Pretty hard to beat that batch of Band songs; practically every one is a classic. And considering how difficult it is to get a good sounding copy of the albums those songs are taken from, this double album is a great way to go if you love The Band. The performances are uniformly excellent, and the live horn section adds a lot to the fun and energy of the music.
The same can be said for Little Feat’s live album, Waiting for Columbus. We’ve been trying to find Hot Stampers on that one for years with little luck. Guess we’ll just have to keep trying.
[That was 2009. We have been selling Hot Stamper pressings of WFC for about ten years now.]
It should go without saying that this is wonderful music that belongs in any popular music collection. My favorite song here is “I Don’t Want To Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes”. It’s The Band at their best — LIVE.
One of my best friends had a chance to see the band — The Band — back in the day, before they had released their second album and nobody knew who the hell they were. He was astonished when, after about every second or third song, they would all get up and switch places and instruments, a fact alluded to in the Wikipedia entry for the group. Multi-instrumentalists of the highest order barely begin to convey how talented these guys really were.
Common Problems, Yada Yada Yada
The most obvious problems with the sound of this album are ones common to many if not most rock records of the era:
- lack of presence,
- too much compression,
- smear (easily heard on the brass),
- lack of weight from the lower mids on down
We hear lots of Classic Rock records with this litany of shortcomings.
But it’s not the fault of the master tape, it’s probably not even the fault of the mastering engineer most of the time.
It’s just plain bad pressing quality. The sound simply doesn’t get stamped onto the vinyl right and the result is one or more of the problems above.
And if you don’t know how to clean your records properly, forget it, you have virtually no chance of hearing good sound on ROA.
Side One
A Double Plus sound, pretty much as good as it gets. Super TRANSPARENT — just listen to the “room” around the vocals. On most copies there simply is no ambience around the vocals at all. This is the kind of side that shows you what’s on the tape. it sets a standard for the rest of the album in terms of midrange transparency and spatial resolution that is hard to beat.
Side Two
EVEN BETTER — A Triple Plus sound, the best we heard in our shootout! It rocks; listen to how deep and powerful the bass is on this side. I don’t remember that any other copy had bass on any side like this.
Side Three
A Plus sound, good but far from the best, not all the top and a bit lacking in weight below.
Side Four
All the top but lacking in energy and presence compared to the very best, we gave this one an A Plus, not murky and muddy and dull but not the side four of our dreams. Playing either of the first two sides will clue you in as to what is missing on these later two sides.
Total
Seven pluses total, the best we have to offer this round and world’s better than most pressings you can find, assuming you can find a clean original Robert Ludwig pressing of the album. Not all that many have survived. It took us years to find enough to do this shootout and it will probably be years before we can do another.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Don’t Do It
King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Caledonia Mission
Get up Jake
The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
Side Two
Stage Fright
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Across the Great Divide
This Wheel’s on Fire
Rag Mama Rag
Side Three
The Weight
The Shape I’m In
Unfaithful Servant
Life Is a Carnival
Side Four
The Genetic Method
Chest Fever
(I Don’t Want to) Hang up My Rock & Roll Shoes