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Topic: Rare Earth The Collection

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Rare Earth World
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Rare Earth The Collection
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It's been a 3 year wait for the Spectrum release Rare Earth The Collection and has it been worth the wait?.  The answer from us here at Rare Earth World is a big resounding NO, let me explain.  At the very beginning of this project we were contacted by Spectrum/Motown and asked to put forward a track listing for the compilation, we were told that it was to contain 18 tracks.  We sat down put our heads together and came up with over 20 songs for them to choose from.


We took it as red that the bands 6 big singles (Get Ready, Born to Wander, Celebrate, Losing You, Big Brother, Warm Ride) would have to be included although they have appeared many times on CD before, we knew Motown/Spectrum would not release anything without the hits on it.  The rest of our choices were a mixture of tracks that had not been issued on CD before and most importantly we put forward many tracks that had NEVER been issued in any form before, our thinking being that Rare Earth fans had had enough of compilations containing the same old tracks again and again so we thought that selecting some songs from 50 plus unreleased tracks in Motown's famous vaults would give the fans something different for a change.  The response from our contact at Spectrum was positive, so we thought hey if only a handful of the unreleased stuff makes it to the final disc we will all be happy and the fans will have something worthwhile.


So when we saw the final track listing we were appalled, NONE of the unreleased material is included, in fact only 1 track makes its CD debut on this and that is "Someone to Love" from the One World album. making this disc pointless, leaving us here at Rare Earth World speechless.


Let's now look at the 18 tracks that have made it to "The Collection".  The selection of tracks are either b sides of singles or  tracks from the bands first 4 albums for Motown.  There are 6 of their Motown albums that are not represented on this disc,  nothing from MA and the 3 albums released on Prodigal,but the biggest omission has to be NO tracks from the 2 albums with Jerry La Croix on lead vocals, which is crazy.  The cd cover itself shows a line up that plays on just one track......1 track!!!!!


So to sum up we are left wondering who this disc is actually aimed at? as we certainly won't be buying this CD when it hits the streets on the 12th April.  As I said to Spectrum when we submitted our track selection, many Rare Earth fans boycotted the 20th Century Masters Millenium Collection because they have all the stuff on it and could not see the point in buying  yet another CD that repeats itself yet again, so I said that the Spectrum compilation had to have something different.  Let's face it if a bands hardcore following is boycotting a release it says it all does'nt it!


Long suffering Rare Earth fans are used to shabby treatment on the re issue front from Motown down the years but this CD release is beyond belief.


We will be writing to Universal/Motown soon to try and get some answers to the points I have raised here. We openly invite them to come on to this site and and discuss with us the fans, the poor state of affairs regarding this collection in particular and their plans (or lack of them) in general of the release of product by Rare Earth.


Just remember Rare Earth recorded 11 albums for Motown and only 4 of them have ever appeared on CD and none of them are currently available.


Please feel free to join this topic with your coments.


Thanks


Richard from the Rare Earth World team


 


 



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bob
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How did they choose the tracks for this new collection.....they pressed the shuffle button from the other best of's......... THANKS UNIVERSAL!

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Rare Earth World
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You hit the nail square on the head Bob, your description was perfect.  I can see no point of this release for the Rare Earth fan, for the casual buyer who remembers Get Ready its great value for money but for hardcore fans forget it.


So come on Universal/Motown/Spectrum defend your corner, the offer still stands to come on to this site and defend your reasons for the the track selection on this disc.


Also Rare Earth fans whats your opinions on this, join in the debate.


Thanks.Richard



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JP
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First of all I can't comment on the track listing as I haven't seen it, however.....


You're kidding yourself if you think people want the Jerry LaCroix stuff on CD.  Jerry LaCroix couldn't sniff Pete's jock.  Rare Earth without Pete is like The Rolling Stones without Mick.  The Beatles without John or Paul.


Rare Earth were a great band, but unfortunately their greatness was short-lived.  After 74 it was all downhill and to be honest, it really started to unravel in 72 after One World and the live record after John left the band.


Dreams/Answers, Get Ready, Ecology, One World & Rare Earth live.  That is essential Rare Earth.


Willie Remembers was decent enough but Motown wanted smash hits or nothing.  Ma wasn't as good as many people think, due to the fact that by this time, Rare Earth were basically Norman's puppets.


After Pete left....pffft.


So as far as unreleased stuff.  If there is anything in the vaults from 67-74, then that's something.  Possibly the stuff from the Generation record that is supposedly out there.


As Far as the cover photo- it should be the original lineup- plain and simple.  Pete, John, Gil, Kenny, & Rod.


What's all the fuss?



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UKDave
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I don't necessarily agree with the last comment. Although I do believe that Rare Earth peaked with One World / Rare Earth In Concert, I think that Willie Remembers is a very fine album. I was bewildered when Ma was released. At the time I couldn't fathom out why they'd gone from releasing an album of self-penned material to an album of Norman Whitfield songs. Now I know that Motown were waving the big stick. Well if the song "Ma" was an intended to replicate the success of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", it failed dismally. If it had been limited to 4 minutes it would still have been 3 minutes too long for me. To stretch it to a whole album side....well, you make up your own minds!


That being said, I felt that "Big John Is My Name" was up to scratch and possibly "Hum Along And Dance" despite the lack of lyrical imagination.


