Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. So It Goes - Nick Lowe
2. Heart of the City - Nick Lowe
3. Between the Lines - The Pink Fairies
4. Cincinnati Fatback - Roogalator
5. Styrofoam - Sean Tyla
6. New Rose - The Damned
7. Blank Generation - Richard Hell
8. Stab Your Back - The Damned
9. Less Than Zero - Elvis Costello
10. England's Glory - Max Wall
11. Maybe - Jill Read
12. One Chord Wonders - The Adverts
13. Alison - Elvis Costello
14. Jo Jo Gunne - Dave Edmunds
15. Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
16. Kill - Alberto y los Trios Paranoias
17. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Ian Dury
18. Razzle in My Pocket - Ian Dury
19. Suffice to Say - The Yachts
20. Let's Loot the Supermarket Again (Like We Did Last Summer) - Mick Farren
21. Watching the Detectives - Elvis Costello
22. My Old Man - Ian Dury
23. Police Car - Larry Wallis
24. Yankee Wheels - Jane Aire
25. Back to Schooldays - Graham Parker

Disc 2:

1. I Love My Label - Nick Lowe
2. Marie Provost - Nick Lowe
3. What a Waste! - Ian Dury
4. I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself - Elvis Costello
5. Whoops-A-Daisy - Humphrey Ocean
6. I Think We're Alone Now - Lene Lovich
7. Jocko Homo - Devo
8. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - Ian Dury
9. Semaphore Signals - Wreckless Eric
10. I'll Get by in Pittsburgh - Jona Lewie
11. B-A-B-Y - Rachel Sweet
12. Lucky Number - Lene Lovich
13. Solitary Confinement - Members
14. Frozen Years - The Rumor
15. Take the Cash (K.A.S.H.) - Wreckless Eric
16. They Don't Know - Kirsty MacColl
17. You'll Never Get Me Up in One of Those - Mickey Jupp
18. Who Does Lisa Like? - Rachel Sweet
19. Drive Friendly - Motor Boys Motor
20. Win or Lose - Lew Lewis & Reformer
21. Hop - Theatre of Hate
22. One Step Beyond - Madness
23. Emotional Traffic - The Rumour
24. Inbetweenies - Ian Dury
25. Lucky Seven - Lew Lewis & Reformer

Disc 3:

1. My Girl - Madness
2. Israelites - Desmond Dekker
3. Buena - Joe "King" Carrasco
4. Stupefaction - Graham Parker
5. You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties - Jona Lewie
6. Trouble With Love - Any Trouble
7. What Becomes of the Brokenhearted - Dave Stewart
8. Mercury Poisoning [*] - Graham Parker
9. Let Go - Dirty Looks
10. Baggy Trousers - Madness
11. It's My Party - Dave Stewart
12. Green, Green Grass of Home - John Otway
13. Three Bells in a Row - Tenpole Tudor
14. Stop the Cavalry - Jona Lewie
15. Going Left Right - Department S
16. Is Vic There? - Department S
17. If You Need Me - The Equators
18. Wunderbar - Tenpole Tudor
19. Allamana - Desmond Dekker
20. Pretend - Alvin Stardust
21. Loud Music in Cars - Billy Bremner
22. Throwing My Baby Out With the Bathwater - Tenpole Tudor
23. Just One Cornetto - Pookiesnackenburger
24. Who Likes Jazz? - Via Vagabond
25. You Broke My Heart in 17 Places - Tracey Ullman

Disc 4:

1. Sign of the Times - Belle Stars
2. Sweet Memory - Belle Stars
3. Language Problems - Electric Guitars
4. Breakaway - Tracey Ullman
5. Like Dust - Passion Puppets
6. Dangerous Dreams - Jakko
7. Destination Lululand (Humdiddlededumhoowahayha) - King Kurt
8. Sick Bed of Cúchulaínn - The Pogues
9. Pick Me Up - Inspirational Choir of the Pentecostal First-Born Church of the Living God
10. Here Is My Number - Makin' Time
11. Dark Streets of London - The Pogues
12. Wild Child - The Untouchables
13. New England - Kirsty MacColl
14. Pretty One - Jamie Rae
15. Free Yourself - The Untouchables
16. Sally MacLennane - The Pogues
17. Brilliant Mind - Furniture
18. Don't Wait Up - Dr. Feelgood
19. Killer Joe (Right Cross) - Tommy Chase
20. Shake Like Judy Says - Furniture
21. Hunting Shooting Fishing - Dr. Feelgood

