Boy George is All Boxed In

As I may have mentioned (I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look back) I recently picked up the Culture Club 4-disc box set (lists for $60, but I found it used for $22). Of course, I have a lot of the tracks on regular CC (or Boy George) albums, but there is a surprising amount of demos, unreleased tracks, and remixes included.

I've now trimmed the four discs down to three by eliminating the tracks that just repeat regular album stuff. That still leaves an amazing (in terms of sheer number) 43 tracks (out of 74, so 58%) that are new to me. A lot of it is Boy George solo-related stuff, not really Culture Club, so I don't know why the set is marketed/labeled as a CC box set, but whatever. I have (and enjoy) a lot of George's solo stuff too, so it's not really that much of an issue for me personally, but I can see how it might irk the casual CC fan.

I call my new personalized box set Boy George & Culture Club [ All Boxed In ].

The third (and now final) disc is essentially the fourth disc of the original box set, minus "I Just Wanna Be Loved" which sounds identical (to me) to what can be found on CC's 1999 reunion album Don't Mind If I Do. In place of that I moved "Shirley Temple Moment"—not a song, but a recording of Boy George having a lengthy hissy fit in front of the band—from the first disc to the last track of the entire set. But otherwise the third disc is the same as the original fourth disc, containing remixes done by Richie "Drumhead" Stevens.

The new first disc combines the unique stuff from the first and second discs of the original box set. The second disc is simply the new/unique stuff from the original third disc.

Not all of the remixes are great (some are nowhere near as listenable as the originals), but a few are interesting. The demos are definitely worth having (well, if you're a BG/CC fan already) and a few—"Peculiar World", "Grand Scheme Of Things", "Armageddon", and "Run, Run, Run"—positively shine.

"Love Is Lonely", "If I Were U", and "Hiroshima" are not listed as demos, but I'd never heard them before and can now say they are also standouts. Apparently "Love Is Lonely" and "If I Were U" are just simply previously unreleased tracks (for whatever reason).

"Hiroshima", "Armageddon", and "Run, Run, Run" (as well as "Police & Thieves" which I didn't care for as much) are supposedly from the unreleased 1997 album Dubversive, featuring Boy George. (I'm sure there must be a story behind why it was never released even though there's a cover image—I assume that's what the thumbnail image is—and track listing shown.) Since the tracks appear here on the Richie "Drumhead" Stevens remix CD of the box set, I suppose the versions on the unreleased Dubversive album could very well differ (though I have no way of knowing for sure, of course).

George's cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made 4 Walking" (Nancy Headbanger Mix) is also very enjoyable.