Good Anthology / Compilations?

[SteveSly]

I am getting to a point where my CD collection is too large. I have about 2000 in my main collection and boxes of probably 1000 more in my basement. I am looking at replacing some of my individual albums with some good anthology’s / compilations. So……what I am looking for is some suggestions of compilations / anthologies / box sets that do a good job of covering an artist’s / band’s career. My collection is pretty varied and includes prog, classic rock, metal, blues, and other forms of music. I realize that I could have more stuff electronically, which I do have on my computer and MP3, but I still mainly listen to CD’s in my house and car. Any good career spanning anthology suggestions?

Steve Sly

[Jerjo]

The Faces - Five Guys Walk into a Bar

[80s were ok]

Ambrosia - "Anthology"

[walt]

Yardbirds-Ultimate

[SteveSly]

The Faces - Five Guys Walk into a Bar

That is one I already have, and agree it is a good one.

Steve Sly

[Jubal]

IMO, the best anthology out there is This Is The Moody Blues. It isn't career spanning, but it is a fantastic representation of the "classic seven" by that band.
There is also a "3CD" set that also covers their later years, but it does not represent the classic seven in the way that This Is does; mainly, by producing with seqgues that are representative of the way their albums would flow.

[SteveSly]

Ambrosia - "Anthology"

Is that a single or double disc? Seems like I have a single disc anthology from them around somewhere, but would rather have something a bit more comprehensive.

Steve Sly

[Reid]

Cream-Gold, excellent 2 CD set of studio/live material.
ditto for Traffic
Steeleye Span-Spanning The Years 2 CD
Richard Thompson-Walking On A Wire
Gentle Giant-I Lost My Head 1975-80 4 CD

[enpdllp]

I am getting to a point where my CD collection is too large. I have about 2000 in my main collection and boxes of probably 1000 more in my basement. I am looking at replacing some of my individual albums with some good anthology’s / compilations. So……what I am looking for is some suggestions of compilations / anthologies / box sets that do a good job of covering an artist’s / band’s career. My collection is pretty varied and includes prog, classic rock, metal, blues, and other forms of music. I realize that I could have more stuff electronically, which I do have on my computer and MP3, but I still mainly listen to CD’s in my house and car. Any good career spanning anthology suggestions?

Steve Sly

If you pretty much have everything you want, have you considered ripping your current CD collection and store it on an iPod Classic? You could select your favorite tracks without the need to buy them again and easily hook the iPod Classic to your home stereo or car in addition to using it as a portable player. Depending on the bit rate used, you could fit about 2700 one hour albums at the lower bit rate to about 450 one hour albums in CD quality sound.

[Dave (in MA)]

I am getting to a point where my CD collection is too large.

[Fracktured]

I am getting to a point where my CD collection is too large.

Steve Sly

I wasn't aware that this could be possible!

Rick

[SteveSly]

If you pretty much have everything you want, have you considered ripping your current CD collection and store it on an iPod Classic? You could select your favorite tracks without the need to buy them again and easily hook the iPod Classic to your home stereo or car in addition to using it as a portable player. Depending on the bit rate used, you could fit about 2700 one hour albums at the lower bit rate to about 450 one hour albums in CD quality sound.

I already have the majority of my CD's ripped to my I-Pod Classic, but to be honest, due to the diminished sound quality, I prefer to listen to CD's in my car or home stereo rather than playing off of my MP3. Also, my car is older and cannot play MP3's (although my wife's car can), so again I play mostly CD's in the car when driving. I do sometimes random play my I-pod on my home stereo, but still like the physical product of CDs.

Hope that makes sense.

Steve Sly

[polmico]

Nuggets.

[enpdllp]

I already have the majority of my CD's ripped to my I-Pod Classic, but to be honest, due to the diminished sound quality, I prefer to listen to CD's in my car or home stereo rather than playing off of my MP3. Also, my car is older and cannot play MP3's (although my wife's car can), so again I play mostly CD's in the car when driving. I do sometimes random play my I-pod on my home stereo, but still like the physical product of CDs.

Hope that makes sense.

Steve Sly

If you are ripping in Apple Lossless, there should be no difference in sound to an actual CD.

FWIW, my car has a CD changer and a Cassette player but does not have an input for portable players. I use a Cassette adapter with my iPod Classic and it works pretty well. I still keep my CDs at home for most of the playing there, but do not have to carry or leave CDs in my car anymore.

[SteveSly]

If you are ripping in Apple Lossless, there should be no difference in sound to an actual CD.

FWIW, my car has a CD changer and a Cassette player but does not have an input for portable players. I use a Cassette adapter with my iPod Classic and it works pretty well. I still keep my CDs at home for most of the playing there, but do not have to carry or leave CDs in my car anymore.

I have a CD changer, but no Cassette player nor input for an I-pod unfortunately.

Steve Sly

[80s were ok]

Is that a single or double disc? Seems like I have a single disc anthology from them around somewhere, but would rather have something a bit more comprehensive.

