I found that they were more accessible when I had ripped them to iTunes and could flick through them on my iPod.

I've got quite a few that I am very fond of, especially from the good people at Rhino -
Beg, Scream & Shout, The Big Ol' Box of 60s Soul - beautifully presented, the individual CDs packed to look like 7" singles, and the box itself is like a box for carrying singles.

Loud, Fast & Out Of Control! - a great rock and roll collection

Nuggets Vol 1 & 2 are great garage rock sets.

All the Miles Davis ones are excellent too.

Yes, the material on Discs 1 to 4 is available elsewhere (ie on the original albums), but Disc 5 does contain some otherwise un-gettable stuff (unless you include YouTube or somewhere else on t'internet).
Without it I could not claim to be a Jam completist (or I will be when I get the new Sound Affects)

Of the other Box Sets I have, very little is contained that I can't get somewhere else.

I've got 3 Genesis (both official Archive boxes, one unofficial), YesYears, VDGG Box (well, it's on eBay as I never play it), a Steve Hackett, a Jethro Tull, the MOJO Psych box, and I rarely play any of them. I think the 20 Years of Tull is the one I'd keep.

The Grateful Dead retrospective box would be my choice.

It's also the only physical box set I have left, that's what a peripatetic life does for you.

Maximum R&B - I'd be quite happy with just that one.

Got about six or seven and haven't touched them any of them for five years.
I prefer original albums-as-albums if you see what I mean.

or The Complete Dick's Picks by the Grateful Dead.

I only own 2 box sets;

The In Crowd - 1958 - 1967 mod collection.
Joy Division - Heart and Soul

If I had to get rid of one, then i'm afraid it would have to be the In Crowd one!

is probably unnecessary. We'll be the last generation to hang onto the idea of physical product I reckon. My nieces and nephews, and assorted other youngsters I know, all download their music, (legally and otherwise) and seem to have no attachment to box sets or any other form of packaging. The HMV know this, that's why they're almost paying us to take the stuff away these days.

Some great alternate takes and choice solo tracks. Only tails off at the very end with a couple of tracks from the 'Moon Sausage' album!

box set. (And I'll hide Nuggets under the mattress, taking a chance on The Record Police never finding it.)

Phil Spector - Back to Mono.

Has to be...The Famous Charisma Box

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Famous-Charisma-Box-CD-Set/dp/tracks/B0000083DC/

Free's Songs Of Yesterday. Lots of non album content plus a 5th disc with a selection of tracks from the spin off bands (except for Bad Co).

favourite box set...

"Keith Jarrett at the Blue Note - The Complete Recordings" - 6 CD

You probably don't need anything else by them? (insert joke here)

At a push i'll plump for this.
http://www.amazon.com/Atlantic-Rhythm-1947-1974-Various-Artists/dp/B0000...

James Brown - Star Time.

4 CDs, 71 tracks, from 1956 to 1984. Funk heaven!

one's that look like books escape this cull?

got to be the one.
But they'll have to pry all the rest of them out of my cold, dead hands.

Would probably be 'Good Vibrations:30 Years of the Beach Boys' as it hits all the hits, rare bits and 35 mins of Smile BB style.

takes it by a country mile. Only Bob and Bruce have better outtakes than The Faces.

'This Womans Work'

It was sort of my way into Bob Dylan, back in 1991.

And it still sounds very very good.

The banging on the front door seems incongruous with the stillness of the house and our mothballed lives. The futility of leather-gloved hands beating against three inches of solid wood, the reverberations shaking the leaded glass in the porch. Unconsciously we absorb the noise into our dreams.

As the pounding continues it becomes more real. One by one our slumbering forms rise from their mattresses. I drag the double duvet halfway across the bedroom before allowing it to fall to the maroon carpet. My hands grope blindly in the sleeves of my dressing gown as they search for an exit. Peering through a crack in the curtains I can see a van with blacked-out windows, its headlights blazing. A group of men in long coats have gathered by the front door. Their muffled shouts condense into clouds of white fog that slowly disperses in the muted orange glow of a nearby street lamp.

“Oh my god they’re here,” croaks my wife, seemingly resigned to a new life in one the government internment camps that we have seen countless times in the public information films that are broadcast nightly on the BBC; stock footage of arthritic fingers manually compressing the cream of Motown into low bitrate mp3 files.

In the 4am gloom accentuated by my half-closed eyes, I feel my way along the landing wall until my fingers close around the banister railing. In the bathroom my daughter is forcing the contents of the Citizen Steely Dan box set down the toilet, using the long handled brush to crumple the elongated packaging.

My wife calls from the bedroom:

“We’ll put the Hank Williams set in separate cases and pretend that we bought them individually.”

“They have the Record Collectors’ price guide. They’ll know.”

