Those beautiful box sets

By GINA VIVINETTO

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 30, 2000

Want to watch a music lover salivate? Give her a compact disc box set by her favorite artist. Big, gorgeous box set collections are the pride and joy of music freaks, testament to their love of a particular act. A box set on the CD shelf is proof that we're willing to shell out the big bucks to get our greedy hands on anthologies and unreleased rarities.

Often, these collections are lavishly packaged, including extensive histories of the act, liner notes by leading music writers and performers, and beautiful color pictures. It's a terrific way for fans to absorb an act's evolution and influence.

Box sets are also a terrific way for labels like Rhino to make a ton of dough. Expensive multidisc sets fetch 50, 100, sometimes 200 bucks.

But when did this box set fever start?

In the early 1990s, labels started having success with anthologies and reissues on compact disc of classic LPs. The leader in all this was and still is Rhino, a Los Angeles record label that specializes in buying old tunes from other labels and getting them back into circulation. Rhino's motto: "We collect records so you don't have to."

Prices for box sets have come down a lot in recent years. That's because the big 12-inch boxes they used to come in have been ditched in favor of a standard double-CD-size container.

Here are three examples of beautiful box sets that are sizzling this summer:

JOHNNY CASH, LOVE, GOD, MURDER (COLUMBIA/LEGACY)

Love, God, Murder should be on the shelf of any Johnny Cash fan. Assembled by the Man in Black himself, it's a three-disc set of Cash's tunes, with each disc having its own theme. After five decades and more than 90 albums, Cash has more than enough material to choose from, but Love, God, Murder sticks to the best, omits the silly novelties and includes rare gems such as an unreleased tape of Delia's Gone from 1961 and a mono version of I Walk the Line.

Sixty-eight years of hard living, drugging and boozing have afforded Cash a prickly insight into the human condition. But Cash's power is in his ability to tell it all in plain English. How else could Cash play in front of 5,000 inmates at San Quentin and steal the show from a bevy of strippers? With a baritone like a foghorn and wisdom whittled down for anyone to grasp.

This set collects 48 of Cash's finest, obscurities and alternative takes. It also includes liner notes by U2's Bono, film director Quentin Tarantino and Cash's wife, singer June Carter Cash.

As if that's not enough to make you hand over the $34.98, Love, God, Murder also includes four totally cool rub-on tattoos. Grade: A-

OHM: THE EARLY GURUS OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC 1948-1980 (ELLIPSIS ARTS)

Nowadays, everybody's hip to the electronica scene. Kraftwerk. Moby. Fatboy Slim. These names aren't new to us. But, did you know electronic music got its start in the Eisenhower era, with future-minded computer pioneers such as John Chowning and Milton Babbitt? With computers, composers had a brand-new toy to play with. So they did, with great awe and wonder. Ohm: the Early Gurus of Electronic Music 1948-1980 is perhaps the most comprehensive collection -- a time capsule -- of this bristling new technology that became the electronic avant-garde.

Don't expect disco beats and techno. Ohm is a seriously wonky sonic experience, with challenging compositions by pioneers such as Edgar Varese, Karl Stockhausen and Terry Riley. The three-disc set features pre-Beach Boys usage of the theremin, non-Western rhythms and many atonal, otherworldly and downright weird snippets.

Then again, some pieces -- for instance Riley's sensuous Poppy Nogood, featuring soprano sax and, well, clanging blocks -- are thrillingly pretty. Same with Brian Eno's ambient Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills).

Steve Reich, John Cage and many other influential composers are at home on Ohm, which includes a wonderful 96-page booklet with writing by today's avant-gardists: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, DJ Spooky, David Toop and others. Grade: A

ETTA JAMES, THE CHESS BOX SET

A singular song stylist, Etta James, known more as a soul and blues singer, spent the years 1960 to 1976 recording standards and R&B for Chess Records. This set collects 24 of her top 10 hits as well as rarities such as James' cover of the Doors' Light My Fire. With 72 selections, a photo-filled 40-page booklet that includes liner notes, pictures from James' personal collection and a discography, The Chess Box Set is a must-have for fans. Grade: B+

TEAM POP TRIVIA -- The winner of the random drawing for the zesty Times T last week was Shay Quillen of Brandon. Quillen knew that Neil Young shacked up with funk star Rick James in Canada during the 1960s. At the time, the two were in a band called the Mynah Byrds, which splintered off into Buffalo Springfield and Steppenwolf.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION -- Could it be he was celebrating the yearlong prison sentence given this month to the female fan who has stalked him for years? Last week, Guns N' Roses front dude Axl Rose got his behind onstage for the first time in seven years when he performed with GN'R guitarist Gilby Clarke in West Hollywood. To get your name in the bucket for the random drawing to win the rawkin' Times T-shirt, tell me who is the famous singing father of Rose's ex-wife, Erin.

-- Fax entries to Team Pop Trivia, (727) 892-2327, send e-mail to gina@sptimes.com or send your entry in an envelope as our ancestors used to: Team Pop Trivia, c/o Weekend, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33713. All mailed entries must be postmarked by Saturday (the day after we ask the question). Faxes and e-mail can come as late as Monday morning. Please include your full name and phone number.