Boxing day
So I got a bunch of Rhino Records box sets this weekend. Fell off the truck. I spent a good chunk of the weekend playing music librarian, and I now have a collection that's exciting to no end.
Although it's common knowledge, I'll say it anyway: those foks at Rhino are doing fine work. Here's the rundown:
Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly
Listening to this makes you completely understand why early rock 'n' roll was both wildly loved and reviled: every song is exciting and energetic and every song sounds exactly the same. I suppose that it's like any other revolution: overthrow first and worry about the logistic later.
Verdict: a fun listen and a good lesson, but best left on the shelf, where you can appreciate the awesome artwork. They do include a bunch of audio from old hooligan movies, which is fun.
What It Is! Funky Soul And Rare Grooves (1967-1977)
Close your eyes and imagine some 70's funk. Imagine that it's all lo-fi and gritty and fun and everything that funk is, but still somehow nondescript. That's pretty much this box set.
Verdict: I need a little more time with it. It's good, but also so far proving why it's rare: not much to separate it from the rest of the pack.
Have A Nice Decade: The '70s Pop Culture Box
Oh, is this some tasty cheese. It's not exactly going to sway anyone's opinion that the 70's were full of novelty songs and corny soft rock, but man is it ever a lot of fun.
Verdict: Oh, yeah.
Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally)
This really should be better than it is. You look to Rhino to give you that huge meatball of perfect music. Their 80's box should be everything that all of the other comps are and more. It focuses on the cheesy songs from the era, and while some of it is really fun ("Cool It Now", anyone?), a lot of brings on stomach-clenching cringing.
Verdict: It's a quick fix if your '80's collection is really sparse, but you probably already have the great songs, and a lot of it is best off left in its own time.
One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found
Verdict: It might eventually rival the best box set ever. Buy it now. NOW!
I'm not really in the position to ask Rhino for favors, but I would love to see the following box sets:
- Detroit Techno and Electronic music from the 80's
- Rap and Hip-Hop from the "Rappers Delight" to 1990
- The Big Ol' Box of 60's Ska and Reggae
A footnote: it's not Rhino, but I'm totally blown away by Francoise Hardy's The Vogue Years. A must.
9 comments:
I'm betting my request for more Paula Abdul will fall on deaf ears.
Happy 2007, Reid. ;)
You bought all those?! For that chunk of change you could've bought a new truck to fall off...
Just checked out What It Is! from the library, and I've also been disappointed by what I listened to. Better rare (or uncommon) groove comps are Superfly Soul (I can't remember which, but one of the two volumes is a lot better than the other) and one just called The Payback (no JB), I think.
I see they've combined a couple of their series into Have A Nice Decade. I really, really, really hope that "Timothy" and "Amos Moses" made the cut into that set.
As far as your wish list:
Rhino used to have (and I have vol I) Street Jams: Hip Hop From the Top that maybe went 79 - 86, I think. Four or five discs.
There exists at least one big ol box of Ska/Rocksteady by someone other than Rhino.
I would love a nice electronica comp myself: I bought Machine Soul, but it's really patchy in quality, and tries to cover mid-70s to the 90s in two discs. Have you heard Morgan Feist presents Unclassics? Excellent proto-electronica disco mix.
In your best-box set evah competition, I suppose you're restricting it to anthologies? (Another friend boiled down Shake, Scream, and Hollar, or whatever it's called, to a C120 for me. Nice stuff.)
Kris, my ears are only deaf because of the hearing loss. The absence of Paula Abdul on this site is because of the total lack of Paula Abdul in my music library. This is largely because I'm one of those old codgers that considers the "80's" to end on January first, 1986.
Fats, of course I bought all of those. How else would one person come by four different box sets in one day?
I guess the reason that I was looking for Rhino box sets is that I trust their taste. They make great mixes, combining well-known songs with obscure gems. Which, as everyone knows, is the key to a great mix.
But still, I'll have to check it out.
So, uh...any chance we'll see the resuscitation of the Fats Durstonia blog?
Oh, I love Rhino too, owning all the CDs in their In Yo' Face (history of Funk), Poptopia!, and D.I.Y. series at one time or another, though this just might include taping a few discs from friends. Also got a handful of single artist comps and a bunch of each from the Didn't It Blow Your Mind and Have a Nice Day series.
The only thing I wasn't so keen on is the overlap that daft folks such as ourselves might get when we purchase lots of their stuff (the soul tunes that fit in the funk, soul, and pop series, for example).
Sometimes I look wistfully at Fats Durstonia, but this full-time professorin' gig (which may or may not end at the end of this spring semester) is kicking my ass to the tune of 60 to 70-hr workweeks. That and the child who wants to hear "BUS SONG!" ("The Wheels on the Bus") or "CLAPPING SONG!" ("If You're Happy and You Know It," often demanded in very unhappy voice) repeatedly from the "puter" cuts into a feller's time to listen to tunes and write about 'em at length.
You know "Please Visit Your National Parks" (just heard)?
When's your year's greatest coming out, huh? Huh?! I'll show you mine (not actually a year's best...and not quite solidified) if you show me yers.
Oh yeah, I'd want my Rhino Hip Hop History to begin disc two with "King Tim III (Personality Jock)", mainly because I haven't heard it. I'd want disc one to cover Last Poets and "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Apache" and other great breaks...
And of course the last song on the last disc could be Paula Abdul rapping. She does on at least one song, right?
The year-end mix will be up this week. I stupidly obsess over the details, so it does take a while, but it's almost done.
When I was in high school, not long after January 1st, 1986, there was a hippie-funk-rock band in Atlanta called Rockin' Bones. They were kinda early contemporaries of Mr. Crowe's Garden (who later changed their name to the Black Crowes). I worked with those Bones guys at Fellini's Pizza and hung out backstage at their shows, all before I could drive, even, but somehow that never translated into getting girls. I also auditioned to play drums with them, but I was never very good at playing drums.
The problem I've found with 80s comps and 80s radio stations is that they tend to mix songs that wouldn't have been played on the same station at the time they were popular. There were some really great "alternative" stations that would have rather burned down than play "Lean on Me." So, I always find it jarring to hear songs I didn't like mixed in with some of my most favorite.
Just wanted to report (because you care) that I've listened to disc 4 of What It Is! and it's improved my estimation of the set greatly, though the quasi-remake of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" ("If It Was Good Enough for Papa") about marrying a father's mistress is creepy. Favorite track: "Funky to the Bone." Favorite sound: near-constant wah-wah pedal.
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