What Prog box sets are actually worthwhile? |
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Woon Deadn
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 30 2010 Location: P Status: Offline Points: 1007 |
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GG's Unburied Treasure - I personally did not purchase it and was never going to do that. But it's a nice work of art. No new music, but interesting contents overall. Two books and a booklet. Nice and intriguing. To me personally the most interesting piece was the biographical book with lots of photos - really worth the price, I suppose.
I feel and believe and insist that there must be more and diverse GG-related products - playing cards, computer games, mobile apps, et al. Although the mentioned box mostly consists of umpteenth-time remasters, there may be many fans who find it worthy. |
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 14766 |
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Just made this list. Please let me know if there's anything absolutely outstanding that i missed! Thank you SOOO much :) |
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Nogbad_The_Bad
Forum & Site Admin Group RIO/Avant/Zeuhl & Eclectic Team Joined: March 16 2007 Location: Boston Status: Offline Points: 20250 |
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Art Zoyd 44.5
King Crimson - Great Deceiver |
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Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
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Jacob Schoolcraft
Forum Senior Member Joined: December 22 2021 Location: NJ Status: Offline Points: 848 |
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Unburied Treasure is amazing! I wonder if the sound quality is decent on the live shows with Phil Shulman.
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 14766 |
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^ thanks guys! Added Art Zoyd and GG. KC live album isn't so clear cut Will think about that one
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Sacro_Porgo
Forum Senior Member Joined: July 15 2019 Location: Cygnus Status: Offline Points: 2052 |
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When I think of box sets I don't usually think of compilations as much as collections of goodies (live tracks, studio outtakes, rare b-sides, often previously unreleased) which go along with some album or another (or maybe in the case of ELP's Fanfare boxset, their entire discography!). Plus it's gotta have nice packaging and some physical goodies as well (liner notes, replica ticket stubs, pins, stickers, etc.), because if you really want to hear it all of that "unreleased" stuff can be found online somewhere, usually without looking too far. I'm a big fan of them personally, and I usually win up getting one each year for Christmas.
It started with the 2014 Led Zeppelin II box set with a whole extra LP of alternate mixes and a studio outtake, plus an excellent book and great packaging. Queen did a few great box sets a few years in a row in the 2010s, Live At The Rainbow, A Night At The Odeon, On Air, and the 40th Anniversary of News Of The World. Most of these came with lots of little physical goodies that are fun to examine (or wear) and loads of previously unreleased music. The entire concerts for the Rainbow and Odeon boxes, on blu-ray, DVD, and CD. The On Air box and the News Of The World box contained loads of live stuff, live at the BBC stuff, and some awesome studio outtakes as well. Plus the On Air box includes 3 CDs of interviews spanning the band's career. Yes, I've listened to them all. Some fascinating, some funny, some a bit dull, but all worthwhile to this very rabid fan. Rush had/have been putting out some quite nice 40th anniversary boxes for their classic albums since about 2016, though the Moving Pictures box has still yet to be announced despite that anniversary having passed last year. Some fans are split on these, as they don't include anything in the way of studio outtakes (because Rush never kept studio outtakes, anything that wasn't going to be on the album was scrapped before it was properly recorded) and the first couple tried to make up for this by inviting other bands to cover songs from each album. I rather liked the covers, as it was a unique way to show how influential Rush are to many many current artists while also functioning as an alternate version of the track (sort of like the alternate mixes on that Led Zeppelin II bonus LP). But I think the general response was the covers were tacky and fans would rather have full live concerts instead (plus I bet they were a pain in the butt to organize), so the more recent ones have featured complete or nearly complete live shows from the corresponding tour, which are fantastic, just wonderful. These plus all the physical treats in the boxes (especially the very extensive liner notes) have made the Rush 40th anniversary editions very appealing to me, and I hope they keep going through Signals at least. Muse did a fantastic box set a couple years ago called Origin Of Muse, which includes their first two albums repressed on colored vinyl, and iirc 7 CDs of other recorded material relating to those first two albums, from the tracks comprising their first few EPs and singles, to pretty much every B-side recorded and released during that period, all the