Sixty-Six To Timbuktu: The Very Best Of (2CD)

List Price : CDN$ 27.99

Amazon Price : CDN$ 27.99

Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks

Amazon Marketplace : CDN$ 18.57

Usually ships in 1-2 business days.

Product Details

Artist : Robert Plant
Format : Best of, Enhanced, Original recording remastered
Binding : Audio CD
EAN : 0766481285045
Label : Atlantic
Number of Discs : 2
Product Group : Music
Release Date : 2003-11-04
UPC : 075678362620

ASIN : B0000DIZQQ

Track Listings for

Disc-1
1. Tie Dye on the Highway
2. Upside Down [#]
3. Promised Land
4. Tall Cool One
5. Dirt in a Hole
6. Calling to You
7. 29 Palms
8. If I Were a Carpenter
9. Sea of Love
10. Darkness, Darkness
11. Big Log
12. Ship of Fools
13. I Believe
14. Little By Little
15. Heaven Knows
16. Song to the Siren

Disc-2
1. You'd Better Run
2. Our Song
3. Hey Joe [Demo Version] - Band of Joy, Robert Plant
4. For What It's Worth [Demo Version] - Band of Joy
5. Operator
6. Road to the Sun [#]
7. Philadelphia Baby - Crawling King Snakes, Robert Plant
8. Red Is for Danger
9. Let's Have a Party
10. Hey Jayne
11. Louie, Louie
12. Naked if I Want To
13. 21 Years
14. If It's Really Got to Be This Way
15. Rude World - Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
16. Little Hands
17. Life Begin Again - Afro Celt Sound System, Robert Plant
18. Let the Boogie Woogie Roll
19. Win My Train Fare Home [Live]

Editorial Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

Sixty Six to Timbukto offers the listener two CDs worth of solo Robert Plant hits, key album cuts and obscurities, beginning with his vinyl debut in 1966 (a precocious cover of the Youngbloods' hit "You Better Run") and ending with a live version of "Win My Train Fare Home", recorded in the most famous city in Mali (hence the album title).

Aficionados will head straight for disc two: although it's not comprehensive (it contains only one of Plant's four recordings from 1966), it's a bounty of rarities. While there's nothing from Plant's pre-Zeppelin combo "Hobbstweedle", the raw crackle of two "Band of Joy" cuts from 1967 (featuring John Bonham on drums) serves to remind us how much the White Stripes are indebted to the lion-haired lemon-squeezer from West Brom. And while there's plenty of interesting stuff collated from sources as diverse as film soundtracks (the rockabilly "Philadelphia Lady" from Porky's Revenge, a ludicrous "Louie Louie" from that cinematographic masterpiece Wayne's World 2) and collaborations with Alexis Korner, Afro Celt Sound System and Jools Holland, one can only marvel at the generosity of a man who can place a song as superior as "Hey Jayne" on a B-side.

Disc one (hits and album tracks) is a more than useful meet-and-greet for the uninitiated. The earlier post-Zep material suffers from a thin 80s production (the tippy-tappy drums would have driven Bonzo Bonham bonkers) but the Fate of Nations stuff is great. "29 Palms" would have sounded positively regal if presented by Roy Orbison and British hit "Big Log" makes long-distance haulage seem as romantic as a noctural cruise along the Nile. --Kevin Maidment

Customer Reviews

Stinko Hits Collection (2004-06-03)

A lousy greatest hits collection. The producer should have concentrated on his popular solo work. There is so much missing from his great albums of Pictures at Eleven (Pledge Pin, Burning Down One Side, Worse Than Detroit, Moonlight In Samosa & Like I've Never Been Gone)from Now & Zen (Ship Of Fools, Hurting Kind & Dance On My Own) plus other great omitted songs, In The Mood, Sites & Sevens & a great overlooked song from the White Nights soundtrack, Far Post. They could've had a winner here for this long awaited anticipated CD.

Incomplete and Somewhat Insincere (2004-05-20)

So much has been written about the tracks included on this collection, and I tend to agree with most of the assessments: quite a pity Plant doesn't respect his past as much as he endears himself to his critically-lauded recentia and present. Sure, the last two albums were very good, but any sort of Plant anthology is sorely missing the point when nothing from the first album is included, and too many tracks from each of the last two discs are flaunted instead. Granted, it's Plant's show, and he has his own iconoclastic ways of going about his business, but it's an oft-frustrating ode to near-petulance. Anyway, the second disc is nifty, although most of it has been available, legally, to anyone who has been paying attention over the last couple of decades. And that brings us to "who is the intended audience?" The casual listener, who is probably not going to drop $25 on a two-disc set, most of it unrecognizable (sigh, where is In the Mood, anyway?), or the hard-core fanatic who sees "Road to the Sun" and clean versions of the pre-Zeppelin stuff as a pretty good enticement, but finds the remainder of the set rather unbalanced when the first half of Plant's post-Zeppelin output is so overlooked? Robert Plant's solo career is nothing short of amazing and is proof that there is life after Zeppelin, but 66 to Timbuktu doesn't really prove a thing.

