Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! It's another big week for box sets from classic rock's heaviest hitters, and much, much more... Bob Dylan, The 1966 Live Recordings (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) 36 discs of music from Bob Dylan's 1966 world tour - every recording of the tour known to exist - are brought together on this monumental new collection. Read our full review here! Bob Dylan, The Real Royal Albert Hall
Capitol Records, the venerable label founded by Johnny Mercer with B.G. DeSylva and Glenn Wallichs and now a unit of Universal Music Group, turns 75 next year. In celebration of this landmark anniversary, the label has announced three new initiatives. The first of these endeavors is The Capitol Records 75th Anniversary Collection, a series of 75 vinyl reissues from various genres curated by "noted music journalists, authors and other renowned creative figures." The Beatles are represented
Forty years ago on Thanksgiving Day 1976, The Band took the stage at San Francisco's Winterland for their final performance. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters and others joined Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel for the concert event known as The Last Waltz. Director Martin Scorsese's film of the evening was released in April 1978, setting a high bar for concert movies. On November 11, Rhino
The 58th Annual Grammy awards were held a little over a week ago and there were numerous winners. The Grammys have so many categories that the majority are not given out on the actual television broadcast. Even though we're a little late, we'd like to give acknowledgment to the winners from reissue and catalogue labels who picked up an award, some for categories that aren't always exclusively associated with reissues. The biggest winner of the night for reissue labels was Sony's Legacy
I. Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan On Wednesday, January 13, 1965, Bob Dylan recorded "Love Minus Zero/No Limit," destined to become the fourth track on the first side of the troubadour's fifth studio album, Bringing It All Back Home. The album, released on March 25, would effectively alter the course of both Dylan's career and of pop music itself, featuring one electric side and one acoustic side. When he "plugged in" at the Newport Folk Festival months later on July 25 to the sound
Led Zeppelin, Presence / In Through the Out Door / Coda [Various Editions] (Swan Song/Atlantic) Presence: Super Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Deluxe Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Original Album CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Original Album Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Deluxe Edition Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. In Through the Out Door: Super Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Deluxe Edition CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Original Album
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
I. They Shall Be Released 1967: Jimi Hendrix asks, "Are You Experienced?" The Beatles plead, "Let me take you down" to "Strawberry Fields Forever." Brian Wilson spins a yarn of "Heroes and Villains." The Summer of Love is in full swing, and psychedelia is in the air. Fast forward one year. In July, The Band releases Music from Big Pink. Reportedly, hearing the album convinces Eric Clapton to leave Cream. The ripples of its influence would be felt in the ranks of The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
Come all without, come all within, you’ll not see nothing like The Basement Tapes, Complete. On November 4, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will grant an official release to perhaps the most coveted collection of songs in Bob Dylan’s storied catalogue. The eleventh installment of Dylan’s acclaimed Bootleg Series presents, for the very first time, six discs of The Basement Tapes – as recorded in the summer of 1967 by Dylan and the group that would later become The Band, and per the
Nirvana, In Utero: 20th Anniversary Edition (DGC/UMe) The grunge icon's final album is greatly expanded in numerous formats for its two-decade mark, with B-sides, a new mix of the album and the band's Live and Loud concert feature from MTV on CD and DVD. Check the post above to figure out which one suits you best! 1CD Standard remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1CD Expanded remaster: Target (U.S.) 2CD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 3CD/1DVD Super Deluxe Box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon
The Band, LIve at the Academy of Music: The Rock of Ages Concerts (Capitol/UMe) This five-disc box set (four CDs and a DVD) features selections from The Band's famed four-night run in New York in 1971. Though these shows would create the live Rock of Ages album, this box instead features highlights from the shows on two discs (including guest appearances by Bob Dylan), another two discs of the complete soundboard mix of the final concert on New Year's Eve 1971, and a DVD with 5.1 surround mixes
The Beach Boys, Made in California (Capitol/UMe) Six discs of career-spanning tunes - hits and rarities aplenty - from the best band to come out of Hawthorne, California. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Bob Dylan, Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (Columbia) Revisit one of the most polarizing periods of Dylan's career with the latest Bootleg Series entry, featuring outtakes from Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning. A deluxe version includes Dylan and The
