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| | Keep An Eye On The Sky | | | Music Artist : | | Big Star | | Music Style : | | Proto Punk | | Record Label : | | Rhino | | Release Date : | | 2009-09-15 | | Store Price : | | $69.98 | | Artistopia's Price: $41.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Psychedelic Stuff (Chris Bell)
2. All I See Is You (Icewater)
3. Every Day We Grow Closer (Original Mix)(Alex Chilton)
4. Try Again (Early Version) (Rock City)
5. The Preacher (Rock City)
6. Feel
7. The Ballad Of El Goodo (Alternate Mix)
8. In The Street
9. Thirteen (Alternate Mix)
10. Don't Lie To Me
11. The India Song
12. When My Baby's Beside Me (Alternate Mix)
13. My Life Is Right (Alternate Mix)
14. Give Me Another Chance Alternate Mix)
15. Try Again
16. Gone With The Light (Chris Bell)
17. Watch The Sunrise
18. ST 100/6 (Alternate Mix)
19. In The Street (Second Recorded Version)
20. Feel (Early Mix)
21. The Ballad Of El Goodo (Alternate Lyrics)
22. The India Song (Alternate Version)
23. Country Mom
24. I Got Kinda Lost (Demo)
25. Motel Blues (Demo)
Disc 21. There Was A Light (Demo)
2. Life is White (Demo)
3. What's Going Ahn (Demo)
4. O My Soul
5. Life is White
6. Way Out West (Alternate Mix)
7. What's Going Ahn
8. You Get What You Deserve (Alternate Mix)
9. Mod Lang (Alternate Mix)
10. Back Of A Car (Alternate Mix)
11. Daisy Glaze
12. She's A Mover
13. September Gurls
14. Morpha Too (Alternate Mix)
15. I'm In Love With A Girl
16. O My Soul (Alternate Version)
17. Back Of A Car (Demo)
18. Daisy Glaze (Alternate Take)
19. She's A Mover (Alternate Version)
20. I Am The Cosmos (Chris Bell)
21. You And Your Sister (Chris Bell)
22. Blue Moon (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
23. Femme Fatale (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
24. Thank You Friends (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
25. You Get What You Deserve (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
Disc 31. Lovely Day (aka Stroke It Noel)(Demo)(Alex Chilton)
2. Downs (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
3. Nighttime (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
4. Jesus Christ (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
5. Holocaust (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
6. Take Care (Demo)(Alex Chilton)
7. Big Black Car (Alternate Demo)(Alex Chilton)
8. Manana
9. Jesus Christ
10. Femme Fatale
11. O, Dana
12. Kizza Me
13. You Can't Have Me
14. Nighttime
15. Dream Lover
16. Blue Moon
17. Take Care
18. Stroke It Noel
19. For You
20. Downs
21. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
22. Big Black Car
23. Holocaust
24. Kanga Roo
25. Thank You Friends
26. Till The End Of The Day
27. Lovely Day
28. Nature Boy
Disc 41. When My Baby's Beside Me (live)
2. My Life Is Right (live)
3. She's A Mover (live)
4. Way Out West (live)
5. The Ballad Of El Goodo (live)
6. In The Street (live)
7. Back Of A Car (live)
8. Thirteen (live)
9. The India Song (live)
10. Try Again (live)
11. Watch The Sunrise (live)
12. Don't Lie To Me (live)
13. Hot Burrito #2 (live)
14. I Got Kinda Lost (live)
15. Baby Strange (live)
16. Slut (live)
17. There Was A Light (live)
18. St 100/6 (live)
19. Come On Now (live)
20. O My Soul (live)
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 This is it folks!
Submitted on: 2009-11-14 |
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I'm probably like a lot of you folks reading this. I first heard of Big Star in the late 70's, from a friend and record collector who managed a record store, and actually had the vinyl. Sometime shortly after that the two-disc vinyl reissue came out and it moved into my permanent top-ten LP's. The list of recordings that can change someone's life, or at least how they feel about the power of music is relatively short, but Big Star's classic pair belong on that list. I won't rehash what everyone is saying about this great set... It's not the place to start for first time listeners, but for the rest of us, this is the LAST WORD on the original Big Star. Complete studio recordings, demo's and even a live show recording! The accompanying book blew me away! I had never seen more than a handful of photo's of the band, and suddenly there is a whole collection of insightful and revealing pictures. They really were four guys from Memphis!
I have always been conflicted about this band. Had they broken through (especially with Chris Bell), would they eventually suffer the same fate as most bands - either ruined by success, drugs, etc., the quality of music diminishing, and ending up on the outs with each other? Part of me thinks that their rapid descent into oblivion only makes the treasure they left us more precious. Still it is poignant to read about Chris Bell's love for the record they made, and his heartbreak over it's utter commercial failure. Never could that be more understandable. It is reassuring to know that after the repeat non-success of Alex Chilton's masterpiece follow-up 'Radio City', he was savvy enough about the record biz to survive relatively unscathed. All's well that ends well I guess. So yes, get this box-set. It captures a brief period all those years ago, when four (then three) young men made music that mattered. Big Star - Long may they shine!
PS. Get Big Star 'In Space' also. Support the members, plus it's good on it's own merit. |
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 Rhino manufacturing stinks !!
