CD CORNER : The Band: Acclaimed Rock at a Lower Price

One reason the compact disc boom has been such a commercial bonanza for the record industry is that CD enthusiasts--excited by the format’s superior sound quality and other features--have spent millions of dollars buying albums that they already had in vinyl or cassette.

This resurgence of catalogue items was pure profit for record companies because there was none of the risk involved in re-releasing albums that there is in signing and developing new talent. But how does a company keep the catalogue revenue flowing after most of the choice product from the vaults has already been issued in CD?

An answer is the “special edition”--a definitive look at an artist’s career that might tempt both collectors and fans who don’t want to buy an artist’s entire catalogue, but would like a tasteful overview.

The problem with some of these overviews--including David Bowie’s excellent new “Sound + Vision” box set and the Rolling Stones’ “Singles” box set--is their hefty price tag. Both sets cost about $50.

The Band’s “To Kingdom Come” is a practical alternative: a less ambitious package (just two discs instead of the three in the Stones and Bowie sets, and regular packaging instead of an actual box) and a lower price tag. The album--just released by Capitol Records--is expected to retail for less than $25, yet it offers a satisfying introduction to one of the half-dozen most acclaimed bands ever in North American rock.

The quintet--featuring Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson--gained national attention in the late-’60s for its work with Bob Dylan. But it distinguished itself with its own series of albums, including two works--”Music From Big Pink” in 1968 and “The Band” in 1969--that were declared in 1987 by Rolling Stone magazine to be among the 50 best rock albums ever made.

About the 1969 album, which was rated No. 19 on the list, the magazine noted, “As simple as a Chuck Berry riff, yet as rich and complex as history itself, this album is nothing less than a masterpiece of electric folklore. Its 12 songs . . . are like excerpts from America’s frontier chronicles, dramatic cameos of pioneer triumph and tribulation struck by rock & roll lightning.”

The new collection acknowledges the significance of the two albums by including 11 songs from them on “To Kingdom Come”--along with 17 other tunes from the Band’s five other studio collections. The set also contains three previously unreleased tracks, including live versions of Chuck Berry’s “Back to Memphis” and the Four Tops’ hit “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.”

BETTER LATE THAN . . .: Reprise Records has finally released in this country “Street Life,” a retrospective of the best known material by Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. The album, which has been available in England for more than two years, contains 20 songs and runs 74 minutes. A two-record vinyl set that fits on a single CD disc, “Street Life” is especially welcome because there has been so little Roxy Music material available on CD in this country.

Ferry’s solo material is stylish, but his work with Roxy Music is even more involving because the best selections (including “Love Is the Drug” and “More Than This”) combine Ferry’s sentimental romanticism and the somewhat stark, sophisticated textures supplied by his band mates.