The problem with box sets, apart from the expense, and the duplication of material you already have, and the frustrating omission of tracks that should be there dammit, is that they're just not very playable. You want to hear an album, you pull it off the shelf, cue it up, et voilá! But what do you want to hear from a box set? The outtakes? The live stuff? The alternate versions? The remastered-if-you-say-so original album? The strangely lifeless BBC sessions? The blurry DVD of a past-their-best concert? Or, god forbid, the fascinating demos giving a rare glimpse into the creative process and preferred by connoisseurs to the over-produced studio versions? Most of the box sets I ever bought stayed on the shelf. Comforting to own, sure! Yup! I now have it all! The complete archival material, right there! Beautifully packaged with unopened limited edition fridge magnets and Croc buttons! Gee ... I hope somebody comes by who understands how impressive my collection is ... one day, I'll leave it to a museum ... maybe they'll name a wing after me ...
Who are we kidding? We buy box sets because they make us feel good, not because we're going to spend a lot of time opening them up and prising out the discs and deciding what bits we want to listen to before we lose interest. Case in point: Springsteen's mammoth The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, which luckily came out years after I jettisoned all my physical media. But even as convenient, at-a-glance MP3 files, I wasn't spending any quality time with the music.
Can't think of anything to type here.
To qualify for this Freeload®, share with us your complicated relationship to box sets, perhaps highlighting examples of the genre that didn't leave you feel like some kind of a fool for parting with your hard-earned cash.
ReplyDeleteThere's a very fine piece over at Pitchfork (of all places) that's worth a hinge:
Deletehttps://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21306-the-ties-that-bind-the-river-collection/
?
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY9eSzB-KbU
The first box set I bought was 100% the best: Stiff Records Box Set 10 seven inches.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a complicated relationship with box sets. It is a step further up. Albums, all killer no filler. It says it all. So many albums full of fillers, or best of's doubling songs with one or two extras. I think Bruce Springsteen is a perfect example, filling 99% of his albums with More Of The Same. The River should have been a double EP.
DeleteSorry, forgot my name, Richard as above
DeleteBack in the olden days, record/cd clubs offered heavily discounted box sets by the score and, naturally, they needed to be purchased...and shoved on a shelf. A bit like buying the heavily discounted Oxford English Dictionary from book of the month club because, well, it's the OED for cheap!
ReplyDeleteForgot my name as well (Monday morning, amirite?)
DeleteBox sets are generally a swizz (British slang: a swindle, con, or disappointment).
ReplyDeleteWorst value box set - The Fall Rough Trade singles, five replicas of vinyl on five cds in a box, total playing time about 35 minutes. (I must burn it to mp3 for ease of playback).
Best value box set - 1,2,3,4, Punk and New Wave 76-79, almost all my punk and new wave needs on five discs (no Fall though).
Only for me box set - King Crimson Heavy Construction, three discs live 2000 tour, heavy on improvisations, definitely not for the casual listener. Fantastic.
The problem is that box sets are so €£#*$ expensive, especially the vinyl ones. Still I enjoyed Robyn Hitchcock's box sets I Wanna Go Backwards as well as When Thatcher Mauled Britain each including five LP's of unreleased stuff. Worth mentioning are also Cramps and Tav Falco New Rose singles sets not to mention Munster Cramps File Under Sacred Music (!) and Lyres singles sets. I have the Boulders LP box set and the 60's punk single box too but Moxie releases sound awful.
ReplyDeleteall amazing
DeleteThe 4-CD "Nuggets" is a corker. "Citizen Steely Dan" has all the early albums over 4 CDs. it is only let down by unfortunate editing, and, as ever, the other half of "Gaucho" (the unreleased pieces) being omitted. Some say it sounds wrong. With my hearing, I'm grateful for whatever gets through.
ReplyDelete"Citizen" is probably the worst-ever box set from a major act, with the Springfield set running it a close second. Any major dude will tell you.
DeleteBecause it split the albums? Because there are only 3 out-takes? Us TRUE DAN FANS now listen continuously and so there ain't no split, whether computer or phone. Oh I know some folks impart vinyl with magical powers. PSHAW. Perhaps CSD because it lacks a Steely Dan bottle opener or "signed" post-card? Us true fans have every secret track and bootleg sneaked out onto the Internet anyway.
