What I probably was listening to most this week...20 years ago. Box sets and greatest-hits comps are a cheat for catching up with what you need to know musically. Sometimes they bring you a new track, like the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' greatest-hits disc 20 years ago this month that introduced "Mary Jane's Last Dance." For me, they sometimes filled a big hole in the collection with familiar tracks, like the David Bowie Singles compilation from November 1993 (count yourself lucky I didn't choose that set's bonus disc, with Bowie and Bing doing "Little Drummer Boy" -- I just can't do it before Thanksgiving). And occasionally, they left me a bit less ignorant, in this case about the varieties of reggae. Here's the title track from Tougher Than Tough: The History of Jamaican Music...which for aficionados probably just as well could been titled, Now That's What I Call (Reggae) Music, Vols 1 through 4. But happily, this cheat left me less dumb. (Box set released November 2, 1993)   2

jcopestuf 23 Nov 2013