Customer Reviews

The Best of Rare Earth - 20th Century Masters

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Twenty-one minutes and thirty-two seconds of the song "Get Ready;" if you knew this song I could stop this review right here. This song speaks for itself. It is more than a third of an hour of funky rock by the first non-African American group signed by Motown. When you listen to the songs on this CD, which are vaguely reminiscent of Earth, Wind and Fire, and the Temptations, you can understand how well Rare Earth fit with Motown.

"Get Ready" starts quietly. At about two minutes from the beginning the song picks up pace. As the song progresses it turns instrumental and the instruments weave patterns with each other. The music is funky in places, harder in others, and sometimes psychedelic. After an extended drum solo the vocals help finish the last minute of the song. Each time I hear this song I always wish it would last longer than its twenty one minutes. This song was originally performed by the Temptations, and was Rare Earth's biggest hit, charting at #4 in a much shorter version.

After the lengthy opening, this album moves into "I Just Want to Celebrate," an enthusiastic song about partying and loving life that is as much a celebration of funk as anything else. Get down!

The third longest song on this CD is also the third song on this CD. "I Know I'm Losing You" has an opening I sometimes hear on the radio. As the song rolls onward it incorporates a classic "wah-wah" sound that seemed ubiquitous in the funky music of the early 70s. Thus funky tour de force is a tribute to Rare Earth's musical skill, and is just plain fun to listen to. Listen for a marvelous drum and bass portion around the seven minute mark that is outstanding. Soon after the music stays funky with a psychedelic edge that has a touch of Hendrix flavor.

After the exhaustion you get from listening to the previous song you need a break. "Born to Wander" is shorter but it remains heavy enough with bass that whatever respite you get from this music is brief. Anticipate no breaks on this album.

This collection is set up with a series of increasingly longer songs. "Hey Big Brother" gives you nearly five minutes of still socially relevant music. This has a funky undertone with solid rock underpinning. In spite of the political commentary this song is another of Rare Earth's "fun" songs; catchy beat, wonderful to listen to over and over again, and lyrics that you can sing to.

Move on into a nearly seven and a half minute interpretation of the Ray Charles song "What'd I Say?" This song has a bass guitar that is a reminder that in the 70s the bass guitar often took a lead role in rock music. However, the lead guitar gets its licks later, along with some more "wah-wah" sound. This song also has a nice horn portion. I usually make comparisons with Chicago's early music, but the brass in this song is very different from Chicago's music, taking on a much harder edge than Chicago's music ever had. Listen for the interpretation of Ray Charles' "hey-ho" about two-thirds of the way into the song. The last couple of minutes of this song changes tempo and gains a Latino sound that contrasts strongly with the first five minutes. I admit that "What'd I Say" is a bit more repetitive than some of their other songs, but I still enjoy this song from beginning to end.

This album closes with the almost seventeen and a half minute song "Ma," which opens with the dedication that this song is about the lady that raised me. This bluesy song (with yet more "wah-wah") is great music for parties and just being mellow. There is a drum beat at the middle of this song that seems vaguely Native American, overlaid on a powerful blues vocal, with a whole array of instruments in counterpoint. I know this description sounds complicated. You must listen to this music understand the experience. Did I mention that the music becomes psychedelic in a stellar way a bit more than halfway through the track? Then the piano turns jazzy. Awesome! It seems to me that there are no artists today trying to create music that could hold a candle to a track like this.

Rare Earth was an unusual group. They literally did their own thing. They had their own style. Rare Earth is one of those rare groups that I find difficult to compare to other groups because they set a standard rather than following one. You can clearly hear an array of influences in their music, but their music was their own. Their music was unique and fun, and I highly recommend this CD if you liked long rock tracks and funk from the early 70s, or if you like good rock music regardless of the era. I wish this music was more common, then or now. Enjoy!

Rare Earth was the first Anglo group ever signed by Motown chief Berry Gordy. This collection shows how strong their groove really was.

Like another reviewer, I think it would be worth the price just because it is the repository (maybe the sole repository) of their classic version of "Get Ready". That is twenty minutes of some of the best music of the day, with each member taking his time to do a great solo on a classic song from back when rock stations were putting out some of their best work.

Unlike another, I was pleased to find the album-length version of "I Know I'm Losin' You". The rather psychedelic edge that the additional four minutes added was just fine by me. Moreover, I can recall how different that sound was from the radio version to which I had become accustomed back in the day. Finding these two treasures together in one place was splendid. Adding "I Just Want to Celebrate" and "Born to Wander" was just gravy.

A fabulous piece of work. Even without "Ma" this contains all the Rare Earth we need.

I have owned the CD "Ecology" for years, but missed what I remembered as being some other good Rare Earth songs. This is one of the best CD's in my 700+ collection, and easily is the best purchase I have made in months. What a unique sound! "I Just Want to Celebrate" was worth the investment by itself. I hadn't heard the long version of "Get Ready" in years, and had totally forgotten about "Big Brother". If this CD doesn't get your foot tapping, you need to go back to c(Rap) thats being put out today. The way things are going, since today's artists don't seem to have a brain cell to write their own music (and don't know what an instrument is unless it is between their legs), they will stealing some of these superb tunes soon.

I have never been a fan of the "20th Century Masters Millennium Collection" series of CDs. Most of them are skimpy, at best, with a meager song selection and short total running time. I have even referred to them as being a rip-off. I still think so, by and large, but this disc is a definite exception. Ok, there are still only 7 songs on the disc. But the total running time is over 60 minutes and most of the selections are unavailable anywhere else, period. Most notable is the inclusion of the 21-minute-plus album version of "Get Ready", which has been completely unavailable for a very long time. Sure, I'd like to see a few more cuts that were not included-- that will almost always be the case with any compilation disc. But there would be little room on a single disc for much more, and what's here is, for the most part, the cream of the crop for this band. I only wish that whomever put this one together had been in on producing the rest of the discs in this series. Until more of the original albums are reissued (assuming they ever are) this disc will be indispensable for anyone who has ever even remotely enjoyed this band and its music. I'm not even a huge fan, and I'm diggin' it! Highly recommended.

One might balk at an album of only seven songs, but what seven songs they are! The sound is as innovatively fresh as it was thirty years ago.

Rare Earth has the distinction of being a rock/soul WHITE group that recorded as a member of the historically BLACK Motown stable.

The group may have been stood out because of its ethnicity, but its sound was nothing short of pure psychedelic funk. The six-man troupe's greatest successes were made in the short period from 1969-1973, although it remained together, with some personnel changes, until 1978. Cracking both the Billboard Pop and Black Albums/singles charts, Rare Earth did have its time in the spotlight.

This compilation, as stated earlier, may be short in track content but it's long in execution of these cuts. "Get Ready", the guys' first hit, is 21:29, "(I Know) I'm Losing You" is just under eleven minutes, and the sublimely funky "Ma" is 17:19.

Three Dog Night or The Doobies may have been more popular, but they weren't as "righteous" as the Detroit sextet known as Rare Earth.

I really enjoy the classic hits " 21 minutes long-"Get Ready"!, "Hey Big Brother!" "Born To Wander". All seven songs are classic hits! A really classic American Band ! Rare Earth!!The CD is value for your money!

Out of all the "best of" Rare Earth CD's that have been released over the years, this covers their very best in just 7 songs. It features their first 6 Hot 100 singles (in their album versions), and their one track I refer to as their masterpiece, "Ma" (all 17+ minutes of it). The only way this collection could be better is, if they also included the single version of "(I know) I'm Losin' You". The album version is made to be more psychedelic (which is great), but the shorter single version really rocks. It's faster and it has a more intense beat. Apart from that, this really is a fantastic CD.

Rare, not just because some of these tracks are hard to find, and they are the full length album versions, but also because this is a "20th Century Masters" CD that has almost 70 minutes of music on it!
I've looked at other 20th Century Masters titles and always decided they were a bad deal for the money, even though they were cheap, but this one's different. To top it all off: the sound quality is top notch.

well , what can I say, at last the long (20+) minutes version of "get ready", with the bass / drums solo's. very good sound,remastered and low price. A very good buy !!!
listen & Enjoy.

This has got to be one of the better of the Millenium Collections - It contains the full-length versions of songs, that had been hard to find. The sound is great and the full-length versions of the songs are just pure pleasure to listen to! If you like Rare Earth, this is the compilation to get. Also, it gets right to the hits and doesn't have all those "filler" tracks. It's just great, really!