Very Special Episode: Most Essential/Necessary Compilations [137]

Summary

Political Beats: Very Special Episode – Most Essential/Necessary Compilations [137]

Released on August 19, 2024 | Hosts: Scot Bertram & Jeff Blehar | National Review

In this very special episode of Political Beats, hosts Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar delve into the realm of music compilations, exploring what they consider the most essential and necessary "greatest hits" albums across various artists and genres. Diverging from their usual format of interviewing political figures with musical passions, Scot and Jeff engage in a spirited dialogue about curated collections that encapsulate an artist's legacy, influence, and musical evolution.

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Opening Reflections and Episode Format Change

Timestamp: [00:00 – 04:09]

The episode begins with Scot and Jeff acknowledging the absence of a guest, marking this as their third very special episode focused solely on their curated lists. Jeff humorously shares his current struggles, including moving residences and the looming Democratic National Convention in Chicago, setting a contemplative yet light-hearted tone.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [02:09]: "I'm feeling really gloomy these days... if it's all about to come to an end, what was it all about?"

---

Madonna’s "The Immaculate Collection"

Timestamp: [11:03 – 18:35]

Scot commences their exploration with Madonna’s iconic "The Immaculate Collection", praising it as a perfect summation of Madonna's career up to 1992. He emphasizes the compilation's comprehensive inclusion of her hits from 1982 to 1992, arguing that it serves as an essential gateway for both long-time fans and newcomers.

Notable Quote:

Scot Bertram [12:48]: "This is an essential best of from an artist that you don't need any of the actual albums."

Jeff concurs, highlighting the album's ability to encapsulate Madonna's influence without necessitating a deep dive into her individual albums.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [16:19]: "It's a really good way because it's so different than mine. It's balanced towards albums that are like, just get this."

---

Buzzcocks’ Singles Compilation

Timestamp: [19:34 – 24:18]

Shifting gears, Scot introduces the Buzzcocks' compilation, emphasizing its significance as a definitive collection of their singles. He underscores the band's influence on the punk and pop-punk genres, suggesting that their singles compilation captures the essence of power punk more effectively than their studio albums.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [20:43]: "You need to hear the original form of what power punk was like back when it meant something."

---

Chicago’s "Chicago 9 – Chicago's Greatest Hits"

Timestamp: [24:58 – 29:56]

The conversation moves to Chicago's "Chicago 9 – Chicago's Greatest Hits", which Scot lauds as the quintessential introduction to the band’s mainstream success. He points out that this compilation provides all the necessary hits without delving into their more complex album tracks, making it ideal for casual listeners.

Notable Quote:

Scot Bertram [26:29]: "These are great songs, hooky pop songs, wonderfully, like sprightly horns."

Jeff adds that while he appreciates Chicago, he prefers this compact collection over their extensive live albums.

---

New Order’s "Substance"

Timestamp: [32:05 – 35:18]

Jeff champions New Order’s "Substance" as one of the most essential compilations, praising its seamless sequencing and comprehensive coverage of the band’s evolution from post-punk to dance music. He argues that "Substance" is the ideal entry point for those new to New Order, capturing their artistic progression in a cohesive narrative.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [32:32]: "This is one of the greatest accidentally but also intentionally flowing compilation albums you will ever hear."

---

Steve Miller Band’s "Greatest Hits 74–78"

Timestamp: [35:18 – 40:00]

Scot discusses the Steve Miller Band's "Greatest Hits 74–78", emphasizing its representation of the band's transition from blues rock to mainstream pop. He acknowledges minor omissions but overall endorses it as a staple for casual fans seeking the band's most memorable tracks.

Notable Quote:

Scot Bertram [38:35]: "It's one of the most iconic greatest hits albums of the late 70s when it was released."

---

The Smiths’ "Half Full of Hollow"

Timestamp: [40:59 – 45:30]

Jeff critiques The Smiths’ early compilation "Half Full of Hollow", noting its attempt to capture the band’s raw essence through a mix of A-sides, B-sides, and BBC sessions. He acknowledges its shortcomings compared to the band’s later works but recognizes its role in presenting their foundational sound.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [44:34]: "These are the people who wrote 'Going Underground'... take the plunge with this one."

---

Sheryl Crow’s "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow"

Timestamp: [45:30 – 50:16]

Scot highlights Sheryl Crow’s "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow", appreciating its meticulous selection of hits and deeper cuts that showcase her versatility. He praises songs like "I Still Miss Someone" and "Steve McQueen," suggesting the compilation offers a well-rounded view of her career.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [47:39]: "If you're looking for reasons to get hooks that will grab you... a well done greatest hits album is the greatest invitation you could ever receive."

---

James Brown’s "Star Time"

Timestamp: [73:24 – 79:17]

The hosts transition to James Brown’s "Star Time", heralding it as one of the greatest compilations that not only educates listeners but also entertains them through Brown’s extensive catalogue. They discuss its comprehensive nature, spanning multiple decades and showcasing Brown’s evolution as the "Godfather of Soul."

Notable Quote:

Guest Speaker [77:33]: "There is so much there... you get to listen to the evolution of an entire art form play out."

---

Sam and Dave’s "The Best of Sam and Dave"

Timestamp: [81:18 – 83:56]

The duo commends Sam and Dave’s "The Best of Sam and Dave" for its energy-packed collection of soul classics. They highlight tracks like "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Coming," emphasizing the album’s role in preserving the duo’s legacy and electrifying performances.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [82:01]: "These are so great, these songs... Instant party in a box."

---

The Jam’s "Snap"

Timestamp: [87:32 – 91:35]

Jeff introduces The Jam’s compilation "Snap", praising it for capturing the band's transition from punk roots to their more sophisticated later sound. He notes the collection's ability to chart their creative journey, making it an essential listen for understanding their impact on British punk and new wave.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [90:43]: "These songs are worth listening to... It takes you on a journey through the group's evolution."

---

Foreigner’s "The Very Best and Beyond"

Timestamp: [92:59 – 104:24]

Scot and Jeff discuss Foreigner’s "The Very Best and Beyond", recognizing it as a solid compilation that includes not only the band’s major hits but also lesser-known tracks like "Soul Doctor" and "Prisoner of Love." They appreciate the inclusion of new songs that add value to the collection.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [102:07]: "It's a really good compilation and collection of Foreigner's hits."

---

The Who’s "Wanted"

Timestamp: [114:52 – 123:03]

Concluding their exploration, Scot presents The Who’s "Wanted", an essential compilation that showcases the band's early energy and iconic singles like "Pinball Wizard" and "I Can See for Miles." He argues that "Wanted" is the perfect encapsulation of The Who’s vibrant and rebellious spirit, making it a must-have for any classic rock enthusiast.

Notable Quote:

Guest Speaker [122:32]: "This is the who in the early glory... one of the greatest groups that has ever existed."

---

Closing Remarks and Tribute

Timestamp: [135:50 – 147:25]

As the episode wraps up, Scot and Jeff share a brief tribute to Greg Kin, acknowledging his passing and his influence within the community. They reaffirm their appreciation for music compilations as essential tools for both preserving and discovering musical legacies.

Notable Quote:

Jeff Blair [147:25]: "Thanks so much for listening again. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, National Review.com."

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Final Thoughts

Throughout the episode, Scot and Jeff emphasize the importance of compilations in distilling an artist's most impactful work, making it accessible for new listeners while providing nostalgia for long-time fans. Their discussions highlight not only the musical quality of these compilations but also their cultural and historical significance in shaping listeners' musical journeys.

For those seeking to build a comprehensive music library or to explore the breadth of influential artists, this episode serves as a valuable guide to the most essential compilations in the music landscape.

Transcript

[Scott Bertram]

Foreign.

[Jeff Blair]

Everybody. And welcome into another edition of Political Beats, a presentation of National Review. Find us on Twitter on X at Political Underscore Beats. We're also on Facebook and you can find us right [e-mail] plus we ask you to subscribe to our feed for new episodes on Apple Podcasts. To tune in or elsewhere, listen there. [e-mail], click on Podcasts, find all the shows and all the fine NR audio. We also invite you to head on over to patreon.com politicalbeats support us there, help the show stay ad free. We have entry level for support of the program and some voting privileges here and there, mid level for early access to our shows and at a higher audio quality and our upper level best friends for early access, the higher audio quality, monthly exclusive content shows, remastered episodes, playlists and more. All of [e-mail] politicalbeats now the part of the program where we thank some of our Patreon supporters individually and specifically for supporting us. We begin with our new supporters since our last episode. So thank you Alex Holt, Cathy Fry, Earl Gerstein, Roy H. And William Devaney. Thank you for joining us [e-mail] politicalbeats and thank yous to our longtime supporters including Mark Newman, Robert Habakk, Charles Evans, longtime first time Susan B. Brian Roach, Chris Coro, Richard Anderson, Anthony Velasquez, and Simon Goldstone. Thank you for being supporters of us [e-mail] politicalbeats my name is Scott Bertram. Find me on Xcott. Bertram, my tag team partner standing by as always, Jeff Blair. Jeff, how are you?

[Guest Speaker]

Not very good. I have to admit, Scott, I'm feeling really gloomy these days. The skies have finally darkened here in Chicago. The rain is falling down. The Democratic National Convention is rolling into town next week. Who knows if there will even be a city left after it rolls out? We're gonna find out. So in that sense, I'm kind of contemplating the end of things and I'm just sort of looking for summations. I'm just kind of just sort of figure out, well, if it's all about to come to an end, what was it all about?

[Jeff Blair]

The end of things, including the end of where you were living. So it's always fun when Jeff has to move three blocks away.

[Guest Speaker]

Oh, I'm so doomed. Nothing bad happens.

[Jeff Blair]

I know, I know. Someone actually a former guest on the show, so that might be a tip off, who actually moved one time two houses down. And on a personal level, I can't imagine the frustration now. It was good. It was bigger. Everything. But to say, oh, yeah, we're moving two houses, all that work, all that effort, all that energy, and you're just moving, like, 100ft. It's just. That would drive me nuts.

[Guest Speaker]

You know what? It would hurt me more if it weren't the city of Chicago, which, believe it or not, I genuinely love, despite all of its horrible problems, despite the fact that it might not exist within three weeks. I don't know.

[Jeff Blair]

We shall see. All right, so some things to talk about here at the beginning. I sound a bit different, perhaps. I went back to Illinois last weekend and got some of my fall allergies, which I had dropped. I moved to Michigan and got spring allergies, dropped the fall allergies, went back to Illinois for four days, got the fall allergies back, and they're sitting on my throat. I feel fine. I don't sound the same, but I feel fine. Everything will be okay. This episode also is going to be a bit different because as you might.

[Guest Speaker]

Have Very special episode, in fact.

[Jeff Blair]

That's right. There's no guest. It is just the two of us talking to each other. Hopefully that's enough to draw you in. This is our.

[Guest Speaker]

It's a month of. It's a month of turmoil.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Like, you know, you guys out there, you just might be trying to, you know, survive through a. A vacation month. I'm trying to survive through the Democratic National Convention and a move simultaneously. So we figured, hey, you know, this is. I'm not inclined to take a vacation. But we thought. We don't really go to this. Well, very often. What this actually is in some ways, and it's kind of an inadvertent advertisement for what you get on our Patreon episodes where it's just the two of us talking to one another, kind of bouncing our own goofy ideas, basically. We have a very shared cultural upbringing and understanding. So even where we dis. It's always kind of funny because you're born in the same basic, you know, same basic year and era and yet have diverged in different ways. And just the two of us finding out where we agree and disagree has its own, you know, kind of fun to it.

[Jeff Blair]

Indeed. This is our third very special episode. The first two were on best soundtracks and best cover songs and so, you know, ideas and themes that we would not get to cover otherwise. And ideas and themes that perhaps are better suited without a guest because there's not one specific little portion of concentrated knowledge we're looking for. And so we went back to this. Well, this very special episode. Well, a third time. And I wanted to find something that also sort of fell into that area. And what I came up with that I don't. I'm going to say a title. And Jeff can sort of amend that if he wishes, because this episode is all about the most essential best of compilations. And that opens things up quite a bit. We don't talk a lot about best ofs or greatest hits on our regular shows because we're talking about the albums themselves, the artistic statements in those particular albums released. And this also gives us trajectories more than anything else.

