Track Listing

1. September Gurls
2. Way Out West
3. Mod Lang
4. Don't Lie To Me
5. O My Soul
6. Interview
7. Ballad Of El Goodo
8. Thirteen
9. I'm In Love With A Girl
10. Motel Blues
11. In The Street
12. You Get What You Deserve
13. Daisy Glaze
14. Back Of A Car
15. She's A Mover

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108790 in Music
• Released on: 2002-04-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Live, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

CD Description
Big Star formed and unraveled in the first half of the seventies. An enduring legacy of three studio albums (#1 RECORD,RADIO CITY and SISTER LOVERS/3RD) has left its mark on a slew of bands who fell under the spell of their initially commercially unsuccessful releases. LIVE finds the trio with their new bass player playing a radio broadcast in a studio in New York City. Released nearly two decades after it was recorded, this is a rough and tumble set in every regard--the mood of the band, their playing and the earnest attempt by theengineer to achieve and maintain a reasonable sound mix.
Opening with what may be their most well known song, "September Gurls", the set is prototypical Alex Chilton, replete with soulful phrasing filtered through a depressed sort of hallucinogenic abandon. He also had the good taste to cover Loudon Wainwright's "Motel Blues". This wouldn't be the album to start exploring this band with, but it does fill in the cracks between their other releases quite nicely.

Customer Reviews

Soul Deep
Recorded as a live radio broadcast shortly after the release of Big Star's second album 'Radio City', and stripped down to a three piece following the departure of Chilton's writing partner Chris Bell,this release is probably as valuable for the conversation between Alex Chilton and the radio host as much as for the music. Early on in proceedings, following a rather sloppy but nevertheless charming rendition of 'September Gurls', Chilton is told how in a rock publication called 'Zoo World' their new album is hailed as the album of the year, and it's only February. The host adds "You're getting an awful lot of acclaim for your new album man!". A rather world weary sounding Chilton (who was only 21 at the time), already a veteran of the music industry despite his relative youth, replies in his southern drawl "Just hope it sells, we've had critical acclaim before", a reference to their first album 'No.1 Record', a highly acclaimed commercial flop.

Musically there is a good representation of the first two Big Star albums. There is also a wonderful acoustic cover of Loudon Wainwright's 'Motel Blues', one of the highlights of the set. Certainly this album is a must for anyone with an interest in the the Big Star/Alex Chilton story, but for the uninitiated the CD of 'No.1 Record' and 'Radio City' is probably a better place to start.