An artist’s comprehensive box set: the national flag jabbed into the icy mountaintop of faithful record collecting, the go-to gift from a very special and understanding family member or friend in honor of very special milestone. You own all the albums. You’ve bought the single CD releases and reissues, but you want that comprehensive box set, that one that lovingly repackages every album the artist ever released as well as bonus outtakes, videos, and in-depth liner notes and previously unseen photos! It’s all there in one giant box that shows the world just how deep your love for said artist is, albeit in packaging that usually takes up way more space than a coffee-table book.
As you sit among your treasure trove of materials, you suddenly realize that a particular album is missing from the box set. Your comprehensive box set is not so comprehensive after all. Usually the album expunged from the artist’s comprehensive box set has been expunged for perfectly good reason, but sometimes you wish it had been included after all. The only positive you may take from this omission is the extra rock nerd points you can cash in for owning the original, out-of-print slab of vinyl that was not included for half-baked archivists and Johnny-Come-Latelys to acquire in one fell swoop.
For this week’s Last Man Standing, let us note albums expunged from artists’ comprehensive box sets. Please note and tally a point for every expunged original album that you own. The winner will earn bragging rights for 2 solid weeks!
“Cut The Crap” from the new Clash box set. No Mick Jones on it — and Joe’s not around to argue for inclusion.
Right on! Although I did not miss seeing it stuffed into the mega-Clash box set I just received as a gift from my brother, I did note its omission to a friend, at which point we started talking about other albums that are omitted from similar definitive collections.
Warren Zevon’s box set Original Album Series (1976-82) rounds up his “first” five album releases but omits his “real” first album Wanted Dead or Alive from 1969.
The planned box set of expunged albums is looking pretty slim. Come on Townspeeps, there’s at least one other expunged album that has been explored in depth in these hallowed halls.
I’ll save a few of the most obvious ones by the same artist for others, but the big Pere Ubu box set failed to include 360 Degrees of Simulated Sound, or whatever that early live collection of cassette recordings was called. Plenty of other early live material, offshoot recordings, and the like were included, but not that full album, which as a record collector of the band I considered part of their discography and worthy of inclusion.
Speaking of box sets…BRAVO to The Residents! It’s about time someone does this. I’m not joking. Why shouldn’t music be sold like a work of art? Why are musicians so tied to a losing battle of trying to collect royalties? This isn’t exactly my model for a new music industry, but it gets at it.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/weird/100000-Ultimate-Box-Set-Sold-and-Delivered-228739581.html
The Velvet Underground box set from 1995 completely ignores the album Squeeze release by the “Doug Yule V.U. Project”. Can’t say I’ve ever heard it.
I can’t think of a contribution for this thread but it does remind me of the line by a comedian (whom I can’t remember at this point) from back in the early days of box sets. The line referred to the Alabama box set and it was something like “I had nothing by Alabama and now I have everything by Alabama.”