Box Sets

Back to Mono. Everyone here has it. That's all.

I have a small collection of boxes:
Patti Smith box: released when they remastered all of the albums pre- Gone Again, and since I had never picked up the earlier albums before and I realized that it was a glaring omission in my collection, I grabbed it.
Cocteau Twins singles box: a bit of stuff not available on the albums, a lovely packaging job and a kollektor skum aura of kompletism. I still don't regret it.
Nuggets, both I and II: I just picked up the second collection yesterday, and both of these sets are money well-spent. You definitely couldn't collect all of this stuff outside the box unless you had lots of time and money. And hey, with a lot of these artists I don't have any particular desire to get all of their albums, so these collections are just fine.
Rough Trade Shops box: previously mentioned, I have a lot of this stuff already, but there are a number of neato tracks I don't, and the price was more or less right. So, yoink!
Wagner's Ring cycle, complete, by Solti: I figured that if I was going to do this one, I'd better do it right. It's overwhelming, but it's certainly all of a piece, and a lovely packaging job, too.
Galaxie 500 box: again, a glaring omission in my collection, and I had a credit at a store that had it, so mine it was. I am not sure I dig the new artwork in the box, but oh well.

Oh...the Stiff box, too. Originally bought it for a friend thinking they'd asked for it, but they didn't; and I ended up liking it enough to keep it!

The Stax Complete Singles is a good box.

I like The Philly Sound 1966-1976: Kenny Gamble And Leon Huff.

I highly recommend The Buddah Box, a recap of songs issued from the Buddah label from 1965-1980. Covers a lot of ground, from '68 bubblegum pop to '71 Jesus-freakdom to '75 soul ballads; and the artists represented aren't of consistently high enough quality to warrant buying their original works.

I've got 3 : Pere Ubu - "Datapanik In The Year Zero" : ranging from most classic to sorta dull but always interesting VA - "1-2-3-4 Punk and New Wave" : all those lovely (and all those awful) songs in one little box - how lovely Can - Can Box : not really a box set at all in that it's only got 2 cds (but it does have a Book and a Video - both of which are much better than the cds)

― philT, Tuesday, 26 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oh, i've gotten fairly hooked on box sets over the last few years. The Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music is a great one. Also the Island Records "Story of Jamaican Music". Rhino Records' "Beg Scream and Shout" R&B collection is darn stellar. The Okeh and King Records label comps of 40s & 50s R&B are great, too. As far as non- various artists boxes, I like some of the Bear Family country comps, though they tend to be very expensive. The Bonzo Dog Band "Cornology" collection is neat, petite, and fairly complete. The James Brown "Startime" set is very worthwhile, and introduced me to some of his very very good early 70s stuff. If you like satirical American comedy from the 1950s, the Remains of Tom Lehrer and the Stan Freberg box are well worth it. I guess I have not purchaed many box sets from "rock" bands....George Jones' The Spirit Of Country is notable if only because it includes the great "Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone, and so are you" tribute to both Elvis and Fred Flintstone...unbeatable drunken poetry, and I've never seen this song anywhere else.

Ah, the differences btwn living in Brisbane and being able to afford box sets, and sydney, where I have to trade 5 review cds just to afford one unwound album. Enuf o that, here's the list: Billy Joel - Aus Tour Box - 5 cds, I was young, I hadn't discovered marc Almond John Lennon - Lennon - Hardly any yoko Velvet Underground - Peel Slowly JD - H&S - this and the above I miss so much. VA - Flesh, fangs & Filligree - Great title, great songs Dylan - Bootleg Series 1-3 - My intro to dylan through his finest hours Shirley Bassey - 3 cds, the best of, send in the clowns is all i say. Stereolab, Moby - 3cd boxes, but do they count? I think that's it, goddamn memory - one of these days i gotta move to a cheaper city. fucking aussie dollars lower than my ass at the moment, so that adds to the quandry.

I originally read that post as "Spacemen 3 have a box set" and instantly started salivating. Oh well.

I don't think I've ever *bought* a box set, though quite a few people have given them to me... Paul got me the Velvets box set for my birthday. A friend who works at EMI found me a spare copy of the Blur singles box set. And erm...

Oh yes!!! I bought the Nuggets box set, even though I already have almost all of the songs on it. And I lost the box and booklet when I moved. Poo! There's another one...? Oooh, this, I need.

Guilty by Randy Newman. Good selection of studio tracks (although too much from the 80s) plus interesting rarities and an informative booklet. A CD of film music, too, but that's a bit difficult to get into with only short excerpts from each score.

Old Friends by Simon & Garfunkel. A couple of excellent unreleased tracks (Blues Run The Game, live version of Overs) and a fairly interesting, if slightly gushy, booklet. A bit disappointing though because it leaves off just a couple of studio tracks (such as Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine) and only includes live versions of a few songs (like Overs). There's plenty of room on the CDs so it's a shame they didn't just put the whole lot on. I guess it's Paul trying to rewrite history a little (A Simple Desultory Philippic is left off). Plus, I bought the tall book-form version and then they brought out a smaller CD box with the same CDs for half the price.

Oh, does 2 1/2 Years by Elvis Costello count? The reissues of My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, Armed Forces and Live At The El Mocambo in one LP shaped box with a fairly crappy booklet of photos. Great music, shame about the show-off title.

i have an R&S records 5lp box set. it isn't very good.

I too have the Blur singles box, as a way of getting the early b- sides which I didn't have and a copy of Popscene to boot. Unfortunately, a lot of Blur's b-sides are crap.

Bill

Only one I own is Datapanik In The Year Zero and I only bought that 'cos it was cheaper than getting Terminal Tower, The Modern Dance and Dub Housing on cd separately.

