With last year's complete release of Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes, and the recent Record Store Day "official bootleg"-style vinyl LPs of music from those seminal sessions, the music of The Band is once again, happily, enjoying a high profile.
Fans of The Band might have noticed a new compilation quietly released last week by Capitol Records. Capitol Rarities 1968-1977 features 33 tracks and over two hours of music from the legendary group of Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel. This digital-only release has been culled from the bonus material issued by Capitol on seven of The Band's 2000-2001 reissues, all of which are still currently in print (and many at budget price) on compact disc.
These 33 tracks encompass all of the bonus tracks which premiered on those reissues except for two tracks on Music from Big Pink ("Katie's Been Gone" and "Ferdinand the Imposter") and all ten bonuses on the live album Rock of Ages (including three Bob Dylan guest appearances). It's unsurprising that the latter ten tracks aren't included, as Capitol issued The Band's Academy of Music concerts from which Rock of Ages was drawn as a 2013 box set available both digitally and on compact disc.
For those who haven't already picked up the complete series of Band reissues and would like to cherry-pick bonus tracks, this offering might be for you. Capitol Rarities 1968-1977 can be ordered below!
The Band, Capitol Rarities 1968-1977 (Capitol MKT C92, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)
- Tears Of Rage (Alternate Take)
- Yazoo Street Scandal (Remastered)
- If I Lose (Remastered)
- Long Distance Operator (Remastered)
- Lonesome Suzie (Alternate Take/Remastered)
- Orange Juice Blues (Blues For Breakfast)(Demo/Remastered)
- Key To The Highway (Remastered)
- Get Up Jake (Stereo Remix/Remastered)
- Rag Mama Rag (Alternate Vocal Take Rough Mix/Remastered)
- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Alternate Mix/Remastered)
- Up On Cripple Creek (Alternate Take/Remastered)
- Whispering Pines (Alternate Take/Remastered)
- Jemima Surrender (Early Version/Remastered)
- King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (Alternate Take/Remastered)
- Daniel And The Sacred Harp (Alternate Take/Remastered)
- Time To Kill (Alternate Version/Remastered)
- The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show (Alternate Mix/Remastered)
- Stage Fright Radio Commercial
- Endless Highway (Demo/Remastered)
- When I Paint My Masterpiece (Alternate Version/Remastered)
- Bessie Smith (Remastered)
- Don't Do It (Studio Version/Remastered)
- Cahoots Radio Commercial (Remastered)
- Didn't It Rain (Remastered)
- Crying Heart Blues (Remastered)
- Shakin' (Remastered)
- What Am I Living For (Remastered)
- Going Back To Memphis (Remastered)
- Endless Highway (Studio Version/Remastered)
- Twilight (Early Alternate Version/Remastered)
- Christmas Must Be Tonight (Alternate Version/Remastered)
- Twilight (Single Version/Remastered)
- Georgia On My Mind (Alternate Take/Remastered)
Tracks 1-7 from Music from Big Pink reissue, 2000
Tracks 8-14 from The Band reissue, 2000
Tracks 15-18 from Stage Fright reissue, 2000
Tracks 19-23 from Cahoots reissue, 2000
Tracks 24-29 from Moondog Matinee reissue, 2001
Tracks 30-31 from Northern Lights-Southern Cross reissue, 2001
Tracks 32-33 from Islands reissue, 2001
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The CD reissues did not exhaust The Band's trove of excellent rare music. For much more there is the box set "A Musical History" from a few years back (2006 or 2007??). That was a high quaity 6-disc set that rendered the earlier boxes ("Across the Great Divide", "To Kingdom Come") almost expendable...