Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So, I guess I'll be the dissenting voice here. Duane Allman is one my musical heroes. More than 40 years gone and I still listen to his playing almost every day. Needless to say, I was drooling with anticipation at the prospect of a career retrospective that would promote his genius and unearth treasures. While a lavish box set in and of itself may achieve that, I'm not sure the music here does. First of all, what is the purpose of this box? Obviously, it's not for Duane-completist collectors like me. For instance, Duane solos on, I think, six of the tracks on Herbie Mann's "Push Push," but there only three tracks from that album here, so we'd still need to buy the whole album, making this redundant. It's not a greatest-hits collection, so what's the point of including two versions of "Blue Sky" and another two of "Dreams," as well as entire disc of juvenilia on which Duane can barely be heard, not to mention four irritating tracks from Lulu when one would suffice? Indeed, that's an ongoing issue with a collection that frequently features the admittedly brilliant playing of a session musician: because a huge chunk of the collection is devoted to Duane's playing on others' recordings, one often must work hard to find him, either because he's buried in the mix as a sideman or because he just plays the occasional killer lick. Speaking of the recordings, a lot of this box doesn't sound very good. Although some tracks, like the Cowboy entry and Duane's three solo tracks, have never sounded better, a lot of the Atlantic session work is badly distorted (I need to go back to the LPs to determine if this is a mastering error here or the way it was recorded at the time). Finally, if the point was to show Duane's development as a musician over his too-short career -- a point I'm not sure can be made, since he seemed to go from a teen to a full-blown genius over the course of a few weeks -- his legacy would have been better served by a more concise, less expensive and better annotated collection. Instead of a sticker, a guitar pick and cheap disc sleeves (two of mine are already torn), I'd have preferred that the money be spent on hiring someone to do a track-by-track commentary that directed listeners to Duane's contributions and what they added. If there's any good news here, it's that there do still seem to be gems to be found. For instance, although traders have had the live Delaney & Bonnie stuff for years, it would be wonderful to have an official release of the full D&B radio broadcast. But the bottom line is, if you're looking for a place to start with Duane Allman, for less than $50 (i.e. less than half the price of this box), you can get the Allmans' "Fillmore Concerts" and D&D's "Layla," with money left over for assorted ABB releases. And if you're already worshipping at the temple of Duane Allman, the Charlie Parker of the blues guitar, someone who never played the same solo twice and whose slide playing was as vocally expressive as any singer, head to eBay and start collecting. Just don't outbid me on the "Duane Allman Dialogs" LP, ok?