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62715 in Music
• Released on: 1992-08-04
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com
Understand from the get-go that label retrospectives are spotty affairs. Rare is the label that's free of stiffs, and Stiff Records' raison d'état was to serve as a refuge for castoffs, including a fair share of flaccid acts. The off-center likes of Nick Lowe (having recently fleed the misbegotten Brinsley Schwarz), Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Larry Wallis, and a very young Elvis Costello found a home with Stiff in the '70s. It wasn't a punk label, though it boasted the Damned; it wasn't a ska imprint, though Madness and Desmond Dekker recorded for the company; it wasn't a power-pop or pub-rock haven, though a number of Stiff's leading lights (Dury, Lowe, Costello, Dr. Feelgood, Dave Edmunds) fell into those categories. And it wasn't terribly long-lived. This imaginatively designed four-disc overview definitely loses momentum toward the end, but there's a humble enchantment to an overwhelming percentage of tracks here from label mainstays, the semiacclaimed (Devo, Graham Parker, Lene Lovich, the Pogues), and uncelebrated (Mickey Jupp, Mick Farren, Jona Lewie). -- Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

best of my life
I was in my teens when this kind of music was played on the radio , I lived in ex Yugoslavia and I was reading a lot about the new wave and all those stuff i England. I loved those groups but I never actually had a chance to listen all those recors ( I Lived in ex Yugoslavia for Gud`s sake ) , now I lived in Sweden and have money to buy records but I am not 13 , 14 , 15 years old anymore and the music doesn`t mean EVERYTHING to me. This box remaind me what music can do with your life and how it is to be 17 again . By this one , no metter how old you are , this is history.

Instantly enjoyable.
Strange...I remember trying to search for this boxed set earlier in the year and coming up with nil for my efforts. Then, after accidentally finding it in a New York record store and acquiring it right away, I find it on here. Must be my mind playing tricks on me.

In any case, I'm not old enough to have lived through the era from which these songs sprung, but the appeal of the music easily traverses the generation gap. I haven't even yet explored all of this set and it's already been some of the most fun listening experiences I've had while listening to "older music": Elvis Costello, The Belle Stars, Nick Lowe, Kirsty MacColl...and personal favourite, spunky popster Rachel Sweet. Vivacious and highly entertaining. My only complaint is that the liner notes are somewhat flimsy. Though full of the kind of tongue-in-cheek humour that, apparently, Stiff Records was famous for, the result of the non-journalistic approach is that there's very little real information on the music, the history, the label, and the context, hidden by the cheeky writing and witticisms. I for one would've liked some more detached, professional journalism to inform me of the significance of this music such as in that Amplifier article I had read (which led me to look for this boxed set in the first place). So on the packaging front, much is left to be desired. But the music is uniquely appealing, a world of its own.

Action Packed
Stiff is one of those wacky labels that always seemed to sneak by just under the pop radar.

I received this set as a gift a few years ago, and couldn't be happier about it. This collection is so full of unknown bits of whimsy and little-known cuts by more popular artist that it starts to become more of a treasure chest than a "best of."

Ian Drury of "Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll" fame appears as vocals on several other cuts including "Kitchen at Parties." This collection is full of simmilar fun little nuggets.

So much of the "alternative" music scene that was largely contained by British borders seems to be archived here, and it's fun to tap into it. Americans (such as myself) who always thought that the band Madness was largely a one hit wonder will be surprised by the spastic "Baggy Trousers," a song I enjoyed so much I have purchased several Madness CDs since hearing it.

While Elvis Costello originally got his start on Stiff, he has only one song here - probably a god thing, as we all have a good idea what he sounds like - leaving more room for the lesser known artists of Stiff.

There is a charming wackiness to this collection and to the whole Stiff attitude. This is a great collection for exploring what the Brits were doing while we tollerated Dexy's Midnight Runners.

Oh! Special bonus: There is a fabulous (FABULOUS) cut of Desmond Dekker's "Isrealites" on disc three. This along merits purchasing this set.