Music gifts are all boxed up for the holidays

• Share
  • Email
  • Digg
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Buzz up!
  • Del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google
• Print
• Comments (0)
• Feeds
  • PopMatters
  • Listen
  • PopWire

Last week my kid sat on Santa’s lap for the first time — and howled like a banshee nonstop, as if this particular Kris Kringle were made of fire and angry hornets.

So I don’t suspect the real deal will be shimmying down our chimney anytime soon with a sack full of the goodies detailed here. But you, chipper do-gooder permanently on his Nice List — well, you’ve got a much better shot at getting what you want.

Of course, it’s best to give the bushy-bearded dude some idea of the tunes you hope to find under your aluminum tree. Toys he knows, but he stopped keeping up with pop ‘round about the time every Jane and Joe from here to Maine started asking for Monkees lunchboxes.

To guide you in compiling your wish list — and perhaps earn myself something more than a lump of coal by doing this penance — I’ve assembled an array of the season’s choicest (and sometimes priciest) collectibles.

Or say you need to purchase a primo present for a finicky loved one or a boss on the verge of firing you — you could do worse than blindly selecting something below.

In all instances, whether you’re giving or hoping to receive, I suggest you demand and/or include copies of “Corn Flakes with John Lennon and Other Tales from a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life,” the new memoir by former Los Angeles Times pop critic Robert Hilburn, one of the forefathers of this here racket. I’ve been so intrigued by his insider tales of time spent with heroes and villains (my first stop: how his review helped make Elton John a star via legendary Troubadour shows in 1970) that I can’t help but skip from icon to icon.

His remembrances deserve to be read from cover to cover. Maybe I’ll do that Christmas Eve while I wait to see if the fat man shows up.

Seemingly every year there’s yet another reassessment of some aspect of the life and music of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, and this year is no different: “Elvis 75 — Good Rockin’ Tonight” (Sony Legacy, $59.98), a four-disc, 100-track overview of his career to commemorate the King’s 75th birthday, arrives Dec. 8, while “Sinatra: New York” (Rhino, $79.98) is a four-CD-plus-DVD assemblage of previously unreleased live performances cut in the Big Apple, from a cameo with Tommy Dorsey in 1955 to a Radio City Music Hall show from 1990. No self-respecting devotees will pass them up.

But the most interesting box sets lately are those that illuminate old subjects in new ways, help us gain deeper perspective on key artists and scenes. Chief among these is “Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates” (Sony Legacy, four CDs, $49.98), a definitive 74-track anthology of the most successful pop duo of all time.

Not too long ago Rachael Ray launched an audience-driven campaign to help get the pair into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, seeing as they’ve been eligible for more than a decade yet still haven’t made it to a finalists’ list. She might have better luck if she ensures that the nominating committee gets several copies of this assortment, all the proof in the world that H&O, arguably the best blue-eyed soulsters ever, deserve enshrinement — and were far better than their cheesy ‘80s videos might lead you to believe.

This set includes every remastered smash single, of course, but also plenty of overlooked gems from the “She’s Gone”/“Sara Smile” era and loads of live material, like their original of Paul Young’s hit “Every Time You Go Away” and a cover of Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones.” For hard-core fans, toss in a copy of the duo’s “Live at the Troubadour” set from last year, available on CD, DVD and Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.

Who needs Rod the Mod in his 60s revamping the ‘60s with his new “Soulbook” effort when instead you could get the real deal via “The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998” (Rhino, $64.98)? Its four discs of unreleased alternate versions and outtakes, ranging from early incarnations of “Maggie May” and “You Wear It Well” to a late-‘90s re-recording of his Python Lee Jackson one-off “In a Broken Dream,” are better (and more authentic) than all the tributes to the past Stewart has issued this decade combined. (By the way, for really good boys and girls, bundle it with a new double-disc limited-edition reissue of Rod’s 1975 smash “Atlantic Crossing.”)

Similarly, AC/DC’s “Backtracks” (Sony Legacy, 2CD/DVD, $39.98) rounds up a dozen largely import-only leftovers plus 15 rare live cuts and a DVD that extends (and most likely ends) the Thunder from Down Under’s “Family Jewels” series of video clips. Not just for completists, given how wicked many of these lost tracks are.

