any other release of their career, "The Band" stamped their identification with so many forms of American music and early American history. Here, there are some outstanding bonus live cuts which will jog the memory of those fortunate enough to have seen the group in their heyday. Chief among these is the 1971 Royal Albert Hall version of "Look Out Cleveland." In 3 minutes and 33 seconds, the best of what The Band was about is contained right here. The vocal interplay of call-response, the breakneck drumming of Helm, the carousel organ of the brilliant Garth Hudson, the harmonics popping from Robbie Robertson's guitar, the fills from Manuel's piano and backbone beat of Danko's fretless bass move forward in unison at 150 miles per hour. Chain lightnin' frightnin' good. Disc 3 ends with a very rough 6 minute version of "4% Pantomime." The Band's two main collaborations with Van Morrison, here and on TLW's "Caravan," link the two as kindred spirits.
Disc 4 doesn't offer much on the outtake side, but it does contain The Band performing at their musical peak on "Rock Of Ages." Even Neil Young made note of it in his song, "Two Old Friends" from the recent CD "Are You Passionate" ("back when The Band played Rock Of Ages in their prime").
Disc 5 takes us home for the original lineup of The Band and closes the book with the trifecta of "Evangeline" "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Last Waltz version) and the classic "The Weight" with the Staple Singers. Beautiful.
The DVD is, unfortunately, limited to 9 songs. Amazingly, a video tape of "Don't Do It" from Rock of Ages makes it way onto here - who knew that such footage even existed? This one will be a welcome surprise for most fans. It is clear that the recording is dubbed onto the video, but the overall effect is still there. Fittingly, The Band's three song performance on Saturday Night Live a month before the Last Waltz ends the box set. And, it is a nice touch that Rick Danko ("Stage Fright") and Richard Manuel's soulful rendition of "Georgia On My Mind" close the book on this chapter of The Band.
The companion book is filled with a nice perspective on The Band and their music and with special photos of the group, most of which have never been published before.
All in all, much credit goes to Robbie Robertson for putting the package together. An excellent job with few blemishes (CD sleeves, length of DVD). For those that want to catch up with The Band past and present, Jan Hoiberg's site is a phenominal resource. For those that want to hear the real thing, Garth Hudson still performs live with his wife Maude and with the stellar Burrito Deluxe. Levon Helm holds court every month at his Woodstock studio/home with the blues-oriented Midnight Rambles. They provide a real treat of what was, and what still is.

This is a beautiful set of recordings, and a great work of remastering. The clarity of the performances is outstanding. There are quite a few surprises here; tunes that I haven't heard before, even though I purchased each Band LP as it was released. Even if you have all of their records, as I do, this set is a MUST! The book alone is worth the price, and the DVD is icing on the cake. I was fortunate to have seen the Band live at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, on 1 December 1971. The DVD brought back a sense of what that performance was like. What a pleasure to hear all of this music in pristine sound!

One previous reviewer commented that the packaging was substandard. Nothing could be further from the truth. The book is first quality throughout. The CD's and DVD are placed in the last pages of the book and are no problem to remove and replace. I decided to copy the CD's to the computer, and to place the book in the library bookcase. In my forty-five years of record collecting, I've come across few sets of music that have impressed me as much as this set has. In short, this one comes most highly recommended!

One of rock's icons The Band receive the boxed set anthology treatment for second time. Although all this seminal band's recordings have been remastered with bonus tracks on individual CDs this set is a pretty good place to gather their essential songs along with about 2 CD's worth of previously unreleased material. Much of these songs consist eithre of alternate takes/live performances/unfinished songs so will be of great interest to the band.

While the box itself (much like the Talking Heads set) is awkard and large, "A Musical History" is exactly what a chronological gathering of the pivotal tracks and some previously unreleased tracks/rarities should be. The tracks included here that have been released before (such as "Leave Me Alone" recorded as Levon and The Hawks)have not been available on CD before and receive their debut here with stellar sound.

My one reservation with this set is that there's too much previously released material on this set. Clearly this was designed for hardcore fans or people that own some of their albums. Since The Band's catalog has been remastered before (and sounds great) this might be a great gift for a fan who hasn't upgrade their CD collection yet or who simply won't buy this for themeselves because they have much of the material. The real keeper here aside from the new to CD tracks is the DVD which features eight performances that have never been issued before or have been available on bootleg videos. The performances of "Life Is A Carnival", "Georgia On My Mind" and "Stage Fright" from "Saturday Night Live" hasn't been available (to the best of my knowledge) on DVD before in their entirety.

If you're a fan of The Band this is a great single collection with a deluxe book of great photographs and a fine discussion of the band's history by Rob Bowman. The DVD and previously unreleased tracks will be of particular interest to fans I just wish that they had been released together at a lower price vs. having to repurchase material that many fans already have.

They've really outdone themselves with this collection - don't know how they'll top it (and please don't - me and my pocketbook beg you)...All the essential stuff and a whole slew of outtakes and rarities that expands upon the previous collection by some 30-40 %....Great, timeless music from one of your epic, heroic rock bands...Cable is running "Festival Express" now, which features the Band, and their concert footage is not to be believed: they sing and play every song as though their lives depended on it, and in a way, they did, didn't they? Amazing too, not only their level of instrumental virtuousity, but also, the wealth of great singing. Most bands only have one star lead singer, they had three - Danko, Helm and Manuel were all just incredibly inspired vocalists who just, basically, sang their arses off every time they showed up - they never phoned it in.

I am without speech. These guys just do that to me. No need to wax eloquent as some others have.

Regarding some of the complaints above (or are they below). If you're so ham-handed you can't get the CD's out of the book without wrecking them, make archival copies (you're allowed to) and just keep the originals safely tucked away).

And when I read stuff like "Also, the large size of this box set means it will have to sit somewhere else other than with my music collection"... it's a book! Put it on your bookshelf! Sheesh.

The alternate takes, although sometimes maybe not as tight as the originals (sometimes, not always) are different looks you haven't seen before - to me it's worth every penny just for that.

There's so much here I've heard differently than before. I've been playing it non-stop since it's arrived. But these guys have been my runaway favorite band for 36 years and will no doubt be forever, so none of this is a surprise to me.

As other reviewers have expressed rather eloquently, the Band is responsible for producing some of the finest music of the 20th century.

All the evidence one needs for this assertion is provided in this fabulous package.

However, as it has already been pointed out by previous reviewers, this box set is preaching to the choir. And, as a member of that choir, I contend that the book alone is worth the price. Also, the few live performances provided on the DVD were a most welcome surprise, as all of them were worthy performances showing the Band at the height of their powers.

But, regarding the unreleased musical material, sadly, I don't feel that any of it is essential, as the best of it has already been included on the remastered original albums.

So the attic has proved to be bare. No matter. Truely this box set is one of the finest you'll see. A fine tribute to five musicians who have left a musically legacy that will live on for the ages.