Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Legend Of A Mind - Moody Blues
2. Screams In The Ears - Bill Fay
3. Suite No. One
4. Introspection (Part One) - The End
5. I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes - Ten Years After
6. Austin Osmanspare - Bulldog Breed
7. The Song Of McGuillicudie The Pusillanimous - Egg
8. Voodoo Forest - Johnny Almond Music Machine
9. Nymphenburger - East Of Eden
10. Once Upon A Hill / Put That In Your Pipe & Smoke It - Aardvark
11. No More White Horses - T2
12. Hello Hello (Single Version) - Caravan
13. Freelance Fiend - Leafhound
14. Nutmeg, Bitter Suite - Granny's Intentions
15. The Witch - The Rattles
16. Still As Stone - The Alan Bown featuring Jess Roden

Disc 2:

1. Maybe Someday - Human Beast
2. Chauffer - Black Cat Bones
3. Tomorrow Morning Brings - Pacific Drift
4. The Unknown Years - Zakkarias
5. Free To Be Stoned - Clark Hutchinson
6. Cemetery Junction Part One & Two - Room
7. Roundabout - Keef Hartley Band
8. Question (Album Version) - Moody Blues
9. Love Like A Man (Album Version) - Ten Years After
10. Jig-A-Jig - East Of Eden
11. Golf Girl - Caravan
12. Boulders On My Grave - Mellow Candle
13. Theme Song - Keef Hartley Band

Disc 3:

1. Hellbound Train - Savoy Brown
2. Stranded - Khan
3. The Rise And Dear Demise Of The Funky Nomadic Tribes - Thin Lizzy
4. Seafull - Trapeze
5. C'Lu Thlu - Caravan
6. Whiskey In The Jar - Thin Lizzy
7. Lady Fantasy: Encounter/Smiles For You/Lady Fantasy - Camel
8. Nights In Armour - Pete Brown & Friends
9. Propositions - Curved Air
10. Air Born - Camel
11. The Envoy - Darryl Way's Wolf

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85681 in Music
• Released on: 2003-01-27
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 224 minutes

Customer Reviews

A bag of musical dolly mixtures indeed
In every bag of dolly mixtures there are some you don't like quite as much as your favourites, and so it is with any Progressive rock compilation. What separates the best ones from the dross is the way in which variety is combined with the unexpected and unusual to present the listener with something different. This collection does that perfectly. There are bands here that don't get a look into most Prog rock collections unless you tape them at home yourself. The compilers have put some thought into this set, targetting the obvious - Jig a Jig by East of Eden, whilst looking beyond 'Nights in White Satin' for a Moody Blues contribution. For a Ten Years After track they have included the 7.55 album version of 'Love like a Man'. Lovely! There's plenty room for argument too. The Keef Hartley tracks are not the ones I would have selected - I would have gone for the first 'Native American' album - but that's the spice that keeps a collection like this fresh. It's a fine modern addition to the original vinyl 'Wowie Zowie' sampler. With the 40 tracks spread over 3 cds, the music hasn't been cramped into sonic gravy, and sounds clear and surprisingly contemporary when set against the stuff on radio today. The Decca/Deram imprint produced some of the very best of late 60's prog and I'm sure they could fill another box set with no trouble at all. In the meantime, feast your ears on The Alan Bown!, Egg, The End, Caravan and all their friends. Oh, the booklet is excellent, the mini LP sleeves perfectly formed and the box itself is just simply cute with nice graphics and clear, legible printing on the back. A must for every rock/prog lover, and everyone else besides.

Excellent box set at a ridiculous price
Decca certainly knows how to repackage its back catalogue, already having given us those brilliant CDs on psychedelia, freakbeat and so on. For "underground rock" it's gone a step further and produced an amazing 3CD box set for the price of a single CD -- how great is that? What's more, it's a storming compilation, well known tracks mingling with Decca obscurities, the first rate with the obscure. If only they'd put more effort into the promotion -- even the sceptical can afford to take a gamble on this, and you're bound to find a good number of tracks that send you off exploring the artists themselves. Which is, of course, the reasoning behind the cheap price. So dig in!

The three CDs are in mock-1960s card sleeves in a small hinged box with a huge 48-page booklet. It looks fabulous, even if Decca are much too modest a record label to present what is effectively exactly the same calibre of compilation in a huge hardback book as Harvest did. Amazon's track listing should give you a flavour of what's on offer. "Legend Of A Mind" is the "This Is..." remix ("Question" is the original album version), "Hello Hello" the single version, "Whisky In The Jar" the full version and "Lady Fantasy" an apparent "original studio mix"; the rest are the standard album tracks and singles. These singles certainly make the compilation worthwhile on their own -- where else can you get "The Witch" by The Rattles rubbing shoulders with "Still As Stone" by The Alan Bown?

The booklet devotes a whole page to each artist, along with some cringeworthy publicity photos (stand up East of Eden, and I bet Robert Fripp would best forget his pretend-lunatic photos to advertise Giles, Giles and Fripp) and reproductions of the press adverts, the likes of which we'll (perhaps gladly) never see again. The busty girl in fits of ecstasy meant to advertise Alan Bown's "Gypsy Girl" is so un-PC it's almost charming. There are also excellent introductory essays by Mark Powell, David Hitchcock and Neil Slaven.

The only argument, of course, is in the choice of tracks, but that's something you can't avoid in any collection. The idea here is to present that period, essentially 1968-71, when psychedelia got serious, but before it became TOO serious. So there are both late-period psychedelic bands like The End (the marvellous "Introspection Part One" from "Introspection", an album everyone should own) and straightforward prog rock bands like Camel. There's even a track by Mellow Candle, hopefully opening another door for those who haven't yet discovered them. Shame they chose "Boulders On My Grave" though, but I guess it primes you for the Thin Lizzy. It's all in roughly chronological order, so starting with The Moody Blues is fitting. And you can be sure there's loads more where this came from, so roll on the next one, Decca!

Definitely worth the price of admission!
Terrific value for money and a very neat packaging job. Obviously a labour of love for the compiler (although someone could have done with proof-reading the booklet a couple more times!) I don't know whether or not it's the remastering but many of these tracks *sound* very modern, or it could be that recent trends in recording favour a more natural, organic approach. Many of these songs just make me smile. If you have an interest in prog you can't afford to miss this one. If you just like good music, you can't lose at this price. If you like modern pop music, you won't even be reading this.

My favourite song is "Roundabout" by the Keef Hartley Band. A close second is "Free To Be Stoned" by Clark-Hutchinson, simply because they sound as if they're having such a great time during the recording (which they probably were).

It doesn't get five stars from me because there's a fair amount of dross among the 40 tracks - how could there not be? However, if there were half stars I'd certainly increase the rating on the basis of the packaging alone! Enjoy.