Black Crowes - Greatest Hits 1990-1999: Tribute Work in Progress [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED]

Black Crowes

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 5, 2002)
• Original Release Date: June 20, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: American Recordings
• ASIN: B000062XAZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,165 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Jealous Again

2. Twice As Hard

3. Hard To Handle

4. She Talks To Angels

5. Remedy

6. Sting Me

7. Thorn In My Pride

8. Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye

9. A Conspiracy

10. Wiser Time

11. Good Friday

12. Blackberry

13. Kickin' My Heart Around

14. Go Faster

15. Only A Fool

16. By Your Side

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Like the Black Crowes themselves, the greatest-hits collection A Tribute to a Work in Progress hearkens back to the good old days of best-of collections: you get a bunch of songs you've probably heard on the radio a million times and that's it. These are arguably the group's best songs, but there are no unreleased outtakes or remixes to force rabid collectors to purchase the disc for the sake of two songs. This straightforward document of a straightforward band is also the best entryway to the group's fabulous, swaggering, ballsy, bluesy rock & roll--that is, next to their 1992 breakthrough, Southern Harmony & Musical Companion. While arranged chronologically, what one hears here is the Atlanta-based group playing great, unpretentious Stones-, Faces-, and Zep-influenced rock. This music was made for pure, visceral enjoyment, so play it really loud and dance around. --Mike McGonigal

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Missing some singles, but great compilation for casual fans, August 27, 2003

By	Bill M. "bill_m1" (MA, USA) - See all my reviews

It's strange to see a "Greatest Hits" collection from a band that, in the eyes of many die-hard fans, seems to be the furthest thing from a "radio" or "hit singles" band. Many deadheads criticize "Skeletons In The Closet: The Best Of The Grateful Dead" for similar reasons. Similarly, fans of both bands viciously collect and trade concert bootlegs, and hardly any of these shows consist of more than one or two songs from the band's repsective compilation album.

Never the less, The Black Crowes had a successful string of singles and Mtv videos, especially during the time of their first two albums. And having been around for over 10 years, it seems like some sort of compilation album was due. As with any band's Greatest Hits compilation, this one is obviously not designed for the fan who already owns all the band's albums, but rather for the casual fan: the one who always liked what they heard from The Black Crowes on the radio or Mtv, but just never got around to buying anything from them.

So with this in mind, the CD does a very good job. The songs have been remastered, and the CD sounds consistantly good in sound quality. The liner notes show their whole album and single discography. The most well-known songs from the band come from their first two albums, and they're graciously represented here in tracks 1-8. The first 4 tracks also represent the first 4 Black Crowes videos, all of which got very fair airplay on Mtv and VH-1.

Though with the next 4 tracks, it seems a little strange that "Sting Me" was included while "Sometimes Salvation" was omitted. "Sting Me" was released as a single, but unlike "Sometimes Salvation" a video was never made for this song. I would think that not many casual fans have heard "Sting Me". Similarly, it seems that other singles from the band (particularly "Hotel Illnes", "Highhead Blues") should have ended up on this compilation in place of other songs that didn't get nearly as much airplay. Then again, maybe these are still obscure songs in the mind of the casual fan.

My only other complaint is that this compilation came out before the live albums with Jimmy Page, and the most recent studio album "Lions". As I write this review, the Black Crowes have since taken a declared sabbatical, and are not sure when they plan on reuniting to make more albums. So since the band is now broken up (again, at least for a long while), this CD is a few tracks short of being a truly all-encompassing album. Of course, nobody really knew this was going to happen in 1999.

I still highly recommend this album to anybody who's liked the Black Crowes but just never bought any of their CDs. I've bought it as a gift for friends in this position, and they've thoroughly enjoyed it. Great, well-written rock songs from a great band.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff, July 16, 2000

By	VoodooLord7 (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Black Crowes - Greatest Hits 1990-1999: A Tribute to a Work in Progress (Audio CD)

If you are a fan of old time rock 'n' roll, or southern rock, or blues rock then this cd is for you. That is, if you don't already own a substantial part of the Black Crowes catalog. As with all other "best of" albums that don't feature any new or previously unreleased material, this is an album for fans looking to get into the Black Crowes that own none or very few of their albums. It's not for the fan who already has everything, except, of course, to complete your collection. No one can argue with the excellent music on here (Jealous Again, She Talks To Angels, Remedy, Go Faster, etc.), but it's useless if you already own the songs. For people just getting into the band however (like me) it is a must-buy.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crowes do "Greatest Hits" right, July 18, 2000

By	B. K. Erickson "Shake Dog" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Black Crowes - Greatest Hits 1990-1999: A Tribute to a Work in Progress (Audio CD)

I want to disagree with the previous review that complains about not having any live or unreleased tracks on this Greatest Hits album. I think the Black Crowes honor their fans by NOT making them shell out full price to get a couple of new songs along with a bunch they already own. I just wish this was a more common practice.