Customer Reviews

Best of

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3 star:		(2)
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Hailing from the town of Springfield Missouri, a city with a great music heritage (Red Foley and the Ozark Jubilee, etc....) the Daredevils manage to mix the traditional sounds from the hills and hollows of the Ozarks with R&B, 70's rock, and you name it. Once you get past the "real" hits, "If you Wanna Get to Heaven" and "Jackie Blue", then you will find a real set of gems awaiting you. The mouth harp driven "Chicken Train" is a great introduction to the Daredevils twisted and almalgamated musical approach. In concert, "Chicken Train" always works, on record, be prepared.

The Daredevils always managed to jump back and forth from the pure rural "hillbilly" sound to any number of directions. Just listen to the pefectly crafted "Country Girl" and "Fly Away Home" for evidence of the Daredevil's moments of greatness. (Both found on this collection.) You will not find another band tha! ! t captured the sounds of the Ozarks and made the whole thing as fun and interested as the Daredevils. I highly recommend you purchase this "Best Of" collection. As of yet A & M has not released any of their other albums on CD save for their first release, making this collection a real find.

Brian D. Rubendall obviously has never heard an actual Ozarks album - yes, the second half of "The Best" does contain some filler, but that's because it should more appropriately have been called "The Worst". Somehow they managed to pick all the weakest songs off their albums, plus a few good ones and the hits. Even the worst tracks sound better in the context of the original albums, so now that New Era is reissuing them avoid this CD and get the real thing. That way you'll get to hear their stunning ballads, of which only one is represented here ("You Know Like I Know") - if you haven't heard these you're really missing out.

I spent many hours listening to the songs of the Daredevils, on 8-track tapes no less! They have a sound that has yet to be captured by any other band I have ever heard. They hark back to a simpler time, which this album reproduces to a T.

The Ozark Mountain daredevils put out the one of a kind mix of hillbilly rock and mainstream pop that brings back the summer days of the 70's when we all could light up, lay back and turn on. My, how I sometimes miss those carefree days of this well crafted music that defined what was right about the 70's. If you haven't listened before, this is a great introduction to a music of a time we will not see again.

I wanted to recapture some of the Daredevils like I remember from their Roxy Theatre performance on the Sunset Strip, lo and behold they were right here..
Bob

Despite their exotic name, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils have a sound that is closer to, say, Elton John than fellow southern rock pioneers such as Lynyrd Skynyrd or The Allman Brothers. They had a brief run of success back in the mid 70s, built upon a couple of massive hits. "Jackie Blue" is an excellent piece of pop songwriting and easilly the best song the band ever produced. "If You Want to Get to Heaven" proclaims that you have to "raise a little Hell," but does so in such a slickly smooth pop manner that you wonder if they're really serious. There are a couple of other well written songs like "Following the Way that I Feel," but by the second half of this album you've already reached some rather dull dated filler material. OMD did not record enough good songs to fill up even a single disc collection. Nevertheless, the highlights of their career are here for anyone who is still interested.

liked the cd, but what ever happened to the song waterwheel?