The Meters – A Message From: The Complete Josie, Reprise, & Warner Bros. Singles 1968-1977 3LP Real Gone Music / Rhino

How would you like to hear a new side—or should we say sides—of the world’s greatest funk band? This 3-LP, 40-track set presents inside of a double gatefold jacket the A and B-side of every single that organist Art Neville, guitarist Leo Nocentelli, bassist George Porter, Jr., and drummer Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste cut for the Josie, Reprise & Warner Bros. label, virtually their entire singles output (all but two co-produced by the late, great Allen Toussaint) save for a few odds ‘n’ ends issued mostly overseas. That means that you not only get every hit along with its hard-to-find B-side but also the rare single mixes, including the especially rare original mono single mixes of the 1968-1971 Josie sides (the first three LP sides are all mono; the last three, featuring the later Reprise and Warner Bros. singles, present all stereo single mixes). These songs represent the mother lode of New Orleans funk, classic tracks like “Sophisticated Cissy,” “Cissy Strut,” “Look-Ka Py Py,” “Chicken Strut,” “Hand Clapping Song,” “Hey Pocky A-Way,” and more. And, with liner notes by Bill Dahl featuring quotes from Nocentelli, Neville, and Porter, this 3-LP set offers probably the best retrospective to date of this enormously influential band. And how’s the sound? Well, after extensive and exhaustive tape research, we were able to come up with original tape sources for all but five of these single sides, and the remastering—by Mike Milchner at SonicVision—is tight! Crate diggers, take your marks!