Customer Reviews

Big Star Story

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While I'll agree that the best place to hear Big Star is on its three original albums, this collection is not as bad as everyone has claimed. First of all, the music on here is fantastic; the songs are great regardless of context. Secondly, while it's true that there are too many live cuts on here, the live tracks themselves are very good. Third, while it would have been preferable in this case to listen to the band's evolution in chronological order, I don't always believe retrospective collection should follow this order. Nonchronological order does not necessarily equal a bad collection. And in this case, I don't find the song order to be that distracting. It's great that some of Chris Bell's solo stuff is here, but overall, the collection could have been better. The new track is not particularly good, but the worst part is that the liner notes give no indication of where these songs come from. To help out everyone, here is that information.

1. September Gurls (Radio City)
2. Thank You Friends (Third/Sister Lovers)
3. Don't Lie to Me live (Nobody Can Dance) orginally on #1 Record
4. Ballad of El Goodo (#1 Record)
5. Holocaust (Third/Sister Lovers)
6. I Am the Cosmos (Chris Bell-I Am the Cosmos)
7. In the Street (#1 Record)
8. You Get What You Deserve live (Nobody Can Dance) originally on Radio City
9. Thirteen live (Big Star Live) originally on #1 Record
10. You and Your Sister (Chris Bell-I Am the Cosmos)
11. Back of a Car (Radio City)
12. Jesus Christ (Third/Sister Lovers)
13. Mod Lang live (Nobody Can Dance) originally on Radio City
14. Baby Strange live (Nobody Can Dance) T. Rex cover
15. O Dana (Third/Sister Lovers)
16. Motel Blues live (Big Star Live) Loudon Wainwright cover
17. Nighttime (Third/Sister Lovers)
18. Hot Thing (previously unreleased)

This is not the introduction to Big Star that the title implies. It is a curate's egg. If this was a genuine rarities collection some issued tracks such as those on the Rock City album would have been nice.

The sound quality is great and it is the only place to get Hot Thing (which I love) but buy the 2 for 1 of #1 Record/Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers before venturing here.

I've been a Big Star fan since I first heard "Third" back in 1978. Their first two LPs are the best power-pop ever recorded and transcend the genre. "Third" is, in my opinion, Big Star's anti-masterpiece and if anything even better than the first two. I'll avoid the usual they-influenced list; in my opinion, only the dB's came close to Big Star as power-poppers.

As previous reviews point out, this collection is a mess. There are a couple of fairly rare Big Star singles that need to be released on CD. The Ardent 45 of "When My Baby's Beside Me" sports a slightly different vocal mix; the single of "In the Street" is a totally different performance. There's also an edited single of "O My Soul" that would be fun to have.

The first two albums are eminently excerptable; I would have simply gone with chronology. Same with "Third." Throw in the aforementioned 45s, Chilton's blasé interview and "Motel Blues" from "Big Star Live," and you'd have a perfectly serviceable compilation. "Nobody Can Dance" features Big Star at their worst, and the "Live at Missouri University" set is nice but scarcely essential except for their great version of "Baby Strange." There are also a couple of bootlegs floating around out there, one of which, "Beale Street Green" (the one with an Eggleston photo of not Memphis but Nashville on the cover) contains a beautiful instrumental outtake from "# 1 Record" days.

Big Star has been ill-served by history to some extent. I'm not an adherent of the view that Chilton wasted his talent after 1974, as the liner notes to "#1"/"Radio" twofer assert. I also think that the original track order of the first PVC issue of "Third" makes a lot more sense than the Ryko. Having listened to Big Star, Bell and Chilton for years, I admire Chilton's bravery in changing directions after Big Star. Few performers have done such an array of interesting cover versions or shown such an awareness of soul, r&b and general pop-music history. And no other group did the Beatles (and John Lennon, on "Third") one better, even briefly. Alex Chilton is a consummate guitar player and his sound alone makes me happy. Maybe someone should talk to him about these reissues?

I LOVE Big Star! Like Paul Westerberg sang in "Alex Chilton," I don't go anywhere without my Big Star. If I take my CD player with me, I have my CD of #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY. I honestly believe this is one of the ten greatest albums in the history of rock, and along with the Clash's THE CLASH and Television's MARQUEE MOON one of the three greatest albums of the seventies. In other words, I am a fan.

