Search - Rick Wakeman :: Voyage: The Very Best of Rick Wakeman (2CD)

Buy it without any doubt.

Ignaciocue | Mexico | 01/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is wakeman's best of his A&M years, remastered and including 4 tracks from six wives, all of journey, arthur, 2 from white rock, criminal record. etc. You wont find a better compilation from this keyboard virtuoso , way better material than"Masters", a double cd compilation from his more recent records."

The Essential Rick Wakeman

Paul Allaer | Cincinnati | 01/03/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rick Wakeman has continued to release new (and sometimes rehashed) material for over 30 years, but the reality is that his most impressive (and incidentally, most commercially succesful) period remains the so-called "A&M period", which happens to covers the 1970s, starting with the 1973 "Six Wives" album through the 1979 album "Rhapsodies". I've had this compilation for over 10 years, hadn't listened to it in a long time. I stumbled upon it recently in my CD collection so I had to listen to it again.



"Voyage: The Very Best of Rick Wakeman" (1997 release; 21 tracks; 147 min.) is a generous overview of Rick's 8 studio albums from the A&M period. CD1 (13 tracks; 74 min.) starts off with 4 tracks from "Six Wives", including the career-defining "Jane Seymour" track which still gives me chills after all these years. 1975's "King Arthur" gets 3 tracks, including the epic "The Battle". 1977's "White Rock" gets 4 tracks, and 1979's "Rhapsodies" concludes CD1 with 2 tracks. CD2 (8 tracks; 73 min.) starts off with the 1970 track "Temperament of Mind", when Rick was part of the Strawbs; this track is Rick soloing in one of Strabs' shows, just great. (Incidentally, the Strawbs were on the A&M label, which is how Rick started off on A&M.) All 40 min. of 1974's album "Journey To the Center" follow next, and what an epic album that still is. !977's underrated "Criminal Record" album gets 2 tracks, both qually outstanding ("Crime of Passion" and "Judas Iscariot"). Two tracks from the 1975 soundtrack "Lisztomania" and one track from 1976's "No Earthly Connections" album round out the compilation (and these last 3 tracks are the weakest be far on this compilation).



In all, what a fantastic collection this is. The only negative is that the tracks are regretfully not sequenced chronologically for whatever reason. Not to dismiss Wakeman's output since 1979, but this is truly "the essential Rick Wakeman" brought together on 2 CDs. I had seen Rick Wakeman a number of times over the years performing as a member of Yes, but had never seen him solo until the Fall of 2003, when I saw him here in Cincinnati in a fairly small venue. Wakeman brought a fantastic evening of music and lots of humorous stories about how certain Yes songs and solo tracks came about. Wakeman recently released a CD/DVD with a recent performance of the "Six Wives" album in its entirety, which I may have to check out. Meanwhile, if you are looking for a great 'best of Rick Wakeman', look no further and buy this without any hesitation."