Track Listing

1. Weight
2. Tears Of Rage
3. Chest Fever
4. I Shall Be Released
5. Up On Cripple Creek
6. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
7. Rag Mama Rag
8. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
9. Shape I'm In
10. Stage Fright
11. Time To Kill
12. Life Is A Carnival
13. When I Paint My Masterpiece
14. Ain't Got No Home
15. It Makes No Difference
16. Orphelia
17. Acadian Driftwood
18. Sage Of Pepote Rouge

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4186 in Music
• Released on: 2001-02-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

CD Description
Though they were predominantly Canadian, the Band wrote theproverbial book on what would come to be known as Americanaroots-rock. After years of backing everyone from rockabillysinger Ronnie Hawkins to Bob Dylan, they emerged as a creative force in their own right at the end of the 1960s. They were just in time to spearhead a movement away from the acid-rock excesses of the '60s, toward a simpler, more down-home musical mindset heavily informed by folk, country, and blues. GREATEST HITS offers a definitive look at the Rushmore-like legacy they left behind through their classic recordings.
Garth Hudson's quirky Lowery organ sound (quite distinct from the Hammond most rock organists favoured) wheezed and ground; Robbie Robertson's terse, blues-influenced guitar licks snapped at the singers' heels; and Levon Helm's syncopated, hillbilly-funky drumming turned the time ever so slightlyaskew. Atop it all, the rough-hewn harmonies of Helm, bassist Rick Danko, and pianist Richard Manuel carried Robertson's masterfully crafted tales of an America more imagined thanremembered, coming off like preachers tossed off the pulpitfor carousing and general rowdiness, but still obviously close to God's heart.

Customer Reviews

One of the best Greatest Hits-albums on the market
Opening with one of The Band's very best songs, the superb acoustic folk-rock narrative of "The Weight", this collection does an excellent job of collecting most of the seminal, idiosyncratic Canadian-American ensemble's best songs.

Originally known as Bob Dylan's backing group, The Band, once they finally debuted on record in the summer of '68, played an instantly recognizable and utterly unique blend of rock, R&B, country and various folk music styles, creating a dense, muscular sound dominated by Robbie Robertson's weaving guitar, Garth Hudson's icy, majestic Lowrey organ, and Levon Helm's supple drumming. With Robertson as the main composer, Helm shared lead vocals with pianist Richard Manuel and bass player Rick Danko (as is evident on songs like "The Weight and the epic "Acadian Driftwood"; where the rôle of lead vocalist passes between two or three singers).

This compilation also includes the AOR-standart "Up On Cripple Creek", the grand ballad "Tears Of Rage", the up-tempo rocker "Rag, Mama, Rag", Richard Manuel's inimitable falsetto rendition of "I Shall Be Released", the swinging "Saga Of Pepote Route", and Robbie Robertson's classic "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", a song which is in every respect so much like an immortal folk-evergreen that it is hard to believe it has been around for only 40 years.

There are some wonderful lesser-known songs here as well, like the tough rocker "Time To Kill", the New Orleans-styled R&B of "Ophelia", and a wonderfully melodic, superbly arranged take on Bob Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece".
The Band's three first albums, and 1975's "Northern Lights, Southern Cross", are all classics among modern popular music, and all of them deserve a listen. But this is a fine "sampler", and a terrific place to start...one of the few hits-collections that truly does its subject justice.

Hear this album and you'll immediately become a huge fan
Listening to this album for the first time as a fan of The Last Waltz, but without knowing anything else about The Band, I was initially somewhat disappointed. The overall sound mix seemed hollow compared to the live versions of songs like Ophelia, yet one would normally expect a studio album to sound fuller and more rounded than a live effort. Worse, the production is flawed, with many of the tracks noisy and slightly damaged in some places.

But on a repeated listening and after following The Last Waltz's on-screen advice to turn the volume up, this collection grew on me - and has continued to grow on me, to the extent that I now spend much of my days annoying my colleagues by humming or singing, badly, some of the songs on this CD.

The Band, and lead guitarist Robbie Robertson in particular, must be amongst the greatest songwriters ever. The melodies are catchy and the arrangements are exquisitely put together. The lyrics are always intelligent and are often a daring historical narrative or social commentary, the best exemplar being the devastating Acadian Driftwood.

First and foremost, however, The Band are performers and are genuine masters of this craft. Every song is simply perfect: the musicians blend perfectly, the harmonies work perfectly and the individual performances are nothing short of stunning. The use of three "lead" singers with distinctive individual voices, far from being distracting, is a clever way of lending separate narrative voices to songs. The result of this careful arrangement is to instill a deep emotion into every track, which, combined with the intelligence of the writing, results in a powerful, unforgettable song in almost every instance, fusing country, blues and rock in a unique style.

Everyone will have a favourite in this collection and I suspect Band devotees might even have a favourite that has not been included amongst these "greatest hits". For my money, the gorgeous It Makes No Difference is easily worth the price of this album on its own.

Listen to the Band
Probabably the first use of the term Americana was used to describe the music and songs of the Band.Psychedelic music had morphed into acid rock ezcess and Prog Rock in England.The only way to go was backwards.The rather ridiculous criticism of country music was made null and void by the Band who were equally influnced themselves by what has now been called Roots Music
With Dylan as the way in the 70s would become the era of the Band.
In this country the biggest hit could have been The Night they drove Old Dixie down but made by Joan Baez.
Thus the Band were known as album artists who would bow out with The Last Waltz.
A recent covermount CD Across the Great Divide is of music they influenced