Boss Faith
When this album came out it was my favorite Bruce Springsteen album by far, the only one the teenage me was comfortable saying he “basically liked.” Thirty-plus years later it’s still the only Boss album I’m comfortable saying I basically like, although I haven’t spun it in 20 years. I really like the song “Badlands.” I like the fact that, from what I recall, it’s the most guitar-and-drum oriented album of his career. I like that fact that, from what I recall, it didn’t get bogged down by 10-minute ballads about boys combing their hair and girls trying to determine which of the boys combing their hair might be worth hanging around town and getting knocked up by. Like I said, I probably haven’t pulled out my copy of that album in 20 years, but I feel comfortable saying, “Darkness on the Edge of Town is the one Boss album I’ve always kind of liked.”
What I’ve never felt or thought before a few minutes ago, however, is “Man, I’d like to get my hands on a copy of a box set reissue of that album so I can hear more than 20 previously unreleased and even unbootlegged tracks [I love that unbootlegged claim, by the way] and watch vintage concert performances of The Boss and His E Street Band!” In my heart I’d committed an unnecessary box set purchase.
Looking back on this moment of weakness, I probably thought that among the extra material I’d finally unlock the magic of Boss Faith, which has always eluded me. I’d retroactively be more agreeable and find it easier to fit into social situations from my school days as well as, currently, in my suburban, upper-middle class town and among clients in my field of work. My kids would be better behaved, less confrontational, and crack jokes that wouldn’t make all but their closest friends in school uncomfortable. My wife would be happier with me, or at least less openly critical of my flaws. She’d suffer in silence and have an extra cocktail at the country club.
Then it occurred to me: We don’t belong to a country club. My wife doesn’t suffer fools, and I love her for it. My kids have a morose, wiseass sense of humor and question everything life asks of them. My clients are pleased with the work I do, but we don’t go out for drinks. I don’t even drink even if we did. The people who remember me from my teenage years probably don’t harbor extremely negative thoughts about me, but I’m sure questions linger about what the hell was wrong with me back then.
I think I’ll pass on the Darkness box set as I should have passed on the Live Boss box set (on vinyl) from sometime in the late-’80s. I must have been hung up on the same fantasies the day I wasted money on that thing!
While we’re confessing to unnecessary box set purchases of the heart (or for real), what box set by an artist you’ve never been a big fan of most tempted you?
I’m not the biggest Beatle fan, but the recent remasters were tempting. I was interested in the mono versions, though, which you can only get by buying the whole set. So I’m no longer tempted, because the Beatle powers have made reigniting my fandom too onerous.
The new mono Dylan set. I’d love to have it. And I probably will have it. But for now, I just don’t see the point. I have the Sundazed vinyl mono LPs. So, what would be the point? Do I need to hear “Masters of War” in mono? No. I have firmly put it in the bottom of my list of box sets to have, but if I had an extra wad of cash to blow…
TB
Not sure if this counts, but I bought a 3-album set from Half Japanese back in my DC days. I was totally sold by the graphics, the poster (hanging in my office, still) and a little comic book. I gave the first half of the first disc a spin and absolutely hated it. But get this, my daughter’s hipster-music friends were over a while ago and we’re totally blown away that her dad actually had that cool (probably out-of-print) box from that awesome band. I scored some major cool points.
I thought, hey, maybe I should give this another listen. Then , just as quickly: Nahhhh.
As I’ve confessed before, I’m a sucker for box sets. Back in the days I belonged to the BMG and Columbia records clubs, they were enablers.
My biggest mortal sin was buying the Moody Blues Time Traveller. I wanted a best of which was about 8 bucks…or…or…or I could get this box, 5 CDs for twenty bucks. So I fell to the temptation. Fifteen years later it is still unopened.
I’m reminded of a line from some comedian or other back in the box set heyday “I have nothing by Alabama…now I have everything by Alabama”.
But I haven’t fallen that far!
Dear Lord, how I have sinned! For example, every time I go to the Hip-O select site. I need those Motown complete singles box sets! Money is no object! And don’t even get me started on the Mosaic Jazz boxes. Hello, poor house.
I have confessed this before, but I don’t generally do greatest hits albums. I don’t know why I have such an aversion to thos, but there’s very few artists that I feel like a single greatest hits will suffice. Many times, if I do own a hits compilation, it’s because I either bought it first to introduce myself to a particular artist, or it’s baited with some rare, unreleased track. There are a few people that their greatest hits are simply enough.