Submitted on: 2009-11-12 |
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| Love the music, but I can't believe how far Rhino has fallen in terms of manufacturing! I've ordered this box set 3 times from Amazon, and each time the final track on discs 1 and 2 begins skipping and repeating half-way through, both on CD players and computers. Amazon's been great at replacing the box set free of charge, but how shabby can Rhino get !! |
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The essential second (or third) Big Star purchase
Submitted on: 2009-11-11 |
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It's hard to imagine anyone issuing a Big Star release that's a more perfect introduction to the band than the two-fer of #1 Record and Radio City. You could include their third album, dig in the archives for alternate versions and live tracks, stretch through their reunion music, add pre- and post-Big Star releases, and solo work for context, and you could write lavish liner notes to explain and contextualize their ill-fated story. But as an introduction, every bit of it would simply distract from the perfection that is that first perfect couplet of albums. If you want to turn someone on to Big Star, the stepping stones are #1 Record and Radio City.
But once they're hooked they'll want to know more; they'll want to know everything. Where did the players come from and what did they do before and after Big Star? What else did the band record? What's Ardent Records and what else was the label doing at the time? How did Memphis influence the band's sound? Are there alternate versions or unreleased tracks? What were they like as a live unit? And of course: why haven't I heard of this band before? The latter question is less likely to be asked these days, since obsessive fans have dug up many of the other answers, and many well-known bands have cited Big Star as a seminal influence. But until this box set was released, the full picture of Big Star's career had to be pieced together from a shelf-full of CDs [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9], a pair of books [1 2] and assorted fan web sites.
With this 4-CD set, Rhino has reduced all of the purchases that normally follow the two-fer into a rich and convenient box. This is not a substitute for the original albums, nor does it replace the full-length live albums, lead-ins and follow-ups, or the detailed written histories of the band; but for many, this consolidated view of Big Star will be the perfect follow-up to the initial infatuation. For those who've already collected everything that's been legitimately released, the box still provides something extra in previously unreleased live and studio items from the archives. Some of the alternate material is subtle, but some, like "Country Morn" fronts the well-known backing track of "Sunrise" with entirely different lyrics. The B-side mix of "In the Street" has a noticeably different feel to the album track, and the alternate version of "The Ballad of El Goodo" sports a different lead vocal take.
There are early versions of "I Got Kinda Lost," "There Was a Light" and Loudon Wainwright III's "Motel Blues" that never made it to final form, and revealing demos for songs that made each of the group's first three albums. Perhaps the biggest treat of all, however, is the live show featured on disc four. This disc is a distillation of three sets performed by the three-piece (Chris Bell-less) Big Star in Memphis in January 1973. Recorded from microphones set in front of the stage, it's not the crisp line recording of the band's previously released shows, but it's a superb performance whose room sound offers a bit of you-are-there ambiance. It's a shame the audience mostly ignore the greatness in front of them as they await the headliner, Archie Bell & the Drells.
The physical presentation, a folder containing the four discs and a hundred-page book housed in a slipcase, is superb. An introductory note from Ardent Records founder John Fry shows the emotional connection the insiders still carry with them. Robert Gordon's historical notes are informative, but Bob Mehr's essay brilliantly captures the slowly-built cult of Big Star, replaying the clandestine mystery and wonderful discovery the band's fans felt in the years before the Internet and this box set put the story at everyone's fingertips. The book closes with song notes from Alec Palao that gather the scattered details that could be reassembled from tape box labels and participants memories. The 7.5-inch square book includes superb full-panel pictures, most of which have never been seen by even Big Star's biggest fans.
Could the set include more? Yes. Would that make it better as a box set? Not really. The purpose of these four discs is to tell a story, to provide substance and dimension to a band whose story was revealed ever so slowly over the course of three decades. By intermixing standard and alternate versions of key recordings this set offers new angles on the well-known corpus. By including a full disc of live music the collection fleshes out Big Star from a studio incarnation into a band populated by flesh-and-blood musicians. Start with the band's first two albums, but once you've been bitten, continue here. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com] |
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Box Set of the Year
Submitted on: 2009-11-07 |
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| All the reviews of this wonderful box are right, this long overlooked, underrated band has long deserved the royal treatment Rhino Records have finally granted Alex Chilton and company. I wouldn't even bother to post this review except that power pop fans and collectors should be alerted to the fact that the real treat here is the fourth disc, compiled from live performances at Lafayette's Music Room in Memphis in 1973. Anyone who doubts that Big Star could rock will quickly hear the error of their thoughts hearing the band, a trio at this point, stretch out on such classics as "The Ballad Of El Goodo" and "In The Streets" (better known as the theme from That 70s Show). Alex Chilton's guitar is stunning. From his slide work on "Try Again" to his stinging solos on tracks such as "My Life Is Right." This is not to say that the studio recordings found on the first three discs are not excellent, they are. But the live recording, done with microphones in the audience rather than tapping the soundboard, is crystal clear thanks to an apparently indifferent audience who were anxiously awaiting headliners Archie Bell and the Drells. How they could witness the trios set and seemingly not react is at once both puzzling and gratifying, as it allows the depth and breadth of Big Star's sound to be rendered to tape without interference. The live recording stands up against any power trio of the era. Bottom line is this, the first three discs document Big Star's studio output in good fashion, but the icing on the cake is the 72 minute fourth disc. As others have said this set is worth every penny of the rather high asking price, but can be obtained at a reasonable cost if one shops around. Regardless, if you are any sort of fan of 70s power pop, a la Badfinger and the Raspberries, this set is an absolute must. Thanks to original producer John Fry and ever visionary Alec Palao, Big Star finally receives its long overdue just rewards. This set gets my vote for box set of the year, and considering the mono and stereo Beatles boxes dropped in September, that is high praise indeed. |
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Hear it again for the first time.
Submitted on: 2009-11-07 |
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| I've read all of the reviews praising this box set and I'm here to agree, but also to comment on the remastering. I took the time to play the originals side by side with the remasters and I'm seriously impressed. I'm hearing separation of the acoustic guitars and the voices during the harmonies that I never did before. Also subtle inflections in the voices are easier to pick up. A great effort from all involved in the release of this set. |
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