Originally Posted by Buckeye Randy

Title: Lazy Days: The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1975
Artist: Various Artists
Label: Grapefruit
Released: December 13, 2024
Number of Discs: 3 Discs @ 03:56:42

Do you like compilation releases by various artists? Over the years I’ve owned many on 8-Track, LP, cassette and CD and I define many as probably a little over 10. I don’t think any were bought out of pure curiosity. Have you had favorites over the years? I have.

There are some rules in this discussion (my post, my rules). What does that mean? It means when talking about compilations by various artists that live festivals are not eligible! No “Live Aid”, no “Freddie Mercury Tribute”, no “Woodstock”, no “Monterey Pop”, no “Concert For The People Of Kampuchea” and no “Mick Ronson Memorial Concert”. That seems like a different sort of topic like…’festival releases’.

One good compilation I bought on vinyl in ’78 was “Live Stiff’s Live” that includes tracks by Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis. All songs are from a month long Stiff’s tour in 1977 and is totally live yet somehow totally eligible. I justify it because these artists were just starting and had no star power to speak of, just some great songs.

The Rhino DIY series from the early ‘90’s had great releases of UK Punk (2), UK Pop (2), New York Punk, American Power Pop plus there were others. They did a good job of collecting the genre defining songs, all killer, no filler. I had a cassette player in my car and was picking these things up for drive time plus I’ve picked a few of the discs over the years when I see them in discount bins.

I bought my son a four disc box set as part of his graduation present, Rhino’s “No Thanks, The ‘70’s Punk Rebellion”. It’s top shelf though the songs are scattered randomly with no groupings of likeness and there are obscurities to reel in completists. Still, it is essential.

The ones I mentioned were all dandy. However, I generally don’t like various artist compilations because there is usually too little killer and a whole lot of filler. This practice was started by K-tel. A record company would give K-tel rights to a mega hit if they included some singles that bombed. This practice lives today and I believe it’s alive on the release we are looking at today.

However…hard not to appreciate any comp with the star power of this release and a smattering of hits plus several songs I consider favorites.

This tracklisting is from AllMusic, the Spotify tracklisting is slightly different.

Disc 1
1 Good Lovin' Gone Bad - Bad Company
2 Imagine Me, Imagine You - Fox
3 Right or Wrong - Stealers Wheel
4 In for a Penny - Slade
5 Wild One - Thin Lizzy
6 My White Bicycle - Nazareth
7 Riding for a Fall - Moonrider
8 Everybody's a Star (Starmaker) - The Kinks
9 Precious Love - Stray
10 Jean Cocteau - Be Bop Deluxe
11 Both Ends Burning - Roxy Music
12 Blue Guitar - Justin Hayward & John Lodge
13 Good News - 10cc
14 Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra
15 Dan the Plan - Alan Hull
16 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? - Ronnie Lane
17 I'll Regret It All in the Morning - Richard & Linda Thompson
18 Carol - Al Stewart
19 Ain't Gonna Stand for This No More [Single Version] - Ace
20 A Whole Pot of Jelly (For a Little Slice of Toast) - Pete Wingfield
21 Private Number - Babe Ruth

Disc 2
1 Fox on the Run [Single Version] - Sweet
2 Won't Get Burned Again - David Essex
3 In the Future - Sparks
4 Nothing to Do with Us - Jet
5 You Go to My Head - Bryan Ferry
6 Frontera - Phil Manzanera
7 Share It - Hatfield and the North
8 Stuck in a Hole - Caravan
9 Go and Sit Upon the Grass - Ivor Cutler
10 Sad Sing - Tom Newman
11 Run Billy Run - The Shadows
12 Heard It All Before - Pilot
13 Highbury Incident (Rainy July Morning) - Stackridge
14 Titles - Barclay James Harvest
15 Someone to Love - John "Speedy" Keen
16 Hit Records - Kursaal Flyers
17 Lonely Eyes - Method
18 Summer Song - Clive John
19 Blue Eyed Boy - Heavy Metal Kids
20 Delilah [Live] - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
21 Raingame - Streetwalkers
22 Arms of Mary - The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver
23 There's a Cloud in My Heart – The Brinsleys (Brinsley Schwarz)

Disc 3
1 Once Bitten, Twice Shy [Single Edit] - Ian Hunter
2 Play Don't Worry - Mick Ronson
3 By Tonight - Mott
4 Running Through the City - Brian Protheroe
5 Spirits in the Night [Single Edit] - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
6 Minstrel in the Gallery [Single Edit] - Jethro Tull
7 Highfly- John Miles
8 Take It Away - Kestrel
9 Sad Eye - The Pretty Things
10 Trust in Dick - The Winkies
11 Hard Times - Peter Skellern
12 L' Hippie Nationale - Neutrons
13 Mr. Raffles (Man It Was Mean)- Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
14 La Maison de l'Amour - Son of a Gun
15 Mad Dog [Single Mix] - John Entwistle's Ox
16 Kings of Speed - Hawkwind
17 Odd Man Out - Agnes Strange
18 Shoot Shoot - UFO
19 Lazy Day - Oddsocks
20 Back in the Night - Dr. Feelgood
21 Birthday Special - Peter Hammill

Time for a game; Which disc is best and why?

I’ll vote disc 3 because of including really good songs by Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Mott, Manfred Mann, Jethro Tull, UFO (favorite song), Dr. Feelgood, Peter Hammill. Not knocking the other discs, I just give disc 3 an edge.