• Track Listing

These five Parlophone and Harvest LPs—"The Climax Chicago Blues Band," "Plays On," "A Lot of Bottle," "Tightly Knit" and "Rich Man"—find the band evolving from Chicago-blues idolatry to excursions into jazz, pop and psychedelia. You’ll hear them really come into their own as songwriters, though they never stopped having their way with a classic blues or two. The CDs come in replica sleeves, and you get an illustrated poster plus live versions of "Flight," "Seventh Son," "Reap What I Have Sowed," "Hey Mama," "Spoonful," alternate takes of "Don’t Start Me Talkin’," "You’ve Been Drinking" and other bonus tracks including single sides and alternate mixes. Those join "Mean Old World," "Insurance," "The Entertainer," "Little Girl," "City Ways," "Cubano Chant," "Cut You Loose," "Every Day," "Bide My Time," "That’s All," "Rich Man," "Mole on the Dole," "Shake Your Love" and the rest of the original releases! Esoteric.