[southtampacane]

In terms of releasing material from the vault, one question is what would constitute a seemly delay, honouring the passing of Gord, versus unseemly scrambling to capitalize on this last peak period of interest in the band.

Sure, I'd rush out to buy a "Rare and Unreleased" compilation right now. But if I'm in the band, it is probably MUCH too soon to want to sift through all that material - the wound of Gord's demise still being too fresh. (The same might be true - perhaps even more so - of a "tribute concert" in which the boys play backing band to a series of lead singers).

Wait too long and you pass your obvious commercial window. I doubt this is a massive consideration for the band, but it might matter quite a bit if you're the record company. And this could be relevant in terms of how generous the package is.

So, the timing is an interesting variable. Just saying.

I was thinking about this, and there is clearly no model for dealing with this. Tom Petty died two weeks before Gord and his family along with Mike Campbell and Benmont released "An American Treasure" collection which was initially marketed as 63 songs of unreleased material, but in reality is about 13 things I've never heard, a bunch of studio tracks already released, live versions of songs and some alternate takes. I got it as a gift and its a nice package but candidly it seemed like a cash grab. Now just a few weeks after that Universal is putting out another TP greatest hits collections with one new song and an alternate version of another album track. It's pretty disgusting.

Somewhere between what the Hip has done (nothing yet) and what they have done with Petty is probably the right answer.

[direwolf74]

In terms of releasing material from the vault, one question is what would constitute a seemly delay, honouring the passing of Gord, versus unseemly scrambling to capitalize on this last peak period of interest in the band.

Sure, I'd rush out to buy a "Rare and Unreleased" compilation right now. But if I'm in the band, it is probably MUCH too soon to want to sift through all that material - the wound of Gord's demise still being too fresh. (The same might be true - perhaps even more so - of a "tribute concert" in which the boys play backing band to a series of lead singers).

Wait too long and you pass your obvious commercial window. I doubt this is a massive consideration for the band, but it might matter quite a bit if you're the record company. And this could be relevant in terms of how generous the package is.

So, the timing is an interesting variable. Just saying.

I was thinking about this, and there is clearly no model for dealing with this. Tom Petty died two weeks before Gord and his family along with Mike Campbell and Benmont released "An American Treasure" collection which was initially marketed as 63 songs of unreleased material, but in reality is about 13 things I've never heard, a bunch of studio tracks already released, live versions of songs and some alternate takes. I got it as a gift and its a nice package but candidly it seemed like a cash grab. Now just a few weeks after that Universal is putting out another TP greatest hits collections with one new song and an alternate version of another album track. It's pretty disgusting.

Somewhere between what the Hip has done (nothing yet) and what they have done with Petty is probably the right answer.

Agreed. I too was excited when I first heard about Petty's American Treasure box. But after seeing the final tracklist and reading some reviews (including yours), I think I'm gonna pass and just download the unreleased tracks if I can.

As for the Hip, they already have a greatest hits album out, so I sincerely hope they don't include all those songs again on a future package or box set. If they do it right, it should include a bunch of unreleased b-sides, live tracks, some alternate takes and maybe a video accompaniment like a filmed concert from the vaults. No need to include previously released material IMO. As far as timing the release, that's obviously up to the band and their families. One year after Gord's passing is probably too soon to release anything, but like KWT said, I'm sure the record company is itching to capitalize on the renewed interest in Gord & the Hip.