 A wealth of line-up changes took place beyond this point. Despite this, I don't feel that the subsequent material is unworthy of consideration for inclusion in any Rare Earth collection. The Back To Earth album, which featured Jerry La Croix, had a handful of good songs plus a few of my least favourite Rare Earth offerings. It was pretty clear by now that Rare Earth were essentially Bridges, Monette and Guzman augmented by session musicians. Two of these, Paul Warren and Gabriel Katona, even contributed songs. But just as it seemed that Norman Whitfield had vanished, he re-appeared as writer and producer on Midnight Lady. By now a far cry from the Rare Earth that recorded One World, I still felt this was a reasonable collection. Ray Monette delivers a superb trademark guitar solo on "Do It Right". The only real duffer is "He Who Picks A Rose" which just labours and seems out of place.


After Midnight Lady, the picture becomes very confused as, eventually the Mk3 line-up re-united. But by this time, a lot of water had passed under the bridge with personality clashes, drug and alcohol problems etc taking their toll. Whatever Deep Purple and Fleetwood Mac could do, Rare Earth could do it too!! So the last two albums of that era, Band Together and Grand Slam, were reasonable but not outstanding.


So, whilst the previous post hails the original line-up as the definitive one, I prefer the One World line-up because I much prefer the guitar sound or Ray Monette over Rod Richards. I find Mark Olson's playing a bit more pleasing to the ear, but that is not intended as a slur on Kenny James. Similarly Mike Urso stepped into the vacated bass role and fitted in well. So, whilst Rare Earth, as we knew them, ended with the disappointing Ma album, they did continue to release albums, some of that material being worthy of consideration for release on CD.


What I'd REALLY like to see is the unreleased Live In Chicago set. I wonder if the tapes still exist?


 


 



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d james
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you now can get rear earth in concert on cd coz i just biught it lake eerie records ler 43008 hope this make you happy..i just want to know are there any old videos around? reply to jdavidjames@hotmail.com cheers

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Richard from Rare Earth World
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David


We are in fact far from happy about the In Concert CD as its a bootleg,  and obviously of poorer quality than if it was an official Motown release.


Richard. Rare Earth World



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Stuart
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I think the most underrated Rare Earth album is the RareEarth album from 1977, the first album when Pete came back.  Granted it has a disco groove to it, but Pete kicks ass on this LP!!...Love Has Lifted Me, Foot Loose, Share My Love, Is Your Teacher Cool all smoke!!  Pete and the boys took some tepid, medicore material and lifted it up to good and even great.  I think the same can be said with Willie Remembers.  The guys weren't the best songwriters but still rock with conviction on such pedestrian numbers as Good Time Sally and Were Gonna Have A Good Time.  And Every Now And Then We Get To Go On Down To Miami is a groove!  As good as anything they ever did.


 


Cheers to all of you on this forum...I'm thrilled there are some good knowledgable Rare Earth fans stil out there.


 


Stuart,


Chicago, USA



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Asad Hamid
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Richard, what can we do to get the record company to release more Rare Earth music. If a petition will help then lets get going on this. I am sure I can easily muster up at least75 signatures. Surely there must be something that can be done?

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Rare Earth World
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Asad, I have recently been in contact with Harry Weinger, he is the head guy at Motown/Universal who says yes and no to what gets released. I contacted him regarding the stories we had heard that the label Hip-oselect which puts out loads of Motown re issues etc, were planning to put out a box set containing Get Ready, Ecology, One World, Willie Remembers and Ma, and he confirmed this. The label says it will come out with 8 non album singles. This may be released this year but if not it will be out in 2007.


Richard, Rare Earth World


 



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JP
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That is truly awesome news in regards to the boxset.  Too bad we can't get them to include Dreams/Answers.

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JockoD
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Jp-I agree that Dreams/Answers should be included in the box set. It probably will never happen seeing that LP was not a Motown release. While we are on the subject how about the inclusion of the unreleased "Live In Chicago" in the box set. And why not throw in "In Concert" too. Although I already have it in my collection it seems to me that many other's have missed it due to it's limited time in print. What the heck, We can all dream can't we? I know each and every one of us would like to see something or another included in the set. So how about it people-What would you like to see in the box set. We will be the ones buying it if and when it comes out so why not have a say in the matter?


If a company is going to invest in a project such as this box set they should first do some research to find out what the true Rare Earth fan would want to see in a box set and therefore go out and spend their hard earned money on. So what better place than right here on the Rare Earth World Forum to let our needs be known? If the producers of this upcoming box set would like to see a good return on their investment I for one would think that the monitoring of this forum would be an important step in part of their research as to what material should be included in the set. So why not give them some input on what we would like to see included in the project.


So I now ask you again Rare Earth fans. What would you like to see in the boxed set?



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JP2
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How about the recordings that were done for the "Generation" soundtrack.

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john
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Assuming that the new box set has to be the first five albums + 8 bonus cuts then the obvious starting point is of course the Dreams/Answers album.  It is such a varied album and it has been hidden away for far too long.  Universal hold the rights for this, the same as the Motown albums so using it is no problem.  My five without doubt would be;


Dream/Answers


Get Ready


Ecology


One World


In Concert


Bonus tracks should be drawn from the "Generation Lp".  Although some of the tracks were on Ecology they are not the same versions, Got The Feeling which was later recorded for the Different World 1993 album is on Generation in its original form with Pete on vocals!  Hey Big Brother the single version would be welcome as it has not been on any cd in this form.


"MA" should be excluded as this is available anyway as a single cd, so no need for it at all!



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