Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant box set., 19 Oct 2008
No doubt much thought and care has gone into assembling this box set to make it a worthy testimony of the greatness of Roy Orbison's music and talent. His innovative style, his magical voice and his influence on other artists are legendary. Venturing to represent that legend in a box set of his songs might have been intimidating. How to represent it all, span the whole career, show all the nuances, pick the right songs, keep a sense of balance etc. ? And what to leave out? For certainly there will be long-time fans finding faults because certain songs have been omitted.
But the set gels, it keeps the balance and it certainly gives a great survey of Orbison's talent. The vintage years at Monument are highlighted, not only by the hits, but also by a number of lesser known songs, like "The Actress" which was originally a B-side, but might as well have been an A-side. Roy's remarkable comeback in the mid to late 80s is well documented, again not only by obvious material from the Mystery Girl album and the famed Black and White live concert, but by a number of well-crafted songs Roy wrote for movies during that time and collaborations with Cash, Perkins and Lewis. And The Traveling Wilburys anthem "Not Alone Anymore" is there too, of course.
The Sun and RCA sides from the fifties are hardly vintage Orbison, but nevertheless they got him a place among the pioneers of modern rock and pop music. A whole cd is reserved for this period, and it pays to listen for a young musician trying it all out! and also by and by finding his way to the style that would eventually become the signature Roy Orbison style.
I'm especially pleased that care has been taken to choose a number of MGM songs to do justice to that period in Roy's career (1965-73). That period is generally overlooked when his music is anthologised.It was a period when his records couldn't keep up the steady flow of hits of the first half of the sixties, but some of his best songs and his best singing are from that period, a point in case is "Crawling Back".
I highly recommend the set, it's bound to be a thrill to any fan of the past 50 years of rock and pop music. Even the booklet is a treat, it tries very much to give us an impression of the person behind the myth, and it has a host of wonderful pictures and facts and details.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
amercian music fan, 18 Oct 2008
This box set along with the bear family set is a fitting tribute to the greatest singer the world has ever seen. I have been a roy orbison fan for 20yrs now and have all his music that has ever been released on cd ,so i was delighted when i saw this was out with 12 unreleased songs (what a great treat for eny fan) eny new orbison tracks being released is an Event. !
I already had all the songs on this set (with the exception of the new songs)but it was still a very good buy and worth the money just for the new songs and the box itself which is covered in white linen with a picture of roy on the cover.(thats really nice).
I can highly recomend this set if you want a general overveiw of roys magical carier.
My only complaint would be that this set is being promoted as a overveiw of every phase of roys music,but thats not really the case as there is not one track from the 1974 murcury album (IM STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU) which contained 4 of roys best songs ( heartache, hung up on you, circle, sweet mama blue),and also the MGM years are mostly over looked on this set,which is a real pity as those years were every bit as good as the monument yrs and produced some of roys greatest moments on record,13 mgm albums and a handfull of non album singles were made in the years (1965-1973) and i feel it is time the world reconized the true creative worth of those years, so on reflection i feel this set should have have 5 discs ,with one of these dedicated to the best of the MGM singles and album tracks ,such as GOING BACK TO GLORIA, CRY SOFTLY LONELY ONE,HEADING SOUTH,PANTOMIME,SOUTH BOUND JERICO PARKWAY, GIRL LIKE MINE, HARLEM WOMAN, IT TAKES ALL KIND OF PEOPLE, CHEYENNE, GOD LOVE YOU, I WANNA LIVE,ETC ,and at least 2 tracks from the murcury album,and where is the duet with larry gatlin (indian summer)?.With 5 discs there would have also been room for another couple of tracks from the execellent regeneration album,but thats just my opinon.
The music is of course perfect and the book is very intresting and has some lovely pictures
All in all this is a good place to start if you are just getting into roys music ,and essentual for eny true fan.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
worth every penny!, 3 Nov 2008
i waited so long for this to be released and i can tell you it is well worth the wait.what a fab box set which has every thing a Roy Orbison Fan could wish for.beautifully presented and load of lesser known songs (which are quite frankly still genius) from this legend of rock and roll..if your a fan of Roy Orbison or if you like your Rock and Roll and want a c.d which you wont take out of your c.d player for months, i have just 6 words for you BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT!!
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