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A pointless reissue

Emilio Dreyer Pacheco | Porto Alegre, Brazil | 02/17/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The problem with this box set is that it is neither a greatest hits collection nor a rarities one. The first edition was released in 1989 as a sort of sampler for the upcoming Rykodisc reissues. Ryko probably chose not to include the best tracks to avoid hurting the sales of the individual albums, when they came out. Yet, at a time when the CD format was booming and the RCA albums had been long out of print, fans were hungry for Bowie's 70's material on CD. So this set was welcomed at the time even though it was a seemingly random selection of tracks with a few rarities thrown in for good measure. These rarities would not reappear as bonus tracks on the regular releases, so they were the very reason for buying and keeping this set.Now that the original albums have been reissued to death, this box set is released again. It includes a fourth CD and adds a few more rarities to make it desirable even to those who had bought the original edition. But the "mixed bag" concept is still there and it is totally pointless, now. I'm not complaining about the rarities, but they should have gone for an entirely different approach instead of just releasing an expanded edition of the old box. So casual fans beware: this is by no means a "definitive" Bowie compilation. Apart from the rarities, tracks seem to have been chosen by luck of the draw."

The Music Is Great - The Presentation Is Too Busy!

Martin A Hogan | San Francisco, CA. (Hercules) | 12/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Okay. I just received my anxiously awaited David Bowie Box Set and I have to say, it is not what I expected. I was hoping for a nice fold-out single piece like the "Moody Blues Time Traveler", or "ABBA's" box set or anything in one piece for the mantle. This is completely different and you may or may not like it.The box is 11" X 6" and 1" thick covered in a thick plastic see-through like in the photo here. The box slides out and is gray silver. There is a 50 page glossy booklet that covers Bowie's entire history and includes all the song titles with the band members, the date of release, the producers, the publisher, the mixers, the writers (if not Bowie) and the date of the remixes. There is a ton of trivia. Then there are four 6" X 10" 'postcards' of Bowie in collage style through the years that you can - stick on your wall? There is a 24" X 33" glossy poster of the cover with Bowie and all the song titles. AND! Underneath of this stuff in a little cutout are four discs in thin plastic sleeves. Each disc cover has the title of each song on the disc.Now. What about the sound? Well, you can see what songs are here on the list. They go from 1969 to 1993 and are all remastered and sound fantastic. Sure, its all a remix of the 1986 box set that is so hard to find plus a fourth disc of great songs, but it's still about time. Am I happy? Yup. But, hey, it's all about the music. And it DOES sound great!There are so many hard to find songs here that I am glad to own them ("Helden" is my favorite). However, somehow I feel a bit ripped off for all the extra stuff I don't need and certainly paid for. The booklet is nice, but I'll probably only read it twice and I've already read all this stuff before. In essence, it is a fan collection. It's a good one, but I think I'll just take out the discs and put them in jewel boxes where I can get to them anytime I want. Enjoy!"

A perfect companion piece to Ryko's "Singles 1969-1993"

Da Man | Pekin, IL | 03/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am a huge Bowie fan, I have all of the RCA/EMI albums on vinyl, but my "classic" Bowie cd collection has been lacking because I'd rather find the Rykodiscs with the bonus tracks instead of the current Virgin's. This set picks a lot of the best songs that aren't on the out of print Rykodisc The Singles 1969-1993 (which I believe is still the definitive Bowie compilation, the albums since should be bought seperately). This by no means a "Definitive" Bowie cd (both of his #1 singles are missing, but haven't we heard Fame and Let's Dance enough?), 4 discs frankly cannot tell the story from the 1969-1993 era... However, if you have this, and also track down the 69-93 on [web site], those 6 discs is as good a summation of Bowie's RCA/EMI/Savage years without actually owning the studio albums. Also check out his recent stuff. Bowie hasn't been commercially successful since the late 1980's, but I think Heathen and Reality both count among the best albums he's ever recorded bar none. He has definately bounced back after having a few awful years in the 80's"