The Best of Be Bop Deluxe: Raiding The Divine Archive

This collection has 85-90% of the best BBD songs. That's the good news. It is 69 minutes long. So they could have easily added "Axe Victim" as the first song, and "Down on Terminal Street" as the last one. If they had dropped the lame song called "Japan" and substituted "Waiting in the Wings", this would have been THE perfect compilation. The other issue is no remixing or remastering for this band. Very sad. You may as well listen on vinyl.Many have wondered why this band, with so much talent, never made it in the USA? Look at somewhat similar British acts. David Bowie toured America relentlessly from 1972 - 1976 until he conquered. Queen played exhausting tour from 1973 - 1977 before they became a stadium band. Be Bop Deluxe only toured once in 1976 then once in 1978, before stopping playing rock music.Bill Nelson's singing/songs are very European sounding. Roxy Music had little success in America until 10 years after forming with Avalon. Also their name. As a teen, friends of mine though Be Bop Deluxe was a jazz band, or an old-time group.Anyway, most of these songs still sound fantastic. There is a little bit of prog-pop that's not as bad as early Styx/Kansas, but heading in that direction on "Fair Exchange". But songs like "Maid in Heaven" & "Sister Seagull" are just flat-out perfection. At their best they were a little bit glam rock mixed w/ power-pop, & a touch of the psychedelic. If you don't like blazing guitar playing, probably not for you. Bill Nelson is constantly riffing. He doesn't take long solos, but instead sings a line, then lets fly, sings another line and lets fly on guitar. Anyway, he has a great style that's part Hendrix, part Santana and Mick Taylor, and a bit of his own thing.

I was so excited when I got my BeBopDeluxe CD. This is my third CD because all the rest of my collection of them is on vinyl.The package came and the CD was in an envelope but the case had no plastic on the outside. Red flag? Could have been but I was so excited to receive it I said "what could go wrong?" Well it went smoothly until the end song, one of my all time favourites, "Sleep that Burns." If you ever heard this song you know how great it is and the CD stuttered, got stuck, and could not get through the song. To me if one of the songs is messed up then I would try everything to put it right, so I cleaned it, had it professionally cleaned and still the song did not play through without some glitch. I put it to rest and pulled out the vinyl, but its difficult to listen to vinyl in my car. Sad but learned, IF THERE IS NO PLASTIC ON YOUR CD CASE, DON'T ACCEPT IT! The End.

Many great songs!!!

Great Band - and the CD was in excellent shape - as well

Also Bill Nelson is one of the Greatest Guitar Players you've never heard of! Intricate music, amazing melodies and great lyrics. Why they didn't make it big in America is a mystery.

Not the band I hear on XM. On Deep Tracks they play some really good cuts from this band but this CD has NONE of them!

A+

I first heard Be Bop Deluxe in the mid-1970s, and still listen to them, along w/ front man Bill Nelson's solo work, today. It has really stood the test of time. I am NO kinda fan of so-called progressive rock (boring, usually), but these guys really twist the elements of progressive rock around, and make it fresh. The music is energetic, varied in texture, and superbly played throughout. Many have (justifiably) raved about Bill Nelson's truly awesome guitar work. It's not just the speed, it's his not choices and wide pallet of guitar sounds that get me. Lyrically, Nelson evokes the English romantic poet traditions, though w/ frequent wry comic twists.As a fan, I have everything they've done, but for the uninitiated, this is a good compilation of their best known plus more obscure titles. Intelligent use of the "building blocks" of rock & roll, surprising tempo/texture changes, consistently great musicianship, esp. from Nelson, who really was (is?) one of the best rock guitar soloists of all time. Great sound engineering, too.Big-time guitar fans may prefer their Live in the Air Age release, as the immediacy of the on-stage performance causes them to rely a little more on jamming out, so you hear some really wailing guitar on that release. But this collection allows you to hear how they use the studio to build up the tracks, and they were masters at that. Think "Abbey Road" but w/ much better musicianship. Perhaps the only negative might be that Nelson's take on "the future," taking in the zeitgeist of the 1970s, as it must, seems dated now, 30-some odd years later. But for me, that just adds a little unintended humor to the proceedings. Also well worth a listen is Bill Nelson's 1995 release, Practically Wired, a sort-of-post-modern take on the "guitar hero" sound of his BBD days.

Once again Music Magpie provide EXCELLENT service.This is the umpteenth time that I've purchased from them,and ALWAYS they come up trumps.NOW.. the music review.Be Bop Deluxe are one of the best music acts of their time,led wonderfully by the genius of Bill Nelson.So many classics to choose from,make naming a favourite a difficult task...so I won't bother,but sufficient to say that there's more than enough to please a music lover.In short....JUST BUY AND ENJOY

Good price ,speedy delivery and a decent album

Quality of the CD was a bit poor but the quality of the music is excellent

Ok

Very good