Nothing special or exciting here, a run of the mill three star album. Even the better tracks seem a bit jaded with time. Great blues from the band that toured this stuff in the late sixties and I remember them well from a free festival in Hyde Park with Eric Burdon & John Sebastian.

The Blind Owl was a pivotal figure in this band and they never really got it together after his death somehow. His counterpoint was strangely essential. That said, Larry Taylor was arguably one of the best bass players of that time, I'd never seen or heard fretless bass before. A fair enough compilation but no unheard gems or standout tracks here. It'll get played but maybe not too often.

This compilation covers the period 1967 to 1972 and contains the best tracks from their most famous period. They have recorded some interesting music since then, most notably the album Boogie 2000, which I've already reviewed.

Here you can find all their big hits. On the road again, my favorite track, was a UK top ten hit and an American top twenty hit in 1968. Going up the country became a top twenty hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Let's work together was Canned Heat's biggest UK hit, reaching the top three although it was only a top thirty hit in America. Bryan Ferry later covered it as Let's stick together and also had a huge British hit with it. Country singer Dwight Yoakam also recorded a great cover of the song, proving that a great song can be adapted to any style of music and still sound great.

If you remember and enjoy On the road again, Going up the country and Let's work together, then you will surely enjoy the rest of the music here, as those songs are typical of Canned Heat's style. The other songs are somewhat obscure but among them are a minor UK hit (Sugar bee) and a minor American hit (Time was).

If you enjoy blues-rock music, Canned Heat should appeal to you. This compilation contains all the essentials.

There was a lot of blues around at the time of the beat boom but by the time Canned Heat emerged it had mostly become supercharged by Cream and Hendrix, psychedelicised by the likes of Jefferson Airplane or bludgeoned into submission by high-volume bands like Blue Cheer. Consequently, they sounded slightly dated and overly purist at the time, especially since their music harked back to the more acoustic, less fashionable blues of Henry Thomas, Cleveland Crotchet and the Memphis Jug Band, to name just a few covered on this collection. I only knew their singles, so was pleasantly surprised to discover the longer, more experimental pieces like the twenty-minute Parthenogenesis and the live favourite Fried Hockey Boogie. Furthermore, they now sound a lot less dated than many of their contemporaries, due to the sincerity and integrity of their approach to the blues

Just got this for my 40th birthday. Happy birthday to me. Hurrah!

I'd had it sitting on the wish list for a few months because I liked the first track (On the Road again) and the various Best Ofs on amazon.com were getting good reviews. Maybe there was a bit of me expecting to be disappointed. But I was pleasantly surprised. My kid sister has managed to pull out a winner.

You know how you sometimes buy a cd and find that there's a track on it that you know and like but didn't expect to be on there? Happened to me this time. That older grittier version of Bryan Ferry's "Let's Stay Together" with different lyrics that comes up on adverts on the telly? It's here. Track 9. I'm well chuffed.

The rest of the tracks were new to me but strangely familiar in places. Amphetamine Annie sounds like The Hunter in disguise, My Crime (I think it was that track) sounds like Hoochie Coochie Man in disguise and Fried Hockey Boogie sounds like the intro to La Grange by ZZ Top. Most of the album in fact hits well developed pleasure spots.

The cd insert was lousy though. No lyrics, no listing of band members and no track times. Given that 13 of the tracks are standard 2-3 minute fare but that track 11 (the ZZ Toppy one) goes on for 15 minutes and the final track for 20 minutes you'd have thought they'd say something.

That last track (Parthenogenesis) is one that I'll be skipping in future. 20 minutes of what can only be described as "experimental" music - the sort of thing Pink Floyd did between the Sid Barret days and Dark Side of the Moooooo.... when they'd have 7 minute tracks of people cooking breakfast.

On balance, though, 4 stars. Tracks 1 and 9 are classics and only one (long) track of filler.

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August 2008 - Worth adding that Going to the Country is currently featuring in an ad on the telly for a supermarket (can't remember which) where there are 100 or so peoploe going for a picnic with a giant picnic blanket. YOu know the one.