Friday, February 27, 2004
DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES #1s
Pick up this CD, and enjoy a wonderful collection of great tunes by the (original) Supremes and the "Ross and the" Supremes, and ONE cute tune w/o the Driving-Diva, and a smattering of hits with just Diana Ross and one duet with Lionel Ritchie ("Endless Love" of course).
It's a nice LONG package. Listen on good headphones (Zeph recommends Triports at Bose.com on land and their noise canceling variety although pricey in a plane). You'll hear stomping of feet as a percussion instrument on several tracks. You will appreciate how GOOD the singers and band HAD to be to "get it right" in the stone age before digital and 48+ multi-track tape. In particular the bass player(s) were right-on and so beautifully tonal. In fact, although the company does not recommend it, I hit my bass extender on the old CD player to punch up the bass lines a little and was in Motown Heaven.
The only ditz on the CD is the last tune; a horrid remix of a song already on the collection in virgin form. I know I know, it's more dance-able, more "club" but look, it stinks, and serves only to be THE new (actually re-retread) song I guess to hype sales. When I made a travel-safe copy (for my own use, and yup I bought this CD and all my CDs, period), I left the stinker off my road copy.
BOTTOM LINE: 5/5 if you leave off the remix at the end.
Zephy out.
Pick up this CD, and enjoy a wonderful collection of great tunes by the (original) Supremes and the "Ross and the" Supremes, and ONE cute tune w/o the Driving-Diva, and a smattering of hits with just Diana Ross and one duet with Lionel Ritchie ("Endless Love" of course).
It's a nice LONG package. Listen on good headphones (Zeph recommends Triports at Bose.com on land and their noise canceling variety although pricey in a plane). You'll hear stomping of feet as a percussion instrument on several tracks. You will appreciate how GOOD the singers and band HAD to be to "get it right" in the stone age before digital and 48+ multi-track tape. In particular the bass player(s) were right-on and so beautifully tonal. In fact, although the company does not recommend it, I hit my bass extender on the old CD player to punch up the bass lines a little and was in Motown Heaven.
The only ditz on the CD is the last tune; a horrid remix of a song already on the collection in virgin form. I know I know, it's more dance-able, more "club" but look, it stinks, and serves only to be THE new (actually re-retread) song I guess to hype sales. When I made a travel-safe copy (for my own use, and yup I bought this CD and all my CDs, period), I left the stinker off my road copy.
BOTTOM LINE: 5/5 if you leave off the remix at the end.
Zephy out.
Sunday, February 01, 2004
TURNIN' BACK THE PAGES
The Best Of Stephen Stills, the CBS years
On the RAVEN label; you might have to order this one, and wait...like I did!
Well, I love Stephen Stills, that needs to be said. He's a great great guitar player, if you doubt that get any number of videos or bootlegs or if you are really lucky hear him live playing solo on "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" with CSN. His duel duettes with Neil Young throughout the years have also been scorching, as recently as in the last few years of CSNY reunion tours.
That having been said, this new "best of" is certainly less than the best recordings he has EVER put out, but it's very very very good. The collection is nearly 80 minutes long, and includes the best picks from his career re-starting album "Stills" and the under-rated-in-retro-spect album "Illegal Stills" and "Thoroughofare Gap." That last album has the wonderful gem of a title song, surrounded by weak covers and even weaker orginals. But if you like Stills, it's great because there are 6 songs here never before released on CD.
The bonus tracks (2) on this disc are from the OLD "Super Session" album that I must admit is critically praised, done with Al Kooper. My opinion is the "Super Session" got less and less super with the passage of time, unfortunately, and actually sounds trite in this day and age of digital everything.
So, if you like Stills, that means you already have alot if not most of this stuff, this album is a buy just to get the new digital remasters now on the collection.
If you don't ... it's a nice listen of the early to mid 70s sounds of a great guitarist.
Bottom Line rating (for the uninitiated)...3/5 stars and that's biased, admittedly.
=========================================================
And before we sign out for the Super Bowl....
=========================================================
COMING VERY SOON: Diana Ross and the Supremes "#1s"
I have not seen alot of press on this one, but this GREAT collection of songs is coming out Tuesday 3 February (2004 of course!) in the USA on one CD. I already seen the "big box" websites offering pre-orders of it for $9.99. Look at the song listing, and although this is a me-too CD (dovetails Beatles and Elvis in a way too obvious way); it's a steal if you own none of these on CD. Look for it and enjoy.
Zeph, out
The Best Of Stephen Stills, the CBS years
On the RAVEN label; you might have to order this one, and wait...like I did!
Well, I love Stephen Stills, that needs to be said. He's a great great guitar player, if you doubt that get any number of videos or bootlegs or if you are really lucky hear him live playing solo on "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" with CSN. His duel duettes with Neil Young throughout the years have also been scorching, as recently as in the last few years of CSNY reunion tours.
That having been said, this new "best of" is certainly less than the best recordings he has EVER put out, but it's very very very good. The collection is nearly 80 minutes long, and includes the best picks from his career re-starting album "Stills" and the under-rated-in-retro-spect album "Illegal Stills" and "Thoroughofare Gap." That last album has the wonderful gem of a title song, surrounded by weak covers and even weaker orginals. But if you like Stills, it's great because there are 6 songs here never before released on CD.
The bonus tracks (2) on this disc are from the OLD "Super Session" album that I must admit is critically praised, done with Al Kooper. My opinion is the "Super Session" got less and less super with the passage of time, unfortunately, and actually sounds trite in this day and age of digital everything.
So, if you like Stills, that means you already have alot if not most of this stuff, this album is a buy just to get the new digital remasters now on the collection.
If you don't ... it's a nice listen of the early to mid 70s sounds of a great guitarist.
Bottom Line rating (for the uninitiated)...3/5 stars and that's biased, admittedly.
=========================================================
And before we sign out for the Super Bowl....
=========================================================
COMING VERY SOON: Diana Ross and the Supremes "#1s"
I have not seen alot of press on this one, but this GREAT collection of songs is coming out Tuesday 3 February (2004 of course!) in the USA on one CD. I already seen the "big box" websites offering pre-orders of it for $9.99. Look at the song listing, and although this is a me-too CD (dovetails Beatles and Elvis in a way too obvious way); it's a steal if you own none of these on CD. Look for it and enjoy.
Zeph, out
