This is another of the Rolling Stone magazine’s compilation CDs distributed by Rhino Records in 2002. Once again, the choices seem to be random. Whoever made the choices of the songs stuck to mostly mainstream, popular hits. The only “daring” pick is The Grateful Death’s “Casey Jones.”
As 2021 winds down, sometimes it’s fun to stroll down Memory Lane. Do you remember these songs from the Early Years of Rock & Roll? Any favorites? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
A series of compilation CDs produced as a collaboration between Rolling Stone Magazine and Rhino Records:
| Various | Rolling Stone Presents: Blues (CD, Comp) 2002 | |||||
| Various | Rolling Stone Presents: Male Singer-Songwriters (CD) | 2001 | ||||
| Various | Rolling Stone Presents Female Singer-Songwriters (CD, Comp) | 2001 | ||||
| Various | Rolling Stone Presents The 70’s California Sound (CD, Comp, RM) 2002 |
I remember only a few of these artists and songs, probably their greatest hits like “Help me make it through the night” etc.
And Susan Tedeschi and her husband Derek Trucks have become one of my favourite Blues performers.
A bit OT:
I remember that one of the first things I bought on my USA trips starting in the 1980s always was the current issue of Rolling Stone after seeing it in London once. And then of course I visited the record stores in Chelsea and the big one north of Times Square. Forgot its name but remember how disappointed I was some years ago when I found it closed. Seems they couldn’t pay the rent anymore.
Wolf, most magazines in the U.S. are struggling. ROLLING STONE used to be a “must-read” periodical but over time, its readership has declined.
I stopped reading RS when it cut back on record reviews and started focusing too much on hip hop artists.
Steve, the switch from interviews and record reviews to “entertainment” happened to ROLLING STONE in the early 1980s. That’s when I checked out too.
Not a bad cd.. Not a bad song on it.. Favorites are Oh.Well by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac (why it didn’t include part 2 is odd. It’s just a pretty piano piece on the end), White Rabbit, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and Dixie Chicken.
Steve, I agree with you. A solid CD. There’s only 10 songs on this CD so the second part of “Oh Well” could have easily fit on this disc.
The ones by The Band and Jefferson Airplane are big favorites and the rest are OK except for Casey Jones. I’ve never gotten the point or understood the attraction of the Dead. It’s pretty short for a compilation. I started reading ROLLING STONE in the Sixties and stuck with it until the mid-Eighties.
Michael, my ROLLING STONE reading pattern matches yours. I started reading ROLLING STONE around 1967 and continued until the early 1980s. Yes, these Rhino/ROLLING STONE compilation CDs only have about 10 songs on them. But there’s a detailed description of the groups included on the CD. Like you, I’ve never figured out the appeal of The Grateful Dead.
This dates from the years I was still listening to rock music so I know most of them. I do believe I got Rolling Stone Magazine for quite a while. Also my son did later.
Patti, ROLLING STONE was a trend-setting magazine back in the Sixties and Seventies. I think ROLLING STONE started to falter in the 1980s and was diminished in the 1990s. This compilation CD from the early 2000s was an attempt to stay “relevant” to what ROLLING STONE considered their “base.”
An interesting compilation…a bit more “off the beaten path” than most, particularly the inclusion of Little Feat.
I used to read Rolling Stone and I still have several volumes of The Rolling Stone Interviews. But as we moved from the 1970s into the 1980s, I stopped reading it.
Deb, Michael and I stopped reading ROLLING STONE just about the time you did. ROLLING STONE was a “must-read” periodical in the Sixties and most of the 1970s. By the 1980s, it slipped into the “meh” category.
Um, I hate to tell Rolling Stone this if they don’t know it, but the “early years” of rock & roll were the mid-1950s, not 1966 (Summer in the City) -1970. That said, yes I know most of the songs. Favorites include Summer in the City and Get Together, but I like pretty much all of them to some degree.
Jeff, you’re right about the “early years” of Rock & Roll being the mid-1950s. But ROLLING STONE started publishing in 1967 so I suppose they consider the “early years” to be around that date.
They mean the Early Years of ROLLING STONE…
Here’s a moving report on the summer in the city of NY in 1966:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/nyregion/summer-in-the-city-lovin-spoonful-soundtrack-for-city-summer.html
This brings back memories …
Though of course my student friends and revolutionaries looked at it from far far away., we did demonstrate with
Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today.
Wolf, nice one. “Summer in the City” was one of the few “summer” songs in rock & roll that was really a big hit in the summer. I had dropped out of college and was working in Midtown that summer, and believe me, I remember how hot it was. Very, very hot. The end of June and beginning of July was particularly bad. I remember going to the beach with a friend and having to leave at noon because the sane was too hot to walk on. We had 10 days over 90 degrees in June (only the second time that has happened in New York, and the last), another 16 in July. Plus it was one of only two years we had four days of 100 degrees plus, between June 27 and July 13.
So, perfect timing for “Summer in the City.”
I suppose if you a 20 something these are still the early years of rock
Steve, you’re right: it’s all a matter of perspective.
Yep, know and like every one of them. Solid collection.
Rick, I’ve enjoyed all the ROLLING STONE PRESENTS CDs that I’ve heard.
I’ll repeat…the cuteness here is that these are from The Early Years of ROLLING STONE…hence the magazine-cover-style front cover of the cd package.
I’d suggest that, given the surviving cult audience for the Dead, if any one of these tracks is Most Obscure to most listeners these days, it’d be the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac…but that band-name would catch a few eyes, presumably…
It was ROLLING STONE that put me onto the Zombies, so there is that.
A decent collection of songs! I’m not sure I ever read the magazine other than an article once in a blue moon!
Bob, I consider the high point of my reading ROLLING STONE in the 1970s the years Hunter S. Thompson wrote those amazing articles for it.