Who 30 Years Of Maximum R&B CD

The Who: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar); Roger Daltrey (vocals); John Entwistle (bass); Keith Moon, Kenney Jones (drums).
Recorded between 1964 & 1991. Includes 64-page booklet.
THE GIFT SET includes the 30 YEARS OF MAXIMUM R&B box set, the 30 YEARS OF MAXIMUM R&B LIVE video, and a tee-shirt.
This four-CD collection does include all of the Who's big hits and the lion's share of their key album tracks. Previously unreleased rarities include some interesting selections (the '60s outtakes "Early Morning Cold Taxi" and "Melancholia"), but these bits and pieces, which include some live versions, commercials, Keith Moon sketches, and the like, are mostly inessential. ~ Richie Unterberger
One of the more overblown box sets, this four-CD collection does include all of the Who's big hits and the lion's share of their key album tracks. Previously unreleased rarities include some interesting selections (the '60s outtakes "Early Morning Cold Taxi" and "Melancholia"), but these bits and pieces, which include some live versions, commercials, Keith Moon sketches, and the like, are mostly inessential. The post-Keith Moon cuts that bring you up to the present are out of the league of the body of the Who's work. As most of the Who's '60s and '70s albums are very strong, cohesive works in and of themselves, this can't be recommended as either a starting point or a necessary addition. ~ Richie Unterberger
The compilers of MAXIMUM R&B deserve credit for squeezing the collected works of the Who onto these four CDs. The Who's transition from singles band to something more ambitious is well chronicled on disc one. It contains early singles like "Zoot Suit" and "I'm the Face," classics like "My Generation" and "I Can't Explain," near-classics like "I'm a Boy" and early rarities like their take on the Stones' "The Last Time." The second disc charts the band's transition toward conceptual rock and opera, beginning with a selection from THE WHO SELL OUT and moving into their seminal rock opera "TOMMY." The band is also captured at their blistering best in cuts from legendary LIVE AT LEEDS.
Disc three covers the early '70s, when the band was at a creative peak, turning out state-of-the-art rock with QUADROPHENIA and WHO'S NEXT. Songs like "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" still explode like Thor's hammer. The final disc has a little of everything, rare live versions, radio-only oddities, and the best of their late-'70s and early-'80s output. The later works demonstrate that the Who continued make great music even in the twilight of their career.
The compilers of MAXIMUM R&B deserve credit for squeezing the collected works of the Who onto these four CDs. The Who's transition from singles band to something more ambitious is well chronicled on disc one. It contains early singles like "Zoot Suit" and "I'm the Face," classics like "My Generation" and "I Can't Explain," near-classics like "I'm a Boy" and early rarities like their take on the Stones' "The Last Time." The second disc charts the band's transition toward conceptual rock and opera, beginning with a selection from THE WHO SELL OUT and moving into their seminal rock opera "TOMMY." The band is also captured at their blistering best in cuts from legendary LIVE AT LEEDS.
Disc three covers the early '70s, when the band was at a creative peak, turning out state-of-the-art rock with QUADROPHENIA and WHO'S NEXT. Songs like "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" still explode like Thor's hammer. The final disc has a little of everything, rare live versions, radio-only oddities, and the best of their late-'70s and early-'80s output. The later works demonstrate that the Who continued make great music even in the twilight of their career.

4 CD Box Set

Rolling Stone (9/8/94, p.76) - 5 Stars - Classic - "...Townsend's songwriting shines throughout....[he] elevates the the rite of rock & roll passage into a spiritual quest for freedom, self-knowledge and eventually salvation....rock was never more live--or better..."
Entertainment Weekly (7/8/94, p.53) - "...the strong arm with which Townshend once sweetly mixed mod sentiments with Beach Boy harmonies...still deliver a jolt of maximum pleasure..." - Rating: A-
Q (8/94, p.121) - 5 Stars - Indispensable - "...In the final analysis, the music does its own fighting....No swanning about. No flouncing. 30 YEARS OF MAXIMUM R&B is the best box set ever..."
NME (Magazine) (12/24/94, p.23) - Ranked #4 in NME's list of the 10 best compilation albums of 1994.
NME (Magazine) (7/2/94, p.44) - 6 - Good - "...This then should stand as The Who's flawed memorial: enthralling, madly ambitious, hampered by limping last chapters..."