So what is wrong with this disc? Is serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. It doesn't give you a very good overview of Big Star at all. Excerpting songs from #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY is futile, because every single song is exquisite and essential. And that disc--which is one of the most incredible bargains in music--is a vastly better introduction to Big Star. BIG STAR STORY could never stand alone as a sort of "Greatest Hits" album, because it doesn't collect their best songs, but merely samples songs from a number of discs. Moreover, it contains only 18 cuts in comparison to #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY's 24, and for the same price. So why in god's name would anyone in the world buy this album?

I love Ryko, and have a few dozen of their discs, but I have to say that in this case logic deserted them. I would urge anyone at all interested in Big Star and wanting to learn about them to buy #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY, and then THIRD/SISTER LOVERS if they are crazy about it (and I can't imagine anyone not loving it). And no one who already knows and loves Big Star will want this new disc. So, I wonder, who was the target audience for this album? I haven't a clue.

If their goal was to attract new listeners to Big Star, they should have produced a two-disc boxed set along the lines of what they have produced for John Prine, Love, Graham Parker, and Johnny Rivers. The model should have been the Love box. Love had several good songs and one absolutely great album, FOREVER CHANGES. LOVE STORY had that album complete, and then a generous selection of additional cuts from their various albums, all on two CDs. BIG STAR STORY should have had #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY on one CD, and then a second disc with the highlights of THIRD/SISTER LOVERS, Chris Bell's I AM THE COSMOS, and some of their live performances. But the disc that they produced is simply incomprehensible.

"Don't Lie To Me?" Jeez, where's their version of "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin' On?" Buy all of their proper albums. Get someone to make you a CD-R of the two tracks from the Chris Bell 45. Forget this mess.

After Alex Chilton's death, I wanted to hear more of Big Star's work. I'd only heard a few songs, and thought this album would be a great overall look. I'm sad to say I was disappointed. To me this sounds like a roundup of throwaways, b-sides, and live tracks that really don't do Big Star justice. I would recommend looking at Amazon's download list, preview the songs you really like, and either buy the downloads or find the albums that have your favorites on them.

Most of the other reviews here are spot-on, so I won't go too far into depth re. the obvious problem: Big Star had exactly three albums, kinda, and while this comp does draw from other sources (live albums, Chris Bell's solo album) for some of its cuts, it's really utterly superfluous. Hilariously, this has been tried before--Big Beat once came out with a "Best of Big Star" disc which, if I remember correctly, was just tracks from the two-fer they had recently put out--so I'm amazed that anybody stumbled into the same mistake twice.

Folks, this compilation makes about as much sense as did Syd Barrett's "Octopus" compilation. Unlike anthologies like "Love Story" or the Spirit "Time Circle" which compile a limited amount of material into something attractive, this one disc distillation of so little material is uninspiring, schizophrenically sequenced (the material from "Third" really doesn't jibe mixed in as randomly as it is here) with absolutely no sense of chronology, etc. etc. Avoid.

But wait! There's more! This is the *worst* some of this material has ever sounded. Ryko has gradually fallen prey to some ugly mastering trends, and on this they've compressed the music to some pretty extreme levels. Consequently, there's absolutely no sense of dynamics left.

So lesse. A lousy comp of a band which made three excellent albums (available on two CDs), which throws in material from a solo album and some live tracks which are more for completists/fans. That, adding insult to injury, manages to sound worse than those original discs. Why bother at this late stage? Avoid this like the plague.

This is probably the best introduction to the sterling music of Big Star, and band whose music has remarkable durability. Born in the early 70s, those of us who read record reviews back then were about the only ones who ever heard of the band, and once we got their LPs, we were hooked. I personally went through 2 copies of "Radio City", the album that was my first encounter with Big Star. This compilation, with great graphics and liner notes, contains selections from their officially released CDs (there are also a number of bootleg CDs floating around), and couldn't be improved upon. The air-guitar anthem "September Gurls" opens the set up, and from there the gems abound: "In The Street" (the theme song to "That 70s Show), "Mod Lang" (the live version from "Nodody Can Dance") and "Back of A Car" are examples of teenage angst at their best, while the darker turns of "Holocaust" and "O Dana", from the 3rd LP, take the listener into a pit of despair, but are stunning in their bleak beauty. This highly influential band just gets more important as time passes, something that can't be said of many groups. If only I could give this 6 stars.