Product Details

• • Audio CD (September 26, 2000)
  • Original Release Date: September 26, 2000
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Original recording remastered
  • Label: Capitol

Editorial Reviews Ex-Band members Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson supervised thisrelease, which does an impressive job of boiling down some of the greatestrock albums ever into one 18-track collection. Four tracks each from Musicfrom Big Pink (The Weight; Tears of Rage; Chest Fever; I Shall Be Released )and The Band (Up on Cripple Creek; The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down; RagMama Rag; King Harvest ) join 10 more from their other classic LPs. Essential. It seems odd that the Band emerged in 1968, defying the counterculture’sextravagant rejections of U.S. culture with literary, often Southern-tingedmusical and lyrical vehicles. Hearing this 18-song anthology, with its heavyweighting toward the Canadian quintet’s first three albums–_Music from BigPink_ (four tunes), _The Band_ (five tunes), and _Stage Fright_ (threetunes)–what still stands out is the Band’s command of yearning vocalharmonies, their sense of plainly laid melodies that reveal acoustic depth,and a nostalgia for an imagined American culture. With all their quirkinessand the advance of Robbie Robertson as their centerpiece, the Band lost theircelebrated place in the rock pantheon within a decade. This set, which opensso magnificently with “The Weight,” “Tears of Rage” (cowritten with Dylan),and the big organ-vamping “Chest Fever,” declines rather steeply on the finaltracks, “Acadian Driftwood” and “The Saga of Pepote Rouge.” Up till then,however, this set is fantastic. _–Andrew Bartlett_