Jeff Katz/Boxed Sets

Deluxe Dilemma

(Or, Boxed in By Box Sets)

By Jeff Katz

It used to be so easy. Go into a record store or a department store, find what you were looking for, pay and leave. Even when CDs were foisted on a public not looking for an alternative to vinyl, the same process adhered. The shift to downloads was different only in its delivery and absence of physical space and touch. In this era, when the public has grown used to the idea that free music is a new human right, record companies, the few remaining, have figured a new way to milk the public: deluxe editions of back catalog classics.

I don’t mind being gouged on music. Hey, I bought both collections of Beatles remasters, mono and stereo, AND Beatles Rock Band in the same month. We older folks, the 45-65 set, have the money and the desire to buy yet another copy of Exile on Main St. and those evil executives know it. My very real problem, a dilemma that has induced quasi-paralysis, is the wealth of options being made available. Sometimes there can be too many choices, anti-American as that sounds.

My initial enthusiasm for The Promise, the collection of lost Bruce Springsteen songs created during his forced hiatus between Born to Run and Darkness On the Edge of Town (Bruce was in legal limbo as he attempted to switch managers) was squashed as thoroughly as the hopes of the couple in “The River.” Should I buy the 3 CD/3 Blu-ray deluxe edition with facsimile notebook of Bruce’s lyrical jottings? Nice, but that was $90. What about the slightly lesser cost option, with plain old DVDs instead of Blu-rays? That was $80. Or should I go basic, CDs only, for a ten spot?

I wanted the remastered Darkness, but that was only available in the big money packages. I didn’t need the videos, in either format. So it came down to this: was a remastered version of my favorite Springsteen album (well, that and Tunnel of Love) worth an extra 70-80 bucks? Short answer: no. Long answer: no, but give me time to think it over. It took me months to come to that decision and, by the time I bought The Promise, I’d lost nearly all interest.

That was one year ago. Since then the situation has worsened. Massive reissues of What’s Going On, Layla, Quadrophenia, and many others have left me as confused as Jimmy the Mod from the plain original version of The Who’s masterwork. (I assume he feels the same way in the $130 version that I won’t buy). The worst of all is Smile. I’ve waited a lifetime for an official release of Brian Wilson’s teenage symphony to God, and now it’s here. Have I bought it? No. Is the 2 CD set the one for me, or is it the double vinyl album? The set I really want has 5 discs, 2 LPs, a booklet and hardcover book plus a poster. That’s $140, reasonable for what you get, but, really, not reasonable at all for music I already own. I have a bootleg of the record, and then there’s Brian’s own version from 2004. Seeing Wilson perform the entire work live went a long way towards ultimate Smile satisfaction.  I know one thing, I’m not into the $700 package that lights up and has a Brian Wilson autograph. I could buy a piece of stereo equipment for that money.

So here’s what I’ve come up with. Each high end repackage of a timeless album finds a spot on my Amazon wish list. There they sit and wait, as I watch the prices like a stock ticker. One day, some day, I’ll find a copy of Achtung Baby for half-price. When I do, I’ll spend some time wondering whether it’s really worth even $70.