"Hard & Heavy" - no, not really

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with those multi-disc sets Time-Life sells on TV. I actually enjoy the infomercials. Fun seeing some of the live footage, even if it is just in snippets. And anything that keeps the music in memory is a good thing - unfortunately much of the collection is generally made up of available, well known material. Probably a good fit with their customer base. Those of us interested in a bit more depth probably aren't buying our music from TV infomercials any way.

So when I came upon an infomercial for a set I had never before seen I settled down for some (slight) entertainment. The 11 CD + 2 DVD set was called Hard & Heavy. Somebody someplace should be embarrassed. Much of the collection is neither hard nor heavy.

Each CD seems to have 1 to 3 or so songs that can be legitamately called heavy. For example, Megadeth is included with a track and Dio (who is the absolute KING of pseudomystical gobbledygook, and a favorite) is represented twice. Most of the rest is a mixture of questionable 80's hair 'metal' (Poison, Ratt, and so on), good groups who fail the 'heavy' test spectacularly (Scandal? The Tubes?), and groups that are best forgotten altogether (White Lion, Nelson ...).

I try to stay positive around here. For the most part I'd rather talk about the things I have or want than ramble on about things that are best kept far away from me. Time-Life's Hard & Heavy collection is painful enough to inspire me to make an exception.