Cult favorite Big Star, the influential Memphis group that is to power-pop what the Velvet Underground is to indie-rock, finally gets a boxed compendium worthy of its marvelous music with “Keep an Eye on the Sky” (Rhino, $69.98), a four-disc set that for the first time chronicles the short-lived saga of Alex Chilton and the late Chris Bell in the order their songs together (and apart) were recorded, complemented by insightful demos. Also included are a few of Bell’s deeply moving solo selections (“I Am the Cosmos” the saddest of all) plus a kicking live set from January ‘73.

Meanwhile, Rhino’s ongoing exhuming of ‘60s garage-rock and other fringe sounds grandly continues with “Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968” (Rhino, four CDs, $64.98), devoted to that most fertile and explosive of eras on the Sunset Strip. There are several names you might know to hook you in — Buffalo Springfield, Love, the Byrds, the Doors, Tim Buckley, the Mamas & the Papas, even Sonny & Cher before stardom struck. But the real joy of the set is discovering dozens upon dozens of still-fresh tracks most brittle indie bands would kill to have released today, plus oddities like “November Night,” from that beloved crooner Peter Fonda.

—There are four in-concert behemoths worth their weight in gold this season, starting with the Doors’ mammoth “Live in New York” (Rhino, six CDs, $89.98), documenting in their entirety the band’s final four performances in NYC, Aug. 17-18, 1970 (two shows each night), at the Felt Forum in Madison Square Garden. Obviously there’s some repetition in the set lists, but with a firebrand as unpredictable as Jim Morrison at the microphone, each show takes on its own personality. What makes it bittersweet, as is the case with replaying “L.A. Woman” any ol’ time, is realizing just how mighty they had become by the time it all ended.

“Genesis Live 1973-2007” (Rhino, 11 discs, $139.98), a block thick enough to prop your front door open, gathers together all official concert recordings from the prog-rock band ... and adds considerably more.

“Genesis Live,” the only set to feature original vocalist Peter Gabriel (and one of the strongest documents of the group’s early years overall), has been improved by the inclusion of five tracks from a ‘74 Shrine Auditorium appearance. There’s also a bonus disc — “Live at the Rainbow 1973,” heavy on “Selling England by the Pound” material — that further fleshes out the pieces of it that were issued on “Archive 1967-1975” a decade ago.

“Seconds Out,” a crucial turning-point live double from ‘77 that helped establish Phil Collins as a fitting fill-in for Gabriel, here gets a spiffy and overdue remastering, as does 1982’s “Three Sides Live” (which, in keeping with the box’s concept, unfortunately doesn’t include its in-studio fourth side). “The Way We Walk,” meanwhile, finally integrates “the shorts” and “the longs” to form the proper set list from the band’s 1993 tour. The earliest three titles also appear in 5.1 surround-sound mixes for the first time.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “The Live Anthology” (Reprise) may be the most ear-opening experience, and it’s remarkably affordable — you can find the four-disc job for less than $20 most places. Whereas other live boxes are to varying degrees comprised of previously available material, this is a trove of unreleased nuggets spanning three decades. No overdubs, no historical revisionism, just tons of classics and plenty of covers, among them the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well” and the theme from “Goldfinger.” The best bet of the season – and for a little extra, you can get the exclusive Best Buy version, which includes a bonus Blu-ray disc.

Fair warning: “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set” (ABKCO, $59.98) is the most bloated rip-off of the season, lavishly packaged and annotated though it is.

For starters, there’s no reason for its five unreleased cuts from the Stones’ famous December ‘69 shows at Madison Square Garden to have been separated out –- they should have been tacked to the end of the original set, or better yet woven in to present a more authentic experience. The third disc, of highlights from opening acts B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner, as well as the behind-the-scenes DVD comprised of more Maysles Brothers footage (as also seen in “Gimme Shelter”), is mostly of historical interest for obsessive fans only. It also comes in a hyper-deluxe $99.98 edition — for $40 more, you get the whole thing on vinyl, too. Stick with the single-disc job.

Likewise, I’ve been sorely disappointed in Time-Life’s “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live” set, available in a $40 three-disc package or as a whopping nine-disc box for just under $120. It, too, is of historical interest only: Though it’s momentarily fascinating to watch Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel lead an all-star jam on “I Saw Her Standing There,” or witness the Boss and Roy Orbison stumble through “Oh! Pretty Woman” while Smokey Robinson watches on without a clue, the performances themselves are often limp or, worse, lousy.

