Movie Entertainment
December 2008
Brendan Kelley
The real purists don’t like compilations. The music snobs believe you have to go back to the original album and listen to it from start to finish, in the song order the artist intended it to be heard. They think greatest hits/best ofs/live collections are for casual fans.
Well, I never much cared for the snobs and I’ve always loved greatest-hits sets. When I was a kid, two of my fave albums were the Rolling Stones’ Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) and The Who’s Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy, and digging those LPs didn’t stop me from eventually wending through the rest of the Stones and Who catalogue.
The Clash has already released more than one career-spanning compilation, but I can’t think of a better way to be introduced to the band — or reacquainted with them — than Live at Shea Stadium. The great hits are all here, from London Calling to Rock the Casbah to Should I Stay or Should I Go, and they’re all blasted out with a fiery intensity in this recording of a legendary performance opening for The Who in front of 50,000 fans at the New York ballpark.
For those completely depressed by Rod Stewart’s recent bestselling Great American Songbook sell-out CDs, have a listen to Rod Stewart: The Definitive Collection to be reminded of why we cared about Rod the Mod in the first place. This two-CD collection features some of the Scottish singer’s finest moments, from the drunken one-nightstand put-down classic Stay With Me to the great unplugged version of Reason to Believewith Ronnie Wood. Enjoy — and forgive him Da Ya Think I’m Sexy (by the way, no we don’t, now that you ask).
Santana’s Multi Dimensional Warrior is a bizarre trip through the extraordinarily talented guitarist’s career that somehow — across the space of two CDs — misses most of the high points and wastes time on some of the dreariest, most pedantic songs he’s ever recorded. In sharp contrast,
Bob Dylan’s eighth (!) bootleg series long-player, Tell Tale Signs, Rare and Unreleased,
1989-2006, compiles 27 mostly must-hear alternate takes, live versions and unreleased tracks from his impossibly rich lateperiod oeuvre.
Other compilations include:
David Bowie, ISelect; The Katie Melua Collection; Ry Cooder, Anthology; Megadeth, Anthology: Set the World Afire; The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Power of Negative Thinking: BSides and Rarities; N.W.A., N.W.A. & Their Family Tree; Various Artists, The Best of Bond … James Bond.