I don't think anyone is arguing the importance of spreading the music around via bootleg comps in the days of olde. There were different, um , levels of approach decades back that some, including me, were vocal about: namely, the cookie cutter / lack of quality control (sound quality from LPs like Boulders, Pebbles) a complaint that was never addressed by the guys who created them. I guess you'd call those guys indifferent and lazy back then. Yet, we still bought them anyway because we wanted to hear the music. You didn't have any other options, unless you became a collector of original 45 pressings and could offer tape trades to guys in the loop. and, believe me, you had to WORK and show your integrity to the elders, like George, Bill N, Mark P, Greg F,....guys who had boatloads of 45s that had not appeared on any compilations, and some have never appeared on any as of 2017. You had to prove to the clan that you weren't going to outright bootleg or share the songs with anyone else. And I do side with this thinking, why should someone else not directly involved put out a bootleg that didn't own the 45s to begin with?
Nearly all of us had desire to put together a decent sounding compilation that was well thought out (Jim A's Off The Wall, Michael T's Chosen Few for example). The latter examples still reign near the top for bootleg compilations. I never bothered doing a comp 25-30 years ago, even though I was urged to do so. I didn't want the headaches and certainly wasn't willing to wait 6 months or longer (read: Get Hip) for payments from distributors so that I could recoup my costs to produce a comp. We all know Tim was the guy who came along and changed the face of compilations for doing it the "right way" in the mid 1980s; no, he didn't start out that way but quickly upped his efforts and it still shows by the fact that his comps continue to sell.
But in 2017? Non-comprehensive compilations of 45s that have been issued elsewhere in the past are like typewriters - not needed in today's world. In the old days, guys who created the bootleg comps did it less for ego and more for sharing. As I posted, 2017 is the perfect time to discover this genre of music. Nearly EVERYTHING can be acquired digitally or if you want vinyl, oldcomps are still relatively inexpensive. And there are dozens of well produced comprehensive assemblies of the music based on label, region, etc. My shelf is full of those CDs and LPs. Besides, most folks who are younger seem to prefer listening to the music in lower bitrate digital quality anyway - hence, youtube streamed while you drive in your car, or streaming via self-owned radio stations.
Every song on Dark Side can be easily found elsewhere, and for free in most cases. It's really silly to me, to think that some young kid is going to have his world changed by buying this comp. At least that's what I seem to infer from the compilers. If anything, we will have DJ-scene people who join G45 in order to post a want list with all of the Dark Side tracks asking to buy them, never offering any other critical or constructive posts.