[Guest Speaker]

There's a long span that we try to, like, go out of our way to cook.

[Jeff Blair]

And I also like this because it does give us an opportunity to perhaps talk about a couple of artists that might not merit a full Political Beat show, because the albums don't stand up by themselves, because the album tracks perhaps aren't that great, because the arc of a career is not that clear or defined yet still produce some good music along the way. And this gives us an opportunity to talk about those. But being that, as Jeff said, we were born in the same year, but do have different tastes and different views, we come at music different ways. I posited, and I think I've been proved correct, that our lists for this show on most essential, necessary best of compilations would be different. And I think they are quite different at our own very unique ways.

[Guest Speaker]

It's almost hilarious because, yeah, I didn't even realize I was setting it up this way. But you are so right that when you suggested the idea to me, it's like, this is what we could do this month. I was like, that's a great idea. I immediately started galloping off like a wild horse in a different direction. I started thinking about the best of albums that got me into great artists that I became hugely enamored of. So my list is, in fact, populated largely with groups that we've either already done or that I hope to one day do.

[Scott Bertram]

Can I count it all? Go ahead. 1, 2, 3, 4. Get up get on up get up get on up Stay on the scene get on up Like a sex machine get on up get up get on up get up get on up Stay on the scene get on up Like a sex machine get on up get up get on up Stay on the scene get on up Like a sex machine get on up Wait a minute. Shake your arm then use your palm Stay on the scene I, Like a.

[Guest Speaker]

Sex machine is that the wrong way to approach a greatest hits album? I don't know. There are two views of greatest hits albums. And Scott's list, I think, is. Is, I think, a really good way because it's so different than mine. It's balanced towards albums that are like, just get this. Don't worry about the rest, just get this. Whereas mine are, I guess it may be a little more autobiographical, inevitably, where it's like, these are the ones that me, a fan, or sort of did a great job of encapsulating what was wonderful about a band or that part of that band's era. So it's just funny that we have totally different rubrics that we've applied here.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah, I think.

[Guest Speaker]

I apologize for that. No, but I couldn't help it. It's just. We think, I think. What? Okay, last quick note. Compilations sometimes get a bad rap, especially among music snobs. Music snobs don't buy the greatest hits. What are you, a noob? You know, that kind of get the album, experience the album. And of course there's a lot of times that that is exactly right. I can even look at like half and half, almost all of the artists on my lists and say, get the album, for God's sake. You know, I Can see For Miles is great, but I think you really need to hear the hoots out loud. Fine, all well and true. But if you're looking for reasons to get hooks that will grab you, if you're a curious person, the way I was, a curious kid who was just looking for something to involve me and sort of like, invite me in, a well done greatest hits album is the greatest invitation you could ever receive. And especially one that was crafted with care and with thought to, like, get the little things that were good and exclude the bad bits. You don't have to be a pure historian just to make it sort of an enchanting experience that spoke for itself as it as its own statement, and then said, okay, well, what the heck else were these people doing when they were doing this?

[Scott Bertram]

Brandon, talking about the splendor of the factory. I know that you'd agree it's not a matter of life or death, but what is, what is doesn't matter if I take another breath. Who cares, who cares? Who cares? Who cares?

[Guest Speaker]

And then that's, you know, that's what the joy of exploring music was always about to me. Now, meanwhile, you're like, okay, listen, these guys were great, but, yeah, listen, I've done the work for you and, and Scott, you're Just like me. I know you've done the work for them. I know you're right about your picks here too.

[Jeff Blair]

So it's going to be fun. And we'll dig into a few of those differences along the way as well. For those new to these type of episodes, Jeff and I end up. And this number is completely random. There's nothing to it except it's the one that sort of worked in the. In our length of show, we both pick 12. Not a baker's dozen, an actual dozen of choices and just ping pong back and forth throughout the show and try to find connections and lines to pull through as we talk about our lists on these episodes. So most essential, most necessary, best of compilations. Both Jeff and I will define that for you along the way as we get to our specific choices and I kick things off. And what I want to start with is an album that I think is. Is a great summation of the way I tried to approach this show, which is an artist from whom there is little discussion or about whom there's little discussion about albums themselves, but lots of discussion about singles and hits and songs in such an indelible part of at least two decades, if not more. Although this compilation really is two decades. So Madonna, Madonna's the Immaculate Collection, which is such a great way to get your arms around all those singles that Madonna put out from what, about 82. And this ends with Justify My Love essentially. So when 1992, about. About a decade. Right. And Madonna basically everything except Ray of.

[Guest Speaker]

Light that you'd want to hear from Madonna.

[Jeff Blair]

Right. That's good thing about it. And actually in my opinion, that song she did for the Austin Powers movie Beautiful Stranger is one of her greatest singles of her career, which is.

[Guest Speaker]

I know that one. I have to check it out.

[Jeff Blair]

It's so good. It's so good. That's a great Madonna song. But this takes you from the very beginnings Holiday and Lucky Star and Borderline, all the way through Vogue and Justify My Love to close it out. 17 songs. And again, you don't need True Blue or I mean the albums Like a Prayer or Like a Virgin. No one's going back. No one talks about Madonna album tracks. If you do, you know, leave a note in the comments and we'll address it. But I mean, come on. But the singles, the singles are tough to beat.

[Scott Bertram]

And I Meet your moonlight and Baby, you know.

[Jeff Blair]

Live to Tell is a great song from. From True Blue into the Groove from. I forget what film that's from. But that. That's a great Song. And then you get to Like A Prayer that later into the 80s and express yourself and Cherish is one I've always liked a lot. This is, you know, non stop hits. It's all of Madonna's greatest stuff in one place. No one's ever going to ask you to tell them the best album tracks from Like A Prayer. It's just not going to happen. Getting the Immaculate Collection. And this is, you know, we often talk about the downside of the CD era because artists feel that they have to put 16 songs of new material and stretch things out to 70 plus minutes. Okay, here is the one good thing about the CD era, and it pops up a few times during my choices is you actually can fit essentially all the hits in one single CD. 74 minutes of music on the Immaculate Collection and all of it very good. This is an essential best of from an artist that you don't need any of the actual albums.

[Scott Bertram]

At night I lock the doors where no one else can see I'm tired of dancing it all by myself Tonight I want to dance with someone else get into the groove for you that prove your love to me yeah get up on your feet, yeah Step to be what will it be? We love your fantasy here with me Just let the music set you free Touch my body Move in time Now I know your mind.

[Guest Speaker]

I'm so glad that you started with this one because of course, as I already mentioned, my apologies, we had completely different conceits of what a great greatest hit for them was. Yours was, I think, more just sort of great. I want to have these greatest hits and don't have to worry about the discographies. And if hadn't mentioned this one, which of course, inevitably you were going to because this is the only one of them that would have made mine as well. You know, Madonna is one of those sort of fundamental formative child influences where like, I don't care who you are. If you were born in the early 80s and you grew up on MTV and VH1, you knew every word. A Material Girl. I know Like A Prayer. I mean everything. The thing is, I've gone back to listen to the Immaculate Collection for a long time. It's the only Madonna CD I ever had in my collection, of course. And I would. And I went, just, just like you mentioned, I went back and was like, let's listen to an hour too. I'm like, nah, no, this is what you need. You need that you need. Basically, if you're me, what you do is you remember, like every moment you were when you heard Express Yourself or Vogue and you went to see Dick Tracy at the same time. That kind of a thing, right? This is the moments that of your childhood they caught this like case. But the thing is, even if you weren't raised in that era, the music there still comes back to you. That is what I tested when I played it for somebody who was half my age and a guy and not gay, by the way. So I want to point that out. It's totally into Just like this is well written music, of course, just like this. This is just well assembled, well sharp, sharply produced, sharply sung. Madonna is a limited vocalist, right? That's one other thing. It's like, you know, she doesn't have actually chuff, she has pizzazz. And you know, it all comes through on this. And, and, and it's probably the only one that would have ever made my list is a greatest hits that is sort of summarizes what you need to know about them. But the thing is, you need to know about Madonna. You can't not know about her. You can't ignore her. That's the important thing. And that's why maybe this is one of the most essential greatest hits albums ever released.

[Scott Bertram]

Mystery Everyone must stand alone I hear you call my name and it feels like home Just like a prayer, your voice can take me there Just like a mystery, you are a mystery Just like a dream you wanna.

[Guest Speaker]

So I guess, you know, the way I. I don't really have a good one because I said every other band I'll mention here is it's got at least something to offer them. But I'll start with the only one I fear I'll mention where I could say that. Listen, if you only ever own one disc by this group, just get this. And because I'm a weirdo, it's one of those British post punk bands and it's the Buzzcocks. I don't know if you guys even know who the Buzzcocks are, but the Buzzcocks were this band, this. This English post punk band that was formed out of, you know, it was originally Howard DeVoto, Pete Shelley. DeVoto went off to form Magazine P. Shelley stayed informed the Buzzcocks and they become a much more pop punk band. And I think it's not the worst thing I can say about them. It's actually the best thing I can say about them is that Green Day stole everything they've ever known from the Buzzcocks and they made it worse.

[Scott Bertram]

These are my natural emotions you make me feel under the hood And I'm hur. And if I Solid commotion I run the risk of losing you and that's what Ever fall in love with someone Ever falling in love in love with someone Ever fall in love in love with someone you should have fallen in love with I can't see much of the future unless we find I want.

[Guest Speaker]

You need to hear the original form of what power punk was like back when it meant something, back when it was smart and intelligent, back when it was weird. The first single of the Buzzcock's career is a song called Orgasm Addict, which is about exactly what the title offers about a little kid. Suddenly his mom's finding all those weird stains on his jeans. Direct lyric from the song. That's the Buzzcocks talking about teenage angst in the late 1970s. And this is a group that put out several albums during their first period when they broke up. And they're. They're adequate, but nothing captures the excitement about what the Buzzcocks were up to than all of their singles. And you only find them on singles going steady. This is, I think, originally an American compilation album, but it's become basically their calling card, one of the greatest album all time. Because again, much, much like Madonna, but in a very different way, this is going to be how they're understood forever. And I think it still should be. There are songs here, as I said, talk about goofy teenage scenarios like that. Or there's like, what Do I Get? Where you're all upset about the girl you love who doesn't love you back. But then there are songs like, Everybody's Happy Nowadays, which is, like, still to this day, one of the most melodically, kind of bizarrely inspiring songs of a whole post punk era.

[Scott Bertram]

It is everyone saying things to me, but I know it's okay. Okay, Everybody is happy all day. Everybody.

[Guest Speaker]

Or there's. There's the B sides. The whole thing was assembled as A sides on the first half, b sides on the second half. And then. Then you've got these weird musings like, why can't I touc it, you know? Or, you know, he's singing, I can see it, I can feel it. Why can't I taste it? Why isn't it real? Why can't I touch it? They sound sort of inchoate because people of that age, in that era, probably didn't have the eloquence to put them into better words. But by God, that sounds so real. And that's the only way you should ever really hear the Boss Cox.

[Scott Bertram]

And it feels so real. I can feel it and it tastes so real. I can taste it and it sounds so real, I can't hear it. So. So.

[Jeff Blair]

We'Re gonna have some awkward transitions as we bounce back in this particular.

[Guest Speaker]

Bounce back for only need to hear this band. And you need to hear everything by this band.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes, if there's a band you certainly do not need to hear everything from. It is one of my next selections. In fact, you can chop off whole decades worth of their performance. It's going to make my dad mad if he hears this episode because he hates it every time I say something bad about the band. Chicago.

[Scott Bertram]

Waiting for the break of day Searching for something to say Flashing lights against the sky Giving up my close my eyes 25 or 62 4.

[Jeff Blair]

One of his favorites. And I like Chicago too, but for a limited time, by the time you.

[Guest Speaker]

Don'T want to hear all four albums of Chicago 4 Live at Carnegie hall, whatever it is.

