Capitol
2005
A Musical History
About This Album
Given the countless Band compilations released over the years, plus the exhaustive bonus-track-laden reissues of the proper albums in 2000 and 2001, it's easy to be suspicious of the six-disc A Musical History, especially since it's the third Band box set released in the CD era. It would seem that all the worthwhile previously unreleased music has been excavated and that the Band's career has been anthologized in every possible way, but A Musical History proves that's not true. As its title implies, the set is a biography, tracing the group's career from their early days as the Hawks supporting Ronnie Hawkins, through their stint as Levon & the Hawks, through their time as Bob Dylan's backing band in 1966, through their emergence as the Band in 1968, then through their years of stardom in the early '70s, leading up to their departure at The Last Waltz in 1976. No previous compilation has done this -- they've either picked up the story with Music from Big Pink or offered up the greatest hits, and they've never weaved Ronnie Hawkins or Bob Dylan tracks into the story line -- and this thorough, all-encompassing approach does result in an absorbing narrative that does provide some revelations, most arriving on the spectacular, necessary first disc that traces the evolution of the band before they were the Band.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,15,18,19,22 and 23)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 5,14,15 and 17)

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Disc 3 (try tracks 12,16,18,19,20 and 21)

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Disc 4 (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 and 13)

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Disc 5 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,11,12,13,14 and 15)

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Disc 6

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