Here's a small survey of boxed sets, best-ofs, reissues and compilations, just in case you feel the urge to, as the old marketing slogan goes, give the gift of music:
Various Artists: Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (Rhino) — Just reading the credits to this four-disc box humbled me. Out of 91 artists featured, I recognized the names of exactly 33. There's Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores (none of which are represented by hits) … and then there are Baby Huey & the Baby Sitters, Black Haze Express, Grasella Oliphant, The Stovall Sisters, The Mighty Hannibal, Cold Grits, Society's Bag, and the list goes on. The songs, dating from 1967-1977, were mostly released on small indie labels distributed through Warner Bros. and Atlantic.
With low production budgets, the sound is often more raw and visceral than that of the major artists — but, I hasten to add, not often better. Most of these acts were taking cues from the hitmakers, be it James Brown-inspired goodfoot, symphonic soul, jazzy R&B — just about anything with a funky beat and plenty of horns. A lot of the material has provided grist for hip-hop sampling, and much of it is very good, but to some degree the entire collection has the aroma of rarity for rarity's sake.
Various Artists: British Invasion Gold (Hip-O) — This two-disc set should've been titled "British Invasion Gold (Other Than the Beatles)" — even though it begins with the Fab Four's 1961 version of "Ain't She Sweet" (a token entry; probably the only thing they could license). This comp, the rest of which ranges from 1963-1967, is worthwhile, though — mostly as a time capsule, but also a collection of estimable songs that capture England's particular take on rock 'n' as refracted through the looming lens that was The Beatles. Much of the music is tame, frothy pop, some of which could be dismissed if not for its nostalgic value. Outside of its British Invasion context, Freddie & the Dreamers' "I'm Telling You Now" and The Merseybeats' "I Think of You" are pretty, well, the word "lame" comes to mind.
It takes quite a few easy-listening (albeit good) tunes by Billy J. Kramer, The Searchers, Chad & Jeremy, The Zombies, Dusty Springfield, etc. to get to something that really rocks: Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders "Game of Love." Further highlights: Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" (I never tire of it); The Mindbenders "Groovy Kind of Love;" The Hollies' "Bus Stop;" Donovan's "Sunshine Superman;" Gerry & the Pacemakers' "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying;" The Troggs' "Love is All Around." The set contains one perplexing atrocity: Cat Stevens' "The First Cut is the Deepest" (he wrote it) that never charted. And finally, a song I really wish they'd included: The Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind."
Joe Walsh: The Definitive Collection (Geffen/Universal Chronicles) — You wanna talk overlooked? Joe Walsh, longstanding Eagles guitarist and a solo artist with such classic rock staples to his credit as "Funk #49," "Rocky Mountain Way" and "Life's Been Good," did not make Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." Joan Jett did. So did John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service. And Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien of Radiohead. One listen to this 15-track retrospective and it'll be abundantly clear that Walsh belongs in, at least, the Top 50.
It's not just his guitar work, either. His songwriting, often irrepressibly ironic and clever, definitely holds up, and his whiny tenor voice always fits the music. The single disc begins with "Funk #49" and two others from 1969's The James Gang Rides Again, one of the great pre-metal blues-rock albums. Mixed in with the hits are relative obscurities by his early '70s band Barnstorm. And as if you didn't already know: The guitar playing smokes. This is an essential survey of an underheralded artist, and almost all of the songs sound better than I remember them.
The Allman Brothers Band: Eat a Peach [Deluxe Edition] (Mercury/Universal Chronicles) — Guitar god Duane Allman died in a motorcyle accident during the recording of Eat a Peach, the studio follow-up to ABB's immensely successful concert album At Fillmore East. Released as a double LP in '72, Eat a Peach contains studio songs cut before and after Duane's death, as well as three leftover tracks from the Fillmore shows (including the 33-minute "Mountain Jam"). The new material — especially "Ain't Wastin' Time No More," "Blue Sky" and "Melissa" — ranks with the best of the band's output. "Little Martha," an acoustic-guitar duet between Duane and Dickey Betts, concludes the original LP in charming fashion. Disc 2, dubbed "The Final Fillmore East Concert," finds the band playing a similar set to the one recorded a few months earlier that made up At Fillmore East. The performance isn't quite as sharp, but the music's still extremely valuable, especially since a good portion of it was previously unreleased.
Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road [Deluxe Edition] (Lost Highway/Universal Chronicles) — Don't know about you, but Lucinda Williams' rag-twang voice has lately gotten a little too ravaged for my liking. Such was not the case with 1998's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, her breakthrough album and a benchmark of No Depression country. On this two-disc Deluxe Edition, her vocals are merely weary and worn, and sublimely expressive in these confessional laments. With the help of such stalwarts as Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Greg Leisz, Johnny Lee Schell and others, the set delivers the kind of unhurried, intimate country-folk that will always be an antidote to the shiny treacle perpetrated by the Music Row machine. Bonus material includes a handful of outtakes and an immaculately recorded 1998 concert in Philadelphia that includes many Car Wheels songs.
Steve Earle: The Definitive Collection 1983-1987 (Hip-O) — Before he became an incorrigible junkie, before he did prison time, before he cleaned up, and before he became an alt-country iconoclast, Steve Earle actually topped the country charts with his 1985 album Guitar Town. His career breaks down into two basic segments: before his downfall (on MCA), and after his resurrection (on Warner Bros. and Artemis). This single-disc compilation concentrates on the earlier — and, to these ears, less interesting — period. Still and all, songs like "Good Ol' Boy (Gettin' Tough)," "The Week of Living Dangerously" and "Copperhead Road" avoid Nashville platitudes in favor of hardscrabble narratives. The set does include three Warner Bros.-era tunes, including the title track to his terrific 1996 comeback album I Feel Alright. Adding a second disc that focused on '96 to the present would've made this set truly definitive.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2006.
