Vinyl Me Please Anthology

The great thing about Herbie is that there are clearly defined stages within his musical career. Sure there are several options for each era, but as long as one is picked from each of these it will be an interesting set.

Do we know if Herbie is involved in the selection process? In his book he places a lot of emphasis on Mwandishi and VSOP. Future Shock was another big one for him (he won a grammy for Rockit) as was River: The Joni Letters (I will be surprised if this isnt picked if he does have an involvement).
The idea of a $40 audiophile reissue of Future Shock is wild to me.

It will be interesting to see if they try to do a big career encompassing set like you guys are guessing or not. I doubt I can afford this set anyway, but I would be far more interested in one that picks great albums (he has so many to choose from) over 1 each decade as I would very rarely play the latter ones.
 
The idea of a $40 audiophile reissue of Future Shock is wild to me.

It will be interesting to see if they try to do a big career encompassing set like you guys are guessing or not. I doubt I can afford this set anyway, but I would be far more interested in one that picks great albums (he has so many to choose from) over 1 each decade as I would very rarely play the latter ones.
Yeah, i get what you mean but if you consider albums of importance in Herbie's career, it's a pretty big one. Rockit alone won a Grammy, 5 MTV Awards, and the music video was one of the most successful of all time (if there was an award for freakiest I'm sure it would have got that too). But yeah, I could certainly do without a $40 audiophile copy.
 
Fingers crossed. It would be cool to get an interview or something from him. Does each anthology come with the podcast or is it just certain ones?

They're all on spotify, except for Stax and Grateful Dead. Not sure if Grateful Dead podcast has been released yet, though. No idea why Stax isn't on there.
 
Yeah, i get what you mean but if you consider albums of importance in Herbie's career, it's a pretty big one. Rockit alone won a Grammy, 5 MTV Awards, and the music video was one of the most successful of all time (if there was an award for freakiest I'm sure it would have got that too). But yeah, I could certainly do without a $40 audiophile copy.
Sure, but that is the definition of a dollar bin album. If I wanted it, I'd have an original free or for less than $5.

When I do manage to splurge on a box set, the experience (like a great booklet, which VMP won't do even though their sets are more than double what I paid for some of mine) is secondary to getting albums I really want to spin. I don't really want a museum piece or an autobiography, unless almost every album is one that I really need. At this price point, that is certainly amplified.

Just my opinion though, no judgement if that's what anyone else wants. Just would seem a shame to me when they could make a killer set with many to choose from in the 60s/70s.

Honestly, without picking a specific Herbie era, I think it'd be really hard to know what to pick from his enormous catalog. I don't think any other companies have the problem of trying to pick an obscure or out of print pick in their box sets to ramp up the FOMO. Until VMP, my experience with box sets was that they were actually money savers and ways to get quick collections of great albums by an artist. Except the RSD Neil Box with faulty glue I got ripped off on. :ROFLMAO: At least every one of those albums is incredible though.
 
They're all on spotify, except for Stax and Grateful Dead. Not sure if Grateful Dead podcast has been released yet, though. No idea why Stax isn't on there.

Stax is on iTunes, but as a stand-alone series, “Vinyl Me, Please Anthology: The Story of Stax Records”
 
Empyrean Isles would be great. I know it had a BN75 but those suck and the MM is long sold out. I was going to say My Point of View but looks like that's getting the Tone Poet treatment. Thrust could use an AAA repress. Maybe Sextant?
I really hope Thrust and Empyrean Isles are included in the Boxset! 🤞

I want Man-Child and Secrets to be in the Boxset too! But I know that’s impossible as all those 3 albums were released next to each other! 😅

I’m super keen to see what the albums in the Herbie Hancock Anthology Boxset are! I’m so excited for that announcement! 🎉🎉🙇‍♂️
 
I really hope Thrust and Empyrean Isles are included in the Boxset! 🤞

I want Man-Child and Secrets to be in the Boxset too! But I know that’s impossible as all those 3 albums were released next to each other! 😅

I’m super keen to see what the albums in the Herbie Hancock Anthology Boxset are! I’m so excited for that announcement! 🎉🎉🙇‍♂️

are they teasing an announcement of this sometime soon?
 
This is how I would put together the Herbie Hancock box.

