Rating: 3/5
Review: Some decent early tracks and some absolutely dreadful stuff
This is a compilation of some good and some pretty mediocre stuff with distinctly variable sound quality.
I have only the mp3 download of this album, which came with no documentation so I can't elaborate on specifics, but the first disc is early work with The Yardbirds and the second is Eric in collaboration with Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Cream. The Cream tracks are listed as "feat. Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker," and just the ignorance shown by that listing probably gives an indication of the quality of this compilation.
I'm afraid I have no idea where these recordings were sourced or what their copyright status is. What I can say is that it's good to have some of these early Yardbirds recordings and, given their age the sound quality is reasonable. Some scarcely feature Eric at all, but he's there already doing wondrous stuff on tracks like Snake Drive, for example. The second disc is a pretty mixed bag of some good collaborations and some frankly tedious stuff, and some of the sound quality here is absolutely dreadful - muddy, indistinct and with appalling balance so that guitar and vocals are scarcely audible.
I've given this three stars because I'm glad to have some of the early stuff and one or two of the later collaborations, but be warned that some tracks on here are so poorly recorded that they should never have been included on a commercial release. One for diehard fans and completists, really, and it comes with a severe health warning.
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