Steve Miller Band - The Best Of 1968-1973 [1990]

The Best of 1968-1973 is a solid collection that features many of the highlights from Steve Miller's first five years of recording, including "The Joker," "Living in the U.S.A.," "Space Cowboy," and "Gangster of Love." 

Steve Miller Band's The Best Of 1968-1973 is a reworking of the fantastic 1972 Anthology album, adding a few tracks from The Joker and deleting some older tracks while completely glossing over material from Rock Love and Recall The Beginning-Journey From Eden. I completely fail to see the purpose of this collection as both the original, and significantly better Anthology as well as Greatest Hits 1974-78 were reissued in 1990, the same year Capitol released this very redundant compilation. It would have made sense to add the additional tracks from The Joker ("Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma", "Sugar Babe", "Come On in my Kitchen" and "Evil") to the Greatest Hits 1974-78 collection and add "Song For Our Ancestors" and "Jackson Kent Blues" to Anthology. Of course this would leave behind both "Quicksilver Girl" and "Gangster of Love", both of which work much better within the context of their original album than on a compilation.

This compilation isn't as consistently thrilling as Greatest Hits 1974-1978, which also features "The Joker," and it's not as sharply assembled as 1972's Anthology, but it remains an adequate overview of Miller's early records, especially for fans only familiar with Greatest Hits. 

These early strikes saw Steve rise from blues-rocker to stadium filler. His first hits Living in the U.S.A.; Going to the Country, and the Joker join Space Cowboy; Gangster of Love; Seasons; My Dark Hour; Evil, and more early essentials plus bonus tracks!

1.  The Joker - 4:25 

2.  Living In The U.S.A. - 4:04 

3.  My Dark Hour - 3:09 

4.  Going To The Country - 3:13 

5.  Shu Ba Ba Du Ma Ma Ma - 5:40 

6.  Going To Mexico - 2:28 

7.  Come On In My Kitchen - 4:05 

8.  Evil - 4:36 

9.  Song For Our Ancestors - 6:00 

10.  Your Saving Grace - 4:50 

11.  Quicksilver Girl - 2:43 

12.  Seasons - 3:51 

13.  Space Cowboy - 4:57 

14.  Gangster Of Love - 1:15 

15.  Kow Kow - 4:27 

16.  Little Girl - 3:23 

17.  Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around - 2:30 

18.  Jackson-Kent-Blues - 7:18 

19.  Sugar Babe - 4:33 

Notes

Released: 1990 

Format:  CD, Compilation 

Genre:  Rock, Pop 

Length: 

Label:  EMI Records

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J4qAO8xDzKKUMhax1_lTlg8zaM_mLYFI/view?usp=share_link

Dire Straits - San Francisco (Live Radio Broadcast) [1979]

Here is a concert from the beginning of Dire Straits recorded in San Francisco in 1979 and broadcast on the radio (14 tracks). 

The sound is just perfect. Knopfler's band perform almost all of their 1st album (only Setting me up is missing), the fact that they only sing 3 tracks from the 2nd album (Communiqué) maybe means they weren't yet appeared (July 1979) but that he was testing new titles in public. 

We have no indication either of the precise date or of the place of recording (concert hall or radio studio given the quality of the sound). 

In any case titles like Down to the waterline, Lady writer or obviously Sultans of swing still work marvelously 40 years later, the quality of writing and the guitar playing of Knopfler being of extreme finesse and efficiency. 

What really annoyed me, however, is the complete lack of booklet, info and even the obligatory credits of the songs are not indicated!!! It's a bit of mocking the listener. 

So, yes, fans will be delighted to find this concert which will complete their collection and takes a very good place following Live at the BBC (recorded in 1978 and released in 1995). 

1.  Down To The Waterline

2.  Six Blade Knife

3.  One Upon A Time In The West

4.  Lady Writer

5.  Water Of Love

6.  In The Gallery

7.  News

8.  What´s The Matter Baby

9.  Lions

10.  Sultans Of Swing

11.  Wild West End

12.  Where Do You Think You´re Going

13.  Eastbound Train

14.  Southbound Again

Notes

Release: 1979

Genre:  Pop, Rock

Length: 1:02:18

Label:  Radio Live Broadcast

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10bxYv4ky1T6ZTHhW4X_s8JebosWprOxv/view?usp=share_link

Sting & Edin Karamazov - The Journey & The Labyrinth (The Music Of John Dowland) [2006]

Songs from the Labyrinth is the eighth studio album by British singer-songwriter Sting. On this album, he collaborates with Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov. 