I got the "Pet Sounds" box a couple years ago just cause I wanted to hear the stereo version of the album so bad (I've always found the mono version a bit muddy. Turns out the stereo version sounds muddy in both ears). A silly waste of money, especially since the stereo album was released by itself a few years later. The vocals only version of "Wouldn't it Be Nice" was almost worth it, though.

Surprised no-one's mentioned my favourite - maybe you're all too cool for the Springsteen Live 75-85 box, which is magical (yes, I've got Tracks as well). Also the folk world is reeling (ha) from the recent high-profile release of a 4CD Martin Carthy retrospective, which is lovely: it's themed rather than chronological.

Fie! Fie, Bill! Blur's b-sides are some of their most inventive work ever. Yes, even Rednecks and Alex's Song. Ha-hem.

My bassist got the Pet Sounds box set for Xmas, and we sat for most of Xmas day with our heads between the speakers listening to the Carol Kaye mixes. It was BRILLIANT.

I recommend the Antbox- never really an albums band, but this is a rather good collection of oddities. The b-side of 'Young Parisians' is most amusing, as is 'A.N.T.S.', their spirited re-working of 'Y.M.C.A.' (*sounds* a ghastly idea, I know...). I don't think I've actually listened to the disc which covers 86-00 yet, though!

I'm suprised more people don't have Peel Slowly and See.

Christopher: I HAVE THAT ONE!!

A few more not mentioned elsewhere:

'Beauty is a Rare Thing' - Ornette Coleman. Great pics (mostly by Lee Freidlander), useful notes, loads of rarities/unreleased takes, a lifetime's listening.

'The Wumme Years' - Faust. Bought because the first two albums are hard to find on CD - crappy cover.

'OHM' box - superb collection of early electronic music, with lots of material you simply cannot get elsewhere. Worth the price of admission just for the Richard Maxfield and LaMonte Young pieces.

'The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings' - Miles Davis Quintet '65-68. See the Ornette box above. More conceptually complete than the problematic 'Bitches' Brew' box.

'Biograph' - Bob Dylan. Long interview with Bob conducted by (shudder) Cameron Crowe, most of the hits, unexpected choices, rarities etc. The REAL 'Boss'.

I've got _Heart and Soul_, the Massive Attack singles collection, a 4- disc "Best of Rave" collection, a 4-disc "Best of Hardcore" collection, and the Def Jam 10-year anniversary thingy.

Kate: I love Rednecks! And Garden Song (? Off Popscene), but admit it, some are howlers. And I'm surprised no one from Bowie's camp has sued for the strange resemblance of All My Life off Beetlebum to a certain song on Hunky Dory. But then, I decided today The Great Escape is my favourite Blur album, so I'm probably not in a position to comment judging by what everyone else thinks!

I want Peel Slowly and See, it's just I can never be bothered to buy it seeing as I have all the albums anyway. That Motown one would be nice as well, but can you get it in the UK?

Bill

I'm not convinced about box sets, they seem a bit expensive, especially as you nearly always have a good few of the tracks already on the original albums. Also the main selling point is often *new* remastered versions that sound exactly the same anyway, or worse still, highlight the crapness of the old recordings. That said I *do* own two magnificent box sets in Led Zeppelin - The Studio Recordings and Syd Barrett - Crazy Diamond. Both are good examples of what box sets should be like, representative of the artists' work.

Search : box sets by prolific artists with long careers (James Brown, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan), boxes that adequately cover an entire genre (Anthology of American Folk Music, Tougher Than Tough (reggae), 30 Years of R&B).

Destroy : "complete recordings"-type boxes (*everybody* gets boring at one point or another), boxes by album-oriented artists with short careers.

Some more good'uns:

Lee Perry - Arkology Louis Armstrong - Hot Fives and Hot Sevens v/a - Doughboys, Playboys and Cowboys - The Golden Years of Western Swing

(in readable form this time i hope)

Some more good 'uns:

Lee Perry - Arkology

Louis Armstrong - Hot Fives and Hot Sevens

v/a - Doughboys, Playboys and Cowboys - The Golden Years of Western Swing

Glad to see someone mention the James Brown & Louis Armstrong boxes. I once had the VU & Pere Ubu boxes, but sold them to finance a disastruous trip to the UK. But I have Mr. Dynamite and Louis, along with the Rough Trade retrospective, the 1st Nuggets box, and the Poison Girls box. I've only heard one disc from the Poison Girls (the 1st one) - I hope the other 3 have something more to offer. And CD-R copies of the Magazine box & the Anthology of Folk Music - I'll buy the proper copies soon enough, don't you worry.

I like box sets, but it takes me forever to sit down & listen to them. And sequencing is very important. I really like the Velvet Underground & Pere Ubu, but the arrangement of the tracks really annoyed me. The VU albums were sandwiched in between demos & live recordings of varying quality - having to skip to track 4 to listen to, say, their 3rd album, was annoying. And the Pere Ubu box just threw as many tracks as they could on one CD, meaning it was hard to get an idea of what the latter albums sounded like, unless I took the time to change discs or record all the pertinent songs onto one tape. Annoying as all that.

A concept like _Nuggets_, though, is PERFECT box-set material.

the kyuss 3 for 1 box set. you get 3 of their full lengths for like 20 bucks. unbelievable deal. i can't believe nobody has mentioned it yet.

I own:
Sound and Vison by Bowie
The Lou Reed Box
Peel Slowly and see by the Velvets
The pet sounds box
a gospel country box
The abthology of american folk music
and wild and out of control , the dirty 50s R&B stuff

Jesus. I go away for one day and All hell breaks loose

― Nick, Wednesday, 27 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)