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- Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!torn!nott!bnrgate!bcars267!bcars6ba!jtintor
- From: jtintor@bcars6ba.UUCP (John Tintor)
- Subject: Re: B.B.King Box Set
- Message-ID: <1992Dec23.152241.3307@bnr.ca>
- Sender: jtintor@bcars6ba (John Tintor)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: bcars6ba
- Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 15:22:41 GMT
- Lines: 47
-
- I picked up the BB.King boxed set a couple of weeks ago and have
- played it through about three times already. Since the few albums
- I have are from later years I was totally amazed at his work
- (especially vocally) from earlier years. The $Cnd70 I paid for
- the 77 songs that span his entire career was well spent especially
- for someone who isn't going to buy every single CD that comes out.
- Buying this CD is probably like buying a Blue/Red Beatles CD (when it
- comes out). You're given a taste from each period of his career
- without buying other similar songs of the same period. The BB.King
- fan will end up buying other CD's but will probably still buy the
- boxed set to get earlier/unreleased stuff that may or may not end
- up on CD.
-
- As I don't have the set in front of me I'll try to give more detail
- from memory...
-
- There are four cd's segmented in time periods; 1949-1966, 1966-1969,
- 1969-197?, 197?-1992. The quality of the early stuff (even the ones
- from 1949/50) is really great even more so considering it was recorded
- for mom & pop record operations. The couple of songs lifted from 'Live
- at the Regal' are clean as well.
-
- As with all box sets there are things missing but that's personal taste.
- For example, the editor selected a studio version of "how blue can you
- get' instead of the recording from '...Cook County Jail' (by the way
- I believe no tracks from CCJ were included). The studio version is
- really bland without the incredible guitar solo intro. They also
- took the studio version of 'Caledonia' instead of the one from
- 'BB.King in London' with all it's great instrument solos. Also, the
- booklet makes reference to an amasing acoustic track 'Alexis Boogey'
- which is one of my favourite BB.King tracks but is not included in the
- box set. Lastly, for those of you who hate box set editors
- remixing/concatenating tracks, this is performed on only one song and
- is done fairly well.
-
- The included booklet is pretty good too. It gives a history of his
- career with references to certain tracks, albums, and record company
- switches. There is also an interview with BB.King. The author and
- musicians are given for each track.
-
- While I'm in here I must say my favourite album is 'BB.King in London'.
- I haven't seen it on cd yet but I'll keep looking.
-
- john
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