My son has always taken our emergency drills more seriously. I have often told him that there may come a day when he will be the man of the house. By the time I reach the foot of the staircase the shredder in my study is grinding Nick Drake’s Fruit Tree to mulch.

The kitchen waste disposal pulps the banana-themed packaging of The Velvet Underground’s Peel Slowly & See.

In the front room the fire crackles rustically to Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and the Arhoolie Records 40th anniversary box set.

I briefly ponder on whether my four disc set of Cuban music, packaged to resemble a cigar box, might on this occasion pass for a box of cigars, before erring on the side of caution and tossing it onto the pyre.

The banging on the door begins again. An angry Morse code deprived of syntax, like a patience-testing, 30 minute industrial remix of You’re beautiful by The Aphex Twin.

I fumble with the Chubb lock and finally get it open. A draft of cold air pushes past me, invading the warm interior of our home like a malign spectre. A huddle of shadowy figures block my exit. At their head is a man barely out of his teens, dressed in a long dark coat several sizes too big for him. Acne dusts his bare cheeks. A fierce zealotry burns in his eyes.

“Mr Seven?”

“Yes.”

“Your papers please.”

I hand him my documentation.

“According to our records you own a copy of Good Vibrations: 30 Years of the Beach Boys.”

“That is true.”

“And you own no other box sets.”

“I destroyed all other box sets in compliance with clause 967b of the Anti-Terrorism Act.”

“And there are no borrowed box sets on your property.”

“No.”

“Maybe you could help us clear up a confusing discrepancy in our records: You officially registered as a fan of The Beach Boys in 1993. Before that time you had disparagingly referred to the group as making music for “frat boys in letterman jackets and church youth clubs”. Yet in 1991 you were observed at a school disco slow-dancing with Fiona Bowen to God Only Knows, exploiting the sentiments of the song to pursue what is described in our report as a lamentable attempt at French kissing.”

“If I may explain, I was a confused and troubled young man. My friends were into Mudhoney and The Stone Roses. I didn’t want to lose face by openly expressing preference for a band that was perceived by my peers to be lame. As you must know I am now happily married. My first-born son was christened Sheriff John Stone and I have a daughter called Rhonda. It has become a family tradition, after dinner, for us to act out Mount Vernon and Fairway (A Fairy Tale) while we clear away the plates and wash-up.”

“As a fan of the beach boys you must be aware that a good deal of the material on Good Vibrations is available on single discs. It surprises me Mr Seven that, as an ardent fan of the The Beach Boys, you didn’t instead opt for The Pet Sounds Sessions box set containing, as it does, a wealth of unreleased material that deconstructs a pop masterpiece.”

“I will admit that the Pet Sounds sessions retain a certain curiosity value. In the long term I found that I preferred the finished songs over the early versions and disembodied harmonies.”

I hear the click of a safety catch being released on a Luger.

“Mr Seven if you would come with us please. There is no need get dressed. You will be provided with clean clothes when we reach our destination.”

Several pairs of hands lunge forward grabbing me roughly by the arms. My bare feet scrape the bristles of the doormat as I am hauled out of the porch and into the chill air.

As I am dragged along the path towards the waiting van I glance over my shoulder at my family. In the hallway my wife glares at me as if to say: ‘If you think that I’m waiting for you, you’ve got another thing coming.’

I will be taken from here to the processing centre on Foulness Island. After an assessment I will be relocated to one of the interment camps that dot the UK where, in a series of one to one discussions, I will be taught the value of cardboard – a resource now more precious than diamonds. Columns of Apple store employees will applaud my re-education as I learn to embrace the digital file over the CD, and exclusive online content over the tactile allure of postcards, stickers and badges. For me the war is over.

Battle on brothers and sisters.

other than this 4 cd set though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Led-Zeppelin-Box-Set-Vol-1/dp/B00005RS05

This is my maiden post, so hope I'm doing it right. I have only one Speciality box set - it's a 6CD collection of Little Richard recordings. It's really excellent, although there are numerous alternate takes for a lot of the songs, which can get rather tedious listening to them in one go.

I do have quite a few jazz and blues boxed sets, along with a few classical ones. However, if I could only keep one, single boxed set, it would have to be Right Stuff's "Dion - King of the New York Streets." A wonderful collection on 3 CDs.

A stuffed treasure chest but worth the price alone for Jimmy Liggins "Drunk".

Whoops! Have deleted this comment, as I put it in the wrong place. Apologies - I'm a newbie.

...and await the Box Set Smersh, a question arises. Anyone know who put out the FIRST box set?

who doesn't own any boxsets?

I think I would keep Good Vibrations too, but a quick look at my shelves reveals I need to get rid of SIXTY others. Who wants to buy some?

