17 albums (& the EP) on one CD

[Mr Scarrott]

I've mentioned this idea in another thread but I thought I would give it a go here again...imagine that we're still limited to burning an 80 minute CD and we want to give it to a friend who may know nothing or very little about FM to show the variety of the band's output over its career. However, certain additional rules apply:

All 17 studio albums must be included, as well as the EP.

Any remaining space may be taken up with anything you like (this could include additional tracks from the 17 studio albums; singles and B sides not on albums; tracks from the Blues Jam at Chess that mostly comprise of FM band members; Fireflies, One More Night or The Farmer's Daughter; additional studio material on the deluxe reissues, Greatest Hits or 25 years- the Chain.)

There must be at least three tracks from Peter, Christine, Stevie and Lindsey.

There must be at least one track from Bob Welch, Danny and Jeremy, as well as at least one from amongst the others.

Some deepish cuts must be included along with the hits. (I will concede that this is unavoidable with a lot of the albums as they didn't have hits as such but you get my drift.)

It should be broadly non-chronological.

I really enjoy what I've come up with below, using the above constraints and I listen to it quite a lot , using a four second or so crossfade between tracks. I would have liked to have had more Bob and Danny, but there you go.

There's a nice bit of misdirection when you hear the cymbal intro to Show me a smile after hearing it the first time for Big Love; Dust seems to follow on naturally from the former and Sara seems to float out of the ending of Closing my Eyes . Landslide nestles beautifully between Peter's two singles; Say you love me seems to bounce off She's Changing Me that you would think they weren't actually one album apart but on the same record; Lazy Poker Blues feeds off the energy of Eyes of the World and Mission Bell works so well after When the Sun Comes Down that I'm not embarrassed by a a BTM track (a rare occurrence, I have to admit). Ending with two epic album closers in Why and Gold Dust Woman, this selection has as good an ebb, flow and balance as I can muster.

I would certainly be interested to hear other suggestions.

Big Love
Show me a smile
Dust
Closing my Eyes
Sara
All over again
Man of the World
Landslide
Albatross
Did you ever love me
Say Goodbye
She's changing me
Say you love me
Eyes of the World
Lazy Poker Blues
Sad Angel
When the sun goes down
Mission Bell
Never going back again
I loved another woman
Why
Gold Dust Woman