Flower Power: The Music of the Love Generation

I think this is a great box set. It took me all the way back to my teen years, when all these songs were in the air, on the radio. And I'm terrifically glad to read that some reviewers' kids are enjoying this set. But I'd like to address some of the criticisms of the set I see hear, some of which I consider outrageous:1) The "Hippy" issue. No one from the period would consider the music here the exclusive domain of "hippies", however one might define them. Now, the set is called "Flower Power", and Time-Life's TV advertising does push the counterculture picture, but pretty much everyone under the age of 25 or 30 was listening to these songs. Note that the songs range all over the board in musical style.2) The "Song Selection" Issue. Let's give Time-Life some credit. They had to pick and choose, and they picked the most popular songs that were being played on the RADIO. This means that some music that we've grown to love, in retrospect, but that wasn't immediately hugely popular in the late sixties or early seventies, isn't in the set. You might think all seven Moody Blues albums were great, but only a handful of the songs were radio hits which entered general consciousness. Also, there are licensing issues; EMD, for example, is extremely tight-fisted about licensing Beatles songs.3) The "Original Version" issue. As best I can tell, these songs are ALL the original versions by the original artists--with a couple of understandable exceptions. (Amazon doesn't help matters here by screwing up again: in the listening sampler, Tommy James is listed as the artist for all the songs, and the SONGWRITERS are listed by the titles). The exceptions strike me as justifiable: for example, Joan Baez's cover of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was actually a bigger chart hit than the Band's original version, and Aretha's "Bridge Over Troubled Water", while perhaps not preferable to the Simon & Garfunkel original, WAS a big chart hit the following year. (By the way, I find the accusation that there's lots of "filler" here absurd; no one's going to like everything here, but this IS the stuff that was dominant then.)4) The "Remastering" issue. A very mixed bag. Apparently many of these songs are not remastered, but some are---or more likely, were licensed from companies that had already remastered them. This situation may be causing the up-and-down volume effect noticed by some reviewers here. Perhaps it would have been nice if Time Life had remastered them all, but the present situation doesn't trouble me deeply. Of the unremastered ones: I'm hearing them just as I heard them for the first time off the radio in the 60s and 70s.5) The "Clasp" issue. Only critique I agree with 100%. Time Life should have put some little closure snap or clasp on the box---which is otherwise pretty cool.In sum: If you're looking for "hippy" music, you want to think two or three or four times before buying this box. But if you're looking for a music hits set completely evocative of the late 60s and early 70s, I can't think of a better one--and I was there.

I like the variety of songs on the many CD's. There were a couple I never heard of, but I am thoroughly enjoying listening to them all.

I will start with the bad... This does not have the song "Sweet Home Alabama"This is a great collection, I was born in the late 70s so I missed the whole Hippie movement by just over a decade. But, I think that in my past life, I was a hippie. I lived in San Franciso in the home of Penny Halliwell. We were a White Witches Coven high all the time, celebrating free love and my dumbass overdosed. I died and was resurrected in 1979.I believe that, because this music touches me in a place that i didnt know existed. I never feel that place unless I am hearing the songs from that age. That era of Woodstock, Vietnam, Flower Power. "It's just love, Man" I hear myself saying that over and over in my head. I know I was there. I see the clothes from that era and my heart skips, I would love to dress like that.NE Way, this is a CD collection, two disc come in individual cases totaling 10 cds in all. There are at least 12 songs per cd. The collection damn near covers the entire 60s music movement. But everything is not there. It is still worth buying because the songs that are there are fantastic.

I hate to be the one to throw cold bong water on the orgy of praise for thisset :-) But has anyone noticed that Jethro Tull, Chicago, The Tempations, The Moody Blues, Carly Simon, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Elton John and the Beach Boys never recorded any song that belongs in this set??? Does anyone care? I mean, we're spending lots on this...By the way, the artists mentioned above are all great, and the songs from them would have been great additions to Time-Life's "pop memories of the 60's" set. That set also suffers from even more weak material, so why not cull these types of songs from the "Flower" set, include them in the "Pop Memories" set and pack the Flower Power with the good hippie stuff? (If you can't tell by now, I feel strongly about this, lol).But Time Life tanked big-time on that task. T/L, you can not tell me that with just a little more consideration, you could not have come up with enough flower-power-hippie music to pack this collection with nothing but songs which are true to the theme of this set. It seems a bit thoughtless.I'm sorry. I do like this collection but there is just NO excuse for these poor selections. Plus they cut some of the songs--cut out part of the solo on "Sunshine Superman", hacked off the end of "Sky Pilot" etc. That's wrong. No way should consumers have to put up with that for the price. Also, the box it comes in is not so great. Hard to remove the discs and no clasp to hold it closed.Time Life, take the best 45 or so songs from your extended 18-disc Flower Power set, cut out the ones that don't belong here and produce a super-strong 12-disc set. It's really pretty simple. The music is there. Profuse in it's plentitude and just waiting to be treated with the respect it deserves. I mean just throw in more Janis Joplin, Country Joe, Tommy James or anything hippie-themed. This is extremely lazy work, Time-Life. What could be easier?So, I would not pay anywhere near full price for this. However, to be fair, the majority of these songs are great. I'd say four out of every five do belong here. So if you can pick this up for way less, I'd recommend it.This music and the times that spawned it mean a lot to me. They came sort of close but seem not to have tried to really nail it...bummer dude!!!

Bought this a long time ago and it has been a pretty consistent set for both my wife and I to use. I looked at the list of songs and while I could get some (not all) through downloads the cost of this set was much less. If you are a fan of music from this era I'd highly recommend it.