DeleteKing Crimson's "The Great Deceiver" also punches it's weight.
ReplyDeleteI let the University buy me some of the Dust to Digital boxed stuff. Goodbye Babylon is amazing and surreal...
ReplyDeleteThis was eric^^^
DeleteHave to go along with Anonymous (Richard) re Goodbye Babylon (snortingly good) and Bambi re 1,2,3,4 - great to jump up and down to...
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have The Ties That Bind, wave your copy of The Watchtower so I can see you. It's a great album. It took me many years to appreciate The River, to understand how the sequencing works. It's the last true E Street Band album - all the good stuff he did after was without them, and the band albums slid into a kind of joyless, formulaic mediocrity (and were terribly produced). But The River keeps on flowing ...
ReplyDeleteBefore Box sets there were double lps, they was good :
ReplyDeleteNuggets
The Beat Merchants (I think I did a piece on that, many years ago, in a previous life)
Oh yes, none of them had remixs, alternative versions, demos etc etc etc...
So not really box sets after all, still, they was good...
But I do ask meself if the multi-disc (and multi-box) Nuggets sets are any "better" than the original double. For me, they join the countless (and seemingly unending) compilations of psych/garage I never get around to playing.
DeleteMy copy of 'Beat Merchants' got some play over the years as did 'Hard Up Heroes'
DeleteI've bought some stinkers in the past, that still live in ignomy on the dust covered top shelf. The one really worth getting (but not on CD) was Richard & Linda Thompson - Hard Luck Stories (1972 - 1982) - Great selection of unreleased and hard to find tracks of excellent quality. Sadly most of the actual CDs had pressing errors and then the record company gave up on it.
ReplyDeleteBought more boxes than I should have & downloaded many more. I always boil them down from about 3 or 4 discs to 1. Ex: the recent Skydog box (thanx, Babs)... 7 discs minus the ABB & other stuff I already had fit on 1 very enjoyable disc (now in my car). Also, many recent Zappa boxes...sometimes have to go to vol. 2s...
ReplyDeleteYou'd be doing me (and I'm sure 3 or 4 others) a solid by uploading your in-car Duane, notBob!
DeleteI'll fetch it out of the car & attempt to upload manana!
DeleteLets see...https://workupload.com/archive/HG8pYmbQgL
Deletesloppy but i think it got thru...?
DeleteGotta get the Boz, too, but it didn't fit.
DeleteComin' thru ... I'll convert to a less hostile file format and paint a cover. Muchachas graniolas, compadore!
DeleteMy pleasure! Thanx for cleaning up my mess.
DeleteI'm pretty sure the first box set - in the archival compilation sense we're talking about - was Soft Machine's Triple Echo, predating the oft-touted Clapton Crossroads box by over a decade. It was in a box, for a start (which excludes Decade, from the same year), it had a career-spanning, cross-label selection across three discs, and there was a nifty album-sized booklet. It was also pretty damn groovy.
ReplyDeleteSoft Machine's Triple Echo was my first purchase by the band, and yes it was all you say except mine was missing the box and booklet, but was so cheap I had to have it.
DeleteI do remember when Zappa, Shut Up And Play Your Guitar was released waiting for ages to get a copy, and I wasn't disappointed.
Zappa seems to be the exception, as always. I've never regretted going to the trouble of downloading any of his box sets. They're nearly always fantastic.
DeleteThough notBob (above) is right, some of the live boxes recently released can be edited down to a much more manageable single disk length, New York springs to mind.
DeleteAs far as I remember, the first (?) Box set was The Beach Boys' three album box set (1967).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/4240183-The-Beach-Boys-The-Beach-Boys-Deluxe-Set?srsltid=AfmBOopqaFo6rgY80n9HO05yFJuG8DbVbBvdJ0xfXtRd-8wfLo6nYi-N
Yebbut. This is just a repackaging of existing albums, and isn't really what we're talking about. I think there was a Beatles German record club box which might qualify ...