Steve Sly

single.

[GuitarGeek]

Most of my favorite compilations were rendered obsolete by various reissue campaigns, but here's a few that I always thought did a superior job of presenting material that wasn't on the regular albums:

The Beatles: Past Masters Vols. 1 and 2 (most of the singles, plain and simple)

The Church: Hindsight (made redundant by the EMI Australia reissue campaign of about 11 years ago, but in the late 80's, it was about the only way you could get the majority of the band's non-album material...why Arista didn't issue this or Sing Songs Stateside is anybody's guess)

The Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks (if you need to explain to someone what was so great about The Stones circa 64-71, this will do the job nicely, and it's got a few rarities that aren't on the regular albums)

Hawkwind: Statis (The UA Years) A good early 90's comp that gathers most of the band's singles from the Lemmy era, including the originally released versions of Silver Machine, Urban Guerrilla, and Brainbox Pollution, plus the single edit/remix of Paradox, which is shorter than the mix that was used on Hall Of The Mountain Grill, but it also has the guitar solo potted up higher in the mix. The only fault I can find with it is that they left out two B-sides, It's So Easy and Motorhead.

[JJ88]

For me, progressive rock like jazz is a genre that really doesn't work on compilations for me. I think it's because both genres invested a lot of importance into the album in the first place.

I'd agree on 'This Is The Moody Blues' being a rare exception though. They really made that flow as a 'proper' album would. Most of their best music was on there too.

[Trane]

A lot of 60's bands are best represented with a good compilation : Yardbirds, Animals, etc....

even the Stones... Hot Rocks, Made In The Shade and Sucking in the 70's is all I need from them... Still have to buy them on CD though...

For Beatles, I'm not sooo sure... red I don't need (except that Rubber soul's and Rigby on it), but Blue is not complete enough (missing too much from Abbey Road) for my tastes

================

I made my own compilations on cassettes to get rid of average albums... and switched to Hi-Fi burned CD-rs later on, but I just encountered my first one that's fucking up


for 70's bands, comps are too tricky for me to trust others to do the picks for me...
even for bands like Eagles (I have NOTHING from them - never did - despite liking quite a few songs) >> I prefer letting the classic rock stations be my compilation...
ditto for Doobies.. their first greatest hits is not satisfactory for me... and I'd rather die than have aqnything with MMcD on it, sooo fuck the GH2

sooo, I still have my cassette comp for both

[happytheman]

A lot of 60's bands are best represented with a good compilation : Yardbirds, Animals, etc....

even the Stones... Hot Rocks, Made In The Shade and Sucking in the 70's is all I need from them... Still have to buy them on CD though

Agree Hot Rocks 1&2 are pretty much all you need from that era...

Most of my favorite compilations were rendered obsolete by various reissue campaigns, but here's a few that I always thought did a superior job of presenting material that wasn't on the regular albums:

The Beatles: Past Masters Vols. 1 and 2 (most of the singles, plain and simple)



The Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks (if you need to explain to someone what was so great about The Stones circa 64-71, this will do the job nicely, and it's got a few rarities that aren't on the regular albums)

I'd add the Red and Blue collection for the Beatles and you've got them covered... (just kidding.. I'm a completist when it come to the Beatles.. but for the average person it would work just fine). As mentioned above Hot Rocks was "the" Stones album that was played the most at the parties I partook of in the 70's for sure.

[Vic2012]

Recommended:



I had a bunch of Al D albums that I found cheap on cassette many years ago. When I dumped all my cassettes I didn't want to buy all those Al D albums again so I just got this compilation. It has all the Al D I need.

[davis]

I have all 4

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...0volumes%201-4

Cream-Gold, excellent 2 CD set of studio/live material.

I'm considering getting the Those Were The Days box

[GuitarGeek]

Agree Hot Rocks 1&2 are pretty much all you need from that era...

.

Beg to differ, there's lots of great songs scattered throughout the mid and late 60's Stones records that didn't make onto either collection. Stuff like Connection, Yesterday's Papers, Stupid Girl, Please Go Home, The Singer Not The Song, and Ride On Baby are worth having.

But as an introduction, they're both nice to have, and I think they both have their share of tracks that aren't on any of the albums (or at least the American albums, anyway).

[Chuck AzEee!]

Uriah Heep-Classic Heep: The Anthology

[NogbadTheBad]

Beatles - Red & Blue
Stones - Forty Licks
Sabbath - Sold Our Soul
Zeppelin - Remasters
Little Feat - As Time Goes By
Supertramp - Very Best Of
Ten Years After - Portfolio
The Stranglers - Collection 77 - 82
The Clash - Story Of The Clash
Arlo Guthrie - Best Of
Neil Young - Decade
Motorhead - The Very Best Of
Wishbone Ash - Classic Ash
Alice Cooper - Mascara & Monsters
The Animals - The Most Of
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle 1 & 2
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits (pre Buckingham Nicks)
Groundhogs - The Best Of

I have and like all of those.