Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
+ 1/2 stars...Good Companion to 'Forgotten Trail', October 28, 2006
For Poco fans who want a single collection that illustrates why Poco was a groundbreaking country rock band, 1990's THE FORGOTTEN TRAIL is still the album to own. It contains 38 tracks taken from their first seven albums, covering 1969 to 1974. While they wouldn't have a Top 40 hit until 1979 with the Rusty Young-penned "Crazy Love," FORGOTTEN TRAIL covers the peak years of this influential band.
While GOLD does duplicate five tracks from FORGOTTEN TRAIL (CD-1, tracks 1-5), it includes nothing from 1973's CRAZY EYES (Richie Furay's last album until the LEGACY reunion in 1989) or from CANTAMOS or POCO SEVEN (both from 1974). So essentially GOLD picks up where FORGOTTEN TRAIL left off by covering the next thirty years of the band's history from 1975's HEAD OVER HEELS through 2005's live BAREBACK AT BIG SKY.
What Hip-O does is cherry pick tracks from all thirteen albums released during this period. Disc one has standout tracks like "Keep on Tryin'," "Rose of Cimarron" and "Indian Summer." However, by 1979 (where disc two begins) the band had only one original member left (Rusty Young) in addition to Paul Cotton, who joined the band for their third studio album FROM THE INSIDE in 1971. While LEGEND produced their first Top 40 hits with "Crazy Love" (No. 17) and "Heart of the Night" (No. 20) in 1979, their albums from the Eighties and beyond were not of the same quality as their Seventies output. Consequently, only one or two songs are presented from each of these albums. Despite the previous reviewer's lament, "Cajun Moon" is taken from COWBOYS & ENGLISHMEN (arguably the band's worst album) and "Days Gone By" is from INAMORATA, that album's only highlight. [Note: Days Gone By" was released as a single and peaked at No. 80.]
The only other two Top 40 singles were taken from LEGACY, the much anticipated 1989 reunion album that brought Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Rusty Young, Randy Meisner and George Grantham back together in the studio one last time. The album was a bit over produced (I blame Richard Marx), but it resulted in the singles "Call It Love" (No. 18, 1989) and "Nothin' to Hide" (No. 39, 1990). [Trivia Alert: The horse illustration on the cover and horse shoe logo on the back of the booklet was originally designed by SNL alum Phil Hartman.]
Bottom Line? Start with the essential 2-CD collection THE FORGOTTEN TRAIL. Then if you want to know the rest of the band's history, GOLD does a more than adequate job of hitting the highlights. [Disc One - 71:50, Disc Two - 68:56] RECOMMENDED
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gold for Poco Fans, January 13, 2007
Poco has been and will continue to be one of the leading proponents of country rock. Gold reemphasizes this
by including a glimpse of one of the truly underated great country rock bands in music. The double CD covers
their entire career starting in 1968 to the present. The first CD starts with their first single, Pickin' Up The
Pieces from their first CD. Poco was founded by ex Buffalo Springfield members Richie Furay and Jim Messina.
All of their hits are represented here. Highlights include: Keep on Tryin', Rose of Cimmaron, Indian Summer,
The Heart of the Night, Crazy Love, Under the Gun, Shoot for the Moon, and Streets of Paradise. Disc 2
concludes with the classic Save A Corner of Your Heart For Me. I have been a Poco fan since 1968.
This compilation is a very good start for someone wishes to experience the unique magic and talent of this
great group. For the more serious fan, you may wish to buy some of their individual albums, ie. Indian Summer,
Under The Gun, From The Inside, and Deliverin'. Hipp-O could have easily issued a second double CD, there
exists that many great Poco songs not included in this compilation. I still give it a 5 because of the content
and how it is presented. You will not be disappointed. The Eagles, Lonestar, Alabama, Restless Heart, Rascal
Flats, and all country rock groups that came after Poco, owe Poco for laying the groundwork and establishing
country rock as a force to be reckoned with in the music world. Thank you Poco.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The "Legend" of Poco, April 25, 2007
Okay, first the problem with this release, it's only 2hrs 20mins when 2 discs discs nowdays can run 2hrs 40mins. All the cd's that I'm familiar with in the Gold series have this problem. In the words, there's room for about 4 to 6 additional songs on this compilation. Only two Richie songs show up here and it is missing songs from a couple of key albums. Hint, hint hint. Had they used the extra room to fill in these spots, this would probably be the best career anthology released on this band. However, due to this fact it gets knocked down from a 5 to a 4 star release.
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