Bob Stanley Presents London A To Z 1962-1973

Bob Stanley of St Etienne is rightly famed amongst cognoscenti for his brillant books on pop music and his equally brilliantly curated themed compilations, mostly for the peerless and venerable Brit reissues specialists, Ace Records.This item comprises Bob's latest effort with the rather high concept hook of songs from the 1962-1973 period mentioning London locations and themes. I think this particular item is veering a little close to self parody for Bob with him struggling to find tunes to properly fit the concept especially since he ties one hand behind his back and doesn't include any Donovan or Kinks!No Donovan means no Hampstead Incident, Museum, or Sunny South Kensington, etc, though Bob does include Donovan's Sunny Godge Street via a cover version (licensing costs presumably precluded a Donovan track?). The Kinks are a more egregious omission as they are the quintessential London band... yes, Waterloo Sunset would be too pricey but what about Big Black Smoke, Lavender Hill, Holloway Jail, Muswell Hillbillies, etc? A pretty stunning oversight there.Fortunately, despite the slightly stretched concept there is nevertheless good, though obscure, music here as Bob has never done an outright poor complilation and that is the case here. The music starts with a jazz tune, from John Barry of all people, then goes folky then some pop, then proto-singer-songwriter, then psych/prog then finally folkish rock. Very little bad then but equally nothing absolutely outstanding either, bar perhaps Jansch/Renbourn's superb "Soho", but the compilation sets a pleasant mood appropriate to a slow Sunday and that is good enough for me.This comp also gave me a opportunity to finally hear a tune from the late 60s Ladbroke Grove hippies, Quintessence, which is exactly as I envisioned it would be... formless (but fun, but that will be enough for this life). Plus it confirmed my allegy to early Al Stewart... twee, precious, risible and easily the worst tune on the set and maybe of all time (I would rather listen to Joe Dolce!).So a bit of a mixed bag but still mostly good stuff and Bob's liner notes are always a treat. 3.5 stars would be a fair score with half a star knocked off for including the worst song of all time (Al Stewart).