I have bought box sets because they are baited, too. Or, there are a few instances where I bought the box set first (thanks, BMG) as opposed to a greatest hits. I had Maximum R&B long before I owned a single Who album. I’m glad I have it, but I never listen to it.
Sometimes, sadly, it’s the packaging. I have those three Stones singles sets for no other reason than just because. Same with The Who singles. Those singles boxes are for total suckers. I really want that Beach Boys one. And I can’t even explain why.
TB
I look at the box set versions of Joshua Tree and Unforgettable Fire every time I’m in a music store. I pick them up, consider the extreme price and put them back. I KNOW that U2’s b-sides and remixes stink (hello expanded best of sets) but I keep thinking there are two lost classic LPs that are “just on the other side of the cellophane”
I’ll admit that I borrowed the Beatles Mono and the John Lennon remaster sets rather than purchasing…however I did buy all of the Stereo Beatles remasters individually (box would have been cheaper)
My family never knows what to buy for me for birthday/Christmas so I take my year’s worth of lusted after box sets and list them as a wish-list on Amazon.com …I usually get 2 or 3
I like boxed sets, but I’ve only lusted after them for a brief moment, for the most part. I have and love all three Nuggets boxes, and I have Akarma’s Storm in the Garage, and I was looking at some other Garage Rock box awhile ago and ready to part with some case, and I thought a little, and I would have been paying $55.00 for like six songs. Six songs that weren’t good enough for those fourteen jam packed cd’s. It seemed kind of stupid to me. I have several Stones boxed sets, especially bootlegs, but I had a twenty year infatuation with them that yielded something like 150 lp’s and over 1000 cd’s, so now that I’m better (or satisfied), the new vinyl boxes of their career aren’t gonna get me.
I remember I bought Citizen Steely Dan because those were the first cd’s not made from really bad tape sources. Plus, I got everything they ever did on four cd’s for like $40 bucks, a real bargain.
My “Why am I dragging this around the store?” boxes have included Tom Petty (How many Tom Petty songs do I really need? ), The Jam, The Police and Alice in Chains have been on my mind or in my hand, but then I think about it, and I know I’ll never listen to it. That Roxy Music box, The Thrill of it All looked pretty cool, but after Manifesto, I’m really not that interested. Bowie’s boxes have been the same way.
The one I should have bought was Elvis Costello’s 2 1/2 Years. I even found it used, in perfect condition, for 15 bucks and I bought something else. I went back the next day for it, and someone less wishy-washy bought it. Bastard.
The best ones I got was Damnation of Adam Blessing’s Damnation to Salvation – I got it online, used from a guy that owned an online record store, and when I called I asked why it was only 20 bucks, and he said he ordered it for himself, and didn’t like it. It is perfect and it’s terrific. The other great buy was The Stones Mobile Fidelity box. I got it for $99.00, and I out it on layaway, which netted a call from the owner of the store saying, “No layaways in records, and especially not on consignments.” I told him I had the layaway document, and I felt we had a contract, and he let me do it! I only made $4.50 an hour and had a wife and baby and I couldn’t afford it, but I did. I just listened to some of it the other day, and it’s fantastic.
I’m always tempted to buy Bowie reissues, with bonus tracks. I bought a used copy of Hunky Dory years ago, the one Bowie album I really like start to finish, and that was well worth the $2.99, but any other time I’ve actually bought a Bowie album other than my childhood copy of the ChangesOne greatest hits album I’m disappointed. About 2 years ago I finally bought Station to Station, thinking for sure I’d find a 31st Bowie song that I could really like, but no dice. Although there’s much I like about the album conceptually, the long, crooning numbers get on my nerves as much as ever. I know that album was recently reissued in greatly expanded form and, as jungleland2 expressed, I was sure there’d be some great, lost album included. To date I’ve resisted making that purchase.
You are forgiven, sinners. Feel free to sin again.
Just make sure you never give that out-of-print and likely valuable box set to You Know Who:)
I’ve always joked with fellow Townsman MickAvory that if you’re a fan of Bowie’s, then he is the only one you can be a fan of. That man reissues his records more than anybody. How many copies of Ziggy Stardust can one person own?
TB
Gotcha. Mr Ebay, right?