[Jeff Blair]

No, I don't want to hear that. And I certainly don't want to hear anything from the early 80s necessarily. And even the late 70s were a tough time after their lead guitarist left this earth. Unfortunately, very early.

[Guest Speaker]

Accidentally.

[Jeff Blair]

Accidentally. He didn't know the gun was loaded when he put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He thought he was just showing off at a party. But unfortunately, no. No. So Chicago, Chicago 9. They have the roman numerals in the name of their album. This is Chicago 9, Chicago's Greatest Hits, 1975. There is in fact a Chicago's Greatest Hits Volume 2, which has the song Take Me Back to Chicago on it. And I think what, maybe what a big surprise probably is on there too, from. From the later 70s era, before Peter Cetera really took over the band. But if you're looking for the best of Chicago in a compact form, you have 11 songs here. And this is what most people know, what most people love, and again, what most people would want or need from Chicago. Especially because as Jeff alluded to the, you know, the four album side of Chicago 4, whatever it was, live at Carnegie hall. The album version of Chicago the Band is not the singles version of Chicago the Band. There are huge movements and 16 minute long side songs and all sorts of things that people who like that, the pop side of Chicago probably have no time for. That's why Chicago 9 exists. 25 or 6 to 4. Does anybody really know what time it is? Just you and me. Great song. Saturday in the Park. Feeling Stronger every Day, Make Me Smile, which is part of this long suite. This, this big song that just Make Me Smile is a part of it. They took it as a single. Beginnings, eight minutes of Beginnings and Call On Me. These are all really good songs, hooky pop songs, wonderfully, like sprightly horns. Chicago always had a fantastic horn section. These are great songs. But again, if your exposure to Chicago is what you hear on the radio, digging deeper into their albums of the 70s isn't necessarily going to be all that fruitful for many, many people. That's why something like Chicago 9 exists. If you have it, you probably hear everything you need from the band Chicago.

[Scott Bertram]

Children play in the park they don't know I'm alone in the dark Even though time and time again I see your face Smiling inside I'm so happy that you love me Life is lovely when you're near me, me Tell me you will stay make me smile.

[Guest Speaker]

Listen, you guys all know how proud of Chicago and I am, all right. I talk about it frequently in my writing. I talk about it on the show. I live it every day of my life, quite literally. And it's always kind of bugged me personally that I cannot get into the band Chicago. But I will actually grant that Scott, again, I would, because. Because I just have never had any love for them. This would. Would never have made my list. But he's dead, right? Which this. This about captures it. And I'm that schmuck who's tried to explore everything they've done. I got the discography. I listen to it on YouTube, keep think maybe one day if I'm drunk enough. No, it never happens. It's never going to happen. So you know what, the funny thing, though, is that Scott pitched his. I have no. Yeah, as he pointed out, we're going to be bouncing out, bouncing around all over the world here now in terms of our picks, like a pinball throw that reference in your back pocket. I'm going to try to contrast my pick from his. He said, best thing about Chicago is they took all their long, pretentious stuff and they smushed it down into the best of their hits. So what happens when a band takes actually their great hits, their singles, and expands them them and makes them just a little bit longer. Gives you the 12 inch mix, in fact. And so that's where I'm going to take you. Yeah, you thought. You thought transitions could be awkward. Let's go from Chicago to Manchester. Let's go to talk about New Order.

[Scott Bertram]

Satan's Substance, which to this day, again.

[Guest Speaker]

Just Rock Rises straight to the top of my mind as one of the most essential compilations I have ever listened to in my entire life. This was absolutely the first way I encountered New Order, I assume. I hope, I hope still that this is the first way anybody ever gets into New Order. Because you'll get it. And I hope, I just wish you we still lived in a CD age where you could understand. Okay, disc one hits, disc two. Besides read oddities right, you could get into the different vibes and find different things to like about them. But you could also appreciate how they were sequenced and how they flowed. This is one of the greatest accidentally but also intentionally flowing compilation albums you will ever hear. One that is played in sequence, is assembled and is meant to be heard from front to back for New Order. A band of course that evolved out of the ashes of Joy Division, you know, the post punk. Ian Curtis hung himself and hanged himself and you know, they turned in first until a very kind of A. Kind of a lost and drifty British post punk proposition. And then they suddenly became a dance club band throughout the British 80s. You hear the whole span of their evolution song by song, single by single. It's not always the 7 inches. Sometimes they give you a 12 inch or an expans landed version or a re recorded version. It really doesn't matter. These are the canonical versions. And what's also the most tellingly trip great tribute to substance as a compilation is that I think for the longest time nowadays everything's been thrown onto something or another. But like up through like by the time I was buying CDs at least which would have been the 90s, late 90s, this is the only place you could ever find any of these versions of these songs. This was it. This was the place. This is how you introduce yourself to a band. A great band. A band. Of course we did an episode on long ago with John Gabriel. Great episode. But I still. And I think we agreed as much on the episode. When you want to get in a new order, you start with substance. That's why they called it that.

[Jeff Blair]

I'll move to a. An album, a greatest hits collection that is both essential and completely unnecessary. I'll explain. We. I think we talked about this on the Eagles episode from way back when in which you have Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 1, which is the first what, four, four or five albums. And then you have Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2, which only encompasses Hotel California and the Long Run. That's it. Hit two albums. If you're going to buy the greatest hits, just buy the two albums, right? And much in the same way, one of the most iconic Greatest hits albums is from Steve Miller band greatest hits 74 to 78. The blue cover with the Pegasus. I think it's the Pegasus on it. One of my, I think I've told the story before. One, I just mentioned my dad who loved Chicago. I remember one of our first musical disagreements was about Steve Miller Band because I really liked, liked Steve Miller Band and, and greatest hit 74 78. And I, I got the cassette from the library and brought it home. And my dad, you know, not in so many words, he would never say this directly to me, but said, yeah, you know, that's a bunch of crap. You know, Steve Miller Band, that's crap.

[Scott Bertram]

That you question till everyone's answer is usually asked from within, man. Crazy.

[Jeff Blair]

I disagree and still do great pop hooks. You know, Steve Miller had such an interesting career moving from, you know, late 60s and very early 70s San Francisco. You know, guitar kind of wizard, blues guitar wizard to pop song master of the mid to late 70s and eventually number one with Abracadabra. But this greatest hit, 74 78, it's only two albums. It's book of Dreams and Fly Like An Eagle. Just buy the two albums. But you do get a bonus. You get the Joker. Even though that song was released in 73, thus not fitting the year bracket on the COVID Doesn't matter. Joker's on here. You get everything from Fly like an Eagle that's worthwhile. You get everything from Book of Dreams that's worthwhile. You get the Joker. The only bad thing. And again, we've mentioned this a few times too. The version of of Jet Airliner on this greatest hit 7478 is not the full 5 minute version with the brief fleeting profanity that often was played on the radio back in the day. It's the 3 and a half minute version without the intro that says Funky Kicks. So you have to find the original Jet Airliner somewhere else. But other than that, Swing Town and even, you know, even the album tracks that are worthwhile that weren't hits are here. They identified the best stuff you need like Serenade and the Steak. And I like Dance Dance Dance too. All that stuff's here. Fourteen songs from two albums plus the Joker. It's one of the most iconic greatest hits albums of of the late 70s when it was released. It still sells ton. Well, it doesn't sell a lot today. I suppose everyone's streaming, but for many, many years it was selling a lot of copies because so many of these songs are just earworm pop hits that Steve Miller perfected the art of during this brief era from 74 to 70.

[Scott Bertram]

I've got to keep on keeping on, you know, the big wheel keeps us spinning around and I'm going for some hesitation, you know, that I can surely see that I don't want to get caught up in that. Funky kicks going down in the city Big old Jedi don't carry me too far away oh, big old J.

[Guest Speaker]

God, I don't know. Don't you resent the fact that despite the title, it actually goes out of its way to 1973 to inflict to inflict upon you the pompous of love. I mean, did anybody need to know about Midnight Talking? I don't. I don't know. But I do. I do love your point. It's it. By the way, for the rest of this, we're going to try to find the funniest ways to ping pong off of one another in terms of like how I can relate my picks to his. So now I'm going to say, well, just in case you said, well, that was the greatest hits where you only need to buy the two albums. How about one where it's the greatest hits where you only need to buy the one album? And in fact don't even buy the album at all, okay? Because, boy, you're gonna find a hilarious way. I manage to relate these I'm actually talking about the Smiths.

[Scott Bertram]

As merry as the days were long. I am right and you are wrong. Back at the old Grace School I was winning, you would lose. But you've got everything now. You've got everything now. And what a terrible mess I've made of my life. Oh, what a mess I've made of my life. No, I've never had a job because I've never wanted one. I've seen you smile but I've never heard you laugh.

[Guest Speaker]

The Smiths of all bands, of course. Back in 1984 they've released their debut album, it was just called the Smiths. They'd also done a bunch of singles and a bunch of BBC sessions and they thought they were getting better at what it is they were doing. And then they said, you know what, actually we do not like our first album at all. So they released the weirdest compilation album, what is it called? Nobody, who's a big fan of this era of weird, like half assembled comps. And I think the Smiths inaugurated it with this record, Half Full of Hollow. Nobody knows quite what to make of it because it doesn't really know how to define itself. But everything on it was technically previously released. There is no single new track on the record. Everything was either an. A sign of a single, a B side of a single, a BBC session, or. No, I think that that's actually entirely what it encompasses. And it is essentially, by the ban, an attempt to rewrite their past, to just say, you know what? We think we have a lot of talent. We think we didn't do the best job of presenting our, you know, putting our foot forward the best way we could have, and we want to. We want to redo. And they actually essentially got it with this. I didn't even bother to explain to anybody listening who the Smiths are, but, oh, my gosh, we've already done an episode on them long ago with Mike Moynihan. They're the greatest British, I'd say early. I don't know how you define them. They're probably one of the greatest early 80s British groups of all time. They defined their era, I think, lyrically, because of Morrissey and then Johnny Marr on guitars. And there was a singer, songwriter, lyricist, you know, musician pairing basically created a standard up to which no one else has ever managed to equal, precisely because those sorts of partnerships only last for a certain amount of time. Kind of almost like Lennon and McCartney, who they've endlessly been compared to, even though, you know, they're not quite the same kind of a duo for a number of reasons. The Smiths are fantastic, and they kind of botched their debut. They got it right by making a compilation of all things that just showed what they had actually done, what they were about to do, and what they do in a matter of, you know, months with, you know, stuff that you were about to hear on songs like, you know, Headmaster Ritual and the Queen Is Dead.

[Scott Bertram]

I would love to go back to the old house But I never will, I never will all.

[Jeff Blair]

If the Smiths were a band that somewhat botched their debut, let me talk about an artist who completely nailed her debut to the. To the point where I think a lot of her subsequent career isn't respected in the way that it should be. And I'm talking about Sheryl Crow, an artist that boy. I don't think we'd ever cover Sheryl Crow on the show for various reasons. But every time I was talking to someone about this, I can't remember who, but I always think Sheryl Crowe. She's, you know, she's fine. She's okay. And then a song will pop up on Sirius or I'll have it come up on. On in, on my mp3 player or something like, oh, that is a really good song. And as we're going through for my other show, wasn't that special 50 years of Saturday Night Live. She's a semi frequent guest on snl. When a new album is out, I'm like, oh yeah, that's a good song and that's a really good song. But her debut, All I Want to do from Tuesday Night Music Club was so, so omnipresent. It was everywhere and it's nowhere near, you know, my favorite song of hers. But it was commercially a smash and set her up to do whatever she wanted to do for essentially the rest of her career. There is a really good. This album, the Very Best of Sheryl Crow came out in 2003 and it does a really good job of. Of combing over the rest of her releases and finding those gems that, that really do rise to the surface. I really enjoy. I think it's the lead single from the Globe Sessions. My favorite Mistake is a great song. There's one if it makes you happy. From her self titled release a couple of years later. Some of.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah, I hate to admit it, I absolutely love that song. It's actually the one Sheryl Crow song that in a. That one still hits you every time you hear it on the radio.

