Rhino Rh.I.P.
If the CD isn’t dead already, this’ll probably kill it. Rhino Records, the label that pioneered the art of the reissue, is effectively gone. Basically, Warner Music Group slashed 30-40 staff members in a restructuring designed to wind up with something that “handles WMG’s global digital catalog initiatives, film, TV, vidgame and commercial licensing, and name and likeness representation for legendary artists”.
That just sounds so fucking lame, doesn’t it?
Our own little love affair with Rhino started back in the mid-’80s and never let up, turning us on to literally thousands of great tunes along the way. Some of our personal Rhino highlights:
- MONKEES-O-RAMA: all 9 albums reissued first on vinyl, then on CD, then the (presumably now aborted) 2-CD Deluxe Editions, the Missing Links series, Live ’67 and the Summer ’67 box set, Headquarters Sessions, both seasons of the show as well as Head and 33 1/3 on DVD, the Listen To The Band & Music Box sets, the TV documentary from back in the late ’90s… hell, even Justus, the God-awful reunion album with Nesmith. And now we’ll never get Birds & Bees in mono. WMG, you dickweeds.
- NUGGETS: The initial vinyl volumes, the 3 individual CDs from the late ’80s, the 4-CD box set and its three sequels… all of which comprise the definitive record of mid ’60s garage rock in all of its incarnations. We never would have heard “Moulty” without them. And for that we’re eternally in their debt.
- LOVE: The Love Story comp, a beautiful Forever Changes remaster followed by an absolutely stunning Deluxe Edition, and even a really weird, kind of crappy Arthur Lee solo album back in the early days of the label. Rhino kept Love’s name alive while Arthur served his time and served it well behind bars around the turn of the century and primed the world for his triumphant return upon his release.
- FACES: The World’s Greatest Forgotten Rock & Roll Band finally got its due ten years ago with the Good Boys… When They’re Asleep comp and were then given the full-on box set treatment with Five Guys Walk Into A Bar…
- OTIS!/BEG, SCREAM & SHOUT!: Rhino lets us hear Otis Redding say “Yeah!” and the “Big Ol’ Box Of 60′s Soul” is quite simply the greatest box set ever released. These have exclamation points in their titles for a reason, you know.
- LOUD, FAST, & OUT OF CONTROL: The most seat-slashingliest ’50s rock & roll comp ever assembled.
- COOL YULE: Damn straight. We need our Ed “Kookie” Byrnes every December, too.
- MONTEREY POP: The 4-CD document of the event organized by the ever-so-newsworthy Papa John Phillips stands as the ultimate souvenir of the first (and still the best) music festival.
- ROCK INSTRUMENTAL CLASSICS: Five volumes – the ’50s, the ’60s, the ’70s, Soul, and Surf. A guitarist’s wet dream: great music with nary a lead singer around to get in the way.
- All those semi-crappy Billboard compilations and Have A Nice Decade, Just Can’t Get Enough, and Like, Omigod!: At their best? Essential. At their worst? Still kind of fun.
Fortunately, Rhino managed to tackle pretty much every great period of rock & soul, so there are relatively few stones left unturned (we’ll leave Shout! Factory to those). Hopefully most of what’s still in print will remain so for the indefinite future, too. Rhino set the scene and turned millions on to music that would have most likely faded into the ether otherwise – they did it right and they raised the bar. Let’s send them off with, appropriately enough, their flagship band: The Monkees.
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