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Rerecorded and chopped up songs

William Matson | Maine | 06/29/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This cd is culled from the import-only Starship release titled, 'Greatest and Latest.' Vocalist Mickey Thomas released 'Greatest and Latest' in 2003 (never in the US) with a different lineup of Starship. The songs were all rerecorded versions of Starship, Jefferson Starship and Mickey Thomas tracks, under the Starship banner with the current lineup. The new studio recordings happened in 2002. That 'Greatest and Latest' cd contained fourteen songs and came packaged with a dvd, I have the songs from that album.



On the plus side, the rerecorded songs sound great. "We built this city" and "Nothing's gonna stop us now", given all the times I heard them, sound quite different with a stripped down production, louder guitars and minus Grace Slick's voice. Without Grace being there, Mickey Thomas handles all lead vocals. It's interesting to hear him sing verses in songs that were originally handled by Grace Slick.



So the new versions of the songs sound good, which is why I give the album two stars. The songs from 'Greatest and Latest' were licensed for several Starship budget compilations in the US, such as 'Forever Gold', 'Greatest Hits-Delta' (this compilation right here) and 'Greatest Hits-Brilliant.'



The Delta company that put out this cd, for some reason, decided to cut short three of the tracks on this cd. The rerecorded version of "We built this city" runs over six minutes long on 'Greatest and Latest' as well as the other US budget compilations. On this cd it is under five, as the label chops out the great closing instrumental to the song. The new recording of "Fooled around and fell in love" was originally five and a half minutes long on other cd's it appeared on, but here it is again under five minutes. Additionally, the rerecorded track "Stranger" is also five and a half minutes long, or so, and that is also chopped up to under five minutes.



I don't understand the decision since it is only ten tracks and the cd clocks in at roughly fifty minutes. They could have fit the extra 40 or so seconds cut out of those 3 tracks. It all sounds like a hatchet job or bad radio edit. Additionally, the 'Greatest and Latest' import has the full set of 14 rerecorded songs and this one only uses ten of those new recordings.



The point is, the rerecorded tracks sound great. This collection of them, though, sucks. If you want to hear the new versions, get the import 'Greatest and Latest' off Ebay, which has all 14 rerecorded songs. Otherwise, pick up 'Forever Gold' or 'Greatest Hits-Brilliant' (both under the Starship name)."