Box Sets #5 - Family: Old Songs New songs

 

 I reported last month that a new box set featuring Family will be issued early next year to coincide with their live reunion after 40 years. Billed as the ultimate Family box set, the package will be named 'Once Upon a Time' and will contain all of their released albums plus many alternate versions and demos. For full information about the package, check out my earlier post - http://eddie-graham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/box-sets-4-family-once-upon-time.html

 

It would seem a good time therefore to have a look back at the last box set to feature this excellent band. 'Old Songs, New Songs' is essentially a four CD package although early buyers were also treated to a fifth CD of more rare material. It is not strictly accurate to refer to this as a box set as it comes in hardback book format with the CD's housed in the inside front and back covers. CD 1 is the original 'Old Songs, New Songs' album which was issued at a budget price (just under £1.50) in March 1971. This served as an opportunity for the band members to remix some of the material from their first three albums, with which they had been unhappy. Additionally it gave them the chance to include some singles and B sides that had not previously featured on albums. Incidentally the title of the album is taken from a song that appeared on the first album, but curiously is not included on this album or in the box set. I should add that some of the remixes are radically different from the original versions and include Roger Chapman singing on 'Observations From a Hill' in place of Jim King who by then had left the band.

 

 



Until the issue of this box set the album had never been released on CD and it was promised that it would only ever be available in this set. Sadly that was not to be the case and the album is now available separately and will also feature in the forthcoming box. Nevertheless, I purchased the set and had no regrets.

Disc 2 begins with a previously unreleased demo of 'Drowned in Wine' and then features four songs taken directly from the third album 'A Song For Me'. There are then another couple of demos including a lovely version of 'No Mule's Fool', followed by some unreleased live songs and material from 'Anyway'. The remaining two discs then mix live material with stuff from the final three albums. The centrepiece of the package is a 26 page book featuring an article by Pete Feenstra that is interesting but not without it's typographical errors, and finally a reproduction of an article from Issue 34 of esteemed rock magazine 'ZigZag'.

As I have said previously, I was fairly pleased with the package and had no qualms about forking out something like £30 for it. It is unfortunate that quite a lot of the material was already available on other official albums but it was worth my money to get my hands on those previously unavailable tracks. Oh I should add that I also received the bonus 5th CD which has five more demos and a clutch of live songs from a concert in Munich in November 1970. The quality of the sound on these is sub standard but to be fair the record company point this out on the cover and explain why this was not included in the box itself.

The package seems to be a bit difficult to find now though I have just seen it on Amazon.com for $150.00 so maybe it has been a decent investment. I understand that the forthcoming ultimate box set (in a real box) will be limited to 2000 copies, so perhaps that will become a collector's item in due course, but at £125, I think I will give it a miss.