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The Guess Who - The Ultimate Collection (1975)

Track listing:
CD1
  1. These Eyes 3:40
  2. Lightfoot 3:09
  3. Maple Fudge 1:54
  4. Of A Dropping Pin 3:16
  5. Laughing 2:43
  6. Undun 3:30
  7. No Time 3:46
  8. Proper Stranger 3:59
  9. Humpty's Blues 5:18
  10. 0-15 3:28
  11. When Friends Fall Out 3:00
  12. American Woman 5:08
  13. Medley- No Sugar Tonight-New Mother Nature 4:53
  14. Hand Me Down World 3:26
  15. Runnin' Down The Street 4:18
  16. Share The Land 3:33
  17. Bus Rider 2:59
  18. Hang On To Your Life 4:11
  19. Do You Miss Me Darlin' 3:56
  20. Medley- Comin' Down Off The Money Bag-Song Of The Dog 3:55
CD2
  1. Rain Dance
  2. One Divided
  3. Life In The Bloodstream
  4. Sour Suite
  5. Albert Flasher
  6. Broken
  7. So Long, Bannatyne
  8. Heartbroken Bopper
  9. Arrividerci Girl
  10. Runnin' Back To Saskatoon
  11. Glace Bay Blues
  12. Truckin' Off Across The Sky
  13. Follow Your Daughter Home
  14. Bye Bye Babe
  15. Orly
  16. The Watcher
  17. Those Show Biz Shoes
  18. Guns Guns Guns
  19. Heaven Only Moved Once Yesterd
CD3
  1. Clap For The Wolfman
  2. Road Food 3:30
  3. Attila's Blues 4:49
  4. Star Baby 2:38
  5. Musicione 3:57
  6. Glamour Boy 4:52
  7. Lie Down 4:42
  8. Dancin' Fool 3:24
  9. Seems Like I Can't Live With You, But I Can't Live Without You 5:26
  10. Loves Me Like A Brother 3:24
  11. Hoe Down Time 3:47
  12. Rosanne 4:15
  13. Dreams 4:51
  14. Women 3:23
  15. When The Band Was Singin' "Shakin' All Over" 3:29
  16. Lightfoot (take 2 rehearsal) 3:19
  17. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature (take 9) 4:49
  18. American Woman (take 25) 4:22

Notes


A seemingly well-assembled package that fails to go quite as far as it should, sticking closely to the charted material and rarely delving into the vaults for interesting oddities — three rehearsal takes are tacked onto the end of the third disc in the set, providing little of interest to collectors or to the curious. The booklet does a workmanlike job of tracking the progress of the band, but there are few insights to be found in the difficult-to-read text.
The set is built around the A and B sides of singles, with album cuts salted in between. This is effective in charting the band's progression from melodic popsters to hard rockers and back to the pop-inflected music that closed out their career. The highlights are scattered throughout — "American Woman," of course; "Rain Dance," with its unnerving echoes of American massacres, the funky, improvised live "Truckin' Off Across the Sky," even the goofy "Clap for the Wolfman," which came when the Guess Who were all but finished.

The Ultimate Collection works well as an introduction to the Guess Who, but will not gratify anyone with more than a basic need to know. On a sonic level, the set sounds good, however.