way up to a live performance of the whole Origin Of Symmetry album, start to finish, from 2011 for its 10th anniversary. Plus the box/book it all comes in is very nicely designed and is full of full color photos and stories compiled with love and care by the band themselves. A passion project for sure, and something I'm very happy to have in my collection. I don't have the box for it, but the 4 CD set of The Great Deceiver by King Crimson is just phenomenal listening. There are pretty extensive liner notes in the little CD booklets as well, which are fun to read while listening. Just the absolute best bits (according to Mr. Fripp) of the Crim's 1973 and 1974 live shows, including all of the show from which Providence is taken (not coincidentally, Providence RI 1974). That one is my favorite to revisit, as the instrumental improv on both Journey To The Centre Of The Cosmos and Providence is absolutely top notch, and the renditions of Easy Money, Fracture, LTIAII, and Starless are to die for. Very heavy. Not sure what's in the box that isn't in the jewel case CDs, but whatever it is could only be icing on the cake of live KC at their very best. I recently acquired the David Bowie Conversation Piece box as well, which includes 5 CDs chronologically documenting the evolution of his 1969 Space Oddity album (two of which are the album itself, one as the original 1969 mix, and the other as a new 2019 stereo mix by the one and only Tony Visconti, with the song Conversation Piece reinserted into the tracklist where it was originally intended by Bowie). These come in a very nice coffee table sized book with hard slipcase that is a joy to page through and follow along with the CDs as Bowie develops his songs from early demos into a full album. Excellent bits of history and pictures as well, the whole set really speaks to me as a songwriter. Anyway those are some of my favorites. Sorry for the lengthy read, lol.
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Porg for short. My love of music doesn't end with prog! Feel free to discuss all sorts of music with me. Odds are I'll give it a chance if I haven't already! :)
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 14766 |
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^ Thank you so much for the suggestions! I added the KC and Muse but Queen, LZ and DB are all prog related. I'm only doing TRUE prog for this list. I considered doing a more overarching box set list and maybe i will later but for now only PROGGY PROG PROG!!!
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Sacro_Porgo
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Oh I was more just adding to the conversation than trying to nominate things for your list, but glad you enjoyed the suggestions regardless!
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Porg for short. My love of music doesn't end with prog! Feel free to discuss all sorts of music with me. Odds are I'll give it a chance if I haven't already! :)
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Mascodagama
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Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
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Mascodagama
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The 2021 Faust box set Faust 1971-1974 arguably deserves inclusion as well as or instead of Wumme Years as it has a lot of previously unreleased material (that is actually good). Likewise, for Billy Cobham there’s a better collection than the Original Album Classics one (The Atlantic Years 1973-1978) and for Mahavishnu Orchestra The Complete Columbia Albums Collection is better than the Original Album Classics. Since you’re including ‘Original Album Classics’ type sets, the ones for Stormy Six and Passport are excellent. Other than that, looking at my shelf: Aka Moon, Constellations 1992-2015 Area, International Popular Group - The Essential Box Set Collection Captain Beefheart, Sun Zoom Spark Goblin, The Awakening Holger Czukay, Cinema Dedalus, Le Ricordanze - The Complete Recordings 1973-2015 Mats/Morgan, 40th Anniversary Box Set One Shot, Coffret Integral Ozric Tentacles, Travelling The Great Circle Michael Rother, Solo Igor Wakhevitch, donc… Weather Report, The Columbia Albums 1971-1975 Weather Report, The Columbia Albums 1976-1982 John Zorn, The Book Beri’ah John Zorn, Bagatelles Arguably the second Weather Report box doesn’t merit inclusion on quality grounds. Edited by Mascodagama - January 18 2022 at 23:39 |
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Soldato of the Pan Head Mafia. We'll make you an offer you can't listen to.
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Nogbad_The_Bad
Forum & Site Admin Group RIO/Avant/Zeuhl & Eclectic Team Joined: March 16 2007 Location: Boston Status: Offline Points: 20250 |
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King Crimson - Great Deceiver in the original 4cd boxset is the definitive band document as far as I an concerned.
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Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
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chopper
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I would recommend 2 recent Pendragon box sets - one is the 3 CD set of Love Over Fear with instrumental and acoustic versions of the album and the other is the 40th anniversary 5 CD set.
