Customer Reviews

The Best Of The Marshall Tucker Band: The Capricorn Years

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great collection. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels Band, JJ Cale, The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker is so diverse. They cover Rock, Country, Jazz, and Blues. How many country bands have a guy who plays the flute? The Caldwell Brothers totally rock through all these songs and Doug Gray's voice brings it all together. Along with the popular hit, Heard It In A Love Song, the songs This Ol' Cowboy, Fire On The Mountain, Searchin' For A Rainbow, Blue Ridge Mountain Sky, Can't You See, and See You Later, I'm Gone are my personal favorites. This whole CD is awesome, you won't be dissappointed.

This is a very solid album with the essential Marshall Tucker Band tracks represented. If you liked this (or haven't bought it yet), try "Where We All Belong" (I can't believe it's not offered by Amazon! - Barnes&Noble has it for $9.49). You'll get several of the tracks on this "Best Of", plus some more absolutely fabulous music, most notably "Everyday I Have The Blues" a red-hot live track of "watermelon boogie woogie" as the MTB describes it.

I haven't heard any of my old Tucker albums for years so I can't remember if any real gems were overlooked. I owned all of the ones these were pulled from, and it appears to be real solid song selections. Most Best Of's are dubious undertakings but the inclusion of long live windouts like 24 Hours at a Time and the meditative rythms of In My own Way seem to vary the pace and open it up. This avoids the one 3 min wonder after another syndrome and honors the eclecticism of the band, unfortunately narrowcast into the jack Daniel Dixie rock school by the media. My taste are eclectic, grew up on this stuff but listen to Yo la Tengo and Massive Attack today, but I still respect what this band did. Good Collection.

This would be a more appropriate title for this collection of hits. This would be a great album except for the fact that the two most famous songs, "Heard it in a Love Song" and "Can't You See" are the radio edit versions of both. The live version of Can't You See is quite enjoyable and of course is the long, album version. With the exception of the two radio edits, this is a great collection.

Back in the early to mid 70's, Marshall Tucker was a true "Road Warrior" Band! It didn't matter who they played with, from the Allman Brothers to Three Dog Night (yuck!). They just wanted to get up on stage and let loose! This collection of songs from their early years gives a great testimony on why they were so popular, even without many "hits". The highlights include live performances of "24 hours at a time" (with Charlie Daniels on fiddle) and "Can't You See". The low points are including the single release version of songs that were wonderful in the long form (This ol'Cowboy and Heard it in a Love Song) when the album versions were SO much better. Overall, though, a excellent collection, and a must buy for Tucker fans!

Nicely done box set from a band that I grew up on. 29 tracks from their 7 Capricorn albums..the only ones that matter. No rare hard-to-find songs, just a nice retrospective with informative liner notes. Contains both the studio and live version of Can't You See, a song that never fails to get me in a good mood.

The Marshall Tucker Band's Greatest Hits album only included 8 tracks; that is why any MTB fan should purchase this excellent collection of highlights from this very talented and musically diverse band. Covering the Capricorn years of their recording career, which was their main heyday, this album features all of the big hits, as well as some hidden favorites and wonderful live tracks. The only problems with the album are that it was not remastered and includes the 45 version recordings of some of their nicest hits, taking away from the extended instrumentals. Overall, though, this is the best way to get the MTB all in one place. I love "In My Own Way," "Ramblin," live, and "24 Hours at a Time," live.

I went on a business trip to Houston and was singing to myself the first line of '24 Hours at a Time' from my memory banks. Then I decided I should buy a Marshall Tucker CD !!

The last time I listened to these guys was when you put a needle on a black piece of vinyl to hear music. This was a band I went through my teenage years with, and everybody had their stuff in their record collections at college. I am glad I bought this collection and read the liner note story about the band. I heard them but never knew who they were except that they had a brother duo named Caldwell. I looked on marshalltuckerband.com and saw that these guys are still touring, maybe with 2 of the original members. These guys really did mix a lot of different styles of music.

While this is a nice collection of MTB songs, the effect it will have on longtime Tucker fans is to leave them wanting more. If you're new to MTB, or you just want one collection that covers the highlights, this is a decent purchase. With three live tunes, you'll get a taste of MTB in their element. You'll wonder in awe how Toy Caldwell could play all those notes (with just his thumb)! Paul Riddle's drumming is amazingly fluid.

Personally, I own every MTB release that includes Toy, Tommy, Paul, George, and Doug, plus a couple of the "modern era" releases. If I had to be stranded on the proverbial island with only one "album" to play on my rigged coconut stereo, it would be MTB's "Where We All Belong". For me, it offers the best of both worlds; MTB's ability to offer great songs recorded in the studio, plus their cookin' live performances that solidify their rightful place as one of America's best live groups.

Another great recording is the recently released, "Stompin' Room Only". The cover should contain the warning: "WARNING: Listening to this disc while driving causes sudden outbursts of air-drumming or air-guitar. Please pull over before Toy Caldwell's solo on This Ol' Cowboy."

This brings me back to reviewing this "Best Of" collection. On this release, the studio version of This Ol' Cowboy is 3:40. On the cookin' live version of Stompin Room Only, the same song is 5:39, and on Where We All Belong, the song keeps you tappin' for all of 6:46. Those of us that grew up with LP's, with no remote controls, had to just let the record play. Nobody was in the habit of skipping songs. Artists knew they had to put albums together in such a way as keep you interested all the way through. One reason that I'm personally disappointed in almost every "Best Of" CD I've ever purchased is that you lose that album feel. Certainly this is true with this MTB collection. If you owned Searching for a Rainbow, Carolina Dreams, Where We All Belong, or any other MTB release, you'll sorely miss the songs that are not included on this Best Of collection. If, however, you only intend to buy one MTB release, you'll be pretty happy with this purchase.

Of course coming from MTB's hometown I may be accused of being biased but I loved this band. MTB music trivia: Toy Caldwell got some of his musical style on lead guitar by playing sans a pick. Ruined many a young guitarist trying to play lead with just a thumb...