Best Of... 1969 to 1972

Sleeve and track listing

Spectrum 554 600-2. (3 stars!)

Reissue (Spectrum) sleeve

Original (Island) sleeve

  1. Rock and Roll Queen (3:44)
  2. You Really Got Me/Wrath and Wroll (Crossfads) (3:58)
  3. At The Crossroads (5:33)
  4. Walkin' With a Mountain (3:52)
  5. Thunderbuck Ram (4:50)
  6. No Wheels To Ride (5:51)
  7. Whiskey Women (3:38)
  8. Keep a Knockin' (6:58)
  9. Waterlow (3:03)
  10. Midnight Lady (3:29)
  11. The Moon Upstairs (5:02)
  12. Death May Be Your Santa Claus (4:53)
  13. Your Own Backyard (4:12)
  14. Darkness Darkness (4:32)
  15. Road To Birmingham (3:29)
  16. Growing Man Blues (2:44)
  17. Black Scorpio (Momma's Little Jewel) (3:35)
  18. Black Hills (1:28)

Running time: 74m 58s

Comments

In 1990, with Ian Hunter touring for the first time in years, and renewed interest in Mott, Island put out this excellent compilation of material from 1969-72. The track selection is strong, and includes material from the hard to find 1980 rarities compilation Two Miles From Heaven, as well as the non-LP single Midnight Lady. Rock And Roll Queen is edited (is it a single version?), as is Keep a Knockin' (to remove the "bulls**t" reference), so I'll deduct half a point for that. Sound quality is very good but not excellent - the US-released Backsliding Fearlessly CD offered similar tracks but marginally better sound quality. Don't get me wrong - sound quality here is better than on most compilations.

The booklet contains excellent and informative sleeve-notes from Buffin, but the typesetting is awful - IT IS ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS, making it hard to read.

This CD was reissued by Spectrum/Polygram in late 1998 (to cash in, no doubt, on the publicity surrounding Sony's box set) with, to these ears, slightly better sound quality. Buffin's sleeve-notes remain, but still in those awful capitals. Aaargh!

Copyright © 1996-2005 Adrian Perkins