The Process of a Greatest Hits: S.O.U.L.E.S.S.

The Process of a Greatest Hits: S.O.U.L.E.S.S.

As a collector, sometimes all it takes is a cover.  Regardless of the arrangement of songs.  So when I spotted the Volume 2 S.O.U.L. in the assorted CD tub at Wal-Mart, I had to get it.  I've never seen this photograph of Marvin, and after glancing at the back cover told myself it wouldn't hurt the extra lunch change I went there to spend.  The tracklist included a gang of my favorites, including ((What's Going On)), ((Inner City Blues)), ((Sexual Healing)), etc.  

I put the Volume 2 on ice until I was able to track down the Volume 1.  I have an unwritten rule of listening to my music in the order which it was arranged, so before I could even get into Volume 2 I needed to see what the Volume 1 was about.  It was a lot harder than I thought to track the other volume as bringing up a search of "greatest hits" by Marvin will direct you to all kinds of bootleg looking collections.  Once I found the time to look though I was able to find it, learning about the Volume 2 in the process which included a review that put the quality of this arrangement into the ground.  Neither the Volume 1 or Volume 2 had any connection or purpose for being connected. 

Listening through the S.O.U.L. collection of the first volume, I was pleased... running through the tracks I thought about what the process involved to piece together a greatest hits... what determined those decisions, how much the costs when it came to licensing, permissions, who owned the rights, how the money was distributed, etc.  Listening to Volume 2 I realized as a consumer I was lied to by Sony Entertainment and Cleopatra Records.  The assortment of tracks were actually a live version of one of Marvin's shows, which was cool, but it didn't say that anywhere on the CD, nor did it identify the tracks as live recordings.  While I'm cool with the cover and with the listening activity in getting into some of my parent's favorites and the melodies of my childhood, I couldn't stand how cheap of an approach Sony took to the legacy of someone like Marvin and how much of what a lot of these greatest hits do is a recycling process... and just as the Wal-Mart CD tubs signifies... just a disposable representation of what was once great.  It's just another part of their character and of the business of music that is complete trash.

Being intimately familiar with Marvin's discography, it would be a dream to be involved in the process of putting the people on to a series of greatest hits of what he released.  Of diving into the research, hearing what hasn't been heard, and getting the chance to tell a story.  It sparks an interest in me to just do it for fun, as a mixtape... call it the In Marvin's Lifetime: Tape Anthologies.


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