Customer Reviews
Good quality double retrospective. - By: Mr. P. B. Koeb, 29 Feb 2008 
Sorry, but i'm going to be a bit harshin my judgment for this one. (I'm torn between a three & a four star rating.) Even though i have this DOUBLE cd compilation, & wouldn't dream of off-loading it, there's something a bit disappointing with the track selections. It's not too much of a problem, for me, because it complements my "Can You Dig It?" deluxe double rather well. I'm unsure, however, if this is THE best one-stop compilation available,in spite of the content being perfectly okay. Another slight disappointment is the total running time of just over two hours. Once again, there was room for a whole lot more!
The upside with this set is that virtually everything is presentedin an unedited form. ("Do Your Thing", "Joy" & "I Stand Accused" are the main exceptions.) Whilst this means that purchasers get all twelve minutes of "Walk On By", all eleven-plus minutes of "The Look Of Love" & all eighteen & three-quarter minutes of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", it also means that there's a total of only twenty-one selections. And that's including the two-minute "Ike's Rap 2" introduction & a one-minute "Black Moses (radio ad)" as two of those selections.
However, there are also a lot of other great tracks. The fabulous "Ike's Mood 1", a super version of "Feel Like Making Love", the full-length "Disco Connection", the ubiquitous "Theme From Shaft", the funky "Good Love 69969" & the lush majesty of "Part-Time Love". Far from being a bad compilation, by any stretch of the imagination, but i feel that this set needed just a little rejigging. For this reason, customers may wish to compare the contents with the aforementioned "Can You Dig It?", which is possibly a better one-stop compilation. (Although it uses far more edited versions.)
DEFINITIVE CD OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SOUL MEN - By: MR JULIEN RYLE, 21 May 2001 
This CD will make you instantly forget he is now known as Chef from "South Park" & to remember that he isin fact one of the very greatest soul artists. Just listen to the tracks on this & you will see just how hugely influential his sound & style has been. Right away you will probably notice that almost every other track on this collection has been sampledin the past decade, for example:"Ike's Mood 1" used by Massive Attack, "Walk on By" used by Wu Tang Clan, "I Can't Turn Around" is the basis of the house tune "Love Can't Turn Around" & "Ike's Rap 2" used by Portishead & Tricky etc...the list goes on. Oh yes, it also includes a little track called "Shaft". The music on this CD is up there with the classic 70's soul music of Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder & Curtis Mayfield...buy it now!