Inventions and Dimensions
Speak Like A Child
Mwandishi
Thrust
V.S.O.P
Sound-System
The New Standard
Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall

Inventions is where his experience with Miles really starts to show. Speak is when he starts searching for his own musical identity, which he finds by the time Mwandishi arrives.

Thrust is the pick to represent his Head Hunters period, and VSOP shows him taking a step back to recharge. I chose Sound-System to represent his 80s electronic music because I cannot stand the whimpy vocal on the title track (of Future Shock, I forgot to add), a horrible imitation of Curtis Mayfield.

I could've gone many different ways to wrap up this story, but I kinda went with the ones that are consistent with the story of this artist. Herbie has always been a musician with a clear sense of purpose; he would announce a course and pursue it until he was satisfied before changing direction for a new challenge.

The New Standard and Directions in Music both attempt to merge jazz with the late 20th century popular music, while giving Herbie a chance to interact with a fresh group of musicians from different generations and traditions. I could've gone with Possibilities, but John Mayer is on it. ;)
 
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When I asked Storf about this last week I got this:

“Hopefully soon. We announced it bc Herbie wanted to make a splash for his birthday, which was far in advance from when we might have announced otherwise. Summer is young though, so hopefully soon.”
Yea--I thought it was really weird to announce that early and then do the GD box...it did kinda seem like they only announced it because of his bday and for no other reason hah. But whatever Herbie wants!
 
I finally have gotten around to listening to the Zamrock podcasts and I have to say, I'm really enjoying them! I never bothered with any of the others because I never got any other box so I can't compare it to those and I'm not sure if there's any added value but it's really informative and I'm enjoying the inclusion of music throughout!
 
I finally have gotten around to listening to the Zamrock podcasts and I have to say, I'm really enjoying them! I never bothered with any of the others because I never got any other box so I can't compare it to those and I'm not sure if there's any added value but it's really informative and I'm enjoying the inclusion of music throughout!
Nice! I gotta check them out. I think my dislike of the Blue Note ones have stopped me from listening to this one.
 
Nice! I gotta check them out. I think my dislike of the Blue Note ones have stopped me from listening to this one.

I like it because it's all made of clips from the artists talking about their music and the scene, sort of like the documentary! It also has music playing throughout which I personally love but others might find distracting but they do play a lot of songs throughout as well!
 
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).

Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
 
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).

Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.
Yep. Not the best idea.
 
From Storf...kind of crazy that the people curating and putting out the box set and doing a podcast on the Dead have minimal knowledge about the Dead...


And mowing my lawn. In case you didn’t know, VMP is releasing an 8 album, 14 LP box set under VMP Anthology containing 4 live Dead records, and 4 studio records. It’s a very handsome set, and it’ll start shipping soon. As part of this set, me and Amileah have been tasked with taking a journey through the Dead along with the folks buying this to better understand the Dead. We’ve been spending the last 8 weeks making a podcast to accompany this box set, and have been talking to a mix of Dead experts, Dead Heads, and to each other, about the Dead. Amileah had limited exposure to the Dead before she started, while I had always found the live stuff to be a bit byzantine, and was entirely unsure of what to listen to, for, and why I should listen to live Dead.

My main takeaway from my experience with the Dead so far is that they are a rare band that is willing to meet you wherever you are on the spectrum of being a fan of them; there is no right or wrong way to love the Dead. And they are also the only band where there are essentially three tiers of exploration to be had: the studio albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded in the studio at that time and place), the officially released live albums (which are documents of what their songs sounded like live, generally, over the course of a tour they were proud of), and the archive of live shows (which are documents of how they sounded, show by show).


Which is to say, as someone who only listened to studio Dead before May 1, I have a newfound appreciation for live Dead. They are a band worthy of the obsession I found strange and inexplicable before this experience! Letting my guard down to let them in has been a welcome blanket for me this summer.

Considering this box is most fitting for people with lighter knowledge of the Dead (despite it being extremely cost-prohibitive for most newcomers), I’m not really opposed to the podcast hosted and through the lense of those also with limited exposure. Some of the complaints about Storf podcasts is that he speaks too much, fanboys, and interjects with his own knowledge a bit too much. Likely won’t be the case here, and the experts will be given much more time to speak.

And I could have missed something but did Storf and Amileah actually do the curation or just the podcasts? Because I do agree it would be very silly for them, or any newcomer, to actually pick the albums (especially the live ones) but saw no indication that was the case.
 
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