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**** The Band

MUSIC FROM THE BIG PINK

(Capitol)

The two greatest rock albums of the 19th century have finally been given their sonic props in the 21st. Music from Big Pink and The Band may have been recorded in 1968 and 1969, but they seem to take place a hundred years earlier. Bearing the 1960s era’s ultimate cachet — they were Bob Dylan’s backing group, and they woodshedded in Woodstock — the Band had none of the Woodstock generation’s hoky wistfulness for a bucolic rural life that never existed. Big Pink has howling “Tears of Rage” and an untreatable, inscrutable “Chest Fever.” It’s haunted by the wanderings of that other man’s wife behind the “Long Black Veil” and a wanderer’s wondering about the lifting of “The Weight” and the ultimate insistent vow: “I Shall Be Released.” The sense of community that fortified Big Pink came from spellbinding ensemble playing (especially Robbie Robertson’s guitar and Garth Hudson’s organ) and an absorbing array of voices (Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm). But it also came from a 19th-century sense of the mutual dependence of a unit — a family, a tribe, a town — united against the cruel forces of nature, God, and man.

The Band might have been called Fables of the Reconstructioný as it evokes a post–Civil War paroxysm of joy (“Rag Mama Rag,” “Up on Cripple Creek”), adventure (“Across the Great Divide”), and disappointment (“Unfaithful Servant,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”). Previous CD versions of both albums were tinny and thin; these sound vigorous and alive. And the outtakes from the infamous “Basement Tapes” on Big Pink make for a must-have bonus. Also reissued: Stage Fright and Cahoots, both admirable recordings for those who value 20th-century music. Americana begins here.

— Wayne Robins