2. music
  3. 129115-81

The Band on MFSL

I stumbled upon "The Last Waltz" on PBS the other day and am falling in love all over again with The Band. I've got an early 80s MFSL "Big Pink" which I listened to end to end the other day--magnificent. I'm wondering if/when their self-titled sophomore effort will be released on MFSL. I've seen reference to it in TAS (reviewers using it at shows) and thought I saw a March 31 anticipated release BUT I called Acoustic Sounds today and they don't know anything about this title coming out on MoFi. Does anyone know anything about this release? Also, I'd be interested in hearing what people think about the MoFi "Rock of Ages" LP which captures The Band live. Fremer wrote a positive review but gave it an "8" for sound quality, which is pretty low for him. Anyone care to comment on the sound quality of this LP (and the performance too)?
dodgealum
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 
Oh, and the 3rd and 4th Band albums, "Stage Fright" and "Cahoots", are also available on MFSL LP and SACD. Though not up to the level of their first two albums (nothing is!), they are well worth having. Todd Rundgren produced SF, and he was not up to the task. The first two were masterfully produced by John Simon, Cahoots by The Band themselves. "Cahoots" contains a killer duet between Richard Manuel and Van Morrison, "4% Pantomime".
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,526 posts
 
bdp24,

I'm not going to disagree with you, just post my experience.

A couple of years ago I heard Fremer's digital files of several cuts at a stereo shop. One was from his early pressing of The Band "S/T" (RL). It sounded great! Of coarse that was an early pressing of the original and he has better playback equipment than I.

Last evening, I compared sides 1 from my two copies. Overall I preferred the MFSL. of coarse my original is surely not an early pressing. It does have (RL) in the dead wax. My point is that this pressing is most likely one where an earlier original sounds better than a later original.

The horns sounded more natural on my original but the soundstage was more closed in. The MFSL... the soundstage much wider, more involving to me in this way. There is a lot of bass info and one needs a resolving enough set-up to navigate it correctly or it will be dark or muffled.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 
Disagreement welcome slaw! I actually haven’t compared back-to-back my RL lime green Capitol pressings of the 1st and 2nd Band albums to the MFSL ones now available. I just acquired Mint copies of the Capitols, as well as the current LP and SACD versions from MFSL. I’ve been listening to the British pressings of both albums since I bought them new in 1971, only fairly recently learning of the RL-mastered Capitols. Thank God for Michael Fremer! The UK pressings were made from a 1st generation copy of the masters, but I got them because they were SO much better than the U.S. ones, in terms of vinyl. Quiet (low surface noise) and flat, in contrast to the terrible U.S. Capitol pressings of the late 60’s/early 70’s. The Capitol LP’s I just got are at least flat, whether or not they are quiet remains to be heard!
dodgealum OP
1,400 posts
 
Did some calling around and found both S/T and Rock of Ages on MFSL at Music Direct. They were running a 10% discount and I threw in MoFi Dylan "Desire" to push me above $100 to get the free shipping. That was easy!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 

MFSL also recently put out The Band’s studio collaboration with Dylan, the Planet Waves album. It came out on Asylum Records in ’74 (the only Dylan album not on Columbia Records), and is really, really good. It contains "Forever Young", a song you will be hearing in your head for the rest of the day after listening to it. MFSL just put it out on SACD and LP. I haven’t heard it yet, but even the original sounds great, very "in the room"---minimal processing such as electronic reverb, etc. It was recorded right as Bob & The Band were going on the road for Bob’s first tour since his ’65-’66 one with The Hawks (The Band’s name until ’68), and captured on the Before The Flood album.

I neglected to comment on the musical quality of the Rock of Ages album. I’m not that interested in the MFSL pressing (but would still like to hear about it!) because the live recording isn’t great to begin with. But musically? OMG, The Band are on FIRE! I really pity those who didn’t get to see them live. A very, very special ensemble, like no other in Rock ’n Roll history. I got to see and hear those considered by others to be amongst the "Greats"---The Beatles, The Stones, The Beach Boys (if you’re laughing it’s because you never saw them in their prime), Cream, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, NRBQ, Rockpile, you name it. I also got to hear some of the originals upon whose shoulders those people stood---Big Joe Turner, Albert King, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, so many others. None of them---none, had what The Band did. I’ll stop now, ’cause I could go on for hours.

More to discover