Even some of the more ballyhooed moments — a fresh-faced Eddie Vedder fronting the Doors for “Light My Fire” in 1993, or Cream’s reunion that same year — lack sizzle. Must have something to do with all the stuffed shirts watching on dispassionately; what surely seemed like lively camaraderie in the moment plays very stiffly decades later on television. You had to be there. I’m glad to own it as reference material, but I can’t imagine sitting through all of it again.

There are plenty better and more affordable live treats, however, including Paul McCartney’s “Good Evening New York City” (Hear Music, two CDs, one DVD, $19.98), documenting his opening of the new Citi Field, on the site of Shea Stadium, where the Beatles famously wowed tens of thousands in ‘65.

Also seek out: Tom Waits’ “Glitter and Doom Live” (Anti-, two CDs, $17.98), including a second disc of nothing but the one-of-a-kind storyteller’s surreal between-song banter ... Pink’s wildly colorful “Funhouse Tour: Live in Australia” (LaFace, CD/DVD, $18.94), which places her alongside the best pop divas of the past two decades ... “The Killers Live from the Royal Albert Hall” (Island, CD/DVD, $19.98), capturing their latest tour at its zenith ... R.E.M.‘s “Live at the Olympia” (Warner Bros., 2CD/DVD, $29.98), which finds the Georgian band rummaging through its past during a five-night residency at the Dublin theater in summer 2007 ... Kings of Leon’s “Live at the O2 London, England” (RCA, $14.98), illustrating that group’s long-growing, now-immense popularity in the U.K. ... and “Nirvana Live at Reading” (Geffen, CD/DVD, $34.98), the official release of one of the most storied performances in Kurt Cobain’s brief history, best paired with the 20th anniversary deluxe edition of the trio’s debut, “Bleach,” which now comes with a 1990 live set from Seattle (Sub Pop, $15.98).

As for reissues ...

Now that he’s finally released the first mondo installment in his long-promised Archives series, Neil Young has begun a remastered Official Recording Series to accompany his so-far wonderful Performance Series. Naturally, he started at the start, his uniformly excellent first four albums: the underrated romantic melancholy of his self-titled solo debut; “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” (1969), his first feral fuzz blast with Crazy Horse; the unimpeachable “After the Gold Rush” (1970), loaded with Young treasures; and the more approachable country-rock of “Harvest,” the biggest-selling album of 1972. No extras, sadly, but at $11.98 the price is right. ...

The Stone Roses’ seminal self-titled debut has returned in a 20th anniversary deluxe edition (Sony Legacy 2CD/DVD, $29.98) that includes an overdue remastering of the album, a disc of demos and alternate takes and a live DVD; the mega-deluxe version adds on a book, a lemon-shaped USB and heavy-grain vinyl ... the first two albums from oft-forgotten critics’ fave the Feelies have been revamped, and both 1980’s raw, kinetic “Crazy Rhythms” (Bar None, $13.98) and, from 1986 and produced by Peter Buck, “The Good Earth” (Bar None, $13.98) are still so fresh, they sound as though they could have been released this past spring. ...

“Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!,” the groundbreaking band’s kinetic, magnetic debut, in some ways still ahead of its time, now comes in a double-disc remastering, featuring the album performed in full earlier this year in London (Warner Bros., $15.98) ... David Bowie’s debut, “Space Oddity” — originally titled “Man of Words, Man of Music” until Ziggymania struck, after which his song about Major Tom took over — has been given the deluxe anniversary treatment to measure up to similar gatefold packages for the glam trilogy “Ziggy Stardust,” “Aladdin Sane” and “Diamond Dogs.” The second disc is larded up with still more unreleased demos and unearthed BBC live performances — things Bowiephiles can’t seem to go without ...

And “The Unforgettable Fire,” U2’s atmospheric 1985 effort with Brian Eno behind the boards, is the latest classic from the Irish band to get an overhauling. Fans with money to burn might see the $70 value in the limited-edition box set, which adds a DVD of live and documentary footage plus videos, as well as a 56-page hardback book. Most of my U2 friends can cope with just having the double-disc deluxe edition — the remastered album plus a bonus helping of B-sides and unreleased tracks.