CD: 5822262
RELEASED: 2003
LABEL: EMI

01. A Girl Called Johnny
02. The Big Music
03. All The Things She Gave Me
04. Whole Of The Moon
05. Spirit
06. Don't Bang The Drum
07. Fisherman's Blues
08. Killing My Heart *
09. Strange Boat
10. And A Bang On The Ear
11. Old England
12. A Man Is In Love

Mike Scott applies a full stop to the first phase of The Waterboys' career by waving bye bye to his record company with a compilation culled from the first five LPs. Armed with a fan's fervour, Scott came to music with a firm belief in the mythology of rock and its redemptive power to triumph over adversity and transcend its sometimes shabby and banal surroundings. Whilst foraging around for their own musical identity, The Waterboys' self-titled debut crystalised Scott's evident regard for Patti Smith, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. A Girl Called Johnny is the sole selection included here, a rousing rock-driven thing which pays tacit homage to Bowie with its loud piano and overbearing saxophone. The next two albums (A Pagan Place, This Is The Sea) began to fulfil the potential glimpsed on the debut, as Scott edged The Waterboys towards the sound he was aiming at - passionate wide-screen rock music with rattling good tunes and an undertow of spirituality. The finest songs on this album are all drawn from that period - The Big Music, All The Things She Gave Me, The Whole Of The Moon and Don't Bang The Drum all have an epic quality and feel, wonderful melodies belted out with gusto and propelled by Scott's emotion-wracked vocals. The Waterboys were undoubtedly at a creative peak, and it seemed natural enough to assume that they would march off into the sunset, hand in hand with U2 and Simple Minds as part of some sort of globe-spanning Celtic triumvirate. Released in 1988, Fisherman's Blues, the breezily affable collection of self-penned and traditional tunes, jigs and reels (represented here by the title track, And A Bang On The Ear and Strange Boat) became palpable evidence that Scott was at peace with himself and more than happy with his music. As befits a collection of this nature, the bait to hook the Waterboys completist is provided by a rollicking live version of Old England and the previously unreleased Killing My Heart (from the Fisherman's Blues sessions), an engagingly stinging electric folk ambience.