Chris Cornell’s Legacy Honored with Deluxe Box Set

Chris Cornell’s death in May 2017 robbed the rock ‘n’ roll world of one of its all-time greatest vocalists. The talented singer and songwriter for chart-topping bands like Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Temple of the Dog, Cornell also enjoyed a significant solo career with his four solo albums circa 1999-2015 all charting in the Top 20. Over the course of a career that spanned four decades (and still ended far too soon), Cornell earned two Grammy™ Awards and selling better than 30 million records worldwide.

Given his popularity and influence on rock vocalists to follow, it’s only fitting that Cornell should be honored with a career retrospective box set. On November 16th, 2018 UMe will release the self-titled Chris Cornell, a limited-edition deluxe four-disc box set with 64-tracks, 11 of which are previously-unreleased. The set is being released with the support of Cornell’s wife Vicky on behalf of The Chris Cornell Estate.

Working extensively with Cornell’s former bandmates and friends, Vicky Cornell has compiled a collection that represents the singer’s entire career, including songs by all three of his aforementioned bands along with solo material. The set includes such memorable moments as Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike,” and Audioslave’s “Like A Stone.” Among the previously-unreleased songs are a live performance of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a duet with Cat Stevens on “Wild World,” and a duet with his daughter Toni on a cover of Bob Marley’s reggae classic “Redemption Song.”

In addition to the four-disc box set, Chris Cornell will also be released as a seventeen-track single disc version housed in a jewel case with a limited-edition custom die-cut slipcase that showcases Seattle with tree-line graphics on the front and other cities that Cornell lived in on the back cover. The set includes a 32-page booklet with unreleased photos and liner notes by friends and bandmates like Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Tom Morello, Mike McCready, and Brendan O’Brien. A two-LP 180-gram vinyl edition features a gatefold jacket with similar slipcase graphics and a twelve-page booklet while the four-disc box set includes an expanded 54-page booklet.

For the hardcore fan with money to burn, Chris Cornell will also be available as a limited-edition ‘Super Deluxe’ box with four CDs, a DVD, and seven-LP set featuring all 64 songs plus 23 music videos along with a 66-page hardcover book wrapped in linen with a red foul signature cover. The ‘Super Deluxe’ box also includes three artist lithos, three photochromatic lithos inspired by Cornell’s fascination with the sun, a turntable mat, a microfiber vinyl cleaning cloth, and a 36” x 48” wall poster.

“Since Chris’ sudden passing I have put all my efforts and energy into sharing his music and legacy with his fans from all over the world,” says Vicky in a press release for the Chris Cornell box set. “I felt we needed to create a special collection to represent all of him – the friend, husband and father, the risk taker and innovator, the poet and artist. His soaring vocals found their way into the hearts and souls of so many.  His voice was his vision and his words were his peace. This album is for his fans.”

Buy your copy at Amazon.com:
Chris Cornell single disc version
Chris Cornell double LP set
Chris Cornell four-disc box

John Lennon’s Imagine box set

There’s little argument that John Lennon’s 1971 album Imagine is one of the classic records of rock ‘n’ roll. What is curious, however, is why his record label hasn’t jumped on the exploitation train by cranking out a pricey Imagine box set…until now, that is. On October 5th, 2018 Geffen Records/UMe will release Imagine – The Ultimate Collection, a six-disc deluxe box set with more Lennon than you can shake a stick at.

Imagine – The Ultimate Collection is authorized by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, and features 140 tracks that have been remixed and remastered and spread across four CDs and two Blu-ray discs. There are a bunch of different mixes offered by the multitude of discs, including a new “Ultimate Mix” of the album, the “Raw Studio Mixes,” a 5.1 surround sound mix, and a “Quadrasonic Album Mix” that features the original four-speaker mix that, presumably, was used for the old quadraphonic album release that nobody bought back in ’71.

