goes a long way toward providing a definitive best-of culled from his early and most definitive works as a solo artist. This 17-cut selection is compiled from the eight albums that documented his greatest commercial success, beginning with 1973's and ending with 1980's , all of them recorded for . This is not to suggest that 's work lessened in quality; not at all. It's simply that his visibility and his place in the spotlight were greatest during these years. Compilation producer did an excellent job organizing and sequencing these tracks according to aesthetics rather than chronology -- after all, if that's what a punter wants, he/she can program the CD player, right? The set blasts out of the gate with one of the quintessential examples of 's pure blazing rock power with from the flawless recording. It's followed by the silvery blues that is (not the rhythm & blues standard but an original written by the guitarist along with the late bassist/lead vocalist ) from 1976's . The blues ratchets up to overdriven rock with the sinister off 1975's . The minor complaint here is that selections from the 1976 album were substituted for the original versions. This is minor, but still, it would have been nice to hear the full-on solid squall version of rather than the raved-up, muddy-sounding live one. Some of the nice touches are the inclusion of ' title cut, one of the finest ballads to come from a power trio ever (other excellent ballads here are and ). Also included is the scorching B-side "Take a Fast Train from 1973 that backed 's title track. It needs to be mentioned that the title cut from 1977's marked beautiful new terrain for the trio that had replaced drummer with and let simply front the band as lead vocalist when they acquired the talent of bassist . In sum, this set is solid from top to bottom, with a good liner essay by that may be a bit much on hyperbole, but nonetheless provides a well-researched professional biography in a small amount of space. ~ Thom Jurek