THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

When I finally started to listen to rock music, it was my older brother who influenced my listening choices in the early days.. Back in grade school and high school. I did set my own mark when I started to listen to groups of the music the band was playing for pep band.. Chicago was one that we did a few songs by.  When I was in a rock band I remember going to practice one day and the lead guitarist was learning the next song we would learn and I remember making the comment that I thought the song was a tad bit disco for our audience (we were at the time a heavy metal rock band).. He said we have to do a bigger variety of songs and with that I thought about what he said for the remainder of that practice as we ran through the song some thirty times (thirty hell, more like fifty, we played anything he really liked doing until it was..)  And it was a fairly easy song as all disco-esk songs were.. I remember us learning Dancing in the dark by Bruce Springsteen and while it is a good song to listen to it is the most boring tedious song to play.. That and a song I absolutely HATED was In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins.. Everybody thought I liked doing it because of the drum fill towards the end of the song but it was the opposite.. BORING ASSED SONG..

End of the rant, now on with why I called you here today.. I bought a few box sets of music back at the start of getting music via compact disc..  And the record company that I noticed I was buying a lot of was Rhino.. They were notorious back in "the day" for putting single records with twenty songs per side on them, so I was a little leery about trying to get disc sets on their label.. First set I got was the Nuggets set:

From the very first release (it was reissued on cd in a four disc set) : Lies by The Knickerbockers

Just Like Me by Paul Revere and the Raiders from the fourth disc I think.. The deeper tracking usually means the album is  weakened by a longer playlist but in this case it stayed true to the original and made it that much stronger

 No Friend Of Mine,  a cool classic rock track.

Not in order, the Loud Fast and out of control set was the fifties set ala the nuggets set sort of.. In this case the music is from when rock & roll was actually ROCK AND ROLL.. From the beginning  when rock did just start..

Rock around the clock was figured to start it all but there were other songs that were underground by artists struggling to break..  And then ....::

Elvis Presley..  Good Rockin Tonight.. 

I think people needed to have a great foundation of music, I started to collect music from this point forward with the idea that I wanted what represented my taste and upbringing..  So the Rhino sets kept coming..  Frat Rock was a set that includes  a good number of songs that are on the Nuggets set but of course there were some mandatory party poppers on this set

Surfin' Bird, a must have for any collection .. A classic what can I say..

Wild Thing by The Trogglodites (Troggs)

Mony Mony by the great Tommy James and the Shondelles...

And now the trickiest set.. Nuggets II (two).. This truly is for the deep tracking completeists.. As the sticker says "virtually no hits" Nuggets two was from the rest of the world at the same time frame as the original so about the same time as those American and Canada rockers were doing this, the rest of the world was too..

Making Time by the Creation .. You have to have heard this song..  From the U.K.

Friday On My Mind by the Easybeats  from Australia..

Fathers Name Was Dad, by Fire  from the U.K.  with the unforgettable line "My father's name was Dad/my mother's name was Mom"  One of the coolest songs from this set..

The British Invasion set a quad disc set again and somewhat controversial in that I never know where to place the disc that I made the representative in the overall Rhino Rock Box (more about that latter if I remember).. This was one of only three disc sets I ever bought used..  There are so many great songs/artists on this set

Gerry and the Pace Makers Ferry Across The Mersey  is one of the standards 

The Hollies Pay You Back With Interest has just the coolest hook to it..

I chose to finish the set with the Troggs gem With A Girl Like You.. Just the perfect song on a great set..

Mellow Hits of The '70's : This isn't a box set but because I had the entire three disc set I included it in my Rhino Rock Box..

Not actually on the box set, this would be a fourth disc gem: Sausalito Summertime by Diesel 

Island Girl by Elton John...

Thunder Island by Jay Ferguson is one of those "oh yeah I remember that song"  songs.. Classic fun time draggin main street summer fun songs...

The Millennium set.. Again not a true set but I have some eight or however many discs were released about the time the calendar changed and everybody was freaking the Y2K wholly shit..

I Only Have Eyes For You by the Flamingos was doo wop at it's best...

Nancy Sinatra classic These Boots Were Made For Walkin' from the sixties millennium disc..

Sweet Soul Music from the Soul disc...

I Got You (I Feel Good)  from Soul II

Best of my Love by Emotions

Children of Nuggets is my third entry into the Nuggets sets, I'm not sure how many there are.. This set has the eighties and early nineties music and has the same feel to the earlier sets of Nuggets discs..

And She Rides by the Long Ryders has just the right feel to it and a nifty hook as well..

She Goes Out With Everybody, by the Spongetones.. I thought of someone when I heard this song for the first time.. Seems like she went out with a lot of guys but maybe that is a good thing, you can find what you really like and stay away from those that aren't so great..

Tracy Hide by the Wondermints ... This song I thought of another girl that might have been interested in me but I always have to have a girl kick my props out from under me to know her true feelings.. So that never happened and that is why I am..

The Brit Box, not to be confused with a box set of Britney Sphears music ...  This is where the set ends.. Check out some gems here :

Coast is Clear by the Curve..  Nice hook..

Chapterhouse and the song Pearl.. In the notes for this song they said the drum hook was by John Bonham but it was in fact a drum hook by the drummer from Siouxie and the Banshees..

 Check it out ...

Finally and mostly because this entry has gotten a bit out of control, The Boo Radleys with Lazarus


Oh yeah, the Rhino Rock Box controversy: I decided to make the set into a best of each box set single disc, and when it came time to put the discs in order I wanted them in chronological  order.. But the problem being going by release date or by the songs or whatever the British Invasion set doesn't include the Beatles so the true BI set is misleading in a sort of way.. Also the "No Thanks 70's Punk Rebellion" set wasn't represented here in this entry mostly because it was acquired via a site that doesn't allow music downloads. Not that this is a problem, I just haven't listened to this disc yet and I don't have the booklet to the set. It really is quite one thing to get the music via download and another to get it in the store with the books and new disc smell.. 

The Rhino Rock Box was the start of putting albums together using the printer I would make all sorts of album covers for my own best ofs and boot legs that I would acquire from all sorts of places around the 'net..

OASIS    Live Forever..  



BH