The classic lineup of Big Star only existed between 1971 and 1974 (though a version of the band reformed in 1993), but in that short time, with three albums that ranged from euphoric power pop to despairing ballads, the Memphis band created a musical legacy that has spawned generations of fans.
One of the most passionate of those fans is R.E.M’s Mike Mills, While recording at Memphis Ardent Studios with REM in the 80s, he met and befriended Big Star’s drummer Jody Stephens. When Stephens became the only surviving member of the band after frontman Alex Chilton died of a heart attack in 2010, he invited Mills to join an all-star tribute band, called Big Star Third after their darkest and most revered album.
On Wednesday at the Concord in LA, the band – which also includes Jeff Tweedy and Pat Sansone from Wilco, Robyn Hitchcock, Dan Wilson of Semisonic, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Jon Auer of the Posies, BenmontTench from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – will play the Third album in its entirety, along with other Big Star classics. They’ll be accompanied by a chamber orchestra led by the Kronos Quartet, and the show will be released as a film and record next year. Meanwhile, a Big Star live album, a radio session recorded for WLIR in 1974, has just been re-released.
Big Star’s Third performing live from the Bumbershoot Music Lounge. Recorded August 31, 2014.
Songs:
For You
Take Care
Nightime
Give Me Another Chance
Thirteen
Blue Moon
I Am The Cosmos
In The Street
Big Star’s classic record Third wasn’t released until 1978, four years after it was recorded and four years after BigStar had broken up. The chaotic recording sessions will be released as part of a huge 69-track reissue called “Complete Third”, charting the album’s genesis from demos to completed LP. The reissue is due October 14th on Omnivore Recordings.
‘Volume One’ includes Chilton’s demos alongside vocals and rough mixes. ‘Volume Two: Roughs to Mixes’ boasts producers Jim Dickinson and John Fry’s early mixes for the Third tracks, including unreleased takes of Lesa Aldredge, Chilton’s girlfriend at the time and background singer on Third, covering Velvet Underground’s“After Hours.” ‘Volume Three: Final Masters,’ contains the 20 completed tracks.
Regardless of track order, the album was named to Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time despite its tumultuous journey. “Ask any of the original participants who made the record, and none of them would say they expected this album to even see a real release, much less end up on Rolling Stone’s list,” Ardent Studios’ Adam Hill writes of the album in the reissue’s liner notes.
“It’s a great testament to Third that an album that almost nobody was interested in at the time of its pressing, is now loved and sought out by an ever growing legion of fans. I guess that’s called ‘ahead of its time,'” he said.
The reissue also features unseen photos and essays penned by a diverse group of people either involved in the making of or influenced by Third, such as R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Wilco’s John Stirratt and Pat Sansone, the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris, the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and Debbi Peterson, post-reunion Big Star member Ken Stringfellow and the band’s drummer Jody Stephens.
