Customer Reviews

Ultimate Collection

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been a Guess Who fan since the beginning, and I've followed them through all their changes. The best music the band made was in obscure albums like Artificial Paradise and #10. I treasure these albums and still drag out old vinyl to hear them, despite my huge collection of modern CDs. A collection of singles like this only highlights their popular music, which hardly does them justice. But this set is better than no set at all! When I say good solid rock and roll, I mean memorable lyrics, catchy melodies, creative musical dynamics, complex textures, better-than-professional quality instrumentals, and fabulous vocals and vocal harmonies. The Guess Who delivers on all these counts. Kurt Winter was one of the great unsung heroes of rock and roll. Don't miss this collection, but hold your breath and hope for CD releases of all the Guess Who's really memorable music!

For fans of The Guess Who, their current CD catalog is disappointing, particularly when some of their best music (with Kurt Winter) is unavailable. Which is one of the problems I have with this collection. The same songs that you can find on most of the other Guess Who collections are found here--not a lot of hard to find material. I especially miss songs from "Rockin'" and "So Long Bannatyne", such as "Smoke Big Factory", "She Might Have Been A Nice Girl", "One Man Army", "Back To The City" and "Nashville Sneakers". Great tunes left off this collection in favor of weaker tunes like "Arrivederci Girl", "Orly", "One Divided" and "Truckin' off Across the Sky". Naturally the choices for collections are subjective, but even "Albert Flasher" was never one of my favorites, and you'll find it on every Guess Who "Best Of...". Let's hope that we can get those missing tracks somewhere soon...!

As usual, being an audiophile nut & a big Guess Who / Burton Cummings fan, my review of this fine collection of songs isn't about the material but the sound. As with some the other reviews, I wish RCA/BMG would stop messing around with releasing all kinds of so called "greatest hits" packages (all with the same songs) & release all of the RCA collection of Guess Who albums in the United States. A couple of years ago, some of the less comercially successful but far superior albums were released in Canada on these "2 for 1" CD's with absolutly horrible sound. I bought them all & in less than a week sold them all on ebay !! (I much rather listen to the vinyl than these nasty sounding cds) Anyway, this collection isn't as bad as those from a sound standpoint, the highs are nice & clear but the collection was equalized with way too much low end, especially at around the 40 hz level. You may not notice this as much on a boom box but if you have good equipment with a subwoofer, the bass is way too overpowering on just about all the songs. What you might do to overcome this is to record the collection through an equalizer & onto a home audio CD-R. This way you can trim back on the lows around 30 to 40 hz & end up with a decent sounding recording.

This is a disappointing review for me to write, as The Guess Who were the very first artist I listened to growing up, starting from the Canned Wheat days up to their '76 demise. While I'm happy to see the Canadian greats get their due on a box set, the results of the product itself are a general disappointment.

First, the sound quality varies far too much. Most of the American Woman songs sounded like they were remixed layer by layer, resulting on unnecessary & very noticeable tape hiss. The CD version of the American Woman album may be duller in dynamics, but it's more listenable because the hiss is minimized in comparison.

In addition, a few songs were altered: For example, the last 20 seconds are missing from "Share The Land". Several of the mixes also miss the mark, particularly in the softer passages (like the ending of "Sour Suite"), resulting in a messy, noisy tone.

Finally, as the Guess Who underwent various personnel changes, the quality of their music started to deteriorate by the mid-70s, particularly the Flavours and Power In The Music periods. Some of the songs are hit-and-miss as a result: Whereas you rediscover gems like "Lie Down" and "Broken", you also wince through overblown excesses like the cheesy "Dreams" and lame "Women".

The liner notes are also useless, more of an afterthought than informative. Information regarding the recording sessions would have been nice, along with personnel-per-track and any unusual stories that captivate the fan. Even the discography is woefully inaccurate, failing to acknowledge the band's total body of work (even if more than half of it is out of print). While John Einarson's book, "American Woman: The Story Of The Guess Who" serves its purpose, most box sets these days are graced with lavish booklets with great details (e.g., King Crimson's "The Great Deceiver").

Of course, it's better for most of these songs to have seen the light of day, but just three outtakes is all RCA/BMG could have come up with?

For the record, the best Guess Who product out there right now is an out-of-print 1994 remaster of Share The Land, which shines with clean sound and a detailed, rich mix. Once you hear that, then you will have an idea of how The Ultimate Collection should have been handled.

In the extended version of "Runnin' Back to Saskatoon" Burton Cummings sings this verse:
I been hangin' around camera stores
I been learnin' 'bout sight
I been talkin' to film makers
I been workin' on eyes

you won't here this verse on the original hit ....

