Nobody can have failed to have noticed the five-CD-plus-DVD A Musical History box set that came out in 2005. Problem is, for most apart from the truly devoted, the �50-plus price tag would have proven far too much. Well, here’s a little sampler of a career sampler that almost does the job for the shallow-pocketed.
Chronologically arranged (with a DVD that repeats the first half of the original set’s DVD), the first three songs combine to give The Band their full power. Who Do You Love?, from when they backed Ronnie Hawkins as The Hawks, introduces the shit-kickin’ country barroom brawlers; Levon & The Hawks’ He Don’t Love You (And He’ll Break Your Heart) reveals their early soul influence; the Dylan single Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?, gives them everything else they needed, including their freedom.
What follows is a string of songs, including King Harvest (Has Surely Come), The Weight, and later heartstring-tuggers (Share Your Love With Me) that gives just a tiny taster of this group’s incredible scope and soul – they were so much more than a country, rock or soul gumbo. Still, for our money, the best introduction remains the Scorsese-filmed The Last Waltz: a blistering goodbye in all their raging glory.