The Band’s Rock of Ages has long been a mighty document of a mighty quintet at the height of its powers. And it’s about to get even mightier. Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel closed 1971 with four nights at New York City’s Academy of Music, reveling in new horn arrangements by New Orleans’ legendary Allen Toussaint and jamming with old mate Bob Dylan on New Year’s Eve. Highlights from the concert spawned the Top 10 album Rock of Ages, and a 2001
The Bootleg Series is back. Almost three years after the release of Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 - The Witmark Demos 1962-1964, Columbia Records has announced a tenth volume in the acclaimed series dedicated to the unreleased recordings of The Bard of Hibbing. On August 27, the label will deliver Vol. 10 - Another Self Portrait (1969-1971), drawing on the treasure trove of material mainly used to assemble the 1970 studio albums New Morning and Self Portrait. This new, 35-song
American popular music has lost another one of the greats with today's passing of singer/drummer Levon Helm, 71. Though few groups would have the audacity to name themselves The Band, that’s exactly what Helm, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel did. The former Hawks crystallized the sound that spawned a thousand imitators, returning rock to its most stripped-down American roots. The Band backed Bob Dylan, was admired by The Beatles, and epitomized the burgeoning
Any label president would have killed to have Bob Dylan or Miles Davis on his company’s roster, but Columbia Records’ legendary Goddard Lieberson had the good fortune to have had both of these groundbreaking artists making their most important music on the red label under its watchful eye logo. Since the advent of the compact disc era, there’s been no shortage of reissued music from these giants, and it’s already clear that 2012 will continue the steady flow. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has
Welcome to Part 14 of our look at the many reissues of the 100 greatest albums of all time, as selected by Rolling Stone in 2003! We’ll explore the various versions of these classic albums on compact disc, letting you know which audio treasures can be found on which releases. In today’s group, we meet a guitar-playing alien, bring it all back home with Bob Dylan and his Band, and let it bleed with Mick and Keef! 35. David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars
You know the drill: Rolling Stone's 100 greatest albums of all time, as assessed by us in terms of their many reissues, to bring you the best-sounding and most thoroughly expanded editions for your buck. The Band literally plays on as we kick off this installment! 45. The Band, The Band (Capitol, 1969) After the great debut Music from Big Pink the year before, The Band drew on concepts of Americana and rural history for their follow-up. There was no sophomore slump here; guitarist Robbie
It’s very possible that you might be enjoying Bobby Charles, reviewed yesterday in this very space! But whether you’re grooving to Bobby or not, you might be interested in some more Band-related news! Long before Rick Danko produced Bobby Charles’ Bearsville LP, Danko joined Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson in supporting the one and only Mr. Ronnie Hawkins as his Hawks. Though colorful rockabilly legend Hawkins was born in Arkansas, he found his greatest success
Though The Band remains a likely candidate for Group Least Likely to Reunite, Levon Helm hasn’t been resting on his laurels. After a 25-year year hiatus from his career as a solo artist (during which time he participated in the recording of three Band albums sans Robbie Robertson and successfully underwent treatment for throat cancer) Helm returned to recording with 2007’s acclaimed Dirt Farmer. Since then, he’s maintained a busy live schedule, and last month’s Ramble at the Ryman preserved a
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab continues its ongoing series of stereo hybrid SACD reissues of The Band's storied catalogue with the release of the group's third album, Stage Fright. Recorded in Woodstock in 1970, Stage Fright marked a departure for the group in a number of ways. Produced by The Band and engineered by the up-and-coming Todd Rundgren, there were more confessional, personal songs than on The Band or Music from Big Pink, and the harmony vocals were much less prominent. Was The Band -
I'll be honest: outside of The Last Waltz, there's not a whole lot I know about The Band. The influential and short-lived folk outfit certainly cast a wide net on a particular musical culture, but it's not one that's ensnared your catalogue correspondent just yet. But I am bizarrely intrigued at Three of a Kind, a new release from former Band mate Levon Helm available on his Web site. From the looks of it, this set is a straight, three-for-one reissue of the group's first three Capitol
Start saving your pennies now. In an eye-opening move, audiophile specialty label Mobile Fidelity has announced a massive slate of releases across the CD, SACD and LP formats scheduled for 2011. Longtime collectors of audiophile masterings may get a thrill at seeing the “Original Master Recording” banner above the works of classic artists ranging from Tony Bennett and Ray Charles to Carole King and James Taylor. While this writer has some quibbles (why no CDs or SACDs for Bennett, Frank
Some of rock’s finest will be receiving the deluxe treatment from audiophile specialist labels Audio Fidelity and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) in the coming months: The Beach Boys, The Band, Gram Parsons, Deep Purple, Foreigner, The Pretenders and Billy Joel. The earliest release in this bunch is also one of the most exciting. The Beach Boys' Today! was released in 1965 and is generally remembered as one of the first albums on which Brian Wilson displayed the sensitive studio wizardry that