Music Marathon 2009 – Part 4 (Dark Was the Night – John Doe and the Sadies)

Various Artists – Dark Was the Night:  A Red Hot Compilation
Charity compilation albums seldom yield much of longstanding worth.  They can be well-meaning, a boon (or burden) to completists, and fun, but it’s quite unusual that any offer an artist’s best work, usually relying on b-sides, leftovers, poorly conceived covers, and live versions of previously released material.  Red Hot’s No Alternative was something of an oddity in the early 90s, offering what seemed to be otherwise unavailable essential tracks at the time, like Bob Mould’s “Can’t Fight It,” Smashing Pumpkins’ “Glynis,” Pavement’s “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence,” and, perhaps most of all (to some folks, at least), Nirvana’s “Verse Chorus Verse.”  In retrospect, it’s a bit more of a mix – it still has those throwaway live versions (delivered by the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, and the Breeders), quirky covers (Soul Asylum does Marvin Gaye, Goo Goo Dolls do the Stones, Uncle Tupelo does CCR – okay, that last one’s pretty essential), and b-side level stuff (hi, Soundgarden).