The Waterboys 7 CD Fishermans Blues Box Set (October 2013 release)

So is this a 6-cd set now? No 7th disc?

Also, I have missed all the releases of Fisherman's Blues-era outtakes over the years. (I believe one was called "Too Close To Heaven"? A friend had it, one listen to it blew me away, but it was an OOP import so an acquisition went by the wayside for me.) Is everything from those various releases included in this box set? I would assume so but would like to know if any previously released outtakes didn't somehow wind up in the box.

 

Someone on superdeluxeedition commented that they understood that the seventh disc would be a disc of sources/influences, but I can't corroborate that independently.

I'm quite interested in this track list: although there are certainly plenty of duplicated songs, there also seem to be enough new-to-me titles to justify buying such an extensive set.

 

I found the FB sessions in the underground circuit a few years back. The sound quality was hit and miss. It did not not contain Sgt.Pepper's which is the song I really wanted to hear. However, I felt that this easily could have been a 4 or 5 disc set at the very least,that's how good the songs are. I can't wait to hear this.

 

And though the new information now points to a 6-disc set, it has the same number of tracks as announced originally (121). So maybe they found out that everything would fit on 6 discs instead of their initial estimation. I originally thought that the 7th disc would be the original album, but that might've been information I imagined myself.

 

More than a month gone by with no news. I really wish we had a price for this thing so that I could budget for it, because the Autumn is starting to look terrifyingly expensive!

 

Mike Scott tweeted some cover art a week or so ago. It looks like it's definitely happening, but I have not seen anything about a price point.

 

I'll be getting it.....with a bang on the ear!

 

Per Mike Scott's tweets, all studio. http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2013/02/19/waterboys-fishermans-blues-box-set/

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see a live album at some point from this year's tour. In a way it's sad that they're turning the nostalgia dial up to 11 because Scott's An Appointment with Mr. Yeats from 2011 was one of the best albums of his career.

 

Nice to see yet another advantage of cd over vinyl!

 

I think Mike Scott has been very good about not looking back in general in his career. He has made some brave and imaginative career choices. I don't think a little glance back at the past with this Fisherman's Blues tour is necessarily a bad thing. And the FB sessions comprise a pretty mind-blowing musical experience.

 

Ill take that... Couldnt they find time for an academy gig in Manchester.. Liverpool is so Meh and the Rambsbottom gig they did last year was just utter class...

 

Oh, I agree that we want this material, but I sometimes look Scott and wish that the marketplace had let him move on as he had hoped. He spoke on Bring 'Em All In of 'the sound that ain't ever coming back' yet he has been dragged back to The Big Music of The Waterboys. Speaking as a Waterboys fan, that's great, but speaking as a Mike Scott fan I can't help thinking of the albums we might have had if he had taken the same freedom accorded, for example, to a Dylan. (And I'm not implying that it was easy for Dylan to get that freedom.)

 

Interesting perspective. The other thing to bear in mind, of course, is that FB was in itself a sharp left turn after Mike and his big music seemed to be gearing up for stadium territory (Whole of the Moon hit). It sounds like you are a bigger fan than I am, and you will know more about this, but I am sure there must have been a sales drop between This is the Sea and FB, right? I saw the boys on the FB tour at my student union (St Andrews University) in 1992, I believe it was. Small venue, although I know they played some bigger venues too. And they went even more fiddle-eye-o on Room to Roam. Mike always seemed to be following the muse - to Findhorn, and many other places along the way and since.

 

Actually, according to Wikipedia Fisherman's Blues outsold This Is The Sea by a clear margin. Room To Roam charted higher than either, but it sold less: a sign that quick sales from the fans were not backed up by a wider audience. I think that's fair as well: R2R is not as good an album.

 

Well, that IS interesting. I guess some of the Top of the Pops fans recruited via Whole of the Moon would have bought Fisherman's Blues since it was the next release after This is the Sea, and in those days it was more difficult to get to hear anything off an album bar the lead single without buying the damn thing (remember those days?!? life was much less complicated...). I wonder how many of them got to the end of side 1 and thought, "what is this s___?!?" Or, more to the point, the end of side TWO!!

 

They sold out Glasgow Barrowlands on the FB tour, in fact IIRC correctly they played 2 nights

 

I'm sure Whole of The Moon charted on rerelease after Fishermans Blues was released.

EDIT Just checked, it reached no 26 on original release in 1985 (and didnt appear on TOTP) and reached no 3 in 1991 when it was rereleased

 

I guess we got lucky in St Andrews. It was an amazing gig. I remember the whole floor just seemed to shake all the way through the show.
And, Sordel, I agree: Room to Roam was a disappointment after the genius of Fisherman's.

 

You're right, hit No 28 first time around and No 3 when it was rereleased with a greatest hits package some years later - after RtoR in fact; presumably the hits album was a way of trying to rebound off the commercial failure of RtoR...?

 

This is the most exciting new release coming up by a wide margin for me. I loved FB and it's still one of my favorite albums. It was actually my first Waterboys album and I bought it when it came out based on a gut feeling when I saw the cover (I'd heard of the Waterboys and knew "Whole of the Moon" so I knew I wasn't getting just some twee trad Irish album, however). One of the few times when the cover of an album nails the feel and music ON the album perfectly - if not sets you up to enjoy it even more. The music from the FB is astounding and I was so shocked when I heard some of the outtakes back in the day. I have a bunch of the bootleg outtakes and there's easily six strong albums of material there. I'm sure there's probably more. I mean, imagine the quality of music that must have been made to justify an artist and a company feeling it is financially intelligent to release a 6 CD box set of outtakes from 25 year-old recording sessions that yielded about 200 songs from a relatively minor band with a small cult following. Based on the strength of the album I've gone backwards and forwards since and really given EVERYTHING Mike Scott has done a good chance. The styles vary wildly from album to album, but, as a whole, the albums are all held together by brilliant songwriting of such heart, grace, wit, spirit and power that I've come to love them all in their own way. I believe Mike Scott could arguably be the most underrated singer/songwriter of his generation and, perhaps, of any. I can't think of too many that are aiming higher each time at bat.

 

I totally think that Mike Scott from the first Waterboys album to Room To Roam is absolutely perfect.

 

Re: Room to Roam, I've come to love it too, as per this thread o' mine:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-waterboys-room-to-roam.267517/

 

FB is the only Waterboys album that I have and I love it to death, so I am tempted by this box.