[Scott Bertram]

We were searching through thrift store jungles Found Geronimo's rifle, Maryland Shampoo and Benny Goodman's corsel Okay, I made this sound I promised you I'd never give up Nothing makes you happy. It can't be that bad. If it makes you happy then why the hell are you so sad?

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah. And then if you go and like a song like Every Day is a Winding Road, that's a really. I would listen to it again in preparation for the show. It's just a really well structured song. Very interesting choices in terms of instrumentation and arrangement from Again, her self titled album. That's a great song. Deeper in her career somewhat got a slightly more commercially tried to lean a little more commercial, but there's a song called Steve McQueen which actually borrows the Hoo Hoo from Take the Money and Run from Steve Miller as I connect from my last choice. And so you go up and down song like Soak up the sun is on here again a little bit later in the I think early 2000s she has. I wouldn't, I don't think I've ever essentially sought out to listen to one of her albums but again, every time I hear one of those singles that somehow surfaces, resurfaces once again, I'm like, oh man, that is good. I like her voice. That's a nice hook. It's a wonderful arrangement. And I'm not sure any of her albums are essential, but the Very Best of Sheryl Crowe does a good job of summarizing what really was the best of a very solid musical career. And by the way, I've mentioned this on actual she did a song with Joe Walsh a couple of years ago. I think it might have been in the pandemic 20202021 called I think they Still Are the Good Old Days. And man, I have to go back and revisit every couple months because that one will just hang and hang and hang in my mind. It's a great, great song. Not on this record, but she's still capable of doing something. Sur.

[Scott Bertram]

Day to the bad day I got used to spending when you go All I know is you're my favorite to stay you're my favorite mistake or maybe nothing lasts forever Even when you stay together I forever after lift your laughter won't let me go so I'm holding on this.

[Guest Speaker]

Laugh at the weird way I managed to hook these picks together, Scott because, okay, so it's funny. It was literally just the other day my wife and I were in the car on xrt. Of course, what comes on but all I want to do and my wife's just like, you know, I really hate that song. And I'm sitting there next to her and I'm think I'm bopping. I'm actually thinking, I haven't heard this one in a long time. It's okay, you know, I was like, this is better than I thought. And maybe you're right. Maybe she's never been forgiven for that debut album that got, you know, popped popular in its own way. So I'm going to take us to a completely different land, the land of dingy skies and Brit pop. That would of course be the United Kingdom. And I'm going to talk about another group that also was curiously well, despite again, all the bands that I'm mentioning at this point, you should really get to know their full discographies and this one in particulars. But it's still really well summarized by what have otherwise might have been regarded as a typical end of the era a cashing compilation that is the best of Blur by the band Blur do.

[Scott Bertram]

You feel like a chainsaw practically floor one of many zeros kicked around for you're is a fool but you're empty holding out your heart to people who Never really.

[Jeff Blair]

Care how you are.

[Scott Bertram]

So give me confidence.

[Guest Speaker]

With Blur, you might have. This might be some. For some people, the randomness to pick of my list. Because you're like, well, who'd have thought this random, like 1999 era. Like, wow, whatever, end of a century and all that. We're gonna just put out a greatest headset. But the thing is, is that for whatever reason, it was an incredibly well chosen, sequenced, you know, compilation that captures every perfect moment of both melancholy and disdain and sort of, you know, high riding, cocaine addled, you know, Tony Blair, new labor, brick pops, 90s spirit that they ever embodied. And there are songs on it that still, unlike, you know, their debut out, which is called Leisure or Leisure, I suppose, and it has these two singles that you still hear on xrt like she's so High. I'm sure, you know, there's no other way. I'm sure you know, but that was back when they were more of a vapid, sort of baggy, kind of early, you know, Happy Mondays knockoff group. By the time of Modern Life Is Rubbish and onwards, they evolved into something much more kinkish. And that's why the band has come up in our Kinks episode quite a bit. But. And then in the late 90s, they started getting weirder. They started becoming influenced by, you know, Pavement by noise, Rock by Sonic Youth by Radio Ad, and they developed into, in their own way, one of the more fascinating British groups of the era. I always miss them and I think they're still underappreciated, which is why one day, maybe we'll find a fan who wants to do Blur with us. But until then, we still have the best of Blur, which is the. The way you should just get it. It's quick. It's, you know, just one CD long. There's a bonus track called Music Is My Radar. It's a new one from the group and actually it's, you know, it's in the trend of where they had been heading. But it's a great, weird, arty song. So it is very true to where the band was at that time. I still think, you know, if you're going to try to find a way to explore what was this all about? You start there.

[Jeff Blair]

I am simply not going to wait any longer to follow up on my thought involving Sheryl Crow, because the other person I mentioned also features on my list. How about that? Yeah, Joe Walsh, who I've mentioned a time or two on our episodes through Time, Not British whatsoever, but has been involved with a number of bands. James Gang, solo success, Eagles, of course. He's guested on so many songs. Cheryl Crow, Richard Marks, many, many, many others. And I've said I love listening to Joe Walsh from a, you know, a guitar player. I love listening to Joe Walsh play guitar.

[Guest Speaker]

Joe Walsh is your Robert Frick.

[Jeff Blair]

Could be.

[Guest Speaker]

Which is like. Yeah, it's just literally put him on anything. I've got to hear him because it's him. He'll sound like him. Interested?

[Jeff Blair]

Yes. I love his tone, I love his feel. And I always know when Joe Walsh is playing on something, whether it be, you know, standard electric or slide or whatever it might be. He's a great guitar player, he's an okay songwriter. And, you know, through time he has put out, of course, James Gang stuff and then his solo albums. And none of them are truly essential, you know, I. Yeah, none of them are truly essential. Maybe one of those James Gang's albums, possibly, but nothing.

[Guest Speaker]

Joe Robinson, the one that has Life's Been Good. That's the one, Yeah.

[Scott Bertram]

I go to parties sometimes until four it's hard to leave when you can't find the door it's tough to handle this Fortune and fame Everybody's so different I haven't changed they say I'm lazy But it takes all my time Time oh, yeah I keep on going yes, I'll never know why Life's been good to me so far yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah and that's here. So you get it. And again, this is one of those times where the extended CD length means you squeeze on, really everything you need, need from Joel Walsh, it does. Well, it doesn't have his Eagle stuff on it because, you know, Don Henley and Glenn Frey aren't giving him permission to release that stuff on a. On a solo disc. But everything else from James Gang and Solo is here. He actually had a double disc called look what I Did. That's way too much, Way too much for any normal human being. You don't need two discs worth of Joe Walsh solo material. Material. But this in a single compilation contains virtually every song you could want. And you also know all of them. You've heard all of these songs from the James Gang Stuff, Funk 49 and Walk Away. The Bomber is a great song. And then from Joe Walsh's solo career, there are a few album tracks that maybe, I guess, maybe you haven't heard. Like Mother says, which is a fantastic song, or Meadow, which begins with Joe Walsh screaming his head off in a very funny, amusing way. So, like Turn To Stone. And then, of course, as Jeff mentioned Life's Been Good and Rocky Mountain Way. And then toward the early 80s, when he was spiraling down the depths of addiction, he still managed a song or two off each album that was worthwhile. Something like All Night Long or A Life of Illusion. All the way through Ordinary Average Guy, which is a pretty neat song from the late 80s. You get everything necessary from Joe Walsh in a single album, and you also can take the time to appreciate his guitar playing, his songwriting, and you don't need to get deep into that discography. Little did he know Joe Walsh's Greatest Hits is everything that you really need from one of the great guitar players of all time.

[Guest Speaker]

Now.

[Scott Bertram]

On the wall hold down, take the show down Everywhere you look we're fighting Hear the corn all and you know it Sk. Stronger can't last very much longer to the st.

[Guest Speaker]

This is funny, Scott. I'm going to find a way to actually make this one rhyme in a weird way because. So you think, you know, you could boil down all the many things that this guy's been involved into this one cd and that it really is all you need to know. Okay. Okay. You can boil down all the many things that this band has been involved in into a 4 CD boxed set, and then you will finally understand why. The Faces were one of the greatest bands of the early 70s. And basically everybody in the know back then knew this. And then nobody understood it for the longest time. And then some of us finally figured it out. And I just feel like so many more people.

[Scott Bertram]

Wake up, Maggie. I think I got something to say to you. It's late September and I really should be back at school. I know I keep you amused But I feel I've been used. Oh, Maggie, I couldn't have tried anymore. You led me away from home Home just to save you from being you stole my heart but I love you anyway.

[Guest Speaker]

I've been talking about you of course we. You know, it's funny. For whatever reason, Scott, I was just, like, driving and I was like, what's on my phone? So I'm in the car, I plug it into the. You know, the jack, and it's our 1971 Patreon music episode. And there we are talking. We're talking about. Every picture tells a story, okay? And we're talking about. About, say, at the same time, A Nod is As Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse by the Faces. And we're talking about how everybody's playing on every one of these people's albums.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes. Yes.

[Guest Speaker]

So what? People don't understand about the Faces is that this was a group that is every bit as good from that era as the Stones were. And this is the Stones when they were doing like Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street. It's just that they never quite managed to convey it on one record. Record. In fact, they never managed to quite convey it on any single disc. Greatest hits, for that matter. When I was a kid in college, I figured out my great introduction will be this new CD. It's by Rhino. It's got 20 tracks or something, you know, called I Was A Good Boys When They're Asleep. It didn't really quite sell me. The beauty, the joy of the Faces. I don't think you can in one single cd. I think you need to either go to a concert, as many of them did back in the day, or you have to just listen to four CDs of sprawl. Just listen to these five drunken lads from Great Britain. Of course, this is a band that was formed out of the fusion of the Small Faces, who were this mod group from the 60s. Steve Marriott was the lead singer. He left to go form another group, but he left behind him Ronnie Lane on bass was Ian McLaughlin on organ and Kenny Jones on drums. And so they needed a new singer and a new guitarist. And who do they find under that? Ronnie Wood. This guitarist who seemed to be pretty ver and a somewhat tolerant but somewhat diminutive guy named Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood join the Small Faces. And so the Small Faces suddenly just become the Faces. And they become the most drunkenly riotous, boozy, good times, rock and roll loozy band of their era. And they just never, for some reason captured it on a formal album. You could hear it on their BBC sessions with John Peele. You could hear it hidden away on the back. You could hear it, you know, in strange places. And of course it. It did come through every now again on the records, but never consistently. Where it comes through consistently is on 5 guys walk into a bar, a box set assembled by Ian McClogan and he just said, like, I just. I started doing it chronologically, but I realized this made a lot more sense if I made it into a party. So it's four CDs of party. Things follow one after the other. Not because they. They're organized by the era or even their quote, greatest hit hits, but just because that's what you'd like to hear right after that song. And I'm telling you, I have put this whole set on for like all four or five hours. And countless encounters. Five hours. People would just be okay with it because it's the ultimate in good time music. And I just. I wonder, do people understand how great the faces were? They'll find out if they just take the plunge with this one.

[Scott Bertram]

With the stars for your grandson. There's nothing I can say. You have to learn just like me. And that's the hardest way. I wish that I knew how to know now When I was younger. I wish that I knew what I know now when I was stronger.

[Jeff Blair]

I had a thought this morning and I didn't know that you were going to include the faces on your list when I had this thought. So I thought it was just. It was supposed to happen this way. So I. My. My next artist, I have to tell you who it is because I can make my point. So. Eddie Money. Everyone knows Eddie Money. Two Tickets to Paradise. I actually wrote an essay for National Review, which you can [e-mail] just after.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, it was great.

[Jeff Blair]

Passed away.

[Guest Speaker]

And you didn't even. You didn't even mention Baby Hold On To Me, which is the best indie.

[Jeff Blair]

I just kind of making the point that he was kind of underappreciated for what he did during his career. He's a fun time kind of guy, right? And so my thought this morning was. Did. Did somehow. Did somehow Rod Stewart pass his, like, gifts? Like, is. Is Eddie Money the next generation American Rod Stewart? Because around the time Rod starts doing disco and then you get into the 80s and infatuation and that stuff, Eddie Money sort of takes up this title of Fun Time Party. Rough voice guy who doesn't always write his own stuff, doesn't usually write his own stuff, but is interpreting things that other people have written and getting kind of smoky delivery. So am I insane.