Singer Songwriter


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This is perfect for you if any of the following apply. You are an "old school" Guess Who fan and all your Guess who material is on old vinyl and you just don't feel like transferring it to digital. Or you're a new Guess Who fan, or potential fan, and would like to get all the big hits and a bunch of other fun stuff with one easy purchase. This will do the job. For me, I'm an "old school" guy with all the albums and 45's, but wanted an easy way to get all the tunes into my iPod, so I bought this box set.

Serious fans will tell you there are a ton of tracks and fun obscure things that are available that are NOT on here, and if you're trying to compile it ALL, this isn't going to be of much help. This is NOT an "anthology", nor even a veiled attempt to get "it all in one box". Yes, some of the mixes are slightly different than on the records all us Baby Boomers have etched into our brains, and we'll notice. I haven't heard any variations that really torqued me off, but for the hard core fan, maybe. Yes the sound has been remastered and re-eq'ed, and yes some of it does sound a bit heavy on the bottom end. There is some noticeable "muddiness" here and there but I don't notice it so much on the ipod or in the car. These tracks do not have the same brilliance as the original vinyl. But, if you bought it to play in your car, or thru earbuds, you're not really going to notice all that much difference when you've got road noise or limited frequency response to deal with in your playback system.

I had delayed buying this set for quite some time based on the negative reviews I read, and fully intended to put my vinyl into the computer. But by the time I play it all in, title it all correctly, type up the ID tags, etc etc etc.. it became MUCH more work than I wanted to deal with, but I still wanted this band in my iPod. So, I gave in and bought the set and I don't regret it. When I really want to hear the songs the way I remember them, I play them on my vintage high end stereo in my house off the original records. In the meantime I play the ipod plugged into the car stereo, etc, and it's perfectly acceptable.

Different strokes for different folks. This IS a handy way to get a lot of good Guess Who tunes at your immediate disposal. And if you've never HEARD the Guess Who before, you won't know the difference and will still be amazed at the incredible musicianship and wide spectrum of styles and music these guys churned out.

It may not have been their biggest hit, but "Shakin' All Over" was sure as heck the best thing the Guess Who ever did and is easily one of the top 10 greatest rock'n'roll songs of all time. (The original version by England's Johnny Kidd and the Pirates is also excellent, but the Who make rather a mess of it on their otherwise superb "Live at Leeds" album.)
The Guess Who are even opening their current (2001) tour of the U.S. with Shakin' All Over, and man does it cook!! Sets the stage perfectly for one hell-aciously good show. So one might have thought with three CDs to fill, BMG or RCA who whatever label put this baby out could have easily squeezed Shakin' in. But noooooooooo! It ain't here. Perhaps Burton Cummings was miffed that the vocal was performed by original vocalist Chad Allen (but heck, they could have wiped Chad's vocal and put on Burton's and it would probably be even better -- although I never realized until many years later that it wasn't Burton). Or more likely there was some contract dispute with whomever owns the rights to the early recordings. Regardless, I refuse to buy this collection without Shakin' -- it would be like buying a copy of the Mona Lisa without her smile. I do, however, give the compiler much credit for including the group's second best track (and a non-hit at that), "Heart Brokin' Bopper" from the criminally under-rated "Rockin'" album -- the band's best post-Bachman recording. My band used to do a cover version of it, and even we sounded good on it! They might also add Burton's best solo track, "Stand Tall." And if the reviewer above is correct about the booklet being skimpy, I'd say wait for something better to come out. Record label people, please note: the booklets for these retrospective anthologies are often nearly as important to me as the CDs -- so please don't skimp on them!I hope they issue a live CD of the current tour -- it's real interesting to hear the band transform into Bachman, Turner, Guesswhover Drive and cover BTO's biggest hits (which far outshine most of the later-day Guess Who material). ...

This ain't the "ultimate collection" by a long shot; the "ultimate collection" would be all of their albums from WHEATFIELD SOUL through POWER IN THE MUSIC remastered and re-realeased throughout the world (not just in select countries). But as BMG/RCA continues to exhibit classic muleheadedness by refusing to do that, this 3-CD set will suffice for the moment. Along with the "hits," you get some under-heard stuff from their Burton Cummings-era albums, and a lot of it still sounds great after all these years. Come on, BMG/RCA, get those original albums out on the streets--they deserve to be heard!

As the years have gone on, I have been given a bad time about listening to the same music since 1970. My Guess Who albums, every one ever released, have been played so much that they have lost their zip. This collection is the best available and sounds great. A few of my favorite tunes are not included such as Talisman, Just Let Me Sing and a few others, but since I am a die hard fan, I can't expect a collection to have it all. If you need a dose of Guess Who, you can't go wrong with this collection.

The definitive retrospective CD disc that tells all every full history legacy story of Canada's own rock'n roll band The Guess Who chronicling on how they got started in their music career as Chad Allan & The Experessions growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. For musicians Burton Cummings who enterted from a local band who he started out with called "The Deverons" and Randy Bachman highlighted for sure here. About their songwriting teamwork relationship during the mid sixties detailed!