Customer Reviews

Carry It On

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In addition to the other reviews, there's two important things to add: first, the sound quality throughout the CD is very good. However, note that most of them are new mixes done in the 1990s. They're cleaner-sounding than the ones on their 1960s albums, but not necessarily the same sound.

The bad news is that this collection omits more than a half-dozen major hits, including "Big Boat," "Settle Down (Goin' Down That Highway)," "Tell It On the Mountain," "The Other Side of This Life," "Love City (Postcards to Duluth)," Yarrow's "Don't Ever Take Away My Freedom," and the hit version of "The Other Side of This Life." Given that they had 22 charted U.S. hits (plus another 5 singles as solo performers), those would have easily fit on a single CD.

The fact that people are having trouble playing the CDs on computers, plus the bit about the "hidden tracks" being hard to access, tells me that not enough thought was put into this collection. There's way too much live stuff for my tastes, though in a 4-disc boxed set, one live disc would've been fine.

In short, it's a mish-mash. The 3-disc Readers Digest boxed set is not a lot better, and also omits several of the above songs. To me, this is yet another example of a "Best of" collection that purports to give you everything you'd ever want, but falls considerably short. For a $60+ deluxe boxed set, this is inexcusable.

It's amazing to listen to 40 year old Peter, Paul and Mary songs that sound like they were recorded yesterday. Rhino did a great job with selecting the songs and remastering them on "Carry It On." The songs are among the best of Peter, Paul and Mary and few stones are left unturned. There are even some previously unheard versions of these classics. The bonus DVD makes this a real visual and sonic treat.

I do have one problem with the box set. There are bonus unreleased cuts on each of the CDs but they don't automatically play. You have to follow the directions hidden deep in the book that comes with the box set. The trick you have to use just doesn't work on my Sony combo CD/DVD player. It would have been better just to have allowed the bonus tracks to play normally. I thought about reducing my rating one star because of this--but "Carry It On" is just to good for that.

The times they are a'changin' And having this PP&M compilation in the CD collection helps connect us with where we've been so that we can see with some perspective where we going!

Peter Paul and Mary are my favorite group. I rate their music 5 stars; some people do, some don't. 'Nuff said about that. What I want to address is the bonus tracks. Another review mentions that one must cue them up in a not-obvious way. Let me elaborate on that review: You cue up a bonus track at the beginning of each of the 4 cds (the 5th, bonus disk is dvd) by cueing up song one, then pressing reverse until you come to the bonus track.

Well! This method is totally bizarre (if it is not bizarre enough to provide bonus tracks that are hard to figure out how to play in the first place--and the directions as to how to play bonus tracks are in tiny, obscure print within the printed book that accompanies the 5 disk set.) This backtracking-from-song-one method of cueing up a song works better or worse on various cd players. On mine, it is virtually impossible to hear the bonus tracks in completion, because pushing the reverse button "scrolls through" the song quickly. It is impossible to lift your finger from the button exactly at the beginning moment of the bonus song. If you don't stop pushing the button at exactly that magical moment, you either hear only a portion of the bonus track, or you have pushed too long and don't hear any of it and you must start a second effort at pushing the button until the perfect moment. Like I say, bizarro.

I suppose it is some marketing exec's idea of a cutesy gimmick. Peter, Paul and Mary, I hope you read this review. You have enough sense that you should have caught this dumb idea and nixed it. It's dumb and offensive. How fun is it, really, to sit over your cd player trying to push a button effectively. Come on, you guys!! Why don't you three write a meaningful song about the lunacy of this aspect of modern button-pushing life. (Ha!) Okay, I've spoken my piece on that! Except for the bonus tracks, it's a nice boxed set.

For more than 40 years, Peter Paul and Mary have graced us with their amazing sound, and they have inspired us with their commitment to the progressive causes of our times. The CDs in this box set include virtually all of their fabulous music, and the narrative captures the spirit and the significance of their activism.

I have already listened to each disc several times, and I will continue to for weeks, months and years. The early recordings remain current and compelling. The recent ones reveal a marvelous maturity and power in their voices and personalities. There just isn't anything to compare with it.

Anyone who has lived through the remarkable history we share with PPM should own this set as a testament to our own lives. Anyone too young to have experienced their impact should own it to enjoy the music and to learn how music can produce positive change in our society.

If I were permitted to have but one collection of great folk music, this would be it. It is simply fabulous.

Hearing - and reading and watching - this boxed set reminded me how much I loved this group. Yes, they were indeed the most commercially popular folk group ever (a dozen Top 40 singles, including the #1 "Leaving on a Jet Plane", as well as "Puff" and "Blowin' in the Wind", both of which reached #2, and nine Top 20 albums, including two #1's). But more than that, their fame was deserved, because they were musically outstanding, especially their three-part harmony, shout-out vocal style. They made socially-conscious music not only hip but marketable as well. (The most successful folk song prior to this was "Goodnight Irene", a "safe" traditional tune by the very politically-progressive Weavers.) Moreover, they practiced what they preached, and are active to this day supporting important social and political causes. They were, individually and collectively, very good songwriters, but they also had an uncanny knack for picking songs from future greats like Bob Dylan, John Denver, Laura Nyro and Gordon Lightfoot. (Their "Blowin' in the Wind" was the first Dylan song to hit the Top 10.) And as the live tracks and videos prove, they were often galvanizing in concert.