[Scott Bertram]

Moment when I get up don't be thinking about what's not enough now, baby Just be thinking about what we got Think of all my love Now I'm going to give you all I got so baby, hold on to me Whatever will be be, will be the future is hard to see when you hold on to.

[Guest Speaker]

Were you asking me personally? No, I do not think you're insane. I think there is something funny about the way, like Rod started. Stopped writing songs, rather, and then became the interpreter and then. Any Money into.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah, so, okay, so Eddie Money. Eddie Money always enjoyed his stuff. And there is. There's a. There was a greatest hits compilation that I owned on cassette and I wore it out because again, Eddie Money's albums, I mean, there's one Song that's not on this collection that I wish were there, called Give Me Some Water. It's a great Eddie Money track. It's not on this collection called Greatest Hits Sound of Money, which was released in 1989. And it is weird I was meant to mention this at the beginning, but it is somewhat weird, Jeff, that these compilations these days mean so much less than they might have when we were young. Because you just, you know, just go stream anything these days and you can position things and say, play this track after this track and make your own stuff. But we relied on other people to compile things for us.

[Guest Speaker]

It was curated for you, which is why I. This is precisely, Scott, why I've come to appreciate the great introduction directions to bands that I then went on to love.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah.

[Guest Speaker]

Because I'm like, oh, well, I really respect the fact that even now that I know everything they've ever done, I can come back to this and say, yeah, you really got it right, you know, and that's. It was just. People don't understand that maybe these days you're.

[Jeff Blair]

Eddie Money loved a party. He loved people having good times. He loved playing, you know, the county fairs. He played here at the Hillsdale County Fair in Middle of Nowhere, Michigan. Michigan. Later on in his life and in his career. And so many songs on this as great as hit Sound of Money reflect that. As Jeff mentioned, Baby Hold On, Two Tickets to paradise from that first debut album, you've got I Want To Go Back and Shaken and Take Me Home Tonight with Ronnie Spector, Think I'm In Love, which is a really great song. And then Sonic no Control, which is the one that tells the story about how he nearly died. Eddie Money is such a performer. He doesn't have the best voice and he doesn't have great range, but you put him on stage, you give him someone else's song that maybe he. He contributes a couple of lines to, and that guy can sing his ass off and make you feel it and shake and want to sing along and pump your fists. And I love that about Eddie Money. That was essentially the point of my essay for National Review and this. This collection, Greatest Hits. Sound of Money was a perfect introduction in summation of the decade of the 80s, essentially for Eddie Money and the commercial chart success that he had.

[Scott Bertram]

I love that little girl and I just can't get enough. You take so lonely a night with nowhere to go. She's coral, it's a hell of a show. Snapping her fingers. She'll been moving round around. Oh, she should shake it, shake it.

[Guest Speaker]

You talk about a guy who's always on, who's always performing and who it's always, you know, go time for. And I'm thinking I'm probably going to then next go to my second. You know, you didn't even think about this. You said best compilations. It probably never occurred to you that I might suggest boxed sets of all things, right? That's a kind of a cheat of me. But I'm just inherently a dishonest man. And so I'm gonna. I'm gon have to go now to James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, the hardest working man in show business, Mr. Dynamite, friends. A guy who can only be understood properly. Only and I'll insist on this. What in God's name is the point of getting a single CD compilation of James Brown? Or an album, any one random album of his? When Star Time exists.

[Scott Bertram]

Now a good friend of mine sat with me and he cried told me a story I know he hadn't lied he said he went for a job and this man said without an education you might as well be dead now don't get me wrong he said it's not who you are but people come to me from a near and far But I do just work and I follow the rules. I didn't have any education so I had to go back to school. Tell me one more time people now without an education you might as well One more time without an education you might as well be dead.

[Guest Speaker]

Star Time is one of the greatest box sets. But I still agree it's just clearly one of the greatest compilations ever created. Because to this day, and I have, I am the guy who's like gone and find the. Okay, let's see what his like album covers were like. And you know what? They found the gold with James Brown on that. And there is so much there. There is easily four CDs worth. And all of these are 80 minutes long extended cuts, beautifully curated alternate takes, edits to get a groove of flow and what you hear again, this one is just straight chronological, throwing you through James Brown's early, you know, sort of sweaty R B phase, singing ballads. And then he gets a little bit more upbeat, then he gets the horns and he starts doing things like, you know, pop successes like I feel Good you know, and then beyond that, papa's got a brand new Bag. And then he invents an entire new genre of soul and funk single handedly.

[Scott Bertram]

When you touch me look at you I can't stand it, can't stand it I can't stand your love. I can't stand your love. You don't love nobody else. Get back. I can't stand myself.

[Guest Speaker]

And what you get to listen to just these. You don't need to narrate it, which I have a playlist on YouTube if you really want to go find it. You can just listen to the evolution of an entire art form play out in one single after another, perfectly presented and curated, selected for you. And it serves not only as an education, but, you know, who cares about a boring education? It is one of the most musically entertaining purchases I've made in my entire life. And I'm already staked to the proposition that if anybody wants to come on and talk about James Brown, no matter how weird or bad a man he might have been in his personal life, I'm here for it. Because I've been here for that music since I was 17 years old.

[Scott Bertram]

It. Hit it, hit it. Come on, baby, get it. Come on, baby, let's make a spot. Ow. I got a thing. Never, never, baby. Come on, baby.

[Jeff Blair]

I thought you had a guest in Standing by for James Brown. Am I mistaken?

[Guest Speaker]

You know what? I. I may or I may not. I have to go back and check, but okay, you know, you know what I. I've moved and there's a war on. I don't know.

[Jeff Blair]

This is perhaps one of the only semi natural segues on this particular program. And it was a late addition. It was inspired by your James Brown choice. So one that was sort of on the periphery. But I thought, you know what? I should include this one. You go from a great, great performer, great singer, James Brown, to a pair of fantastic voices, Sam and Dave. And again, one day we'll do that Blues Brothers show we've been threatening for a long time now. We'll talk more deeply about just how influential that movie, that soundtrack was to opening and knocking down so many musical doors for me. But certainly one of the introductions was to Sam and Dave both. The use of their song Soothe Me in that very middle portion of the film, as the Blues Brothers are, I think, pulling up to Bob's Country Bunker. And then of course, from the Blues Brothers cover themselves of Soul Man. And so two ways that they told me, hey, you gotta pay attention to Sam and Dave.

[Scott Bertram]

I've been watching you for days now, baby I just love your sexy ways now, baby, you know my love will never stop now, baby Just put your love in my box, baby Wrap it up, I'll tell. Take it. Wrap it up, I'll take it. No more will I sh. I know. I got. The.

[Jeff Blair]

Thing about Sam and Dave is their career is really short, even by, you know, the. The measure of some of these, you know, 60s, you know, soul stacks. Motown groups, Sam and David, four years or so. So they're creatively done by what, 1970 or so, and then spend most of the next three decades fighting with each other and breaking up and getting back together. And breaking up and getting back together. So this one CD set, the Best of Sam and Dave, released I think in 87, there was a best of that came out in 69 or 70. This one's better. It's more comprehensive. There's a little bit of remastering of the sound. It sounds better. This is the 1,21 tracks and it really sells.

[Guest Speaker]

This is one of the early Rhino c. It's not.

[Jeff Blair]

It's not a Rhino. It wasn't. It was an Atlantic comp, so it was not a Rhino comp. At least the original.

[Guest Speaker]

Feels like they're spirit, though.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes.

[Guest Speaker]

Yeah.

[Jeff Blair]

Rhino may have gotten the rights and redone it. They've done it with some other releases, but this was originally an Atlantic comp. And much like the Blues Brothers started, this best of completely sold me on the magic of Sam and Dave. Hold on, I'm coming, of course. But songs like you got me humming when something's wrong with my baby. I love one that was written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with that pedigree. But you don't know what you mean to me from Sam and Dave is on here, one of my all time favorite Sam and Dave tracks. Wrap it up and I thank you. And Soothe Me's on here, of course, written by Sam Cooke. These are just so great, these songs, every single one of them. Instant party in a box. When you put on Sam and Dave at a gathering, everyone will love these songs. On the Best of Sam and Dave. Again, it's the 87 release, 21 tracks, and really does a great job of summarizing the Sam and Dave experience.

[Scott Bertram]

It right now. So I would be on time. I want to do all that I can just to prove to you that I'm a little man. You don't know no what you mean to me, you don't know yeah, what you mean to me, you don't know. No, no, no, you don't know. Now wait a minute. We got something else we like to say right here. Ow. I'm going to love you. Yes, I am.

[Guest Speaker]

Here's one of the reasons why I'm A, so glad that Scott and I went in different directions. And then B, he submitted his list to me first because they. I know this compilation and there's sometimes, sometimes, sometimes there are many in fact times when it comes in a man's life where you just want to listen to 21 tracks of salmon Dave. Like you just want that concentrated blast of horns. And of course, you know, and then it evolves. Like you go through the thing and all of a sudden somewhere like, you know, quarter way through and midway through, then you get to like, hold on, I'm A coming. And then you're just strutting around the house while you're doing whatever it is you're doing. You're hearing just this duo come into their own. And only a compilation captures that. And so that's one of the things that's great about this sorts of things that sort of capture an evolution. I have a lot of sort of British ones that I'm going to have to fall back here now upon. I think I might have to alternate one of the ones that I just. And these guys end up playing horns anyway. Any as well. So I. I think it's fair enough as a transition is. I have to talk about another group that we've done on political beats, which is the Jam. That's right, Paul Weller and his guys. This is, I've, as I contended back then, maybe the punk era's greatest lost group. And I only mean lost in the sense that their startup, which was enormous and Britain, just somehow never translated to the United States. And the reasons for that are numerous. Mainly, you know, because Paul Weller's accent was just so enormously difficult to get past. But also because they really leaned in to their Britishness and the way I think every American on the planet, I'm going to wager, because it includes myself, got into them was by buying the CD or album snap. And I can't actually recommend the album version more than the cd. The original CD that I got was a single CD version that edited some of the tracks out that were on the two album set because it didn't quite fit in, you know, your running times and all that. That the double album version is now available on CD in a deluxe version. All that kind of stuff you need to hear the full span of the way the Jam evolved from their very early proto punk roots. They were basically not quite the first wave with the Sex Pistols, but they were right after that off the gun. So these people were the original gang when it comes to the punk explosion. And listen to how quickly they evolved past their roots into this musical explosion that. That the Clash themselves usually get more credit in America for mirroring. But I think maybe the Jam brought to a better fruition by the time they ended up breaking up in 1982. 83. The Jam are a band that, you know, you talk about them and a lot of people just say, huh. But I'm just saying, these are the people who wrote Going Underground. These are the people who wrote Strangetown. These are the people who wrote man on the Corner Shop. You hear all of those songs on Snap, and it will take you on a journey through this group's evolution that starts in, like, thrashy punk chords and ends in Motown horns and such, but never for a second bores you.

[Scott Bertram]

Bring it up, bring it up, bring it up.

[Jeff Blair]

First of all, first of all, breaking news. Breaking news on this very special episode of Political Beats. As I quickly check my X feed. I am sorry to tell you, Jeff, that Greg Kin has passed away at the age of 75 years old. Jeopardy. And the breakup song. And also a syndicated radio host during the last part of his life, Greg Kin has passed away at the age of 75. So news and commentary here on Political Beats.

[Guest Speaker]

Apologies. I know you're a fan. You've mentioned his songs many times in our shows.

