Various Artists - Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970

Everybody get Together, gotta Love one Another , right now

This little package is well worth the money for two reasons, in my humble opinion.

Firstly for the pictures. I love some of the photographs contained within the book. My two favourites are the bands at the start of the book, together, including the Dead and the Airplane. My other personal favourite is the beautiful photograph of Grace Slick and Janis Joplin together. Wonderful.

The other significant reason for liking this compndium is the musical collection. Some may argue about the tracks and the bands and we all have our own personal demands. Some may argue about the songs, or the versions but hey. You know what. My CD collection has the vast majority of the tracks already but here, in four majickal CDs is the almost complete Bay Area Multiverse, something Time Life will never understand. Where else can you hear all of these wonderful musicians playing their music in the sun.

This collection is attractive to anyone wanting to know more about the scene, or to people who have discovered the groove already but it is the icing on the cake. The cake is the albums that people should search out and listen to and add to their collections and they will discover the true nature of the San Francisco musical diaspora. November 11, 2008

A Real Time Machine!!!

My wife purchased this wonderful box set for me as a gift - considering that she always refers to me as an "aging hippie" and an afficiando of the Psychedelic Sound from the 60's, she could not have given me anything better than this box set!

Sandwiched between the musical bookends of "Let's Get Together" performed by Dino Valenti (erstwhile vocalist of Quicksilver Messenger Service) and "Get Together" by the Youngbloods, these 4 amazing CDs contain such gems by Moby Grape, Sly and the Family Stone, Grateful Dead, The Charlatans, Blue Cheer, Ace of Cups, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Count Five, some lesser known bands of that time period, and soooooo much more - not to mention the really interesting and informative book that accompanies the CDs (or is it the CDs that accompany the book? Now that's an interesting thing to groove on when listening). Read it while the songs are playing - there are notes on each artist in order of the songs on each CD as you can journey through them one by one.

I play these CDs over and over in my office - and I've had this "collection" by Rhino for nearly a year now, and I have not gotten tired of listening to the tunes that this wonderful box set provides. The CDs are the best ear candy I have listened to, and the book the best eye candy I've seen on this very magical period of rock music that ever existed or ever will exist.

If you are a fan of that time and age, and even if you remember those times (or don't!), this is the quintessinal gift to ask for - or if you know someone who is "stuck in the psychedelic sixties" then it's the quintessinal gift for him or her.

Incredible stuff - it was like going back in time in your own personal time machine - I could have sworn that the memories, smells, feelings, and overall atmosphere of the times were captured with the CDs and the book itself better than any other media I've seen or heard regarding that special time in the history of rock n roll!

Hats off to Rhino for a great job well done!
October 22, 2008

Excellent Package

The 120 page hardcover book that encloses the CDs is alone worth the money. Knowledgeable (& sometimes critical) liner notes give good background of the groups & scene & music. Too many pics of Grace Slick for my taste, but there are a couple of Signe Anderson (the original female singer in the Jefferson Airplane) as well, which is nice to see. Great early photos of Country Joe/Fish (some even before Chicken Hirsch joined). The song I most wanted to hear in this set was "Let's Get Together," as performed by it's writer, Dino Valenti (AKA Chet Powers). It was great to hear it as a simple acoustic guitar accompanied folk song; the set also includes the Youngbloods cover version for the sake of comparison, so you can hear what the Youngbloods arrangement/ production added to this beautiful song. I'm not a collector of San Francisco music, per se, so most of these songs were new to me. I especially enjoyed the Great! Society's (the Slick family's group) original version of "Somebody to Love." Other great photos/songs by Janis in Big Brother, Grateful Dead (young!), as well as many obscure groups like The People (I thought they were called "The Magic People," but I guess not). A terrific all-around package! October 19, 2008

If you hear the song I sing, you must understand.

This box set is devoted to the San Francisco rock music scene of the second half of the 1960s. It comes in a hardcover book filled with lots of information, plus beautiful photographs of the performers. The four CDs feature music by performers both well known (Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane) and obscure (Public Nuisance, The Ace of Cups). The vast majority of the songs featured here will be unknown to most listeners. Not every song is great, but most of them are quite enjoyable. This set is well worth getting for fans of '60s rock music. October 1, 2008

Rhino Captures Another Era and Time

Rhino Records does it again. This 4 C.D. box set captures the San Fransisco, West Coast Sound of the mid to late sixties. If you lived in the Bay Area at that time, I highly recommend this box set. I was living in Hawaii at the time and i remember a lot of these tunes, which i haven't heard since that time. I feel that they could have added another disc of the really commercial stuff that we are all familiar with, but i guess with licensing problems and such. The folks who will appreciate this set the most will be the baby boomers. You know the sole suvivors of that great time in music. June 16, 2008

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