The first examples that come to mind:

 

Good: Styx's "Greatest Hits" (show how is the band's sound - if you don't like it you probably won't like anything more from Styx).

 

 

Bad: Pink Floyd's "A collection of great dance songs" - although absolute gems as "Shine on...", "Money" and "Sheep" are present, the whole period from 1967 to 1972 receives a single mention with OoTD.

 

In my case I was lucky to insist with Pink Floyd and discover that the 67-73 era was my favourite. With Styx I feel a real taste of the band with the collection mentioned above, and listenig to their albums only show me that for my tastes the GH is all that I need.

 

I'd apreciatte suggestions about the contemporary "prog giants" as I'm not well informed of what is really great about them (only post-rock and some electronic things touch me from the 90's and 00's prog).

 

Instead of buying an illigitimate release that cannot convey the full content of any one given album theme, musically or lyrically, just do this.  If you can't afford to buy many titles by a band, do a little research and you can quickly find out what fans consider the "definitive" releases by each band.  It's not tough to do.  Then, buy one of their good albums.  You'll get a legit piece of art, and you'll find out whether you like the band. 

There is no need to buy some hodgepodge of songs that have no organic relation to each other, other than record company doofs assured they were the chosen tracks on the radio. 

 

 

 

Coming from me however, this post of mine doesn't mean much because I am an odd duck here on PA, who likes and sometimes prefers these prog bands poppier moments so I tend to enjoy the songs that appear on the greatest hits packages. 

 

Also, I agree to an extent with Finnforest's post regarding songs being taken out of their context on a greatest hits album and not having the correct flow of songs that the artist intended.  To me this is more obvious, obviously, in the case of concept albums where the album is telling a story and the song is only part of the story.  But the greatest hits album still gives a newbie the chance to hear the song to see if it sounds like something worth fully pursuing. 

 

 

Greatest hits can be good and bad...sometimes there are a couple unreleased songs or rare cuts on them..like a lot of obscure Alice Cooper "Greatest Hits" albums that I come across sometimes have some rare cuts I have never seen before.

I also like the title of Dream Theater's "Greatest Hits" album coming out in April, or March..I forget. It's called "Dream Theater's Greatest Hit....and 21 other pretty cool songs", considering "Pull Me Under" was their only "Hit", I find it funny , there will also be some rare radio edits on that as well.

 

I am against "Greatest Hits" cd's when the artist takes only their "Hit" songs and puts them on a cd without anything extra....It's like making a mix...anyone can do it.

 

Well, the vinyl edition (Which I also have, so I know this to be true) has an alternate track order than the CD edition, but in that sense, the band still did it intentionally, for some purpous or another (Mostly to get the prog elitists masturbating at their own coolness for discovering this "clearly intelligent meaning that is presented through re-arranging the track orders").

 

What I'm talking about is . . . if you want to start someone liking Prog properly, you should play them whole albums, or at least selections from whole albums rather than play them mixed-up trash that TimeLife decided to release once they obtained the rights to "some old art rock band"'s material.

 

But then again, that it only my opinion. I'm not trying to sound like an elitist, but I am a purist to a certain extent; especially when it comes to albums vs. profesionally-licenced mix tapes that have no direction.

 

Since Prog Rock is often written with a certain intent, the least one could do is respect that intent and play an actual studio release from said artist, regardless of how you feel about concepts within themselves. I was introduced to Prog properly: with whole albums being played to me, and I liked it because it was different from what I was used to. Had I heard a compilation disc with selections mashed together from different eras of the band's career, I seriousely doubt "Another Brick in the Wall" or "The Fish" would mean what they do to me now, since neither song has a proper beginning without hearing what came before them.

 

However, as happenstance goes, it was a compilation album, Pink Floyd's "Echoes" that launched me into Prog in the first place. The third disc of Genesis' Platinum Collection gives a great taste of our favorite Gabriel stuff, and I personally believe that with ELP, there is no better place to start then the Best of or Essentials (if you like the smorgasbord of quirkiness there, then their actual albums will be a real treat).

 

One of my favorite methods of amassing music is get an Essentials album of a band that I'm unsure about, and if I like it, begin gradually to collect their albums, deleting the repeats from the Essentials list on my iPod as I go. That way I appreciate their songs individually, as well as better appreciating their place on their respective albums.

 

Iván

 

Well, If I'm aware of some band's artistic value and general style (based on reviews from people that seems to get a taste next to mine and samples) I never buy a 'best of'. But if the band in question seems to be interesting but there is strong disagreement about its value (in my case: Styx) I try to get acess to a best of like the "Essential"s collection or a live album - what is a lot better in most cases. But Imagine if someone wants to discover what's the noise about Deep Purple and buy the Made in Japan album; all the pre-Gillan and Coverdale-Hughes material are off. Made in Japan is probably one of the three best live albums ever, but don't you think that the albums Burn, Stormbringer and at least Hush and some songs from their third album have importance?

 

I know that in progressive rock terms a representative "best of" is complicated to build, and that's the reason why I'm used to buy compilations only from pop-rock or hard rock bands. Nazareth's GH and Grand Funk's 21st century masters presented these bands very well to me, and gave me clues to start exploring their regular albums.  That's one of the reasons that make me believe that, after a good research, it's possible to start exploring a new sound within the limits of a best of album.