[Jeff Blair]

And of course, Weird Al taking Jeopardy. And turning it into I Lost on Jeopardy. And Greg Ken, a great sport. The video for I Lost on Jeopardy. He, he. He appears at the very end driving the limo away in Weird Al's video. So, Greg Ken, you say. You say the Jam, and people say, huh? And I was one of those people until our Jam episode. And one of the truly great discoveries through the program has been the music of the Jam. And there's another band, and maybe a little less so because they did have that one hit. But, you know, there are a whole lot of people out there who either would say, if you say Fountains of Wayne, I'd say, huh? Or who? Or maybe, yeah, that one hit wonder that Stacy's mom. Yeah. Well, you and I both know, and keen listeners know because we did a full episode after Adam Schlesinger's unfortunate passing right near the beginning of COVID in 2020 on fountains of Wayne. But this, this actually following Greg Kinnabit. I mean, one of the great power pop bands of their era. I don't think they ever made a perfect album. Right. All of them are very, very good, but they all have slight flaws. Even like, welcome Interstate Managers, which I think I would recommend is Too long, probably by four songs you could leave off. And that's why I don't feel bad about recommending something like this double album, this compilation album called out of State Plates. They were so consistent throughout the course of their career that even these couple of unreleased songs, a number of B sides on singles, some live tracks, some covers, some Christmas songs. It's an Odds and sods kind of compilation. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, but the quality is very high. The two new songs are outstanding. One called More on the first disc and one called the Girl I Can't Forget on the second disc. Those are the new new tracks, previously unreleased anywhere, and they're great.

[Scott Bertram]

But really, I can't do without you the details of your days Unless your thoughts and dreams Maureen, Maureen, Maureen, Maureen. I know you think I'm just a friend but can we please just put an end to all the graphic imagery that you insist I'm feeding me? I can't accept I'm not the one who's getting to have all the fun maybe that's what friends are for But I just can't take it anymore.

[Jeff Blair]

But as you dig in, this plays just like a Fountains of Wayne album. Great song called California Sex Lawyer. A really catchy song called Baby, I've Changed, I'll do the Driving, which is on the Denise single from Utopia Parkway. And great covers. There's a cover of Burt Bacharach's Trains and Boats and Planes. A cover of Can't Get It Out Of My Head from Elliot hello. A fantastic cover of these Days, the old Jackson Brown song. I love the Fountains of Wayne version of that.

[Guest Speaker]

I remember we talked about that on.

[Jeff Blair]

Our episode, and that's on out of State plates. You've got their. Their Christmas and holiday singles, A Hanukkah under the Stars and I Want An Alien for Christmas. A really great rocker called Elevator Up. I mean, this neatly fits into the Fountains of Wayne discography as a set. Essentially another album with like, a bonus with some live tracks and holiday tracks. It's not split that way on these two discs, but you can think of it that way because the quality is so high. It fits right into the Fountains of Wayne discography very nicely. And it's not, you know, lesser quality stuff, it's just stuff that didn't fit or were already released on B sides. But you put it all in one place and it still sounds like a high quality Fountains of Wayne album. Out of State Plates is a great essential compilation and I pray I can.

[Scott Bertram]

Turn this mess around. And I search for a way to convince you to stay and not just skip town Cuz, baby, I've changed Won't you come back home? Cause I've changed my wicked ways and I'll put away my socks and shoes if the lights go out I'm. I'll change the view and I'll let you listen to the blues and I'll say I love you just because it's true Baby, I do Baby, I do.

[Guest Speaker]

Baby, I do all right, so you want to watch how I catch this fly ball to the outfield, because I know exactly how I can tag this one on to what I want to talk about. About. Because we're talking about what is, in fact, an excellent summation of a band that was basically at their terminal phase and somehow managed to capture a ton of stuff on there that. That wasn't there already. That just makes you feel like you understand and appreciate the more. And I know people. One day we will do an episode on Jethro Tull. But I hope you don't feel bad when I say that Living in the Past, that came out in 1973 after thick as a Brick, really does sum up an era for them.

[Scott Bertram]

That was the best cup of coffee I ever had. And I won't worry about a thing because we've got it made here on the inside, outside, so far away. And we laugh and we sing. Get someone to bring our friends every day in the evening.

[Guest Speaker]

And yes, there's a lot of very interesting and fascinating and controversial music that follows from a Passion play onwards. But let's not kid ourselves. I think I remember Scott, you once asked me privately, he's like, hey, Jeff, if we ever do a Tall episode, am I gonna hate my life? I was like, no, no.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah. I did ask.

[Guest Speaker]

You be shocked. You'll be. You're gonna be shocked. Like. Like the first part of their career is amazing, and there will be nothing but highlights. You're going to be laughing about how great and joyful it is, and all of a sudden you're gonna hit a wall like a crash test dummy, and then it's gonna get weird and you're gonna have to survive amongst the rubble. And that, of course, is the story, it's always been the story for me of Jethro Tall's career, the prog rock band. That course we think of it as prog. Well, I guess I suppose the voters of the Grammys think of Jethro Toll as a heavy metal act, right? But those of us more enlightened think of them as a pro rock group. But of course, they began as a British like, blues rock act in the 1968. And they started evolving basically because Ian Anderson, their flautist and acoustic guitarist and songwriter, writer, and thus tyrant, became, you know, just the lead voice in the group into this very weird pastoral, slash blues rock splash, hard rock slash progressive rock kind of group throughout the late 60s and early 70s. Nobody has time for Jethro Toll's Crest of a Nave. And I. I doubt I'll ever have time to convince people that there are songs on Heavy Horses that are really worth listening to. But the fact of the matter is that Living in the Past, which is the album they released as a compilation, and this is a almost pure compilation, nothing on it is available on any of their actual records. I think four songs, four tracks on any version, you're liable to get like one per album. All right? And then everything else is an A side, a B side, an outtake, or a live track. And yet it's the best story Jethro Tull could ever have told about themselves in that era. It begins, I mean, perhaps the reason I've always loved it. Okay, I'm gonna give it away. The reason I love this album is because it begins with a song for Jeffrey. Okay, how am I not gonna love it? Because with Ian Anderson playing the flute inscrutably and singing something I've never been able to make the lyrics out of, of. But it doesn't matter. The thing is that it goes through what they were, what they became, what they've evolved through. And it covers so many weird odd nooks and crannies along the way that you get a sense for the eccentricity of the band. And that eccentricity, by the way, this is, as I said, get the albums from this era. Find out about Jethro Tull. So 1968 to. I mean, I would argue all the way to, like 1978. I think they had a decade of greatness. It just gets really weird halfway through. But this E. You start with Living in the Past, and I wouldn't. I wouldn't really even mind if this is where you ended, because this captures their essence in a way that no other Prague band has intentionally or accidentally captured themselves.

[Scott Bertram]

Sat silence round my bed and quiet the raindrops overhead.

[Jeff Blair]

I got a handful left here before we get to. To the end of the show, and at least a couple of them. Here are reasons to talk about bands that rarely get mentioned or probably won't get talked about on the show. And except this one. Which was just mentioned last time in a backhanded compliment paid to them by Jeff by way of saying, I hate them. But I do like one song which was I Want to Know what Love Is, and I'm talking about Foreigner. I will always have a soft spot for Foreigner, because when I got into classic rock radio, Foreigner is one of the bands I was most attracted to. I, I, I did, I liked Foreigner's stuff. Lou Graham, Mick Jones. And in fact, this greatest hits collection was one of the. I can't remember the order. One of the first three CDs I ever bought was this record. And it's not records. The Foreigner Greatest Hits album that was released in what, 80, 80, 82. I think after four came out, they put out a Greatest Hits, but that one misses Jeff's favorite song. And so I can't in any good conscience recommend that to you. You. But this 1992 release, the very Best and Beyond.

[Scott Bertram]

Me I've Been from one to Another, it's three this time. I had a good time Ain't got time to wait I want to stick around till I can't see straight Feel my eyes with that double vision.

[Jeff Blair]

Since since this they put out like a two CD set and other things. But this one you don't really need more than again, 73 minutes of foreigners greatest hits and there's three new songs. One is not great, but I actually have to make the argument that two of these songs, one's called Soul Doctor and and one's called Prisoner of Love. And both of them are just as good as anything else that Foreigner put out. Now, if you're like Jeff, maybe you say, yeah, everything else is bad and so is this, okay? But if you like any Foreigner, those tracks are pretty darn good. They're only available here on the Very Best and Best Beyond. And this does a, again, a great job of skimming the stuff you need. I think the only song that's really missing or is there maybe there's two. I think Long Long Way From Home is Not Here. And then Blue Morning, Blue Day, which most people know they're not here. Everything else is including songs post four, like I Want to Know what Love is from Agent Provocateur. Say you will from 87.7song called that Was Yesterday, which was a minor hit for them. And. And they don't include anything from the one album with. Was it oh, Jonathan. I can't remember his name. Lou Graham left for a record called Unusual Heat, which stiffed, which is why they got him back very quickly and put out this very Best and Beyond album to reinduce, reintroduce themselves to the charts. So Lou Graham had just come back into the fold when this was released. And, you know, it's. This is mostly a Lou Graham McJones band, despite the other guys that were there around the founding of it. And they drive, you know, the band forward. But there's not anything here you'd skip. If you remotely like Foreigner. You've heard almost every single one of these songs dozens of times. It's a really good compilation and collection of Foreigners hits. And if you like Foreigner and you're out there, the Very Best and Beyond is a great collection. You don't need four Double Vision necessarily. Just get the very Best and beyond.

[Scott Bertram]

Ever. Move me the way that you do and I know this is the real everything it's all I've been searching for I put it all on the line Now I'm hoping you feel that way too and if you do why don't you say you will say you won't make up your mind tonight say you do say you don't wanna be mine time now will you say you will you say you won't make up your mind this time say you will say you will you be my tonight.

[Guest Speaker]

So, yeah, I, I, I just love the way you've. You've made the argument for these bands that basically can be best summarized in a single CD compilation album. You just think of like they all typically go fall into these, these city names. Chicago. Yeah, Foreigner. I still contend, however, nobody can ever make an argument for Asia at 73 minutes length. I mean, just like you don't need the best of Asia, you know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think how I'll follow that on with, you know, what made me laugh as you talk about like the original Foreigner besta didn't have the one song you might have wanted from it, which is my favorite, right? I want to know what love is. So for a lot of people, and it's ironically enough, myself included, when I first got this double CD set, I knew in advance and was frustrated at the fact that it didn't have the songs that I knew that I thought I wanted from him. Because the songs that I thought I wanted to hear because I know and I heard from Neil Young, were of course like, you know, out of the blue and into the Black or Keep on rocking in the free world. But I hadn't at that point heard anything on Decade. And of course, when I tell you I totally took off On a different path than Scott when it came to this compilation episode. Well, there's no greater example than an artist that we did what three episodes on right. 11 hours or something like that with, with Jeff Young. We. And, and with Joy. Three fantastic episodes where we killed it. And I know I can remember well that I began my introduction to that episode the same way I will here by saying that like when I first tried to get into the mystery. And people don't understand now because everything is available at our fingertips on the Internet. But in the early mid-90s, a lot of Neil Young's discography was a shadowy mystery. It was out of print. And what did you have? Well, you had a few CDs. The big hits that sold were pre issued those on CD so you could get Harvest. You got Rust Never Sleeps and all that you couldn't find on the beach you couldn't find. Time fades away. You know, you didn't really know what some of these records were or how they fit in.

[Scott Bertram]

You had decades. Once I thought I saw you In a crowded Maisie bar Dancing on the night from star to star Far across the moon be I know that's who you are I saw your brown eyes turning once Goodbye, you are like a hurricane there's harm in your eyes and I'm getting blown away Somewhere safer Where the feelings mistake I want to love you but I'm getting.

[Guest Speaker]

Was this thing that Young released in, I think 1977. It was in between American stars and bars and comes to time. And the story of how it came to pass is best reserved to the Neil Young episode. But what it is is blended and incomprehensibly over thought. But I guess to a good end representation of what the guy was up to between 1966 and 1976. And he starts with Buffalo Springfield. You realize the vast, you know, yawning gap he traversed starts with Buffalo Springfield. Then you find him recording himself alone. Then he's with Crosby, Stills and Nash. Then he's, you know, he's singing Ohio, Ohio. You forget about that as a Neil Young song. It's. It's a CSNY song, but it's really a Neil Young song. You find all the various places he went to and, and stages he occupied throughout his career. And the selection is so sparse because anybody who's a huge Neil Young fan the Way I Am knows that there are so many other songs that you could have put on a 3Lp record. This is a triple disc, so set back in the 70s during the vinyl era. And it's a two CD set these days.

