Musical History

[danasgoodstuff]

I know some of y'all are fans and some are not, but I was surprised to see no comment on this recent doorstopper/potential Xmas present. I am a big fan, as I think I've said here before, and have been listening a lot to this since getting it for myself as a birthday gift. i could, and have, written pages and pages, but I'll just start by saying while I think it's good enuff to be worth getting if you realy have much interest at all..it's a long way from perfect, both in terms of not making the best posible choices re selection and sequencing and in terms of (non)analysis in the notes...anyone interested in getting into this in more depth?

[GregK]

there could have been lots more Dylan stuff. I would have rather have had another disc of unreleased music than the dvd. And the booklet is mostly a rewrite from the remastered albums

[jazzbo]

Man. . . It seems odd that they're including so little of the unreleased and so much of the same old tunes. . . .

I'll get it if I get really flush in the next months, or if I get lucky and get it as a present. . . . But I'm mostly interested in the unreleased stuff and it's a big expense for a small part of the set!

When this band was really "on" it was something else!

[GregK]

why is there nothing from their Woodstock performance? Or Watkins Glen?

[Dave James]

I have nothing from The Band in my collection. I do have Scorcese's film of "The Last Waltz", which is pretty good. If one is bereft of The Band, would this set be a good investment? I've seen it at Borders and I have a 25% off coupon. That would put this in the $70 range.

Up over and out.

[GregK]

The box is a good overview, mostly, but that means it includes stuff from the lean years. I think the Band is great but even I can't sit through the Cahoots/Moondog Matinee/Northern Lights era (except for maybe Acadian Driftwood). I still think the Band's greatest moments are on the first two albums-Music From Big Pink and The Band. Get those

[JohnJ]

Came across this less than positive (one star) review from the U.K. Guardian.

The Band, A Musical History

(EMI)

David Peschek

Friday September 23, 2005

The Guardian

If ever there was an argument for the occasional pernicious evil of the CD reissue, this five-disc-plus-DVD box is it. A Musical History is certainly comprehensive: it runs from the Band's early backing-band days - first for Ronnie Hawkins, then the newly electric Dylan - through seven albums that document their evolution into trad-rock behemoths. And, for completists otherwise at a loose end, it includes 37 unreleased tracks.

Critical consensus has it that this is seminal and hugely important music. But it's clear - especially over five CDs - that it is music whose ersatz nature, conservatism and ill-disguised fakery attains a crushing critical mass of boredom. Creating a plodding, hybrid Americana from borrowed blues and country, the Band have squatted over a certain kind of North American music ever since their heyday. But painfully evident in their cod-soulful straining for gravitas is the lack of the vitality of their influences, smothered as it is by the deadening weight of heritage. And does anyone need to hear The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down ever again?

[Joe]

Critical consensus has it that this is seminal and hugely important music. But it's clear - especially over five CDs - that it is music whose ersatz nature, conservatism and ill-disguised fakery attains a crushing critical mass of boredom. Creating a plodding, hybrid Americana from borrowed blues and country, the Band have squatted over a certain kind of North American music ever since their heyday. But painfully evident in their cod-soulful straining for gravitas is the lack of the vitality of their influences, smothered as it is by the deadening weight of heritage. And does anyone need to hear The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down ever again?

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That's pretty brutal. Maybe this reviewer is still being feeding off the Robbie Robertson backlash (ad RR, whatever his musical gifts, has earned his share of pummeling).

And I would argue that there was never, ever anything phoney or straining about Richard Manuel's vocal performances, particularly on those first 2 LPs. In fact, Manuel is the primary reason why I still pull out my copies of BIG PINK (which does sport some marvelouly subtle psychedelic touches) and S/T.

Have to agree though that, after STAGE FRIGHT, rigor mortis does begin to set in.

[jazzbo]

I don't know. . . I really like "Moondog Matinee." Maybe I'm just weird but it's fun and it's pretty well-executed to my ears!

[jazzbo]

Dave, if you're new to The Band, I wouldn't spend the 70 dollars on this. . . I'd get "The Band" and see whatcha think.

[Kalo]

Dave, if you're new to The Band, I wouldn't spend the 70 dollars on this. . . I'd get "The Band" and see whatcha think.

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What he said.

[Dave James]

Thanks guys, the feedback if appreciated. I've pretty much decided to pass on the Band box. Strikes me as overkill considering I'm quite the neophyte when it comes to their music.

Up over and out.

[billyboy]

I would recommend the 3-disc anthology Across the Great Divide, available through Yourmusic.com for $17.97. A very nice overview, I think.

[GregK]

And does anyone need to hear The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down ever again?

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Yes, I do. It's a good song. The current version of the Allman Brothers do a nice version of this, too.

[Sundog]

And does anyone need to hear The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down ever again?

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Yes, I do. It's a good song. The current version of the Allman Brothers do a nice version of this, too.

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True, but Gregg manages to mess up the words just about every time.

[danasgoodstuff]

Glad to see all the response, sorrry for not getting back to this sooner. Yes I did see the reveiw in the Guardian (it's linked from the fansite www.theband.hiof.no). Kind of a cheap shot if you ask me and not particularly helpful to anyone considering purchasing this box and wondering if the compilers did a good job. Have to wonder what flavour of the month he does like. Apparently he does need to hear The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down again 'cause he just doesn't get it... I agree with Jazzbo that Moondog Matinee has a certain fascination, even moreso in the remastered/bonus cuts added edition - I have a theory that all great originals are also great interpretors.