 

Genesis Platinum Collection:  three CD's spanning most of Genesis' career.  This provides an opportunity for new listeners to familiarize themselves with the bands various eras for very little cost and can serve a jumping off point for acquiring the individual albums.  Purists will argue that it shortchanges the early years, but that not its point.

 

Atomic Rooster Heavy Soul:  two CD's spanning nine albums of material.  This has the plus that it's generally stocked in your local music shop, which will not have the individual albums.  Again at very little cost you get a great introduction to this band.

 

Procol Harum Anthology:  two CD's covering huge amounts of the band's first four LP's.  Again, a pretty cheap way ($20) to acquire some of their best stuff.  This one however inexplicably omits The Devil Came From Kansas and has nothing from Broken Barricades.  But when i check out the prices of Procol's CD's on Amazon ($25 each for some of their CD's) this one looks like a real bargain.

 

I'm not saying I'd want to base my collection on these, but they can serve a purpose.  Besides I can't pop my Procol LP's in the car's CD changer.

 

Often an even better buy for the listener who's not a completist with regard to a particular band (particularly those with extensive catalogs) is to pick up a box set, which will generally give a decent overview of a band.  I'm thinking in particular, for me anyway, of Judas Priest's Metalogy and Motorhead's Stone Deaf Forever.  I think I paid under $40 for each of these. 

 

 

 

I bought Deepest Purple when it was first released many years ago, more recently I bought First Generation and I Prophesy Disaster by Van der Graaf Generator, and Caravan's Where but for Caravan Would I.

 

I recommend all of these compilations for anyone interested in hearing these three bands for the first time.

 

And don't tell me I don't love prog because I'm not listening to the tracks in the order the artist intended on the original album. If someone skips past More Fool Me when they listen to Selling England by the Pound they're guilty of the same crime.

I also suspect live albums as a more sufisticated style of greatest hits form or in some cases the musicians in a live album are too busy to show how great players they are instead of concentrating about the best way to do the music (for me, and I guess many will not agree this is the case of Led zeppelins' "The song remain the same"). There are great live albums (my example - ELP welcome back my friends) but when you do'nt know a band you have no way to guess how their live album is like.

 

In the last 3 years I was exposed to a lot of new (for me) bands here in PA . My way is to read reviews. Usually when a review is written well I can feel if it's fits me. Than I go to that album and read some more reviews and also see if there are more key albums of that artist. This is how I discovered Esperanto (Danse macabre is a masterpiece IMO), Eskaton (4 visions), Discipline (Unfolded like staircase), Amon Duul II (Phalus dei, Yeti, TDL, Wolf city) and many more.

 

After a while you get to know others' taste so it gives you some more hints. For example, Ivan love melody so when he loves something it is very beautifull for sure. Baldjean prefers dark music and Rafaela has a taste that is quite similar to my taste. So that's another way to understand which albums to search for.

 

Oh, and if skipping "More fool me" is a crime then I'm an outlaw.

I nearly forgot about my introduction to early Pink Floyd. At the start of the 80s, Relics was available on the budget Music for Pleasure label and within the reach of my meagre finances. I spent hours as a teenager listening to it in the dark. Wonderful!

 

But another factor that particularly affects me is availability. I don't generally like ordering things from amazon if I don't have to. But when I try to search for great seventies prog acts, a lot of what I'll find are just these best of collections. So, for convenience and the other aforementioned reasons, I'll get the best of album.

 

Magma's Live/Hhai deserves a nod, both a great introduction and an essential album.

 

But at least yo have the album the way the artist believed it had to be released, in the order and with the mood it was created, More Fool Me IMHO is a filler, so doesn't make much sense in SEBTP, which BTW is the album with a more eclectoic atmosphere, you have good and bad soings, dark and light ones all mixed together, compared with the dark hunting Trespass or the pasive aggressive  NUursery Cryme, you can't find something that holds the album together as a concept or at least a preeminent mood.

 

Now...If I had bought  "Turn it on Again The Hits" I would not bought any other Genesis album. Two vocalists, two guitarists, one Gabriel song lost between No Son of Mine and Abacab and one Dance mix of  a Lamb song taken out of it's context.

 

That's an avberration, Pop fans will hate Prog songs (Well, only one poppy Prog track) and Prog fans wouldn't waste their time or money.

 

Yes, I skip some fillers once in a while luike More Fool Me, but what sense would make  a great song like Into the Cage outside The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway even if it's followed by The Musical Box? There must be a reasobn why The Lamb was played completely on stage.

 

IMO most compilations are a waste of money and useless to have an idea of the band, unless you want to listen the most popular tracks.

 

Iván

 

Counting Out Time and The Carpet Crawlers were released as singles so the idea of one cohesive piece of work couldn't have been that important to Genesis (or at least less important than record company pressure).

 

If songs aren't capable of standing on their own or don't make sense outwith the confines of the original album, are they really so good?

 

Anyway, another compilation I heartily recommend (although not prog) is Decades by Neil Young.

 

A few years ago a CD came out which was a compilation of most of the tracks from Nice Enough To Eat and another sampler called You Can All Join In, cunningly entitled Nice Enough To Join In. They missed out 21st Century Schizoid Man though. 

 

Spot on Jim, the care and attention given to that release sets it apart as the standard for others to aspire to.

They just threw Phil a bone and let him sing a song, the correct way to listen to SEBTP is to skip More Fool Me