Expanded and remastered versions of The Band‘s fourth album, Cahoots, will be released on December 10, in commemoration of its recent 50th anniversary.
Released in September 1971, Cahoots peaked at #21 on the Billboard 200 and featured such notable tunes as “Life Is a Carnival,” the Canadian-American roots-rock group’s rendition of Bob Dylan‘s “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” and the Van Morrison collaboration “4% Pantomime.”
Among the versions of the 50th anniversary Cahoots reissue is a Super Deluxe box set featuring two CDs, a 180-gram vinyl LP, a Blu-ray disc, a 7-inch vinyl single, a photo booklet and more.
The updated version of the album was mixed by lauded engineer Bob Clearmountain, and overseen by Band guitarist/main songwriter Robbie Robertson.
Robertson explains, “I told Bob, ‘There are no rules. So, every mix we do, I want to start from scratch. I don’t even want to listen to the original. I want to listen to the way we hear it now and be fearless and experimental with it.”
The expanded reissue also features alternate versions of six of the album’s songs, two outtakes from the sessions, and 11 performances from a May 1971 concert at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.
The LP features the remastered original album, while the Blu-ray includes three mixes of Cahoots and some of the bonus tracks — a Dolby Atmos, a 5.1 surround sound and the new stereo mix. The seven-inch single features “Life Is a Carnival” backed with “The Moon Struck One.”
The new mix of “Life Is a Carnival” has been made available as an advance digital track.
The Cahoots reissue, which you can pre-order now, is also coming out as a two-CD set, digitally, and on vinyl.
Here’s the track list of the reissue’s CDs:
CD 1:
“Life Is a Carnival”
“When I Paint My Masterpiece”
“Last of the Blacksmiths”
“Where Do We Go from Here?”
“4% Pantomime”
“Shoot Out in Chinatown”
“The Moon Struck One”
“Thinkin’ Out Loud”
“Smoke Signal”
“Volcano”
“The River Hymn”
Bonus Tracks
“Endless Highway” (Early Studio Take, 2021 Mix)
“When I Paint My Masterpiece” (Alternate Take, 2021 Mix)
“4% Pantomime” (Takes 1 & 2)
“Don’t Do It” (Outtake — Studio Version, 2021 Mix)
“Bessie Smith” (Outtake)
CD 2:*
Live at The Olympia Theatre, Paris, May 1971 (Bootleg, Partial Concert)
“The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show”
“We Can Talk”
“Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
“Across the Great Divide”
“The Unfaithful Servant”
“Don’t Do It”
“The Genetic Method”
“Chest Fever”
“Rag Mama Rag”
“Slippin’ and Slidin'”
Bonus Tracks
“Life Is a Carnival” (Instrumental)
“Volcano” (Instrumental)
“Thinkin’ Out Loud” (Stripped Down Mix)
* = tracks are previously unreleased.
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