Both are beautifully packaged. |
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lazland
Prog Reviewer Joined: October 28 2008 Location: Wales Status: Offline Points: 13311 |
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Seconded. And what a shame that they have been forced to cancel yet another tour. My attendance at Winter’s End is now seriously in doubt.
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Psychedelic Paul
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Some of my prog box-sets:-
The Alan Parsons Project - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Anathema - Original Album Classics (3 CD's) Be Bop Deluxe - Original Album Series (5 CD's) Jeff Beck - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Blue Oyster Cult - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Tim Buckley - Original Album Series (5 CD's) Budgie - The MCA Albums 1973-1975 (3 CD's) Chicago - Original Album Series (5 CD's) The Doors - A Collection (6 CD's) Edgar Broughton Band - The Harvest Years 1969-1973 (4 CD's) Electric Light Orchestra - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Edgar Froese - Solo (1974-1983) The Virgin Years (4 CD's) Steve Hackett - Classic Albums (5 CD's) Hawkwind - EpochEclipse (3 CD's) Iron Butterfly - Original Album Series (5 CD's) Jefferson Airplane - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Jethro Tull - Original Album Series (5 CD's) Kansas - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Man - Original Album Series (5 CD's) Mostly Autumn - Pass the Clock (3 CD's) Nektar - Essential Albums (5 CD's) Spirit - Original Album Classics (5 CD's) Tangerine Dream - The Virgin Years 1974-1978 (3 CD's) Tangerine Dream - The Virgin Years 1977-1983 (5 CD's) Traffic - Classic Albums (5 CD's) Robin Trower - Original Album Series (5 CD's) Rick Wakeman - Classic Albums (5 CD's) YES - Original Album Series (5 CD's) They're all worthwhile, apart from Tim Buckley. Edited by Psychedelic Paul - January 19 2022 at 11:49 |
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chopper
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Indeed, I have tickets for the 229, hopefully that'll be on again at some point.
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chopper
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Good mention of the wonderous BBD but they have much better box sets than that available. I think all of their albums have been rereleased recently as box sets e.g. this one which I want to get when I have the cash - |
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Sean Trane
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Looks like i missed this thread the first time around... Looking thru it for thoe listed I see I don't have many that spring up to mins. I must say that I'm very picky about these big boxsets, even when they propose plenty of unreleased stuff (live or studio). For ex, I had bought the smaller Deram/Decca Caravan boxset (+ BBC sessions), not expecting anymore the big bugger that came out a few months ago. Pity, because if I hadn't bought the first, I'd probably have splurged for the big one, despite its unreal price. The big plus is that the discs have their own sleeves. I'm glad I waited for Floyd to release separately the smaller set of their bih box so I could skip the first and the last years. In a recent fad, other boxsets have peeved me off because the discs are art/sleeveless in those stupid "cardboard wallets" (VdGG, TD, Ozric, etc...) , thus making it difficult to detach/export an album from the box (for the car, for ex), without risking damage and no track list unless you take the whole book along. I mean some of that unreleased stuff on those boxsets is extremey tempting, but not at any price or shape/form.
Well, I've got those two. Still spinning the Deceiver, but a lot of AZ discs have only be played once - a bit like those Henry Cox bosets - never played most of it poast the first spin. I also have the Gream boset. =============== I've got plenty of smaller (+/- 5 or 6 discs) boxsets like early WR, Magma, early TD, Cobbham, Mwandishi, etc... , but they're not the type that PP mentions. They come with an extyensive booklet If that counts I also have Genesis Archives I and the Green box.
Edited by Sean Trane - January 19 2022 at 07:23 |
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let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
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Nogbad_The_Bad
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I play plenty of the AZ & the HC. The ones I get the most repeat listening from are:- King Crimson - Great Deceiver Tangerine Dream - In Search Of Hades Gong - Love From The Planet Gong
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Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 14766 |
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Wow! You all are gonna keep me busy on this one :D Great suggestions! If only i had a gazillion dollars to buy them all
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siLLy puPPy
Special Collaborator PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic Joined: October 05 2013 Location: SFcaUsA Status: Offline Points: 14766 |
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I have some great box sets from Led Zep, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, The Shocking Blue, The Police etc
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