The annual Christmas shopping blitz is officially upon us, and nothing says "I love and respect you" like forcing your tastes in music on the people you care about (or have to share a car, apartment, or cubicle with on a regular basis). Now, we know that you probably can't afford that autographed original Monterey Pop poster on eBay. But you know that giving someone a single CD makes you look like a bit of a cheap bastard, right? Allow us to introduce to you just a few selections from the recording industry's gift-giving Golden Mean — the box set. Read on.
Those box-set packaging wizards at Rhino may have outdone themselves this time. This box has a facade that makes it look like a case holding six 8-track tapes. And it appears real from across the room. Expect people to see it and go, "Wow, where'd you get the 8-tracks?" or "Wow, what are those things?"
Flip open the lid and the real treasure emerges: six CDs containing 136 classic R&B songs from the decade. The '70s soul experience, as defined by the producers with their track selection, skews heavily toward the first half of the decade. Only 14 of the chronologically ordered songs were released after 1975. This was an astute move: Disco began watering down soul at the decade's midway point and it got pretty bleak as the '80s closed in.
There are so many incredible songs in this set that the tough part of reviewing it is deciding which names and titles to drop. The box runs the gamut. There's a slew of unmitigated classics: Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" (selected over "What's Going On"), The Isley Brothers' "That Lady," The Temptations' "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," Curtis Mayfield's "Freddy's Dead," Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones," The O'Jays' "Backstabbers" — that's just a small taste.
There are oldies radio staples like Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff," Carl Carlton's "Everlasting Love," Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster" and that's just nibble.
Bedroom ballads: Major Harris' "Love Won't Let Me Wait" (Later remade by Luther Vandross), Blue Magic's "Sideshow," The Chi-Lites' "Have You Seen Her," The Stylistics' "Betcha By Golly, Wow" — just a short sample.
Wild, almost-unhinged funk: Joe Tex's "I Gotcha," King Floyd's "Let Me Kiss You," LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade," Billy Preston's "Outa Space" and that's just a dollop.
There's an array of great tunes by acts that never crossed over to the mass market, epitomized by Ann Peebles' simmering "I Can't Stand the Rain."
There's plenty of stuff that charted a singular stylistic course: Two by Bill Withers ("Lean on Me," "Use Me"), Timmy Thomas' creeping "Why Can't We Live Together," William DeVaughn's silky "Be Thankful for What You Got," the Brothers Johnson's trippy "Strawberry Letter 23," and the magnificent Staple Singers, with their sublime weave of voice and instruments on "Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There."
The only glaring omissions are Aretha Franklin ("Rock Steady" would've been nice), George Clinton (funk personified) and Stevie Wonder (he was only the artist of the decade). But let's not end with quibbles: This set is, to borrow a period phrase, absolute dynamite.
Various Artists
Say it Loud: A Celebration
of Black Music in America(Rhino) It's appropriate that this box is packaged to look like a book. It's some history lesson — and a site more fun than a dry old text. The six chronological CDs track the development of black music from Scott Joplin to Coolio.
To tackle the subject right would take, oh, a hundred discs, but the producers have done an admirable job of selecting absolutely crucial songs from venerable artists in just about every applicable genre. Without even looking at the track list, you think: Louis Armstrong (yep, "Heebie Jeebies"), Duke Ellington ("It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing"), Count Basie ("Jumpin' at the Woodside"), Robert Johnson ("Cross Roads Blues"), Muddy Waters ("I Feel Like Going Home"), Billie Holiday ("Strange Fruit") Mahalia Jackson ("Take My Hand Precious Lord"), Ray Charles ("I've Got A Woman"), James Brown ("Say it Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud"), Aretha Franklin ("Respect"), Marvin Gaye ("What's Going On"), Stevie Wonder (what, no Stevie?).
Then you think Fats (Waller, Domino), Jelly Roll, Cab, Bird, Miles, Trane, Mingus, Monk, Wolf, Bo, Sly, Otis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Louis Jordan — all here. Plus stuff that didn't pop to mind: The Orioles, Charles Brown, Professor Longhair, Marian Anderson, Herbie Hancock, Nina Simone, Richie Havens — hell, even country crooner Charley Pride.
Say It Loud favors songs with strong social awareness or black consciousness. As such, Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is on hand. Instead of a signature hit by Sly & the Family Stone, we get "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey." Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway weigh in with "Be Real Black For Me."
So this set is not recommended for Klansmen — but it is for pretty much everyone else.
KISS
KISS: The Box Set(Universal) Love them or loathe them, KISS pretty much defined American arena rock. Their immaculately plotted amalgam of riffs, sex, shock and spectacle gave the nation's adolescent males everything their ravenous senses and nascent libidos could handle and more, not to mention almost single-handedly reinventing the merchandising arm of the music industry. And, with deference to those purists completely flummoxed by the vast numbers of contemporary musicians who claim that KISS inspired them to pick up an instrument in the first place, this NYC institution really did manage to write more than a couple of decent songs along the way.
This five-disc, 96-track retrospective definitely delivers the good stuff, if only because it seems to deliver everything — in typical KISS fashion, the box set is inclusive beyond the point of overkill. While multiple versions of their biggest tunes are, thankfully yet surprisingly, kept to a minimum, several gems get presented here in alternate/unreleased form; fully one-third of the tracks are of the rare to completely unheard variety. Early Eddie Kramer-produced demos for "Strutter" and "Deuce," a version of "Calling Doctor Love" titled "Bad, Bad Lovin'," and a live "Rock and Roll All Nite" (from the yet-to-be-released Alive IV) make up but a few of the intriguing highlights. Also represented is Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley's pre-KISS outfit, Wicked Lester, in the form of three tracks which belie a '60s folk-rock influence only occasionally hinted at by the Fearsome Four. If you're looking forward to a salad-days compendium completely devoted to their pre-Lick It Up supremacy, however, you might consider misplacing the final two platters; Disc Four begins where the makeup, the mystique and most of the good stuff ended. From there on out, the only classic material comes in the form of cuts culled from a mediocre MTV Unplugged performance and the aforementioned set-closing "Rock and Roll All Nite."
KISS: The Box Set will be available (in timely holiday gift-giving fashion, natch) in both an elaborate big-box edition and an uber-elaborate Special Deluxe Edition, which comes packaged in an undoubtedly killer mini-guitar case. The only other difference pertains to the exhaustive, 120-page book of photos, essays and track-by-track commentary (which includes its fair share of pithy Gene/Paul bon mots). In the regular set, it's the usual card stock, while the Special Deluxe Edition opts for hardcover.
Like the band it represents, this collection will surely prove to be a singular and lasting piece of rock 'n' roll Americana. Whether or not it's just for the completist is a bit of a moot point; get this box set and you're well on your way to becoming one.
Scott Harrell can be reached by e-mail at scott.harrell@weeklyplanet.com. Eric Snider: snider@weeklyplanet.com.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2001.