Like one or two of the other posters, I don't tend to listen to box sets that much - it's a practice more honoured in the breach than the observance. Expensive items by Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Marvin Gaye have come and gone. David Bowie's Sound & Vision (the three CD one that I believe was never officially released here) is superb and is allowed to stay; Fruit Tree likewise, although arguably it's not a real box set, in that it consists merely of the three studio albums and one of outtakes. It's essential, of course. When it comes to "real" box sets, by which I mean packages that collate a lot of material in new sequences, including obscure/unavailable/unreleased material, there are two overlords: Richard Thompson's Watching The Dark and Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where The Time Goes. My vote would go to Sandy, as it's the one I played most when I was at university and afterwards. It's on vinyl and doesn't get much play now, but I love it dearly.

But I also like The Last Waltz.

But which is best?

There's only one way to find out...

i believe, (which means its probably wrong), that crossroads- eric clapton was the first box set on cd specially made as that.

But I'm pleased you can actually buy this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roxbox-1986-2006-Roxette/dp/B000IFSDZQ

Don't think I'd play it though.

The Band - Across The Great Divide.
But I would smuggle Nuggets under my jumper and hope Bodhisattva doesn't notice.
Smuggle Nuggets.....TMFTL

of your One Box Set Per Person rule, sir!

...in prominently displaying the Jack Bruce set. I see you are hoping to hide behind a plea of insanity.

Danny Baker is running your schtick as we speak.

If it had to be only one, it would have to be the 9-CD Complete Stax / Volt Singles boxset......

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stax-Volt-Complete-Singles-1958-1968/dp/B000002I...

There's only 4 left on Amazon... better hurry......

has just picked this up on his show, he believes no of them deserve saving, they are just male house bricks that we never play. I own about 30 of them & I have to agree. Would save Harvest Festival though as its such a nice item.

a load of old balls thou, playing his audience like a master although often playing nothing but the dullest of dull modern female country songstresses

Danny was saying the exact opposite a few weeks ago in relation to DVD box sets.

It was a case of the more the merrier then.

Neil Young's 'Archives' . It is a thing of beauty.

Small for a box set, only 3 CD's, but perfectly formed. Essential listening.

(All the Motown complete years as one giant box set would be good but I guess that doesn't count)

Always loved 'em (Lowell era of course) and love 'em still !

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hotcakes-Outtakes-Little-Feat/dp/B00005RTKD/ref=...

J

Richard Thompsons Watching the dark qualifies as one of my favourite boxsets yet the 6 cd RT box is absolutely bloody awful. Badly put together, bad quality, dreadful.

Other favourites are the Nick Cave B sides and rarities set, Billy Braggs When I paint a masterpiece set with the extra bonus disc and the Paul Weller Fly on the wall set.
Then of course there is the Costello and Nieve boxset - not sure this qualifies as it is a collection of ep's but as they come in a box and I have the set I will count it.

My wife has a 50 cd boxset of every Elvis Presley cd. She might yet be the winner and doesnt even collect cd's.

King Crimson ~ The Great Deceiver, you can take that
The Pink Floyd ~ Is Anybody Out There?, nope I'll keep that and it's only 2 CDs so probably doesn't count
Roxy Music! ~ The Thrill Of It All, nope, I need this
Genesis ~ Archive vol.I, take the box and the first two CDs, leave the booklet and CDs 3 & 4

everyone fine with that?

...I admire you're surgical eye here so it's allowed. However in recompense you must promise never to play another song that was a B-Side again. Deal?

Does any member of the Massive own this rather special box set? Does it get many plays?

On occasions I've considered buying it, but then I've thought ... maybe nine CDs of Albert Ayler might not be such an easy listen. And Mrs duco01 would not be at all pleased. No sir. Still, you certainly get a handsome bunch of free goodies with the set, including a dried flower. Check this out...

"Inside are nine discs of rare and unissued recordings made between 1962 and 1970. Also included are a picture of Ayler with saxophone from his youth; a photostat of a handwritten note from a Copenhagen hotel; a reprinted copy of a Slugs flyer which includes a listing for a week of Ayler's quintet; a reprinted 1965 pamphlet by the late poet Paul Haines entitled Ayler-Peacock-Murray-You and the Night and the Music; a reprinted newsletter from 1969 by Jihad Productions with excerpts about Ayler; a bonus CD of two army band rehearsals from 1960 (in a mini-sleeve that recreates the original reel box); a dried flower from the box motif; and most impressively, a 208-page full-color hardcover book that acts simultaneously as a CD guide, history book, encyclopedia of the era and yearbook."

my Cream Collect Techno set from the 90's

I am not nostalgic for band music from my young days but I still love most kinds of dance music and I often play this.

A little of everything Blues... African, English, Chicago, Memphis, Latin and a great picture book with Chris' guitar art