[Jeff Blair]

You.

[Guest Speaker]

There's so many other things you could have put on here. He doesn't include a single song from one of my favorite Neil Young albums of all time, which is Time Fades Away. And nevertheless I still go back on this and I think now more than ever about the decisions he made about what to include, what to exclude. So many different outtakes and like lost B sides that are thrown in there. Some of have now become famous, famous songs for him like Winter Long. And I just think about how well chosen it was. I remember when I read about the. I read the review in Rolling Stone from Of course it was Dave Marsh who hates Neil Young. He actually attacked Decade. He said, oh, look at the pretense of this record. He criticized it for being too well chosen. That it was presenting a vision of Neil Young that he was unworthy of. He said if you listen to these three records you'll think he's an artist artist worthy of Dylan. But don't get him wrong, he's not worthy of Dylan. I think Time has shown that Neil Young, you know, you don't have to compare him to Dylan, but he hangs out in that company, okay? He's one of the ones who is real and it was kept on and Marshall's wrong then. And if you really want to know what Neil Young was about, you still best start here.

[Scott Bertram]

Waiting to follow through the dream Light of your way Is not so easy for me now the time is passed away Things we thought of yesterday Come back now Come back now I waited for you.

[Jeff Blair]

One of your favorites, of course, Neil Young. And one of my favorites and yours too. But Elvis Costello, another multi part episode feature here on Political Beats in our past. It was a great one in fact with Anthony Fisher. And there's a comp from Elvis released right at the tail end, or not even at the tail end, but in the middle truly of his just unbelievably creative period of the late 70s and very early 80s. And this is one that I didn't appreciate till I had almost essentially exhausted my journey through his studio albums, you know, actual studio release releases. Then going back and finding something like Taking Liberties which is a fantastic, fantastic release consisting of tracks not released on albums as released in the US. There's B sides of singles that are on here. There are some covers that are on here also released on B Sides. There are I think three totally unreleased songs previously. And one of the things about Taking Liberties and I think it's actually the reason they didn't find it Till a bit later is those Rhino re releases do such a good job of mining what essentially is taking liberties and placing these songs in the correct areas, the correct albums. So the Rhino releases have the album on one CD and a second CD for full of unreleased B side demo tracks. And so they essentially have cleaned taking liberties and put these songs where they're supposed to be. There are still some things on here that I think are not on some of those Rhinos. Most sure.

[Guest Speaker]

Very, very, very few. I mean, I think between the. Remember there were two waves, right? There was the Raiko discs, which I know those are the ones that you and I grew up on. And then the second wave were the Ryo Rhinos which. The two seedy ones which are like phenomenal embarrassment of riches which are like. It's like you could die in them. You could live and die in the Elvis Costello universe with all the stuff they gave you there.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah, my buddy got the Rykos because he was first to. To experience Costello and at so it was perfect timing as I was borrowing his Ryko discs. The Rhinos were being released and if you remember, they really would release him three days a time. They weren't in order, but they released three of these, one from each era basically, you know, and it was just perfect timing because I was able to pick up all those Rhinos with the extra discs. But Taking Liberties has so many great songs. Clean Money, a song that was previously unreleased at the time. That amazing version of Girls Talk. I'm not quite as. I prefer Edmonds. I do, it's Elvis's song, but I prefer the Edmonds version. Great songs like Talking in the Dark, Big Tears, B side from Pump It Up. There's My Funny Valentine, which I love. Elvis's version of that. Crawling to the usa, which was on the soundtrack to a. To a film way back when in the late 70s. Again, this fits perfectly. Kind of like the Fountains of Wayne album in, in that if, if, if no one told you and you picked up Taking Liberties and you thought just fit next to those other five star releases of that era, you wouldn't think twice. That's the. The quality of the songs on, on taking Liberties and really just how big of a role Elvis Costello was on at that time. But it is especially if you can't. I mean those Rhinos are not in print anymore. You can find them used places or online, I'm sure. But if they're not available, you can't find them. Taking Liberties cleans up all of that stuff that you need to have from his career from the late 70s and very early 80s.

[Scott Bertram]

Attach me to your credit card and then you can undress me. Everybody is on their knees except the Russians and the Chinese.

[Guest Speaker]

I think. Okay. It's so funny. And one of the joys of co hosting this with you is that we have this similar kind of childhood memories. This was actually one of maybe the first in fact vinyl album I bought in college when I had a record player then. And I was like. I had already gotten into Elvis Costello because I'd gotten into his CDs, did a loving two part episode with Anthony Fiser about Elvis. But like. And you can find it all there. But I bought taking liberties and it's just like what you don't appreciate in the modern era is what it would have felt like in 1980 playing that. Because it. It patterned the style of Get Happy. The album that it was released right after Now Get Happy was like insane. It was 20 songs, 10 songs to his side and it was just like a giant brag. It was Elvis Costell looking. Doing the whole Rol Stones Aftermath thing and saying, look at how much content I can give you. These amazing covers, these amazing originals. And. And then he does this. And these are just my peace signs. And what's lost when you don't hear it in order the way that you just talked about it. Beginning with Clean Money, you know, and then adding that. Side two is the long bluesy version of Clown. I think it's. Yeah, Clown Time is Over is the way it ends. Side to the thing is sequenced so wonderfully. All these odds and ends there. Like there isn't a single because it's best just based. There was a UK analog of this, I think called 10 Bloody Marys. 10 has your fathers. Right. But this is the American version. So that's the one I found at like the old record shop. Right. But there's no single on it. There's nothing on it. There's no like I. I don't know, I think maybe like Chelsea's on it. I don't want to go to Chelsea might be on it. But there's nothing that you would think of a. That's a hit. And everything you'll think of is like this is one of the greatest weird art rock records, art rock curate records ever made. And it's just his B sides collected within a span of about, you know, three years or so.

[Scott Bertram]

Make a Deal.

[Guest Speaker]

And so I'm so glad you mentioned it and I'm trying to think of anything that could properly follow it. Up. I don't have that much left to go with. So I guess go with. Well, I guess I'm gonna have to go. Of the three choices I I have left with a band who so much of their greatest work wasn't actually repar presented on their albums. And of course, this is the quintessential album act. I kind of asked you guys way, way earlier in the episode to throw a reference about pinballs into your back pocket. And so now it's time to talk about the who. And of course, the irony of the who is, well, I have so many items. They're one of my five favorite groups of all time. I don't think they're just objectively one of the five greatest of all time. That's an easy list to compile. And they are on Wanted. They remain one of my five favorite groups of all time. And when I go back to them, in large part, I go to their albums. I go to the who. Sell out. I go to Tommy, I go to Quadrophenia. Ironically enough, I don't go as often to who's Next as everyone else. I go to Live at Leeds. But I also realize that there is an entire aspect to the glory and the greatness of the who that comes largely from the earlier part of their career. They, like many other British bands, including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, were a singles act. And the best possible way to actually get your arms around what they were, back when they were the kids they were, is the album Meaty Beatty, Big and Bouncy, came out in 1972, and it has never been forgotten since then. I remember seeking. I remember making it a point to buy this on cd, even after I had already had all of its songs on cd, just because I wanted to hear it the way it was meant to be heard. It is the who in the early glory. Young, dumb, goofy, gaggling around stupid kiddie days, making songs that are as brilliant as substitute and as stupid as I'm a Boy. Talking about jerking off to pictures of Lily and pinball wizards. There's nothing about teenage wasteland on this record. This is the early who's singing about how they can't explain what it's like to feel part of their my generation. They can't do it anyway, anyhow, anywhere. It is the early mod energy graduating into the psychedelic sounds that I can see for miles in the goofiness of Magic Bus. There are so many bizarre, stolen moments upon the road that the who trod from adolescence to adulthood. And there's no better way to hear it than kind of all jumbled up. I mean, you know, you can hear Roger Daltrey or not Roger. Actually it's Pete. Because Roger didn't want to sing about it. Singing about divorce on a legal eagle matter.

[Jeff Blair]

Right.

[Guest Speaker]

And then you can hear Pinball wizard, you know, psychedelic transcendence. And they are on the same record. That's the same band. Aging so fast at rapid fire it mirrored my own adolescence. Which of course is just one reason why the who are one of the greatest groups that has ever existed.

[Scott Bertram]

Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all I ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall that damn flag kid sure plays a mean pinball he stands like a statue Becomes part of the machine Feeling all the bumpers always plays clean Plays by intuition the digit counters fall that depth on the flank is show plays a meme in all he's a big ball wizard There.

[Jeff Blair]

Has to be a the who, of course. A band that theoretically could have two albums on this show. The other one inspiring the name of. I mean Odds and Sods. It's how you describe albums like that that would come in the future. That's how influential something like that was at the time. Two more records, records for each of us. Two more of our most essential, most necessary best of compilations. This is. This is one from a band I will never cover. And I'm not making the case we should. What I will say is I think that this band was One of the two or three greatest singles acts of the 90s in the rock genre. And what I mean by that is, you know, a band that made songs that popped on the radio. A band that made songs full of hooks. A band that made songs that you wanted to sing along to huge choruses. Very catchy while. While. While retaining that. That rock edge. And I'm hopeful we. There's another band I have in mind. I'm hopeful we cover them on a future episode. I won't mention them quite yet here, but the band I have on. On this list is Collective Soul. And I have always thought of them of being. As being a really great singles act. Again, their songs just pop. The very first one, Shine, is not my favorite. It's. It's good but it doesn't swing like a lot of their other stuff, does. It sort of lumbers. And that's I think in part because Ed Rowland was. That. That's just him. That wasn't even a band at that point. It's like the, you know, the first Foo Fighters stuff was just Dave Grohl, this first Collective Souls, just Ed Rowland putting stuff together. That's where Shine came from. But as you move forward, they released a number of songs that were. I think people forget how. How not omnipresent certainly, but collective soul were very, very big to the point where they did a duet with Elton John. At some point during the career they had the number one rock song of what, 98 Heavy, which is the song that. That leads off this album was 1999.

[Scott Bertram]

I'm not acquainted with your suffering in all your way it falls on me it brings me down and all your way it falls on me it falls on me I.

[Jeff Blair]

That song was. Was huge. Humongous. And that that second album had a lot of songs that doesn't even make. That don't even make this album, which is called Seven Year Itch Greatest Hits 1994-2001. Again, the album cuts here generally aren't things you write home about. That second album had some pretty decent album cuts that. That don't make this. This record like where the River Flows is not here. But in essence the stuff that, you know, like gel from their self titled record. That song really swings. Great song. Precious Declaration. And listen, I love one called why part two from Blender, their album in 2000. And it's a seven year period in which they really did have this ability to release singles from these albums that found audience, especially those leadoff singles found an audience. They worked on soundtracks. They really did have an eye toward making sure they were commercially viable while still releasing albums that had a lot of the band's sort of DNA inside of them. So I'm like December. Everyone knows December from that second album that's here too. So you have a collection of the singles from a. What essentially was really a singles band of that 1990s rock era.

[Scott Bertram]

High it don't feel the same Tell me why we got to feel this.

[Guest Speaker]

Way.

[Scott Bertram]

Yeah, you leave, you're gone and I'm left here with the flame so tell me why feel the same hey.

[Guest Speaker]

Scott, quick vibes check. Here is that other 90s band that you were secretly referring to, STP.

[Jeff Blair]

Indeed it is. Stone Temple.

[Guest Speaker]

I know, I know, my man. Okay. Yes, I would be happy to do that.

[Jeff Blair]

I am desperate to do that because it is. I don't want to spend too much time. It is a band that need much. I'm going to compare them to Holland Oates. Much like we went into hall and Oates and said you know what? Someone's got to rescue hall and Oates. Someone has to sort of make the case of why they were really essential and great. STP too often gets sort of, oh, you know, Nirvana knockoff, Pearl Jam knockoff. You know, Scott Weiland gets arrested, drug problems. Whatever exit that band need to, I'm.