Robert's Greatest Adventures (2004-05-02)

You can ignore all the crybabies around here who are blubbering about the song selection in this package. First of all, there are two discs, and Disc 2 is where the true treasures abound, while everyone is expecting Disc 1 to be a standard greatest hits package. Our whiny friends apparently didn't notice that this collection is NOT called "Robert Plant's Greatest Hits," and they also didn't notice in the liner notes that Robert himself didn't want to create that kind of package. Sure Disc 1 features a very lopsided compilation of Robert's proper solo work, with the earlier albums being almost totally neglected in favor of the later ones. If that's a problem for you, just listen to the original albums again. Of course, Robert meant for this package to focus on the more adventurous aspects of his music, which can be felt throughout Disc 2, and that's the real reason for this collection's existence.

Zep collectors will be fascinated by the first few cuts on Disc 2, which are long-lost selections from Robert's pre-Zeppelin work. The first two tracks are obscure British singles in which the teenage Robert was trying to be a pop heartthrob and sounded very little like his future blues-metal self. Robert finds his voice in the next two tracks by Band of Joy, his pre-Zeppelin group with John Bonham on drums (one of these two tracks is a surprisingly sinister version of "Hey Joe"). The collection then skips to 1983 and proceeds to take us on a tour of post-Zeppelin tracks that were often so offbeat and adventurous that they didn't even fit onto the solo albums. Here is where Robert fans will be truly reminded of his unappreciated love for the experimental and his mastery of non-Western sounds. Most rewarding are a variety of quirky covers, collaborations with Afro Celt Soundsystem and avant-garde guitar virtuoso Rainer Ptacek, and a live selection from Timbuktu (Mali) that truly integrates the authentic sounds of that land. Prepare for adventure, not a selection of radio hits. [~doomsdayer520~]

Plant your Bobs on this gem! (2004-04-30)

In many people's books this may not qualify as a true greatest hits cd. The songs on disc 1 don't necessarily relate to chart success as much as they are Plant's personal favorites. But they are a good overview, especially since most of these tracks are from his later solo efforts, which I consider more polished efforts. Most people who are fans of Plant are going to have many of these songs anyway. The real surprise for me was the disc 2 compilation of Plant's early pre-Zep era songs and rarities and side project material. Since I was a boy and dinosaurs still walked the earth I've been listening to Robert Plant from that classic 1969 first Zep record to a more subdued Plant and his 8 post-Zep solo albums. But I had no idea he was so active before his Zepplin days. This disc starts in 1966 with recordings from his band the Tennessee Teens, where he cut the tracks "Our Song" and the Young Rascals classic "You Better Run", which is a little more rocked up version than the original. He then moved on to the band called Band Of Joy. This was a nice rockin' little band who cut the tracks "Hey Joe" and an interesting hard rock version of Stephen Stills "For What It's Worth" which offers up some mean no frills guitar work. He also sang for the Russian blues king Alexis Korner in 68' on the killer blues tune called "Operator" before moving on in 69' to a group called the New Yardbirds, aka Led Zepplin. These early gems alone are worth the price here. But you also get some rare songs off of various sountracks and tribute albums that he's done over the years. The standouts being "If it's really got to be this way" from his tribute to country soul man Arthur Alexander. Other highlights is a 1985 side project called the Crawling Kingsnkes with Phil Collins and rockabilly great Dave Edmunds called "Philadelphia Baby" which along with "let's have a party" and "let the boogie woogie roll" represent his 50's early rock and roll influences. This disc has everything from r&b, blues, rockabilly and Zepplin like hard rock in chronological order from 1966 to a killer song he did in 2003 called "win my train fare home" live from Timbuktu. But it flows nice and is never boring. Plant is really an expert on the different genres of music. And it's pretty obvious he loves his rock and roll history and influences that he's learned along the way. This also contains some very witty and humorous liner notes by Plant. He's one heck of a great music critic, and he knows his stuff. I walked away from this with a much bigger respect of this rock icon. Anyone interested in the roots of Robert Plant is sure to enjoy this cd. In my opinion one of the best rock reissues that I've ever heard. Highly recommended!

Critical omissions - what a shame (2004-04-23)

I have been hoping for a greatest hits collection from Robert Plant for a long time. I had all of his older albums at one point, but none of them ever really clicked with me as a whole. I loved the hits from them, though (maybe I should have been an A & R man for a living *grin*).

So there's no way in hades I'm going to spend money on this letdown. I've heard mention that RP is unhappy with his early solo work, which, if true, explains the disgraceful lack of it here. No In The Mood, Burning Down One Side, Empty Arms? At least there's Little By Little, which is one of my favorite RP songs and almost prompts me to buy this on it's own. But I have the MP3...

Your loss, Robert, you could have earned a buck as I will support a good artist even when I have an MP3 (often **because** I have an MP3).

As for the 2nd disk, it doesn't interest me.

On the whole, as a sampler of a long-standing artist's work this is probably a fine collection of music. As a hits collection for RP fans, though, it's not ready yet. Put it back in the oven and let us know when it's done.

Look for similar items by category