The set also includes previously-unreleased demos, rare outtakes, and The Evolution Documentary, a “unique track-by-track audio montage that details the journey of each song form demo to master recording via instructions, rehearsals, recordings, multitrack exploration and studio chatter” (according to a press release for the box set). I’m not sure exactly what the hell that is, but the box will be released in multiple formats aside from the six-disc box, including a two-disc “deluxe edition,” a single remastered CD (“standard edition”), and two-album vinyl editions in both black and clear 180-gram wax. The digital “Ultimate Collection” includes audio from all four CDs and there will also be digital equivalents of the “deluxe” and “standard” versions.

Regular That Devil Music readers know that the Reverend is extremely skeptical of these grave-robbing multi-disc box sets that offer the dregs of an artist’s work at a premium price for the true believer and hardcore fan. For every set like Pink Floyd’s The Early Years that provides insight into an artist’s career, there are a half-dozen naked cash grabs, and Imagine – The Ultimate Collection smells like a wheel of cheese allowed to get too ripe in the sun. Imagine was reissued on vinyl in 2011 with a fresh remastering as part of Record Store Day, and reissued again in 2014 in the ‘Pure Audio’ Blu-ray format featuring high-definition tracks. Do we really need another version of John Lennon’s classic album?

Young ‘uns, if you really want a taste of Lennon’s genius, an vinyl copy of the original 1971 album or 1975 reissue of Imagine aren’t really all that hard to find, and they’re reasonably-priced at that. That’s all you really need…

Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Fanfare 1970-1997 deluxe box set

The Reverend tends to take a dim view of a lot of the recent box set fare released by cash-hungry major labels looking to fleece an artist’s hardcore fans for one last ride on the merry-go-round. Although there are a handful of dedicated reissue labels performing a public service in rescuing the work of obscure artists from the scrap-heap of history with finely-curated deluxe boxes (Omnivore Recordings, I’m looking at you…), much of what you’re putting up a C-note or two for these days is a rehash of music that you already own...

That being said, everybody’s favorite rock ‘n’ roll padre is going gaga over the recently-announced Emerson, Lake & Palmer box set. Titled Fanfare 1970-1997, and scheduled for September 29th, 2017 release, the limited-edition numbered Fanfare 1970-1997 box offers a lot for both the grizzled original ELP fan as well as the rookie just now climbing on the prog-rock bandwagon. First of all, the box contains remastered CD versions of all eleven ELP albums with original sleeve artwork, from the band’s 1970 self-titled debut to their underrated 1994 swansong, In The Hot Seat, and every note in between.

As they used to say on those old K-Tel TV commercials, “that’s not all!” The box also includes a previously unreleased live triple-vinyl album with May 1973 performances from Milan and Rome, Italy. Throw in five previously-unreleased live CDs mastered by engineers Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham, including Live At Pocono International Raceway (1972), Live At Waterloo Concert Field (1992), Live At Birmingham Symphony Hall (1992), On the BBC (including a 1979 performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test and a 1993 performance on Pop Goes Summer), and Live At Élysée Montmartre (1997) and you have one hell of a box set.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

“Wait a minute, there’s still more!” sez Rev. Pompeil…Fanfare 1970-1997 includes an audio Blu-ray disc with stereo 5:1 and surround sound mixes of the first four ELP albums by Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Tarkus) and King Crimson’s Jakko Jakszyk (Trilogy and Brain Salad Surgery). Add a pair of remastered 7” singles – “Lucky Man” b/w “Knife-Edge” (1970) and “Fanfare For The Common Man” b/w “Brain Salad Surgery” (1977) – with reproduced original sleeve artwork, throw in a metal & enamel ELP logo pin badge, reprinted original 1970 promo poster and 1972 promo brochure and 1974 and 1992 tour programs and top it off with a deluxe 12” hardback book with rare band photos and extensive notes by acclaimed British music journalist Chris Welch with quotes from Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer and I think that even the most reluctant progger would agree that Fanfare 1970-1997 offers a lot of value for the pre-order price of $152 (plus shipping).

And yes, the Rev does believe the hype and I’ve already ordered my copy of Fanfare 1970-1997, which earned me a previously-unreleased CD with the rough album mixes for Black Moon, something truly for the obsessive ELP fan. Still, we’ve recently lost both Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, and although ELP has taken a lot of grief through the years for their pomposity and the over-the-top nature of the band’s music, they continue to drag young new fans in by the truckload. You can get your very own copy of Fanfare 1970-1997 via the band’s website.

