Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsBeautiful box set with some great, average, and bad music
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2019
The box set itself is beautiful. The cover has a lenticular logo and you get some nice (if non-essential) goodies like guitar picks (one would have been fine) all access passes, posters, etc. The book is fine as well. Where the set falls short is in the musical content and, in particular, the DVD, which is borderline unwatchable and unlistenable. Some of the choices are great, such as the alternate version of Fly Like An Eagle from 1974, and a few of the other alternate and live versions. There are some questionable choices, however. Did we really need two alternate versions of Rock'n Me, neither of which is anywhere near as good as the original? And it is inexcusable not to include Space Cowboy in its original release, one of his best songs. But the major fail here is the DVD. I'm sure that some effort was made to improve the visual quality of some of these performances, which in some cases are truly historic documents of his early years. The visuals from the sixties and seventies are, by any measure, pretty poor. But the major issue is the sound quality, which approaches unlistenable until "Abracadabra" from 1982. Could not some of the money producing this lavish set have been used to remaster the visuals and especially the audio? I'm a pretty big fan of the SMB and I will not be watching this DVD again. An average box set that could have been essential.
