My Amazon Reviews: The Band "Greatest Hits"

A Radio Airplay Selection of a Seminal Band

4 Out of 5 Stars

For a group of musicians that started out as sidemen to become a musical institution in their own rite, The Band are difficult to pigeonhole. In the days of free-form FM radio, slow-jam workouts like "Tears of Rage" would have filled the airwaves as a sort of musical education; these days it sounds almost archaically hippiesque. Given that maybe "Up On Cripple Creek" even plays on classic rock (if any of The Band gets played at all), this best of serves as a profile to one of the world's most influential groups.

The Band never really "rocked" in the sense that, say, a Deep Purple did, but they bent the musical talents that ventured around them to their peculiar gravity. When folks like Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and even Neil Diamond are following your lead, you know you're wielding a pretty powerful force. The Band often pulled together strong elements of various styles (gospel, Memphis Soul, folk, rock) into the same song, like "I Shall Be Released" or the well known "The Weight" to synthesize these elements down to a sort of elemental beauty. They embraced American mythology even though they were primarily Canadian, maybe even more so than some of their US Counterparts. And when you added Garth Hudson's organ, you had a sound that no-one else was creating at the time.

As one would expect, this single set leans heavily on the seminal first two albums, and on guitarist Robbie Robertson's writing. The best known songs are here ("The Weight," "Up On Cripple Creek," "The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down") as well as a few choice selections, like their cover of Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece." I would guess that since "The Last Waltz" was on a label other than Capitol, that explains its exclusion from this set, but nothing from the live "Rock of Ages" seems a bit odd. Overall, a solid eighteen songs if all you want is a quick The Band fix.