Customer Reviews

Streets of London: Best of

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This looks like a "greatest hits" collection by this most underrated of the great British singer-songwriters, but buyer beware. This is a set of Ralph's early songs and some blues covers, mostly recorded with just voice and guitar, dating from 1968-1969. Documentation is nonexistent except for notation of the authorship of the songs. The recording quality is not the best. Those exploring the extraordinary career and gifts of Ralph McTell would be much better off spending the extra money for the collection entitled "From Clare to Here," which contains a much broader range of Ralph's songs, better recorded and performed. That album is a five-star masterpiece. This one should primarily be of interest to Ralph's ardent fans, as it contains some rare early songs and covers perhaps not available elsewhere on CD. The performances are perfectly fine, but don't get this one until you have bought and memorized "From Clare to Here."

Having struck gold some twenty years ago with a bit of vinyl called "Ralph McTell Live" recorded at the Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House, I recently was emboldened to at long last purchase a Ralph McTell CD. Given its prominence on the Amazon selection list I purchased "Streets of London: The Best of Ralph McTell," figuring it's "best of," how can I go wrong with that? Ultimately, the CD did not match my expectations, particularly compared to my euphoria from that old LP, released in 1978.

Song selection is instructive. Naturally, "Streets of London" leads off the CD, but it pales compared to the old live version which I found, and still find, as transporting as any Christmas Carol or church spiritual that I've ever heard. The original studio version is good, but lacks the emotional depth permeating the live version. The next two selections are instrumentals. Maybe I'm ignorant (seriously) as I'm hardly a McTell aficionado, but do people really buy his CD's to hear him play guitar? Too many other selections then fall into a country blues variety, which are all good, but not what I expected. Rather than being taken by the hand and led through the streets of London, I'm too frequently finding myself in Nashville...or Mobile, even, which was not what I was hoping for. Yes, there are more than a couple redeeming cuts, but already I've gone back to Amazon seeking the live version of that old piece of vinyl on CD. Apparently, it's been transferred, but not easily available.

After years of hearing the title song in my head, I finally found this wonderful recording. It's musical and traditional.