1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival, The/The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions [Remastered] - Various Artists

Advantages: Way Down
Disadvantages: all of the rest

...Let's get one thing straight. I love Elvis, particularly the records from 1968-1973. My first Elvis review on Ciao. How do you go about it? Do you rate the music, or the man? If an album must constitute a snapshot of any artist at a particular stage of their career, then by October 1976, when the bulk of this album was recorded, Elvis must have been at rock bottom both personally and artistically. Therefore I think that satifies both criteria. This is an awful album. The world's greatest and best-loved entertainer reduced to the level of churning out instantly forgettable country & western pap. Factor in that there is a good backing band simply going through the motions, add four hapless live cover versions to the mix, and you have this album. Just about the only good thing I can think of, other than the hit... Read review

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Advantages: Up close and intimate during Ziggy's birth
Disadvantages: Huh??

...) recordings have been remastered to obtain the highest possible degree of sound quality and resolution. A third CD (more about this later), is included along with the original Beeb sessions. The first and second CD contain the classic stuff, including David’s 1968 session with the Tony Visconti Trio, while the third disc, a limited edition bonus CD included with the compilation when I bought it, is a recording of Bowie's stunning performance at the BBC Radio Theatre in Portland on 27 June 2000, which was recorded in front of a studio audience made up of a hundred-odd lucky ilegitimates chosen from the Bowienet community only two days after his appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. So with the preamble out of the way, let’s get down to business… Before this last job, the last time the BBC dragged Bowie into one of their Radio Studios... Read review

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Advantages: guitar
Disadvantages: none

...This is a good and cheap selection of some of the greatest blues musicians ever. The collection opens predictably with a muddy waters track (rollin’ stone) although probably not his best and then there appears the great elmore james performance on slide guitar in ‘dust my broom’ – a fantastically modern style of blues for the time. The j l hooker song is not ‘boom, boom’ thank god and the howlin’ wolf track ‘smokestack lightning’ features as track 9, this is a great song and I think once a budweiser advert song. There is a beautifully rough recording of memphis slim’s ‘guess I’m a fool’ towards the end which is for me the pick of the tracks. This is a solid album, nothing too new, but touches all the bases and is successful.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful