Sub-titled Rosselsongs 1960-2010, this lavish box set is a career retrospective spanning half a century of songs. The package includes four discs, one for each decade (with the 1990s and 2000s sharing the last CD). It comes with an extravagant 70-page book, containing Leon’s copious notes on each of the songs, the whole thing housed in a card slip-case.
In all, there are 73 tracks presented here, ranging from very early live mono recordings, right up to new songs not at that point available elsewhere on disc (“Where Are the Barricades?” and “Talking Democracy Blues”). Also in the set is the much older “Song of the Mother Xmas Union”, making its debut on disc, having only previously been known via sheet music in That’s Not The Way It’s Got To Be (1974).
As will be apparent from the dates below, Leon has not always gone back to the first recordings of each track. Rather, he has mostly selected versions which are of the best fidelity for the set, including a good number of re-makes which had already been mastered for CD. So, for example, only five of the recordings on the 1960s disc are from that decade. Of course the chronology is based on his writing of the songs.
If this product can be described as an 'album', then there are few, if any, albums ever released with such vital, affecting and unforgettable contents. This substantial compilation is the celebration which Leon's first 50 years so richly deserved.
In all, there are 73 tracks presented here, ranging from very early live mono recordings, right up to new songs not at that point available elsewhere on disc (“Where Are the Barricades?” and “Talking Democracy Blues”). Also in the set is the much older “Song of the Mother Xmas Union”, making its debut on disc, having only previously been known via sheet music in That’s Not The Way It’s Got To Be (1974).
As will be apparent from the dates below, Leon has not always gone back to the first recordings of each track. Rather, he has mostly selected versions which are of the best fidelity for the set, including a good number of re-makes which had already been mastered for CD. So, for example, only five of the recordings on the 1960s disc are from that decade. Of course the chronology is based on his writing of the songs.
If this product can be described as an 'album', then there are few, if any, albums ever released with such vital, affecting and unforgettable contents. This substantial compilation is the celebration which Leon's first 50 years so richly deserved.