At over 1/3 previously unissued, I think the proportions are about right there and I don't think there's much more studio stuff of release quality; live is a different matter, maybe we will see some more of that someday... Some of their previously unissued is just technically so, different live version or different studio mix, but then some of the previously issued singles are quite obscure. I don't know if I would've had more Dylan overall but I think I would've made some different choices...

Overall I think it's about a B level job, when they deserved an A. Unfortunately it won't do as an only Band purchase, the omission of the master of "Lonesome Suzie" and any version of "Jawbone" make purchasing MFBP and The Band necessary. Too bad, a little more care in the selections and intelligence/honesty in the notes would have taken it from good to truly excellent.

I forget who asked but if you can get Across the Great Divide for less than $20 go for it!

I could blow by blow this to death (I've been scribbling on my legal pad for weeks) but won't do that here/now.

Thanks muchly to everyone for your considered responses.

[danasgoodstuff]

Just a couple more things I forgot to add last time:

1) Moondog Matinee is not really, as others have pointed out, a recreation of the Hawks. Very little of it is from their old repetoire, some couldn't have been 'cause it's too recently written. It's an idealition, not of who they were but who they might've been if they hadn't become the Band (?). The newly remastered version with bonuses has some v. nice outtakes, even if some of them are a long way from finished.

2) Musical History does do a v. good job making clear one aspect of their work, no mater how rustic in effect, it was v. much a conscious, carefully constructed studio creation. They did not, as Robbie is quoted as saying of Dylan, "record the Same Way that Blind Lemon Jefferson did".

3) The blues side of their influences is over emphasised at the expense of country and other things; this is perversely wrongheaded, they are far more complex and interesting than any one-dimensally hard rockin' blues-based bar band, even if they had been there and done that in real road houses from Arkansas to Ontario before Clapton, the Stones, et al had even played their first gigs...

As always, your input is appreciated.

[danasgoodstuff]

Clem,

No offence taken...I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone here that I have a more forgiving nature than you, but that being said and taken into account, I don't think we disagree all that much here...

I'll get back to you when I get the chance to listen to the Drive By Truckers,

Dana

[Quincy]

The package is too much like the older box sets like the one for The Who. On the one hand there might be a market for a box with 1/3 rarities and 2/3s the same old stuff, but I'm not buying that kind again unless I can find it cheaper than dirt. (And that'd be cheaper than what yourmusic will charge assuming they stock it.)

They were just too late for me. I have CDRs of a bootleg boxset Crossing The Great Divide. The early Hawks stuff is interesting but it's not something that will get played tons. I've traded for various live shows and their hard drinking reputation certainly did effect their playing at times. Some of them are a mess.

Regarding Watkins Glen, there was an official release in '94. However, it wasn't all Watkins Glen. Naughty naughty. Read about it here.

Note - Both links above take you to the same site about The Band.

[jazzbo]

That is a good site. . . I've browsed there and wished I had some of those bootlegs.

I just think it's so odd that we now have THREE official box sets that basically have lots of the released stuff mixed with a little of the unreleased stuff.

[GregK]

meantime, any of ya'll who are giving this ANY thought & haven't heard the last three (count 'em) drive-by-truckers records (don't be fooled by joke name) are missing out HUGE... i wouldn't even tell ya'll to start with the (Jason Isbell) song "Danko/Manuel" from "The Dirty South" but since we're here--

xxc

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Don't forget Southern Rock Opera with Ronnie and Neil-we need 'em both anyhow!

[md655321]

Great to see the Truckers mentioned.

Absolutely fantastic band who can rock anyone's ass off.

Edited November 18, 2005 by md655321

[marcello]

Regarding Watkins Glen, there was an official release in '94. However, it wasn't all Watkins Glen. Naughty naughty. Read about it here.

I have to admitt that I was at the Watkins Glenn concert with a girlfriend, who was a fan.

I remember that The Band were very good and played second to the Dead, who I didn't see much of by the time I got to the front, but what I heard sucked.

I was about 100 feet from the stage so I had a good view and could hear well. They played better than I thought they would as I never saw them live. I remember Phil Lesh dancing to the music between the amps; really digging it.

After their set, the Allman Brothers played.

What I really remember was after the Allman set, there was a jam session. Not much really happened as it turned into a Dead jam, but I recall Manuel just standing there drinking from a quart bottle while everyone played. At one point Jerry Garcia picked up a tamborine and tried to give it to Manuel, who looked at it for a while in Garcia's hand as if he was handing him a plate of dog shit. Then, all of a sudden, he tossed his half empty bottle into the crowd, grabed the tamborine, and played the thing like his life depened on it.

[danasgoodstuff]

Great story. The only time I saw them was in 74 with Dylan. Bob's singing is quite mannered on that tour to say the least, but the show I saw in Seattle I thought the Band played v. well with an intense rawness largely missing when the're on their own. Before the Flood smoothed the edges off, unfortunately and missed a lot of interesting material (set lists varied considerably on this tour, the one way you could say it was 'better' than 66). a remixed with bonus tracks reissue would certainly be welcome and probably is inevitable unless someone's nephew puts the kibotch on it...

[AllenLowe]

"if we wanna be honest, in glow of the first two records & their undoubted potential, the action was with Gene Clark, Neil, Skynyrd... & in other diverse ways, John Cale, the Stooges, Lemmy-era Hawkwind, the Groundhogs..."

huh? John Cale? give us a break. bad art rock.