Big Star – #1 Record (1972)/Radio City (1974) (Ardent/Stax/Fantasy CD)
Sound:
B Music: B+
It is bad
enough that great bands like T-Rex and The Sweet are becoming lost in time and
a sea of both pop trivialization and huge tons of bad current releases, but when
it comes to great bands that hardly got a chance like Big Star, reissues become
necessary more than ever for their to be rediscovery. With less film and even video then, a CD like
Big Star – #1 Record/Radio City
becomes a key reissue and a very welcome back title set indeed. The two albums just fit on one CD.
#1 Record was issued in 1972 and a Power
Pop/Rock classic had arrived, but it did not have the commercial success it
could or should have. The twelve tracks
here hold up incredibly well and though I liked both albums very much, the
first one just has a bit more edge to it.
Expectations were high at the label since lead singer/guitarist Alex
Chilton had just come off of his great success with the band The Box Tops,
their The Letter became a Vietnam-era
touchstone and Cry Like A Baby had
also hit big.
The songs
include:
1)
Feel
2)
The Ballad Of El Goodo
3)
In The Street
4)
Thirteen
5)
Don’t Lie To Me
6)
The India Song
7)
When My Baby’s Beside Me
8)
My Life Is Right
9)
Give Me Another Chance
10) Try Again
11) Watch The Sunrise
12) St 100/6
13) In The Streets (single mix)
With so
many great hits that year like The Rolling Stones’ Tumbling Dice, Argent’s Hold
Your Head Up, Paul Simon’s Mother
& Child Reunion, Alice Cooper’s School’s
Out, Yes’ Roundabout, The Eagles’
Witchy Woman, Elton John’s Honky Cat, Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now Steely Dan’s Do It Again and Nilsson’s Without You for a few examples, why no
song from this album managed to find it sway to the charts. Not even enough to make them a one hit
wonder. Distribution issues also killed
the album at the time. Instead, it
become a hitless influence like The
Velvet Underground & Nico and a classic of the Rock genre; diverse,
smart, original and still ahead of its time.
Radio City arrived two years later, despite
the band breaking up after what happened with the first release. Drummer Jody Stephens and Bassist Andy Hummel
decided to reform the band and they were back.
Unfortunately, Singer/Guitarist Chris Bell had a huge falling out with
Hummel and left the band. Bell had also
co-written most of the songs, so with the pressure to have a hit album and even
a hit single, Chilton was left writing most of the material. Some Bell material had been left behind and
survived on the final release. However,
Hummel felt the band was finished and quit before this album arrived.
The songs
include:
1)
O My Soul
2)
Life Is White
3)
Way Out West
4)
What’s Going Ahn
5)
You Get What You Deserve
6)
Mod Lang
7)
Back Of A Car
8)
Daisy Glaze
9)
She’s A Mover
10) September Girls
11) Morpha Too
12) I’m In Love With A Girl
13) O My Soul (single mix)
No matter
what was happening behind the scenes, it was another fine album and proved to
be one of those great bands that still had it and so much to offer. Sadly, they
would only make one more album after this pair and that was the end of what
could have been one of the biggest bands of the time. However, these are great albums and we cannot
encourage you to grab a copy enough.
This CD
version has the usual PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Stereo sound and it is just fine for the
format, but audiophiles might want to seek out the reportedly dynamic Super
Audio CD (SA-CD) version with superior audio reproduction. I expect this CD comes from the same
high-definition DSD remaster. The CD
case has a paper foldout with illustrations and key text on the band.
- Nicholas Sheffo
