Posted 12.12.2008

Box sets 2008: Roy Orbison, Rod Stewart, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Ry Cooder

By Mike Cote

Rounding this year's crop of compilations and box sets (part 1)

ROY ORBISON The Soul of Rock and Roll (Monument/Orbison/Legacy)

If not for his late ’80s resurgence with the Traveling Wilburys, Roy Orbison might have been forever pegged as a Golden Age rock ’n’ roller. But that last burst of success with the supergroup introduced the operatic singer to a new generation.

The aptly named The Soul of Rock and Roll four-disc box set presents the first comprehensive overview of the Texas native’s career, from an early version of "Ooby Dooby" with his first group, the Teen Kings, from 1955 to sessions his recorded in the late ’80s with such top-line producers as Don Was, Brian Eno, Rick Rubin and his Wilburys pal Jeff Lynne (behind the board’s for his 1989 Top 10 hit, "You Got It.")

While Orbison’s biggest, most influential hits remain ubiquitous -- "Pretty Woman," "Only the Lonely," "In Dreams" -- much of his rich body of work didn’t get a lot of attention. That makes this collection more of a revelation rather than a rehash.

ROD STEWART The Definitive Rod Stewart (Warner Bros.)

That Rod Stewart would stage a major comeback by dusting off standards and selling millions as a glorified baby boomer lounge singer is one of rock’s most unlikely stories, especially considering his early work.

Witness: The first three songs on the two-disc The Definitive Rod Stewart were plucked from 1971’s Every Picture Tells a Story, the raspy-voiced British singer’s first major hit and his best record to date. Back then, Stewart wrote many of the songs and wrapped them in acoustic folk settings as he did on "Maggie May" and "Mandolin Win." Music critic Tom Moon thought the album worthy of inclusion in his recent "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die," a brilliant, eclectic guide to musical adventure.

Stewart got less interesting after he split with the Faces (the band’s one hit "Stay With Me" appears here) and traded in ramshackle rock for studio session player precision. But much of what appears on the first disc of this set still sounds inspired, including the tender "The Killing of Georgie (Part I and II)" and the slick Stones ripoff "Hot Legs."

The second disc has fewer bright spots, often due to production trappings of the ’80s that have not aged well ("Some Guys Have All the Luck"). Stewart also wrote less of his material by this time, though he continued to have a knack for finding good songs, such as Tom Waits’ "Downtown Train" and "Tom Traubert’s Blues "Waltzing Matilda."

Two cuts from Stewart’s Unplugged ... and Seated album that reprise his ’70s-era sound underscore how overdue he is to reclaim some of that past glory. Rod, now that you’ve made many millions dusting off the classics, how about picking up that acoustic guitar and writing some songs, maybe give Ronnie Wood a call.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978 (Rhino)

Thirty years ago, the Grateful Dead traveled to Egypt to play three shows in the Nile Valley with the Great Pyramid as a backdrop. This two-CD, one-DVD set marks the 30th anniversary of those three legendary shows, collecting the best moments from the concerts, which the band organized as benefits for local charities.

In true Dead fashion, even the new songs the band was introducing at the time, such as the title track of Shakedown Street and "Fire on the Mountain," became extended jams, with lead guitarist Jerry Garcia leading the way as drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann crafted interweaving rhythms.

The DVD features more than 100 minutes of concert footage, including songs not included on the CD ("Bertha" "Good Lovin,’" "Iko Iko") and "The Vacation Tapes" tour documentary. Local footnote: The Dead financed the trip in part with the proceeds from a pair of shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

RY COODER The UFO Has Landed: The Ry Cooder Anthology (Rhino)

It’s not a big surprise that The UFO Has Landed marks the first Ry Cooder compilation, considering he’s never had any hits.

Though the guitarist and singer has a solo career that dates back to the early ’70s, Cooder is probably better known for his production work on such landmark recordings as The Buena Vista Social Club, a collection of recordings by Cuban musicians, and Talking Timbuktu, his collaboration with the late African guitarist Ali Farke Toure. He’s also long been in demand as a session player, especially for his slide guitar playing.

The 34-track double-disc collection presents highlights of Cooder’s solo discs, including a pair of tracks from cuts from 1979’s Bop Till You Drop, touted at the time as being one of the first all-digital recordings. But that’s not why the Cooder co-written "Down in Hollywood" or the cover of "Little Sister" are worth noting. Both songs, which enjoyed some radio airplay at the time, demonstrate Cooder’s blues-inspired style, wry wit and unerring sense of American roots music.

Although he’s been known to write some great songs, Cooder is more of an interpreter, reviving and revamping songs by Woody Guthrie ("Do Re Mi"), Johnny Cash ("Get Rhythm") and William Emerson ("Crazy ’Bout an Automobile (Every Woman I Know").

Highlights from the many film scores Cooder has written over the years are sprinkled throughout the set, including cuts from "Paris, Texas," "Alamo Bay" and "Crossroads."

BOB DYLAN Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Columbia/Legacy)

Bob Dylan's best work doesn't always end up on his official albums, as this new two-disc collection demonstrates (or three-disc if you spend four or five times extra for the box set.) Tell Tale Signs fills in the missing gaps from his late-period career comeback, from 1997's Time Out of Mind to 2006's Hard Times.

The three-disc Vol. 1-3 kickoff of Bob Dylan's Bootleg series in 1991 featured outtakes, live cuts and unreleased material spanning his career until then. Now after several volumes of live material, the series resumes cherry-picking from Dylan's leftover bin.

Highlights include two striking different versions of "Mississippi," a key track from 2001's Love and Theft. The most compelling: a stripped down take with just Dylan's voice and acoustic guitar and producer Daniel Lanois' electric. (The box set includes yet a third version.) There are also two versions of "Dignity," an outtake from the Oh Mercy sessions. Both are superior to the tepid version that appeared on previous compilations.

Dylan-ophiles will find plenty to absorb, including great live versions of "High Water (for Charley Patton)" and "Ring Them Bells" and unreleased gems like "Red River Shore" (from the Time Out of Mind sessions) and "37-20 Blues" a Robert Johnson cover recorded for World Gone Wrong.)

But some of the tracks show Dylan was right to go in another direction: The alternate version of "Someday Baby" from Modern Times, a shadow of the song that helped Dylan take the album to No. 1, shows how much stronger the song became when Dylan went all the way with the Muddy Waters rewrite and ripped off the bluesy tune as well.

Last updated on Dec 22, 2008 at 07:46 AM