Also on That Devil Music:
Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s A Time & Place CD review
Greg Lake’s Greg Lake/Manoeuvres CD review 

Ian Hunter’s enormous, spectacular Stranded in Reality box set!

These premium-priced, multi-multi-multi-disc box sets are getting out of hand, especially since your humble scribe is too damn poor to be able to afford even a portion of what’s being released from the archives on CD and vinyl in these days and times. While it may sound like the death-rattle of the recording industry, but for new and old-school rock ‘n’ roll fans alike, these boxes are literal nirvana. Case in point: Ian Hunter’s Stranded in Reality, a whopping 30-disc anthology box set that features damn near everything the legendary Mott the Hoople frontman and influential solo artist has tacked his name to over the past five decades!

Stranded in Reality was compiled by Hunter and Mott the Hoople biographer Campbell Devine, and it covers the years 1975 to 2015 – a wide swath of the singer/songwriter’s career. Collecting seventeen original Hunter solo albums on nineteen discs, the set includes another nine “new” CDs of rare and unreleased recordings as well as a pair of DVDs with visual content. The box includes expanded “anniversary” versions of Hunter’s self-titled 1975 debut album, 1976’s All-American Alien Boy, 1979’s You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic, and the live 1980 album Welcome To The Club. Other acclaimed Hunter solo efforts like 1981’s Short Back n’ Sides, 1983’s All of the Good Ones Are Taken, 1996’s The Artful Dodger, 2007’s Shrunken Heads, and 2012’s When I’m President are presented with unique bonus tracks.

The “new” albums included in the box are titled Tilting the Mirror (two discs of rarities), If You Wait Long Enough For Anything, You Can Get It On Sale (two discs of live tracks from 1979-81), Bag of Tricks (three discs of live performances), Acoustic Shadows, and Experiments. These audio discs feature many previously-unreleased and “lost” songs from Hunter’s archive including “San Diego Freeway, “Nobody’s Perfect,” and “Salvation” as well as live versions of “Wild East, “The Outsider,” and a 2008 acoustic concert. The accompanying two-disc DVD It Never Happened features promo, live, and previously-unreleased archive material including a complete 1979 Hunter concert featuring friend and longtime guitarist Mick Ronson.

Stranded in Reality is a limited edition release of only 2,500 copies for sale worldwide, and is packaged in an LP-sized deluxe box with custom Escher-styled cover, an 88-page hardback book with a comprehensive essay, memorabilia, a signed lithograph, and Hunter’s track-by-track commentary for every song. The set is available through the Proper Music website, and the price breaks down to less than $11 a disc, a bargain for an artist of Hunter’s talent and history.

Pink Floyd’s The Early Years 1965-1972 box

You wouldn’t think that there’d be much of a market for multi-disc box sets that run hundreds of dollars, but the major labels keep crankin’ out these things, so I guess that somebody’s buying them. As P.T. Barnum is alleged to have said, “There’s a sucker born every minute!”

I have to admit, though, that sometimes these things are mighty sweet…take a gander at Pink Floyd’s The Early Years 1965-1972, a wallet-whopping 27-disc box set that is receiving the Dylan treatment from Legacy Recordings on November 11th, 2016. Swaddled in swanky deluxe packaging, The Early Years box offers ten CDs, eight Blu-ray discs, nine DVDs, and five 7” vinyl singles packaged in seven individual book-style volumes, all of the discs graced with a wealth of unreleased music.

This absurd mix of quality and quantity doesn’t come cheap, Bunkie, and The Early Years is gonna set you back seven bills…six and a half if you’re lucky…but did I mention that the box also includes over 40 pieces of Floyd memorabilia such as posters, flyers, tour programs, etc to drool over?

With unreleased songs, BBC radio sessions, remixes, outtakes, and alternative versions, The Early Years provides almost twelve freakin’ hours of audio content from 130+ tracks as well as live and TV performances comprising better than fourteen hours of audio-visual thrills. The box highlights the evolution of the band from psychedelic rockers to prog-rock legends via seven hours of previously-unreleased live audio and five-plus hours of rare concert footage.

The five 45s included in the box are presented in replica sleeves and feature such awesome A-sides as “Arnold Layne,” “See Emily Play,” “Apples and Oranges,” “It Would Be So Nice,” and “Point Me At The Sky” as well as groovy Bs like “The Scarecrow” and “Careful With That Axe, Eugene.”

For those of us of, well, more ‘modest’ means (i.e. we’re not freakin’ millionaires…), Sony Legacy will also be releasing the two-disc “highlights” set Cre/ation – The Early Years 1967-1972. Also scheduled for November 11th release, Cre/ation features 27 tracks culled from the larger box set, 19 of ‘em previously unreleased, offering fans a budget-priced ($16 on Amazon as I type...) way to experience the tasty rare tracks, BBC performances, and live recordings included in the massive Floyd The Early Years box set.

Hidden in the fine print of Sony’s press release for this box set it says “each individual book-style package will be released separately early in 2017,” save for a bonus disc exclusive to the box, so we fans may be able to buy “ala carte” from the Pink Floyd menu early next year. And can a 40-disc “later years 1973-1995” box set be far behind? Buy your flavor of Floyd via the Amazon.com links below...

I won the lottery, give me the full Pink Floyd experience: The Early Years 1967-1972 box set

I found a twenty on the street, give me a little taste of the Floyd: Cre/ation – The Early Years 1967-1972 two-disc set

50 Years of Blues Legend Bobby Rush in One Cool Box!

The Reverend has long sang the praises of blues legend Bobby Rush, one of the most talented cats to ever step up to a microphone and strum a guitar, and one of the most genuinely nice people you could ever meet. Over the course of a storied career that has spanned some five decades and earned Rush ten Blues Music/W.C. Handy Awards – including the coveted “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” honor earlier this year – the singer has released a heck of a lot of great music for a plethora of record labels.

Any attempt to collect a complete Bobby Rush discography would put a serious dent in your bank account and probably drive a person certifiably mad trying to dig up a literal crate full of rare records. Thanks to the good folks at Omnivore Recordings, on November 27, 2015 you’ll be able spend your hard-earned coin on Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush, a four CD, 74-song deluxe box set that spans the singer’s entire career. Offering nearly five hours of music, Chicken Heads compiles material from 20 different record labels (!) and includes a 32-page booklet with notes by my esteemed colleague Bill Dahl, who knows this stuff better than anybody.

Born in Homer, Louisiana in 1933, Rush was originally influenced by his guitar and harmonica-playing father to experiment playing with a wire diddley-bow. Moving to Pine Bluff, Arkansas as a teen, Rush became friends with guitarist Elmore James and pianist Big Moose Walker and it was here that he formed his first bands. Relocating to Chicago in the 1950s, Rush played with blues greats like Muddy Waters, Luther Allison, and Jimmy Reed, and recorded at Chess Records. It would be the 1971 release of his Billboard R&B charting single “Chicken Heads,” on the indie Galaxy label, that would bring him to national prominence. Almost 30 years later, “Chicken Heads” would re-enter the charts after being featured in the movie Black Snake Moan.

Bobby Rush photo by James Patterson

Rush recorded his debut album, Rush Hour, in 1979 with producer Leon Huff for the Philadelphia International label, scoring a minor hit with the song “I Wanna Do The Do.” Rush would return to the south where he became a fixture on the “chitlin’ circuit,” touring the back roads of the southeast and southwest United States and earning a reputation as a dynamic live performer (Rush still performs almost 200 nights a year!) Along the way, the talented singer, songwriter, and musician developed his own unique style of blues called “folk funk,” the sound an amalgam of blues, soul, and funk music as only Bobby Rush could perform it. Rush has released better than two-dozen albums during his career, earned three Grammy® Award nominations, and a whopping 41 Blues Music Award nominations.

Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush offers material from Rush’s records for labels like Checker, Galaxy, Jewel, Philadelphia International, Malaco/Waldoxy, and LaJam Records as well as his own indie Deep Rush label. “It’s very exciting,” Rush says in a press release for the box set. “Truly I feel honored that someone would think enough of me to do this. The record side of it is the glory side of me and that’s the side that I want people to know and I’m grateful for that. I’m happy that someone thought before I leave this land to tell my story. I’m proud of it and flattered about it. I want the world to know that this is my first time and I want to say it for people to be enthused about me. I’m not enthused about all of the songs because at the time I didn’t think they were all good. But after you become a ‘legend,’ you look back and it all looks good. There are things you had in the can you didn’t want to put out, and then you get asked what you have in the can that’s never been heard to put it out.”

Buy the CD box set from Amazon.com: Chicken Heads: A 50 Year History of Bobby Rush

The Pretty Things’ Bouquets From A Cloudy Sky Box

This is one that hasn’t gotten a lot of press from the mainstream music rags, so we thought we’d shed a little light on a mighty fine box set comin’ your way – The Pretty Things’ Bouquets From A Cloudy Sky. The legendary rockers are getting the full deluxe treatment in commemoration of the band’s 50th anniversary, and it’s only gonna set you back around $200 (if you buy the box from the good folks at Ugly Things zine).

“So,” you ask hesitantly, “what do I get for my pair of hunnies?” Bouquets was produced with the Pretty Things’ approval and input, and features all eleven of the band’s studio albums, including 2007’s often-overlooked Balboa Island, all packaged in gatefold digi-sleeves and including a whopping 42 bonus tracks. Two additional “rarities” discs offer up 45 previously-unreleased demos, alternate takes, live recordings, and outtakes while two DVDs feature a new documentary, Midnight To Six 1965-1970, plus S.F. Sorrow Live at Abbey Road, additional videos, and band interviews.

The Bouquets box also includes a 10” replica acetate that features the full-length demo for “Defecting Grey,” the studio version of “Turn My Head,” plus a pair of previously unreleased Pretty Things songs. Throw in an illustrated 100-page hardback book with a comprehensive Pretty Things history written by musician/music historian Mike Stax of Ugly Things (who named his zine after the band and knows from whence he speaks on all things ‘Pretty’), plus lots of rare photos and a complete band “family tree.”

You’ll even a “court case history” with excerpts from the legal files compiled by the band in their fight to regain the rights to their master recordings and songs. The box finishes up with an art print by singer Phil May; one lucky Pretty Things’ fan will find the original copy of the print, which has been randomly placed in one of the boxes. Overall, Bouquets From A Cloudy Sky has everything a collector or new fan might desire, and the box will be limited to 2,000 copies only.

The Pretty Things were formed in London in 1963 by guitarist Dick Taylor (who was the original Rolling Stones bassist) and singer Phil May, along with rhythm guitarist Brian Pendleton, bassist John Stax, and drummer Pete Kitley. The band would run through various members through the years, including notorious drummer Viv Prince, Twink (from the Pink Fairies), and Jack Green (from T.Rex), and Taylor would leave the band in 1969. But they scored hits with their first three singles – “Rosalyn,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and “Honey I Need,” and the band’s self-titled 1965 debut rose to number six on the U.K. charts before subsequent efforts experienced diminishing commercial returns.

The Pretty Things never scored a hit stateside, but they’ve had a loyal following that has only grown through the years, partially because of Mike Stax’s proselytizing on their behalf. The band has a musical legacy as strong as any of their peers, however, and stronger than most bands from the era. Their 1965 debut is an undisputed classic of British blues-rock; their conceptual 1968 album S.F. Sorrow is widely considered one of a handful of essential psychedelic-rock albums; and several of their 1970s-era recordings – Parachute (1970), Silk Torpedo (1974), and Savage Eye (1976) – earned significant critical acclaim even while selling only moderately.

If you’re a classic rock aficionado unfamiliar with the charms of the Pretty Things, Bouquets From A Cloudy Sky is a great way to get up to snuff!