The album features music by John Dowland (1563–1626), a lutenist and songwriter. It entered the UK Official Albums Chart at #24 and reached #25 on the Billboard 200, strong charting peaks for a classical record on the pop album charts. 

The release was a slow seller for a Sting album, his first since 1986's Bring on the Night to fail to break the UK top 10.

In 2006, Sting took a shot at performing the songs of Elizabethan composer John Dowland. It was a bit of a gamble and, if Sting does not win the pot, he at least broke even. Edin Karamazov does a commendable job on the lute though Sting's vocals seem a little off since his voice remains grounded in our time and not Dowland's. Fans of Dowland will probably find this effort jarring. But it does serve as an excellent--and accessible--intro to Dowland and that shouldn't be discounted. 

Sting is shrewd enough to include a wide range of Dowland's songs, from the uplifting "Come Again" to the melancholy "In Darkness Let Me Dwell" and, of course, "Flow My Tears." Karamazov also has a few solo tracks which are excellent. 

Sting's recitation of a letter from Dowland seems out of place and, at times, grates. Still this is a solid effort and not a bad choice for people coming to Dowland for the first time. At the very least, people who come across Dowland's name in odd places (the novels of Philip K. Dick for example) can pick up the CD and get an introduction to a musical genius from 400 years ago.

For the original CD program, the music was that of the 16th century British composer John Dowland, except for "Have You Seen the Bright Lily Grow", a song by Dowland's contemporary Robert Johnson.

1.  Flow My Tears (Lachrimae) - 4:42

2.  The Lowest Trees Have Tops - 2:25

3.  Fantasy - 2:45

4.  Come Again - 2:52

5.  Have You Seen The Bright Lily Grow - 2:38

6.  In Darkness Let Me Dwell - 4:05

7.  Hellhound On My Trail - 3:15

8.  Message In A Bottle - 5:59

Notes

Released: 2006

Genre:  Classical, Renaissance music

Length: 28:44 

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15iwJHUtCDLCGLOieN_emiKE84rCOg7Px/view?usp=share_link

Huey Lewis & The News - The Heart Of Rock & Roll - The Best Of [1992]

The Heart of Rock & Roll – The Best of Huey Lewis and The News is a compilation album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1992. 

It includes singles and album tracks from five of the band's studio albums―Huey Lewis and the News (1980), Picture This (1982), Sports (1983), Fore! (1986) and Small World (1988)―plus two tracks from the Back to the Future soundtrack (1985) and a live B-side.

For four years, the U.K. compilation The Heart of Rock & Roll: The Best of Huey Lewis & the News was the only hits collection available on the San Franciscan bar band, and in some ways it's a better overview than the American retrospective, Time Flies. 

Although it does include a live version of "Workin' for a Livin'" and overlooks "Doing It All for My Baby" and "I Know What I Like," it contains several key tracks that aren't on Time Flies: "Hip to Be Square," "Back in Time" (which is only available on the Back to the Future soundtrack), "Jacob's Ladder," "Perfect World," the We Are the World track "Trouble in Paradise," and the terrific LP cut "Some of My Lies Are True." These tracks are added to the familiar hits to make The Heart of Rock & Roll a more thorough retrospective, and, in many ways, a better introduction than Time Flies.

1.  The Power of Love  (Back to the Future soundtrack) - 3:55 

2.  Hip to Be Square - 4:03 

3.  Do You Believe in Love - 3:28 

4.  If This Is It - 3:51 

5.  Some of My Lies Are True - 3:22 

6.  Workin' for a Livin' (live)  (B-side to "The Heart of Rock & Roll" single) - 4:02 

7.  Bad Is Bad - 3:47 

8.  I Want a New Drug - 3:33 

9.  The Heart of Rock & Roll - 4:05 

10.  Heart and Soul - 4:11 

11.  Jacob's Ladder - 3:30 

12.  Stuck with You - 4:27 

13.  Trouble in Paradise - 3:10 

14.  Walking on a Thin Line - 4:02 

15.  Perfect World - 4:06 

16.  Small World (Part One) - 3:53 

17.  Back in Time  (Back to the Future soundtrack) - 4:19 

Notes

Released: 1992

Genre:  Pop, Rock

Length:  1:05:43 

Label:  Chrysalis Records

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kOvlDLO4tZ5ONogk8yT7_kQ7ZG4MfjpN/view?usp=share_link