Customer Reviews

Brian Setzer Collection 81-88

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This collection follows Brian Setzer from the old Stray Cats days through his solo, pre-BSO, career. It doesn't matter if Setzer was playing with Lee Rocker and Jim Phantom to form the Stray Cats, or whether he was out on his own, the guy is incredible. This album covers his maturing years, focusing mostly on the time between the Stray Cats and BSO. These are the songs that helped propel him into super-stardom.

Great music is what this album is about. From the popular Stray Cats cuts "(She's) Sexy + 17" and "Rock This Town" to his own powerful solo work "The Knife Feels Like Justice" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" it proves Setzer's great talent as a musician and song-writer. His guitar playing and singing are often overlooked, but he is incredible at both. Listen to his voice croon on "The Knife Feels Like Justice" and you just know there was no doubt Setzer would make it. An excellent cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" appears here too. His guitar work is framed with "Echo Park" and "Thing About You". Setzer can rock it out, sing an emotional love song, or just get in a pickin' mood.

Collections like this are great in showing how a musician has evolved during their career, and this album shows how a good musician evolved into a great one. The music is wide and varied, but all of it is classic Setzer. This album is even better because it contains six previously unreleased tracks, making it a necessity for any Setzer fan's collection.

It was almost a duty buy,strictly to fill in the gaps between the Stray Cats and the Orchestra. The wonderful surprise is that it's a solid, committed collection of songs. A touch New-Wavish and a bit 80s at times, it shows Setzer struggling for a post-rockabilly niche --- but the songs and the performance always win out. Cross Of Love,an obscure B-side,is a perfect example: how did this rocking, bone-crushing,melodic gem get so easily lost to pop history? And good luck getting Waiting For Desiree or Bobby's Back out of your head after a couple of listens. There really are some great tunes here.

What is really interesting about this album is that one can get an idea of how Brian Setzer has developed as an artist. Interesting to note is that in the period between the Stray Cats and his current Big Band he moved into a more pop oriented type of music that helped him strech as a guitar player (It is important to note that he could be one of the most under-rated guitarrist today). Maybe one could find the music a little "raw" in terms of production, and odd regarding his past with the Stray Cats and his current Big Band music, but they show the incredible potencial this musician has. I recomend this CD to anyone interested in learning about Brian Setzer past. But, if you are interested in the "Hits" look for any Stray Cats collection and I strongly recoment Brian Stezer Big Band latest release "The Dirty Boogie"

This is a must-have collection for anyone who is a Stray Cats/Brian Setzer fan, or anyone who is a fan of great rootsy rock-and-roll. The collection includes such Stray Cats/Brian Setzer staples as (She's) Sexy & 17, Rock This Town, The Knife Feels Like Justice, and When The Sky Comes Tumblin' Down, as well as several excellent unreleased tunes. I especially liked the unrelased tracks "Echo Park", "Thing About You", and "Keep Your Lovin' Strong", but really, every song on this disc is good! Buy this CD...You won't regret it!

The amazon review nailed Brians solo career. My best friend was Art director for EMI during the Stray Cats era and when he gave me a pre-release of Brians first solo album It was Live Nude Guitars? and I was really impressed with his sound on the album, so different from the Stray Cats formula. "Every Tear that Falls" is a pop masterpiece with a Byrds ring to it that I play all the time and friends are amazed when I tell them who it is. Bravo Brian!

I'm a big Setzer fan, starting with the Cats and continuing through his brief solo and swing forays. But, I must agree with the review by Stephen Cribb, this album is not a very good collection of Setzer's output during this era. It's a more of a collection of hard to find material, rather than his best stuff from this time period. Frankly, I was quite disappointed with his first true solo album, "Knife Feels Like Justice"... it's like he was trying too hard. But his second solo album, "Live Nude Guitars" was fantastic, and very underrated... IMHO, every song on that album was great and it was a crime that it wasn't widely promoted. ... There are a few songs from that album on this collection, but, if you want to hear Setzer at his best, doing straight rock and roll, neither rockabilly nor swing, buy "Live Nude Guitars" used somewhere...you won't regret it!