“At the time of the recording, everyone’s emotions were forefront … is uncertainty an emotion? We were responding to Alex’s mood both in song and conversation,” Stephens writes. “All my time spent in the studio for Third was in the company of John (Fry) and Jim (Dickinson) as well as Alex. I heard stories of maudlin scenes that happened after hours but never really witnessed them. But I did witness Alex, Jim, and John, and the sometimes easy and sometimes uneasy interaction among us all. Through it all, Jim and John were brilliant and reassuring.” Complete Third will initially be released as a 3-CD set, with a vinyl pressing of all three volumes as standalone 2-LPs also planned. Complete Third Track List Volume 1: Demos to Sessions to Roughs
1. “Like St. Joan (Kanga Roo)” * (Demo)
2. “Lovely Day” (Demo)
3. “Downs” (Demo)
4. “Femme Fatale” (Demo)
5. “Thank You Friends” (Demo)
6. “Holocaust” (Demo)
7. “Jesus Christ” (Demo)
8. “Blue Moon” (Demo)
9. “Nightime” (Demo)
10. “Take Care” (Demo)
11. “Big Black Car” (Demo #2/Acoustic Take 1)
12. “Don’t Worry Baby”
13. “I’m In Love With A Girl” *
14. “Big Black Car” (Demo #3/Acoustic Take 2)
15. “I’m So Tired” * – Alex & Lesa
16. “That’s All It Took” * – Alex & Lesa
17. “Pre-Downs” *
18. “Baby Strange” *
19. “Big Black Car” (Demo #1/Band)
20. “Kizza Me” * (Dickinson Rough Mix/Alex Guide Vocal)
21. “Till the End Of the Day” * (Dickinson Rough Mix/Alex Guide Vocal, Kept As Final Vocal)
22. “Thank You Friends” * (Dickinson Rough Mix/Alex Guide Vocal)
23. “O, Dana” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
24. “Dream Lover” * (Dickinson Rough Mix) Vol. 2: Roughs to Mixes
1. “Big Black Car” * (Dickinson Rough Mix/Alex Guide Vocal)
2. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
3. “Take Care” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
4. “Holocaust” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
5. “Nightime” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
6. “Thank You Friends” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
7. “Nature Boy” * (Dickinson Rough Mix)
8. “After Hours” * – Lesa
9. “Stroke It Noel” (Backwards Intro)
10. “Lovely Day” * (Fry Rough Mix)
11. “Nightime” * (Fry Rough Mix)
12. “Blue Moon” * (Fry Rough Mix)
13. “Till The End Of The Day” (Alternate Mix #1)
14. “Big Black Car” (Fry Rough Mix)
15. “Holocaust” (Fry Alternate/Rough Mix)
16. “Downs” * (Fry Rough Mix)
17. “Kanga Roo” (Fry Rough Mix)
18. “Femme Fatale” * (Fry Rough Mix)
19. “For You” * (Alternate Version/Alex Vocal)
20. “Thank You Friends” * (Fry Rough Mix)
21. “Take Care” * (Alternate Version/Alex Vocal)
22. “Kizza Me” * (Fry Rough Mix)
23. “Till the End Of the Day” (FRY Rough Mix #2) – Lesa
24. “Nature Boy” (Fry Rough Mix)
25. “Mañana” Vol. 3: Final Masters
1. “Stroke It Noel”
2. “Downs”
3. “Femme Fatale”
4. “Thank You Friends”
5. “Holocaust”
6. “Jesus Christ”
7. “Blue Moon”
8. “Kizza Me”
9. “For You”
10. “O, Dana”
11. “Nightime”
12. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”
13. “Kanga Roo”
14. “Take Care”
15. “Big Black Car”
16. “Dream Lover”
17. “You Can’t Have Me”
18. “Till the End Of the Day”
19. “Lovely Day”
20. “Nature Boy”
* previously unreleased
The hugely influential 1970s melodic rock band Big Star will have the feature length documentary about their life and times, ‘Nothing Can Hurt Me,’ released by USM on DVD and Blu-Ray next month. The group’s many admirers will also be excited to learn that a deluxe package will be available that adds the first two of the three albums they released in their initial incarnation.
Their debut LP was ‘No#1 Record,’ first released on the Ardent label via Stax in 1972, and this will be in the package along with the 1974 follow-up ‘Radio City.’ The band released ‘Third’ in 1978 before their split, and were then “discovered” by the next generation of rock fans after being cited as an influence by the likes of R.E.M., the Replacements and later favourites such as Flaming Lips. ‘Third’ was reissued as ‘Sister Lovers’ in 1992 and the band reformed for a fourth and final new studio record, ‘In Space,’ in 2005.
‘Nothing Can Hurt Me,’ a feature length documentary about Big Star, was first shown in cinemas last summer, and its new DVD and Blu-Ray release will be on March 2nd. Alex Chilton, who had been the original band’s frontman and co-songwriter with Chris Bell, died in 2010.
The Fat Angel Sings 