A few weeks back I took a look at some musicians who are well-served by Greatest Hits compilations. Here now are a dozen artists who fit the flip-side of that description…
Artist: Pink Floyd
Collection: A Collection Of Great Dance Songs
Problem: The Floyd’s albums are conceptual puzzles that are meant to be enjoyed whole, and not on some choc-a-bloc collection with an unfortunately ironic name.
Artist: Funkadelic/Parliament
Collection: Tear The Roof Off: 1974-1980
Problem: George Cllinton’s twin funk powerhouses cranked out more than a dozen albums from 1976 to 1980 alone. No one compilation could possibly capture even a fraction of the best stuff, and the collections out there tend to stress the well-known material at the expense of some red-hot, but lesser-known jams.
Artist: Radiohead
Collection: The Best Of
Problem: Radiohead’s albums are all stylistically individual, so the idea of mixing their “hits” together into a big stew is kind of sonically nauseating. The fact that this compilation was released against the band’s wishes might also make you a little queasy.
Artist: Miles Davis
Collection: Take your pick.
Problem: Miles Davis made artistic strokes so bold and large that they took several albums to flesh out – witness the second quintet albums of the mid-60’s or the fusion gems of the late 60’s/early 70’s. The idea of encapsulating his career in one collection is madness – every song he made was a greatest hit.
Artist: Public Enemy
Collection: Greatest Misses
Problem: An uninspired collection of oddball non-hits and not-so-great re-mixes. Any of PE’s best albums (Fear Of A Black Planet, Nation Of Millions, and Apocalypse 91) lay claim to more great songs that this.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Collection: Skeletons From The Closet
Problem: The Dead just aren’t this kind of band. Their studio albums are barely relevant to what makes them great, let alone some patchwork best of. This is the kind of collection that non-Dead fans point to and say “See?“.
Artist: Tom Waits
Collection: Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years
Problem: Waits combines all the elements that make for a poor best-of: his albums are best consumed in full, he’s changed his sound wildly from one album to the next, and he hasn’t had any actual ‘hits’ to speak of. Naturally, his best collection isn’t Beautiful Maladies, but 2006’s Orphans, a scrapbook of B-sides and oddities.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Collection: The Essential Hendrix, Volumes I & II
Problem: These aren’t bad collections in and of themselves, but the fact that Jimi made just three studio albums in his abbreviated career makes any best-of seem superfluous.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Collection: Mothership
Problem: Wait, isn’t that George Clinton’s thing? Zeppelin has several inadequate best-ofs on the market – Mothership just happens to be the latest and not-so-greatest. Do yourself a favor and get the studio albums – all of them are worth your time.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Collection: Greatest Hits, Volumes I, II, & III
Problem: With so many great albums in the discography, why would anyone tread here? Blood On The Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home Again, Time Out Of Mind – any of them are a better place to wade into the myth of Bob Dylan than his Greatest Hits.
Artist: The Rolling Stones
Collection: Hot Rocks
Problem: The best bits of the Stones’ catalogue go well beyond their established hits. In fact, many of their finest songs (‘Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ ‘Monkey Man’ and ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ to name but three) are tucked away in places where only the true fans can find and enjoy them.
Artist: KISS
Collection: Smashes, Thrashes, and Hits
Problem: KISS is larger than life, and this collection is not. ‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’ is just plain bad, and shows that the group had run out of musical ideas by the early 80’s. Good thing they’re so on top of merchandising…
Tags: Bob Dylan, Funkadelic, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Parliament, Pink Floyd, Public Enemy, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Tom Waits
21 July 2008 at 12:22 pm |
you’ve entered interesting waters here, dk. I looked at your previous post and noticed a lot of mentions of “…nice cross section…”, which I would have used to describe a lot of the albums here (i.e. Dylan, Jimi). In this day (iPod in hand and all), is the day of the fine album dead? or do we just want to hit shuffle on our nano and go about our listening?
My inner music snob shudders at the thought, but the reality is that I love Bob Dylan one song at a time, but want to hurt people if I hear any 5 of his songs in a row (or Hurricane, which is the length of 5 songs). Dylan’s (and others) Greatest Hits is a perfect purchase to upload and shuffle away.
As a result, I actually think that this list is better than your “best” list. Except for the KISS album…that one is fucking horrible.
21 July 2008 at 1:28 pm |
The compilations I’ve picked here aren’t “bad albums” in the classic sense of the term. One of the common denominators among these artists (with the possible exception of KISS) is that they all have a wealth of good material out there – so much so that no collection could possibly do their catalogue justice.
That said, some of these Greatest Hits fall flatter than others. The Pink Floyd collection is a terrible representation of their music. I also believe that most Dead fans would agree that their Best Of is totally beside the point. And PE’s ‘Greatest Misses’ is just plain bad – a point magnified by the fact that they’ve never had a proper Best Of. Also, Miles Davis has about 20 Greatest Hits packages out there – none of which even come close to catching the essence of his importance as an artist.
One thing I can say for certain about all of the compilations listed here is that I wouldn’t recommend any of them to anyone dipping into these artists’ music. In every case, there is a better album for discovering these artists, and that’s pretty damning to me. But are these horrible albums that I’d whip off my turntable and toss out the back window like a frisbee?? Unlikely…
Thanks for your thoughts – always appreciated.
21 July 2008 at 4:25 pm |
Great entry. Haven’t really thought of compilations this way before and that’s the best sort of thing to read. Couldn’t agree more, especially with the Pink Floyd and Radiohead.
21 July 2008 at 7:26 pm |
I would have to disagree with the choice of Bob Dylan, who sounds amazing in any form. And let’s not forget that without Bob Dylan, there never would have been a Henry Rollins. One of Dylan’s most important legacies, in my opinion.
Cool post.
21 July 2008 at 8:43 pm |
wait…Bob Dylan…Henry Rollins…??
Can you expand on this?
22 July 2008 at 6:54 am |
CCR!
22 July 2008 at 2:05 pm |
you’re right, dk.
kiss is not served well with this compilation. if anything, kiss has been overserved.
(THIS is the week.)