[Guest Speaker]

Ready to do it. I've developed a theory that Stone Temple Pilots gets blamed for Scott Weiland's antics, but in truth, they're blamed for Plush, which I think is probably the slowest plotting song of their career. But they did so many more interesting things after that. So I'm trying to think about now, how do I follow that one up? Well, I'm gonna go. We only have two more choices anyway, so I'm gonna go back to one of these great essential singles albums. And of course, this is a band we've already again covered on political beats. So, I mean, I hope you enjoyed the episode and I hope I don't have to explain to you, although it does. I see, I. I see all around me that it still needs to be explained to people why the band Squeeze was secretly one of the great acts of the late 70s and early 80s in Great Britain. I think there was even a Parks and Rec joke that Leslie Knope once made about them, like the eternal musical Squeeze. And the joke was, nobody remembers them except outside of the one song in America that got played on the radio. Well, not the one song, but tempted they couple of pop heads from the late 80s, but that was well after their peak. What people don't understand is that Squeeze was just so smart and clever and daring, and they were just relentless in their ambition all the way up from 78 to 82. And they put out a passel of albums and great songs as well. And I, you know, because we already did the episode, you and I both know that this is a band that is well worth exploring on the album level. There are songs like, you know, I think I'll go Go, or, you know, separate bands, both from Earth.

[Jeff Blair]

That's my son's favorite favorite. Have I mentioned we're to go see Squeeze? His first concert coming up here at the beginning of September. So is it going to be different.

[Guest Speaker]

Until Burger there, that's gonna be the.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes. Yes. And the rest. Yeah, but he loves. He loves. I think I'm Gogo. That's his favorite.

[Guest Speaker]

Well, I mean, okay, so your. Your kid, he's got some taste because that has weird harmonics on that. You won't hear those on singles 45s and under okay, singles 45s and under is the Squeeze greatest hits album. They released it in 1982. And of course like all greatest hits albums, it has the one extra song. In this case that one extra song is half written, but it's still great. It's called Annie, get your Gun and everything else on this is. Is a firecracker, a firecracker of pop for all the way from, you know, from the beginning to up the junction to Another nail for my heart to pulling muscles from the shell to including yes indeed, the song that everyone knows, which is Tempted, tempted by the fruit of another. That's the one that's sung by. Not their lead singer, by their keyboardist at the time, but different. And Tilbrook had a songwriting approach that was. Was just so well constructed and it was of course along the earlier lines where one wrote lyrics and one wrote music most of the time. These sorts of songs should never be forgotten because there's a song like up the Junction, the lyric that. That Tilbrook writes about that or the different rather writes about. And Tilbrook sings about a normal bloke who just falls in love and then it all falls apart for him and then he finds himself unable to really concede that he's at fall for any of what's gone wrong. It's such normal story, it's such a human story and it's set to also one of just the greatest little kind of like garage rock jam performances you've ever heard.

[Scott Bertram]

I worked out through the winter the weather brights and bitter I put away a tenner each week to make her better and when the time was ready we had to sell the telly. Late evenings by the fire and little kicks inside her this morning at 4:50 I took her rather nifty down to an incubator but 30 minutes later she gave birth to a daughter Within a year of Walker she looked just like her mother if there could be another and now she's two years older her mother's with us she left me with my drinking Became a prophesying the devil came and took me from barter street to bookie no more nights by the telly no more nights Nappy smelling alone here in the kitchen I feel there's something missing I beg for some forgiveness but begging's not my business and she won't write let her Although I always tell her and so it's my assumption I'm really up the junction.

[Jeff Blair]

Everyone here knows the way I feel about squeeze. I love them. The reason I mean that that is a perfect comp it is one that every college student had when we were. We were both in college. I only left it off because, hey, go get the album. Right? I mean, get the actual albums themselves. Cool. For Cats or Argy Bargy and East side Story. East side Story. I mean, go get. Go get the record.

[Guest Speaker]

We can't tell you to get Sweets for a Stranger, but, my God, you do need to hear Black Coffee in Bed.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah. And I. I think I mentioned this somewhere. That is the album I think I most un. Unfortunately, and. And sadly, I did not appreciate it enough during that squeeze episode. If we did it again today, I'd be praising it because I've gone back to.

[Guest Speaker]

I thought it had its moments, but you weren't there for it.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes. Yeah, I was not there for it during the episode, but I am now. I am now.

[Guest Speaker]

Too late.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah. All right, one more.

[Guest Speaker]

You have your last chance for redemption, Scott. Go.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes. Last chance. And so I. I saved for last what I consider to be the essential. Essential. The are all essential. The quintessential. The compilation of all compilations. I don't think you could do better. It's impossible to do better than Chronicle from ccr. Credence Clearwater Revival.

[Scott Bertram]

There's a face up ahead and I'm going just as fast as my feet can fly Come away, come away, you keep going Leave the sinking ship behind Come on the rising wind we're going to around the bend Bring a song and a smile for the banjo Better get wild Hit you right to the end of the highway where the neon.

[Jeff Blair]

And yes, as I said, I. I left things off of here because I. I would say no, Just. Just buy the record. You need that artist artistic statement. And that is true to an extent with ccr. I mean, look, everybody should own Cosmos Factory. And in fact, if you get Chronicle, you essentially do own Cosmo's Factory, because seven is it. Seven. Seven tracks from Cosmos Factory makes Chronicle. So you essentially are buying the album. Almost. But it is such a tight collection. It is non stop hits. It is every family gathering. At least if you live by me. In the late 80s into the. Into the early 90s, everyone had a copy of Chronicle. Everyone played it when people were milling around and having a birthday party or having a graduation party. Chronicle was everywhere because it is.

[Guest Speaker]

This was the barbecue music of my childhood.

[Jeff Blair]

Oh, yes, it is a perfect compilation. 13A sides, 7B sides. And as you well know, with CCR, some of those bsides became absolute smash hits as well. There's like nothing missing here, maybe.

[Guest Speaker]

No, there actually is What I love the most about Chronicle is that they put out A Chronicle Volume 2, which is another double album set. And it was just as essential, like, wrote a song for everyone, which to me is like maybe the greatest CCR cycle of all time. It's not on this record.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah, but you know, something like Loi Is, which isn't exactly a smash hit, but is an essential CCR song. I, I'm a big fan of hey Tonight, which comes much later in their career. That's, that's, that's on here, I think Chronic, the second Chronicle has Midnight Special, which is also one of my favorite CCR tunes. But you can't, you can't do better than Chronicle. And, you know, the 20 greatest hits of CCR, you know, they, they wrote two minute songs. You can cram 20 of them. This, this is like get happy for CCR. Get 20 smash hits on one individual CD. Chronicle is the quintessential compilation. It is the compilation of all compilations, and it is absolutely essential and necessary to anyone's collection.

[Scott Bertram]

Night tonight. Tonight, tonight.

[Guest Speaker]

Really glad that we've ended here because the joyous ccr. We did our episode again, long in the past with Phil Wegman. And you know, the joke about them is that their greatest hits, you think, well, that must be all they're up to. And then you go into their albums, you're like, oh, God, all their albums are just as good, but they have so many hidden gems. What you have to search hard and basically near the end of their career until you find the crap when it comes to cc.

[Jeff Blair]

When Fogarty said. Well, when John Fogarty said, all right, you guys pull your weight around here. That's when things go south.

[Guest Speaker]

Your own songs to see what happens. Nothing good. Nothing good at all. That's why you should have listened to me, guys. Tom Petty never did that, though. And here's the joke about Tom Petty. Tom Petty, he. Again, very early in our episode with, in our, in our career with Dam McLaughlin. It was our first, I think, ever emergency episode.

[Jeff Blair]

Yes.

[Guest Speaker]

Where we had to schedule it because he passed away. We're just, we can't let this moment pass. And of course, now we would do it very differently. You know, hey, you know, it's another one that you may be a candidate to maybe take a pass at again. And the reason for that is the joke about Tom Petty is that, you know, you think of him as just, oh, the guy that plays the hits you hear on the radio. But this is a man who, and I'm a huge fan, has put out three boxed sets, all of which are equally essential and different from one another. 4. CD or playback is just as great as hits and B sides, right? Budget priced one. Then he did A. The the Live at the Live at the Fillmore or shows like the Live Box. Then he did the whole Live Anthology. The Live Anthology actually came before that, but those are all equally fun if you're into what Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers did with their music, which was riveting. And yet the joke is, is that you could be an enormous Petty fan, or you could just be the casual Petty fan, and you will always probably still be okay with that same 19 greatest hits that you and I and everybody else that we lived with in high school and college had in their collection.

[Scott Bertram]

I was talking with a friend of mine Said the woman that hurt his FR Told Told him that you loved him so turn around, let him go Then he said, you better watch yourself or you going to get hurt yourself Someone's going to tell you lies Cut you down a size don't do me like that don't do me like that. Well, I love you, baby don't do me like that don't do me like that.

[Guest Speaker]

You know it. It begins with breakdown and it ends with Last Dance with Mary Jane and Something in the Air, or actually Mary Jane's Last Dance, Let's Get It Right Now, Something in the Air. And it's just one relentless, perfect radio classic after another. There is never a. A second, at any point would you feel the need to hit forward on the skip button. And every song, because they were already so memorable, immediately imprinted its way into your mind. And immediately probably because, listen, I'd like to think that most of us grew up with fairly happy childhoods, or even the if fraught, fairly interesting ones that we lived through. Survivorship bias being what it is, we listen to these songs the same way I listen to Just like the memories of my childhood flash by. I know what it felt like listening to American girls twin guitars at the end. I know what it felt like listening to Here Come My Girl. I know what it felt like when Tom Petty got high and sang about Dunk Tom Hat, come around here no more. I actually do remember what it felt like to be a junior in high school. Unfortunately, this was the soundtrack to my childhood. And even though Tom Petty's albums are so worth investigating as well as his boxing sets, to me it's always been the quintessential, quote, greatest hits. I still wonder whether he realized it would become that when he released it.

[Scott Bertram]

Time there's pigeons down on Market Square she's standing in her underwear Looking down from a hotel room and that ball will be coming soon oh, my, my, oh, hell yes, you got to put on that party it was too cold to cry When I woke up alone I hit my last number I walked to the road let's dance with Mary Jane One more time to kill the pain I feel summer creeping in and I'm tired of this town again.

[Jeff Blair]

It's a fantastic compilation, and I feel bad even saying something like this, but the only reason I didn't include it and sort of disqualify it from a list like this is because, again, you've got to have. You've got to have Full Moon Favor. You've got to have Damn the Torpedoes. And it doesn't include anything from Wildflowers, which isn't an absolutely essential Petty album that is released right afterwards. Right. Came out just. Just afterwards. I mean, you've got to have those three in any respectable music collection. So, I mean, yes, while Tom Petty's greatest hits as a. As a compilation, I have no qualms with, and it includes perhaps the best new song ever put on a compilation record, certainly one of the most successful ever put on. I would always just say, hey, don't do that. Go get Damn the Torpedoes. One of the finest albums released in one of the finest years of music. The finest, perhaps in 1979. Get full moon Fever. Get. Get Wildflowers. There's so much. Those album tracks on those albums are still very, very much worth exploring.

[Guest Speaker]

Scott, the point for me is that this is the record that made me want to.

[Jeff Blair]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can get that. I can get that. All right. That's where we end this very special episode on the most essential, necessary best of compilations. I'm sure we've missed some, so let us know over on X at Political Underscore Beats. Or you can come on over to our Patreon site as well and let us know there. Patreon.com Political Beats we're back later on in this month of August with our exclusive content episode for our Patreon subscribers. It'll sound something similar to this, so join us there for more. We appreciate you being there with us today and back with a new full episode with a guest after Jeff unpacks and, you know, my voice returns to normal and there's not.

[Guest Speaker]

I find my headphones and whatnot.

[Jeff Blair]

That's right. Is that two dueling political conventions and a current sitting president deciding not to run and all. All those sort of interesting and neat news items. August has been weird. Weird. All right. Thanks so much for listening again. You can find us on Apple Podcasts National Review.com subscribe there for new episodes. We invite you to join [e-mail] Political beats for this and a whole lot more, find us on Facebook or on X at Political Underscore Beats. This has been a presentation of National Review. This is Political Beats.