Connect
the Dots, Loops, Jams and Riffs
That cleverly prepackaged gift, the box set, comes in
more sizes than one.
BY
ZACH DUNDAS
I know who you are.
I can almost taste the unwholesome sweat on your brows
as you feverishly alphabetize your CD collection. As you
ponder how to handle The The and ? and the Mysterians,
new possibilities in categorization occur to you, divinely
inspired.
Reorganize by genre? By popularity? By epoch? By album-cover
style--sleek jazz designs here, metal sword 'n' sorcery
tableaux there? An alphabetical arrangement makes it easy
to parse ABBA from Zappa, but it also throws a glaring
light on your precious collection's deepest flaw.
Incompleteness. That brick of Johnny Cash looks
pretty boss wedged between the Cars and Cassius, but doesn't
it just make you feel so ashamed never to have
tracked down a digitally remastered, painstakingly annotated
copy of Ballads of the American Indian?
Becalm yourself. 'Tis the season of getting, and there
is a product designed solely for people like you: box
sets. Too expensive for any other time of year, but perfect
for dotty, highly suggestible Aunt Margie's holiday budget.
Too fanatically comprehensive for dilettantes; just right
for you.
Come, then, fellow junkie, as we find what solace we
can in a few of the magnum music collections of the season.
Quality Serenaders
Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles
WEA/Atlantic/Rhino.
List price $59.97.
This could be the find of the holiday season. These four
discs unite four decades of music from the L.A. street
that was once at the heart of a defiantly vibrant black
community. In the face of constant harassment from a systematically
racist police force, the nightclubs on and around Central
Avenue hosted some of the most righteous players on the
American jazz scene. This collection runs from the rattle-trap
'20s stomp of Ory's Creole Jazz Band to Nat King Cole's
urbane suavities to Charlie Parker's MAX-track-smooth
innovations on the horn. Romantic, raucous and challenging
by turns, Central Avenue Sounds evokes an era when
L.A. had something more to offer than psychotic commuters
and soulless asphalt.
The Ultimate
Sony Music 100 Years: Soundtrack for a Century
Sony.
List price $329.97.
Thanks to the grand-scale consolidation of the music
industry, a few companies now control vast swathes of
America's cultural heritage. Scary 1984 overtones
aside, it's fine with me as long as they stick with projects
like Sony's almost incomprehensibly vast 26-disc epitaph
for the 1900s. This bad boy (which can also be purchased
in bite-sized chunks) includes jams cut on wax cylinders
in the 1890s and electronica dropped a few months back,
plus nearly everything in between. Buy it for someone
you love. Such as yourself.
This Is the End!
The Doors: Complete Studio Recordings and Essential
Rarities
WEA/Elektra. List price $98.99.
Although a four-disc Doors box set appeared just two
years ago, this pricey bauble is sure to whip those who
love these self-styled troubadours of mystery into a froth.
Gathering all the albums under a single price tag, the
collection throws in a disc of live cuts, outtakes and
alternate versions (that's right: "essential rarities").
All the hits are here, of course, as are dozens of less-known
tracks. The three surviving members will undoubtedly welcome
the cash generated by this definitive summation of their
enduring work. Somewhere in the Great Beyond, old Jim
is too drunk to care.
See the Light
Stevie Wonder: At the Close of a Century
Universal/Motown.
List price: $59.97.
The constant spinning of the pop merry-go-round hasn't
been kind to Stevie Wonder. Here he is, with 36 years
as a recording artist and songwriter on his vitae, innumerable
hits to his credit and an instantly recognizable voice
and image. And when was the last time you thought about
him? This four-disc set hadn't hit the streets as of press
time (it will be available for stocking stuffing), so
we can't speak to its scope. But if it focuses a little
love on an unjustly overlooked artist, it will have done
its job.
Three Bad Brothers Who You Know So Well
The
Beastie Boys: The Sounds of Science
EMD/Capitol. List price: $24.97.
Few pop transformations have gone as far as the Beastie
Boys' decade-plus makeover from Bud-swilling super stunods
to hepcat pals of the Dalai Lama. This two-disc set isn't
necessarily definitive. A lot of the sketchy, pre-hip-hop
hardcore could have been dispensed with. The voluminous,
poorly edited liner notes prove that the Beasties have
a weak understanding of what's cool about their own music--they
practically disown trashy classics like "Fight for Your
Right to Party" while talking up the dull, self-important
pseudo-Buddhist jams of recent albums. Still, this pair
of CDs will put a jump in the step of any fan of this
oh-so-'90s gang. Recommended, despite its flaws.
Chixdiggit
Respect: A Century of Women in Music
WEA/Atlantic/Rhino.
List price $69.97.
One hundred years of recorded music and all women get
is five lousy discs? This project borders on patronizing
by its very nature. Still, while the purply packaging
and goofball disc titles--disc three is Shoop-Shoop,
Motown, Get Down, Sister--call out to the Lilith Nation,
a quick scan of the contents reveals a surprisingly strong,
diverse lineup. Certainly, it's fun to find Patsy Montana
and Her Prairie Ramblers, Janis Joplin, X-Ray Specs and
Roxanne Shanté on the same compilation. If you
can stomach the implied ghettoization that hangs on this
femme-centric set, its thick pile of more than 100 tracks
is a fine bargain.
Hard Travelin'
Woody Guthrie: The Asch Recordings, Vols. 1-4
Smithsonian
Folkways. List price $45.97.
When someone placed this elegantly appointed set in my
hands, I nearly cried. The primitive guitar, plaintive
vocals, fierce conviction and wandering spirit of Guthrie's
folk anthems make for the only patriotic music I'll ever
love. The rugged Oklahoman mapped America from the rough
streets of New York to the hard-to-hold riches of our
own Columbia country, exposing liars, hypocrites and thuggish
bossmen of all sorts to the cleansing blast of his satire.
Guthrie's honest, earthy approach to songwriting could
teach the overemotive folkies and angsty boy rockers of
the Stiffed generation a thing or two.
NOTE: Prices listed are the manufacturers' recommended
retail price; most discs are available at stores where
you usually buy music.
