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 Mahavishnu 5-disc set Dec 12, 2008
I kind of have to agree with M. Chapman on some of what he says here. I decided to give three of these original album classics a shot (Patti Smith, Byrds and Mahavishnu Orchestra). I am a collector of the japanese mini LP box sets. However the economy being what it is I have had to pass up a few of the one's I would have like to have gotten. In the case of the Patti Smith box, for example, we're talking about around $200 for the Japanese mini LP box vs a hair under $30 for the Original Album Classics box. I just got all three of the boxes I ordered in the mail today and all I can say is you will very definately notice every last one of those $170 dollars difference between the US vs the Japanese sets. And I do not mean that in a good way.
Now I don't know what M Chapman is talking about with regards to any liner notes being out of date as these boxes include absolutely nothing beyond whatever the front and back cover artwork of the original albums were (and NO gatefolds by the way!). In the case of the Mahavishnu Orchestra discs that means you get the songs and line up's more or less and the occasional "I worship at the feet of the golden smurf" poetry. What you do NOT get are ANY sort of protective innersleeves - . I am not talking about the Japanese detail to the first pressings like the original CBS advertising inners. I am talking about anything at all that would have prevented 2 of the discs to fall right out of the covers when I removed them from the box and fall onto the pavement! For that alone I will dock this set 1 point - that is just unbelievably cheap and stingy on the part of whoever made these. Secondly you won't get the 1 sheet inserts that came with a few of the original albums: again: something that would have been SO inexpensive for the label to duplicate and inclue that the ommision of these is just stingy. There goes another point for that. Finally: Visions Of The Emerald Beyond... one of my all time favorite LP covers. One of my all time favorite GATEFOLD LP covers. And Columbia reproduces it as a cheap looking non gatefol issue here. In a box that purports to includes replicas of the original LP sleeves. In the case of the Mahavishnu box that means one less point. Would it have killed Columbia to make that ONE sleeve a gatefold?
Finally the covers themselves are made of really cheap cradstock. This means they have minor scuffs on them from the moment you remove the shrinkwrap. This might not mean anything to the casual buyer who just wants to get 5 cd's cheap (and I WILL credit the US recod companies for that one small favour: at least these sets ARE cheap - because they certainly are NOT worth a penny over let's say $30, if that) but for a collector or for future resale value that kind of means that the packaging could never be called "Mint" or even a true "Mint Minus": and THAT pisses me off big time as a collector. Yet one more point. Leaving this particular Mahavishnu box as a 1 star rated box in my opinion. On the Byrds and Patti Smith's they were all single sleeved covers to begin with. In the case of the Patti's every single one of the original albums had lyric sheets - not one of these do. In the case of the Byrds set... well I have to give that point back because none of them were gatefolds and none of them came with inserts...
And here's my main problem with the entire series: When I was a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's I remember the phrase "Made In Japan" as something that was a catch all phrase for when something would be an inferior and extremely flimsy and cheap knockoff of a US made product. Here the US record companies are taking an idea for boxsets that the Japanese pretty much invented and make so lovingly and caringly. And the US record companies make an EXTREMELY low budget flimsy and cruddy looking knock off. I won't be purchasing any further volumes of this series. You get what you pay for and as a collector it IS worth the extra $100+ dollars to get the well made Japanese mini LP box with the incredible attention to detail etc. Those are gorgeous to look at and they hold their value and they are worth every expensive penny they cost to buy. These one's here? They'll never escalate in value and they all but scream "Cheap Cheap Cheap!". The best thing I can say about them is that unlike 5 jewel box cd's they take up a lot less space. But at least in the jewel box versions you got nice booklets with all the artwork and great liner notes. You just do NOT win with these original Album Classics box sets. Which is really sad: for once the US record industry COULD HAVE gotten things right and created an inexpensive collectable that would have been something very cool to own at a great price. But once again they got just about every single aspect of the whole thing wrong and utterly fail to understand what makes the collector buy these sorts of sets in the first place. Yeah: you have the music and the music still sounds great. But you can get that music - and have been able to get that music - for years now in jewel box format with superior packaging. If these boxsets are geared towards collectors like me who were looking forward to replacing their jewel box versions of these cd's and hoping to save some money by not buying the expensive Japanese boxset equivalents then once again the US record industry did not even come close. It's true that you cannot play the packaging, but when you create a series geared towards the collector then to the true collector packaging is every bit as important as the music...
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 5 great cds at a good price Sep 23, 2008
This is a great way to get these cds cheap.5 great cds at a good price.
You can't play the covers!
4 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Mahavishnu 5-disc set Nov 27, 2007
Very poorly presented product to represent a great band. There were no fewer than a dozen mistakes in the liner and back cover for this set, a list of which I sent to someone at Sony BMG. There were no fewer than 32 mistakes in the liner and back cover for the companion 5-cd set of Shakti & John McLaughlin albums. There is actually no true liner notes for these sets, just extremely poorly done musician credits for each album. I haven't even bothered to listen to the discs themselves yet, since I'm a huge McLaughlin/Mahavishnu fan who already has the earlier editions of all of these records. About the only reason to buy this, imho, is if you can get it really cheap, and do not already have most of the albums. But if you buy this, be aware that some of the information you read is incomplete.
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