The boxed set is a handsome book-style package, with lots of photos and background on the group's formation and its three members' careers. (For instance, I always knew that Paul was the funniest member of the trio, but I never knew that he was a successful standup comic on the Greenwich Village circuit before joining the band.) The song selection, a chronological program mixing their biggest hits with rare and live performances, is just about perfect, as is the sound quality. Frankly, though, four discs of career-spanning music (right up to 2003) may be a bit much for the casual fan. The "bonus" DVD contains about a half-hour of archival and more recent video performances. The historical highlight is their appearance at the 1963 March on Washington to sing "If I Had a Hammer." Musically, their best performance is a 1969 appearance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, when they did a roof-raising version of "If I Had My Way."

My only complaint is the too-clever and very inconvenient placement of the "hidden tracks", which can only be accessed by hitting "reverse" on the CD player as the first track begins, and "rewinding" the track to the beginning Even then, if you don't stop the rewind at the beginning of the track, you're reset back to Track 1. These early, pre-PP&M performances are interesting but hardly worth the trouble. I also noticed slow loading and inaccessibility to the hidden tracks on Windows Media.

The bottom line, though, is that this is a generally excellent collection, a thorough and deserving career retrospective for a group whose music helped define a whole generation.

While I'm a 28 year old listener and lover of PPM, with many of their cds, I love listening to the box set, even though I have many of the songs already. My only complaint is the way they've set up the bonus selections on each of the cds, it doesn't work with many players, in fact my Sony bookshelf cd player is the only thing that can play the bonus songs.
I thought the dvd was great, some of the sound quality on the songs is ok, like Leaving on a Jet Plane with John Denver, you can't really hear the vocals that well, and watching it looks uncorordinated. On the newer songs, Mary, oh Mary, I don't know what happened to her voice, I mean I think smoking has ruined her voice, she just doesn't fit well with Peter and Noel. Don't Laugh at Me (even thought its a remake) always makes me sad, it just seems like they sing with so much feeling and you can almost imagine the tears in Peters eyes. I would of like to see more songs from the REUNION album, it would of added nice touches.

Take all the discs of this set and put them into your changer. Shut yourself out from the rest of the world and just listen. You'll laugh and you'll cry but most of all, you'll be enthralled with all the magical music that PP&M has brought in our lives over the years. They are truly a national treasure!

The music is fine. However, I bought this collection especially for the bonus tracks. I have most all of their CDs (and had them in Cassette Tape, and 8 track tape and vinyl format before that - time marches on). But I play my music on my computer these days, and these bonus tracks do NOT play from my computer (and I have two drives, and have been able to play pretty much anything else). I do not share music or make copies for friends, but I do copy to my hard drive and play from play lists. Call me old fashioned, but if I pay for a song, I expect to hear the song, or be warned that this might NOT be possible. The tricks the others reviewers speak of do not work for me. I've unfortunately been ripped off. Peter, Paul and Mary, welcome to Corporate America, you have been assimilated.

Sigh!

Okay, why 4 of 5 stars? Because even though this is an extraordiary bargain when you compare the price of this box set to to the individual albums on CD, which don't have bonus tracks for the most part, there are still some songs I feel should have been put in and a few that could have been left out. Also, there is a song listed at the beginning of each disc that the CD player doesn't recognize. More on that later. Overall, I admit I'm pleased. Of the PP&M vinyl records (and one open reel tape) I have, this set includes all but 46 tracks. That's still impressive. Just to name a couple of my missing favorites, "Talkin' Candy Bar Blues" from the "A Song Will Rise" album is a hilarious narrative by Paul on the consequences of offering a boy a candy bar simply so it won't go to waste. There is also "Very Last Day" from "In The Wind", "When the Ship Comes In" and "Ballad of Spring Hill" both also from "A Song Will Rise. I could go on. Maybe if we're all realy lucky, the other songs might come out in another box set. I'm not holding my breath though. Overall, the 99 tracks on this set are certainly worth it. There was one thing that really bugged me. Maybe someone can help me out here. At the very beginning of the listings for each CD, there is a bonus unreleased track listed, but no CD player in the house (3) recognizes it, and it starts off with the next song. For what it's worth, those "first" songs are written in a different color ink to highlight it. So, what gives?
Anyone wanting to get a good foothold of some the very finest folk music that made the 60s the best era for music, I highly recommend this set.

Although I already own the other PPM boxed set, "Collection", I got this set because it contains tracks not found elsewhere, including some rare, live versions of songs. I own every PPM CD, all of Paul's solo CDs, "Reunion" on vinyl and tape (I wish it would come out on CD), and all of Peter's and Mary's solo albums on vinyl (all that was ever available, I believe). I was hoping for more of the items not available on other CDs, but this this set has only a few. "Collection" has more from the solo albums". I rated this only two stars is because my motivation in getting this set was for the items not available on CD, including the bonus tracks. Like some of the other reviewers, I could not get them to play on my car CD player, which is where I normally listen. Although I never make "car" copies of CDs, if my computer recognizes the extra tracks (I haven't tried yet), that's my only alternative to hear the songs I paid for. I would encourage the set's publisher to reissue this set without the "trick" to get the bonus tracks. After all, the buyers paid for the whole set, so they should be able to easily hear the whole set.