Artists Who Have Curiously Never Put Out A Career-Spanning Box Set?

*Photo taken by your intrepid blogger

I found myself wandering the house this week, looking for any distraction I could find from the rather grim stuff happening in the world right now. Especially since my Artemis II buzz wore off.

I found myself standing in the B&V Labs (aka my listening room) and staring “with wild wonder” at my collection of box sets… an infinitesimal number of which are pictured above. And yes, that’s how they’re stacked to show off to visitors.

It got me thinking about all the great sets I’ve purchased over the years not to mention a few that I’ve sold. When I suddenly realized, there are a bunch of artists whose career could easily justify a box set but who have – curiously – never put out a big overview multi-disc set.

I’m glad the Rock Chick has never done any sort of itemized financial audit in the music room. Believe me, I’d be in trouble. Funds have definitely been “misappropriated.” Thankfully all my ill gotten gains have been spent on rock n roll and not say, an unnecessary ballroom.

The whole box set “cottage industry,” as I like to call it, probably started with Bob Dylan’s magnificent box Biograph. It was a 5-LP, highly curated box of released tracks with unreleased (live and studio) gems sprinkled in. The box spanned his entire career (at the time). It was a collector’s dream. I still own my vinyl copy of that box.

Dylan started the whole studio double-album thing with Blonde On Blonde, followed of course by Frank Zappa & the Mothers Of Invention’s Freak Out! by a week so why not start the box set thing too. Of course he went on to release many, many box sets from different eras/albums in his career.

Once Dylan established that career-wide box sets were economically feasible (i.e., profitable) we started to see more of them. Clapton released Crossroads, another box we all snapped up, and believe me at 6-LPs the price tag was hefty back then.

That was the first set that captured Clapton’s journey through rock history and included songs from the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek & the Dominos and solo stuff. Again there were unreleased and rare gems aplenty. Sadly he also recut “After Midnight” for a beer commercial…but if I’m being honest I actually kind of dug that bluesier version.

I would say that Clapton’s popular box, along with Rod Stewart’s similarly curated Storyteller, had more in common structurally with Neil Young’s 3-LP 1977 greatest hits package Decade, chronicling his first ten years in the music biz that took us through Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and his solo stuff both with and without Crazy Horse. That album really set the blueprint for the career spanning boxes that later became the norm.

We began to see these career spanning boxes come out for many artists after that from the Allman Brothers to Fleetwood Mac. I remember on that 25 Years The Chain Fleetwood Mac set it included the pre Buckingham-Nicks stuff including the Peter Green era. It was the first CD set you could get personal fav “Silver Springs” on, other than on the 45… which I owned, of course.

I remember some rock journalist describing those boxes as “the gold watch” of rock n roll… like those artists  were going to retire and get their retirement watch. As if… Perhaps that’s why we saw artists shift away from those style box sets. We started getting boxes from certain eras of a band’s career, like Dylan’s Bootleg Series, or Aerosmith’s Pandora’s Box that highlighted their early (and best) records on Columbia Records.

Pretty soon we started seeing curated box sets tied to one album of a band’s career. Those boxes are almost always a staple of B&V. Just this year we’ve written about boxes from the aforementioned Aerosmith (their debut album), and Rush’s Grace Under Pressure.  Those discs usually have an unreleased live show (or excerpts therefrom) like VH’s 5150 that I always love.

Maybe it’s cost, maybe it’s that whole perception of the career spanning box as the retiree’s gold watch but we just don’t see boxes like Crossroads or Storyteller any more. I have seen a few artists release 2 or 3 disc sets comprised completely of unreleased stuff. More of that please!!

Here are some artists I think should still consider doing a career overview kind of box set. I know I’d be squirreling money away, hiding it from the Rock Chick in order to pick these up:

• Jackson Browne – The man started as an in-house songwriter for Elektra records after a brief stint in the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band. He’s got to have a bunch of stuff in the vaults?
• Bob Seger – Seger always recorded dozens of songs for each album. He’s ripe for either a career spanning box, or a big dump of “unreleased” stuff. But like his early albums, it all seems to be being held hostage.
• John “Cougar” Mellencamp – Mellencamp just released a 3-disc set of his “Cougar” early days. I’d have liked to see that carried through his entire storied career. Of course with a career that long, it’d take more than one box set.
• Tom Waits – Waits released a superb 3-disc set of unreleased stuff and maybe that cleared the vaults, but I’d love to see something grand from this guy.
• Pearl Jam – Lost Dogs was a superb 2-disc collection of unreleased stuff, but that was 2003. I’m sure they have a bunch of stuff that could help fill out a big box.
• Van Morrison – Similar to Pearl Jam, Van released the 2-disc Philosopher’s Stone, Volume One (and no, it’s not Harry Potter related) full of previously unreleased stuff. I’d love a Volume Two…. or Three. 
• Van Halen – After the sad loss of Eddie Van Halen, it was revealed he had a ton of stuff he’d recorded in his 5150 studio… I’d love to see his son Wolfgang dig into that and let us hear what the maestro had cooking.
• Lenny Kravitz – I love Lenny. He’s been relatively prolific through out his career. I’d love to see something big and career-spanning from him.
• Lyle Lovett – Lyle is a different speed from most our rock n roll around here, but he’s a brilliant songwriter with a long career… I’m sure there are some gems in his vault.
• Iggy Pop – Iggy recently released a box from his “Berlin era” with Bowie. That’s just a taste from that storied career. More please!!

There are probably many, many more I could have considered. Elvis Costello (yes, he’s done a few LP related ones), or Cheap Trick. Hell, I think Aerosmith should do another box that covers their career since the comeback (or better yet starting from Done With Mirrors, which should have been their comeback).

There are many artists ripe for a career box set… I’m sure I’ve overlooked quite a few. If there’s an artist out there you feel deserves the box treatment, please drop them in the comments section and we’ll discuss amongst ourselves.

Cheers! And happy May Day, International Worker’s Day, to all who celebrate. Workers Unite, baby!