Customer Reviews

Just Say Sire: The Sire Records Story

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

 

 

I remember when Sire showed up and started signing up every group worth signing up in NYC in the '70's. They did the same in the U.K. And marched on to one-hit wonders worldwide. I, too, own nearly everything they produced from the late '76+. Some are on vinyl, others I replicated on cassettes, some are irreplaceable. I could quibble with what's left out. I view these box sets as portable greatness to take to parties, cruising in the car, on the boat, or anywhere where I can't grab ahold of the original. I invested so much in vinyl & cassettes I can't begin to replicate ALL of it anymore. I'm old and tired. I need something to remind me why I loved the music in the first place, that sends me back to the Closet of Death for my Lps and singles. Seymour Stein did the era proud. I wish more labels showed as much support for original music & let the Billboard Charts be damned! Sire was one of a kind. And if a Madonna (a long shot back in the day when she was a Danceteria regular) or Ramones or Talking Heads sold a few records, great! For each superstar, he signed cult faves like Radio Birdman and the Saints. Somebody had to. He did. Who's doing it today?

It's a good label overview from a GREAT label. Seymour Stein's taste is exemplary.

It's too bad this box didn't focus on the real glory years from 1976 - 1982. Just about everything that came out on Sire during that time was worth owning. M. Telex, Radio Birdman. Rezillos. Saints. Neighborhoods. Boney M. Flys. Dead Boys. Talking Heads. Ramones. Sire had the most amazing talent and there are still some out of print rarities.

Who is the box marketed for? This box has Sire's biggest hits, which most collectors will have. I would think that Madonna fans typically are not Radio Birdman fans (although I am).

Buy it for a 13 year old music enthusiast who doesn't know anything about the new wave. This is a good place to start.

The "Just Say Yes" series, from 1987-1994 provides a better cross-section, and more rarities than this boxset. The series was an annual sampler of the label's artists. This is somewhat akin to a sampler of those samplers...

I have "Like, Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box (Totally) [BOX SET]", pretty good but overpriced at $100.00; "No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion [BOX SET]", previously my favorite box set (and a great book included as well); "Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the '80s Underground [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]", ho-hum; but this Sire set is the best. While it has a bit of early 90's alternative, it reaffirms that Sire was at the peak of attracting the best in the early and main punk years. And, they included great songs from these great groups that are not rehashes of other "pop" collections. Best value for your alternative $ in my opinion, it's the best I have spent yet. The book is pretty good too. But, go buy "No Thanks" if you still have some OTB on your credit card after you get this.

...the Sire label was in the forefront, the label one could trust to deliver the goods. Listening to this anthology you'll hear many old friendly tunes by groups who are now forgotten and others that continue on. Like any collection there are favorites missing and other songs included one wished weren't--but that's a norm one expects. There was a time when this music, the stable of Sire signings, wasn't played on top 40 radio, it was usually found lower on the FM dial played by college stations. And never played at "the clubs," I was lucky to live in the San Francisco area where late at night on KSAN it was featured and one could go to a club called X's and pogo the night away. What these three (Sire, Ksan + X's) had in common is Howie Klein + I am thankful to him. "Thank you Howie!" This anthology is gonna be BIG fun, fun, fun.

The title said it all. It shouldn't be this hard to enjoy music but this is a bit of soulless junk for the most part for me. This isn't to say there isn't talent here, there sure is and I sometimes wish my musically taste was wider but we are what we are.

Of course no collect is without its moments. I'll admit I've never like anything by The Ramones and nothing here changes that.

The DVD has 20 music video's but the quality of this media is suspect as a number of the tracks seem to be extracted from second-hand video tape (maybe my DVD player?). Erasure, Madonna, The Pretenders and Barenaked Ladies are better served here.

Maybe this collect will grow on me before it's put away...

I only recently heard about the release of this box set, and it's long over due. EVERYONE from the 80's owned something from Sire, you couldn't avoid it. They were essential to Americans who didn't have ready access to the pricy imports. They signed The Smiths, Aztec Camera, The Undertones, The Cure, The Pretenders, Echo & The Bunnymen, etc.. My only wish now is that they release a box set of the Just Say Sire series, or how about a reissue of Return Of The Killer B's? Even Belle & Sebastian wrote a song about label founder Seymour Stein. Nuff said.

The Good
To be fair, I only have a nineteen track sample to review this set with, but I do have the complete track listing. Sire Records broke more big names in multiple genres than you might think, and include some (I need to stress some) of their biggest hits on this set.

You get Madonna's earliest cut "Everybody" plus her most controversial "Like A Prayer", The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Rock N Roll High School", The Pretenders "Back on the Chain Gang" and "Brass in Pocket", Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" and "Once in a Lifetime", The Cult's "Fire Woman" and "She Sells Sanctuary", The Cure's "The Love Cats" and "Let's Go to Bed", and Depeche Mode's "People Are People" and "Enjoy the Silence".

There's more, but you get the point. In addition to artists that went on to long and fruitful musical careers, this box set also includes those who went down in history as `one hit wonders', but still got a lot of mileage out of it either way; Soft Cell's "Tainted Love", M's "Pop Music", Barenaked Ladies "One Week", and Seal's "Crazy". Yeah, you can fight me on the Seal & Barenaked ladies, but you know I'm right.

The Bad
The majority of this box set focuses on more obscure, underground, or virtually unknown artists; Yaz, The Bluebells, Ofra Haza, Everything But the Girl, Telex, Plastic Bertrand, The Rezillos, The Normal, The Mighty Lemon Drops, Book of Love, Belly, The farm, Spacehog, Apex Twin, and there's a lot more. I'm sure some people know who these bands are, but I'm willing to bet you don't know all of them.

The Verdict
Let's face it, box sets are rather pricey. When you make the decision to buy one, you're going to expect to hear a lot of songs that you know and love. Just Say Sire is a great archive of what the record label has accomplished over their lifetime, but it's really only appealing to those that were a part of it. There is a decent selection of tracks that any music lover would recognize, but there are far more that they wouldn't.