DeleteMy first boxset was probably an EMI Licensed 6 LP Hits of the 50's and 60's collection on Readers Digest (the UK's version of TimeLife) about 50 years ago even before the Stiff box set and I've bought a fair few vinyl boxsets over the years mostly which I spotted in charity shops and the likes including Mr Springsteen's 5 album live box from the mid 1980's. If I'm honest i can't particularly remember it. I probably did play it back in the day but haven't got around to ripping it yet. The earliest produced vinyl box sets I've got are the 'Odessa' Double Album from 1968 in the felt box and George Harrison's treble 'All Things Must Pass' album
ReplyDeleteI think they are great though and truth be known box sets were one of the things that tempted me away from vinyl (yes I used to be a purist) because for the price of a single out of print 1950's or 1960's LP you could buy a 5 album CD box set reissue of five of that bands albums. I've bought loads of them whether its to fill large gaps in my album collection, the 5 disc Original Album Series is great for that, or in updating series I have on vinyl such as the 20CD Rubble box set. Even the cheap 10 CD Rock N' Roll and Rn'B sets like the Ray Charles 17 album set are worth getting if the artist interests you. It would take years of collecting and 20 times the cost to collect together all those albums on vinyl,
With the modern boxsets its often not so much the actual CD's but the artwork and books that come with them that's the real bonus. For example San Fransciscan Nuggets Is an A4 120 page book with the 4CD's in the cover. Some of them would be well worth owning even without the CD's.
Needless to say I tend to rip them and then use the digital version to listen to but I do get the sets out and read any booklets provided every now and then.
That said I do agree that these endless 'deluxe Anniversary editions' with ever more obscure recordings added are starting to go beyond the pale and one can only imagine what might be offered for the 100th Anniversary copies of some of these albums.
Nah, the only boxed set worth having was/is the one issued byDGG of the 1963 recordings of Beethoven symphonies performed by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan in a nice set complete with booklet. Most other boxed sets are capitalist rip offs and cynical record company exploitation. C’mon, who needs all those Dylan dribblings issued in the mega-boxes of the Bootleg Series (which do not even include one sound of him farting or belching).
ReplyDeleteDoes that Beethoven box have the remixes? It was a Record Store Day limited thing. Andrew Weatherall, Aphex Twin, The Orb ... also included a limited edition car air freshener (that famous Ludwig portrait) and a glossy signed 8x10 of Karajan ("love - Herbie" and a smiley face).
DeleteAh, the remixes . . . if you got any details, please post them. The downside of them Karajans is his refusal to play any repeats. In fact the obergruppenfuhrer almost never played a symphonic repeat no matter whether the composer indicated one. On the other hand, Celibdache, he was the opposite and repeated everything and very slowly. Me, I’m all for rallentando, particularly as I approach oblivion.
DeleteI had a Buddy Holly box of 6 vinyls. That must have been the 80s. And a US RCA box of 3 vinyls of the Brandenbergs, piano Lukas Foss, from 1958. (Would love to have it again).
ReplyDeleteAlways been a sucker for good box sets (emphasis on the "sucker"). Amen to whoever praised Dust-to-Digital (too lazy to scroll back up today). I do enjoy the "complete" Motown Singles boxes as well as the Stax cornucopias. Also, the various Richard Thompson boxes that are not just straight-up repackaging of multiple albums (i.e., the BBC box). Looking forward to these Bruce reduxes . . . --Muzak McMusics
ReplyDeleteDon't tell me I missed it (the freeload, that is)?
ReplyDeleteIt's a custom here at th' IoF© that you have to ask. Most of the time, everybody has everything anyway, and I'm not going to upload stuff if I think nobody's interested. Tell me who you are, ask nicely, with your hands clasped behind your back, and I'll be pleased to shovel it all up onto an internet near you!
Delete.. was in the 90s: Pink Floyd 1967 - 1979 or so; for 40 Swiss Francs - the Wall alone was at that price.
ReplyDelete... shure anybody has all of that P.F. ... (just ask)
Deleteand can you please share the Springsteen box...
This has spurred me (yippe o ky yay) to look through some of my fave box sets. I can heartily recommend the recent one of Stax writers' demos, etc. "Written on Their Soul." Will you please load up in your e-shovel this Bruce offering? Many thanks to you for that. --Muzak McMusics
ReplyDeleteApologies for putting this link under the wrong piece, and thanks for the heads-up. Surprised this doesn't happen more often.
ReplyDeleteI thought it might be a red herring stealth link.
DeleteSenior moment.
Delete