Search - Concrete Blonde :: Essential

What is the point?

Keith A. Sarson | Falls Church, VA United States | 05/20/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It is nice to have re-mastered cleaner versions of songs, but the song selections are pretty much the same as the ones on Classic Masters. In fact the first four songs are in the exact same order!



The differences between this collection and Classic Masters and Essential are three songs. Classic Masters has Mexican Moon and Essential has Happy Birthday and Sun. I was happy to see Sun on a re-mastered CD, but there are many more songs that could have been included. Essential also fails to give you your money's worth as far as number of songs.



I would recommend Still in Hollywood or Recollection as a starting point for Concrete Blonde, but neither of them have the re-mastering. Still In Hollywood has some unique songs that are not on other CD's, and Recollection has more of the best songs. But both have more of the Best songs than either of the re-mastered CD's.



Essential went to cut-out status in less than two months, and that is when I picked up my copy. Not because the songs are not good, because they are, but since I own every Concrete Blonde CD, there was no hurry to get this one.



My personal "Best Of" for Concrete Blonde is:

01-Still In Hollywood

02-True

03-Jenny I Read

04-God Is A Bullet

05-Fried

06-Probably Will

07-Bloodletting

08-Walking In London

09-Everybody Knows

10-100 Games of Solitaire

11-Sun

12-Roses Grow

13-Someday?

14-Joey

15-Roxy

16-Tomorrow Wendy

17-Carry Me Away



And that was before Mojave came out...I can find songs from there to put on a Best of CD such as Ghost Riders in the Sky or Tornado at Rest...



The omission of Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) and Everybody Knows makes Essential and Classic Masters both incomplete.



I am also amazed that there are four Greatest Hits CD's for Concrete Blonde and not one of them has the song Carry Me Away on it...or that none of the 3 later Best of CD's has 100 Games of Solitaire on it...



My three star rating is more due to lack of originality of this collection rather than music.



I wonder when the 5th greatest hits CD is due out...



Keith S. :{)>"