Customer Reviews

Can You Dig It? The '70s Soul Experience

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Born in 1975, many of the songs on "Can You Dig It" bring me back to some of my earliest memories. "Rock the Boat," "Strawberry Letter 23," "I'll Take You There," "Why Can't We Be Friends," etc. Of course, this box sets lacks songs by Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, but the people who would dish out this amount of money for this set probably already have their great albums. I am glad that the staples of the genre are underrepresented (Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Sly and the Family Stone, Isaac Hayes, Isley Brothers, James Brown etc.) because that gives more room for the "one-hit" wonders and less familiar acts. Also, growing up listening to pre-sample litigation rap records like "Paul's Boutique" and "Straight Outta Compton," many of the songs (which I had not heard in their entirety) sampled on those records appear here--"Express Yourself," "Be Thankful for What You Got," "That Lady," and others. I'm reminded of Steve Harvey's monologue about soul music in Spike Lee's "The Original Kings of Comedy." Many of these songs (like "Me and Mrs. Jones" and "Betcha By Golly Wow") express "soul" and "love" in ways that much of today's rap records don't. (This remark is not a condemnation of rap music but simply an observation.) This set is a time capsule, filled in an imitation eight-track cassette (remember them?) case, chock-full of great songs you either love, loved, forgotten, or never heard at all.

I love this cd box set, and I love the way it looks! Rhino has done a good job of capturing the look, sound, and feel of 70's soul music with this attractive six cd collection. I love how they made the outside of the box look like an old 8 track tape rack! And it's great to hear songs like Betcha By Golly Wow, I'll Be There, Rainy Night in Georgia, War, Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time, Family Affair, Let's Stay Together, and so many others once again. I felt like it was 1973 all over again!

I do have one minor complaint: Over 20 of these songs are on another Rhino Box set that I have called "Have a Nice Decade." I felt a little cheated, that Rhino could have sampled some other songs. Moreover, there were some great soul artists that didn't have songs represented on this collection at all: Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, and a few others.

But this is still an excellent collection, and if you love 70's soul music, you might want to splurge and buy it.

Recommended listening. Sandwiched in time between the Motown of the 60s and the emergence of rap in the 80s is the forgotten cool of 70s soul. I remember these songs from watching Soul Train after American Bandstand and Casey Casem's Top 10, and was delighted with the richness of the sound and song. Makes me almost embarrassed by what I listened to as a teenager in the 80s, it doesn't hold up as well as the songs in this collection.

Even if you don't like soul, R&B, get it anyway if you can. It will broaden you horizons. Added bonus is the booklet that accompanies the grammy-nominated packaging - you will enjoy every aspect of this set.

Can you dig it? Can I dig it? Yes, I can! This CD set is wonderful. I received it as a gift and I couldn't be happier. The collection is thorough, very diverse and fun, fun, fun!. How great it must have been to put this groovy bunch of songs together. Included are the songs I grew up with and still listen to, along with several that had been forgotten, but brought back a lot of AM memories. My complaints would be the lack of Aretha and Stevie Wonder. Also, Earth, Wind and Fire's Shining Star and Reasons are part of this collection, but are separated. Shining Star doesn't sound right if it's not followed by Reasons. The only truly lousy song (out of over 100!) is Lovin You by Minnie Riperton. I tired of this one in the 70's. Couldn't it have been replaced by Aretha, Stevie or even the Jackson 5? BUY THIS SET, BUY IT NOW - IT'S A GAS!

This collection is so good, that four of my friends have purchased their own after seeing it! The set starts at the beginning of the decade and includes some of the lesser known favorites that only true R&B fans will recognize. The best part is that even though I have a rather extensive collection of 70's genre music, there are very few repeats in this collection. I found this to be a good, valuble, addition to my music collection.

One of the very best, top of the line soul/r&b collections you could possibly own! Man oh man, do these classic tunes bring back so many fine memories! This type of talent as far as singing & songwriting is sorely lacking in today's music world. Today's youth should try giving this set a listen to hear what real talent was actually like. If you are a major fan of 70s soul/r&b like I am, then this is a MUST-HAVE collection. Very highly recommended.

As is typical with Rhino compilations, the song choices are excellent, but, unfortunately (and also typically), they saw fit to chop them down to the radio edits in many cases. This isn't as big a deal on Rhino's "Pop Culture" boxes, because many Top 40 songs are so well-known in their radio-edited form, that most folks won't even miss the longer album versions, or even know or care that they exist. But many soul songs from this era benefited from the breathing room they received from the additional length on the original albums, and chopping them to fit a compilation dulls the impact of the emotion, the message, or simply the groove.

Nevertheless, this is a good starting point for those wanting to sample the great soul tunes and artists of the 70's.

I could blindly thrust my hand into any random bin of Rhino releases and come up a winner every time. That's how awesome the boys at Rhino have proven themselves to be time and again. The 70's soul experience, awe-inspiring in sincerity and redoubtable in creativity, is disseminated across 6 discs without a dud in sight. I will agree with other posters that the longer album cuts would have been the icing on the cake, but then we would have been looking at 12 discs instead of the 6 presented here. But you know what? I would have bought that set, too.

Can You Dig It? is a fantastic and eclectic compilation of some of the best of `70s soul...perhaps the one musical genre of the decade that didn't suffer from overt corporationalism or camp. The lack of a 5-star review only reflects the fact that there was quite a bit of bleed-over from other similar Rhino theme products, with a number of tracks included here repeated from the Have a Nice Decade box set and the Didn't It Blow Your Mind series. For those not familiar with these other selections, Dig will be an indispensable addition to your collection. For those with a bit of "polyester" in their CD library, there's still a lot of hard-to-find, yet timeless tracks in this set impossible to find elsewhere.

This is the absolute best collection I have ever owned. Brings back the days of my youth when my friend and I walked the neighborhood singing many of these great songs. I have all six CD's in my player in my car and have yet to tire of it. Each CD has a great number of songs on it - we moved from CO to PA in August and all six got me across country (coupled with a little talk radio here and there). I wish I had the box (set) to give you an idea of the songs, but it is still packed as I only took the CD's with me in the move and they are still in my car being played every time I get in it. Love it. The packaging itself is so unique that the boxed set looks like actual old-school 8-track tapes. Then you lift the lid off and there are the CD's. This was a little pricey - once I found it on ebay for less, but waited too late to bid. Get it now while you can. Here is a link to see all of the songs on this six-CD set:

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Don't let this confuse you with "Ultimate Isaac Hayes" whose collection carries a portion of the same name. Although, Isaac Hayes is awesome as well, this review is of "Can You Dig It? The 70's Soul Experience"

Truly cannot go wrong with this CD set. You don't know me, but trust me on this.