Various Artists, Thank You, Friends: Big Star’s Third Live ...And More, 2017

DVD Review

By Henry Lipput

In April 2016, some of the biggest names in indie rock performed in a tribute to one of the most influential albums of the last forty years.

Big Star's Third (or Sister Lovers as it was also known) was the work of Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens, the last two remaining members of the band. When recording was completed  in 1974, the album had no title or track listing. But when the album was finally made available in 1978, it became a template for the indie rock movement.

The Thank You, Friends concert is a joy to watch and was filmed by Benno Nelson in Glendale, CA, at, appropriately enough, the Alex Theatre. Led by musical director Chris Stamey of the dbs, and a founding member of the Big Star's Third ensemble, the concert contained songs from Big Star's #1 Record and Radio City as well as many of the songs from Third. (The album has been released in at least three configurations since 1978 and each one had a different track listing.) Since Big Star collapsed after the recording of Third was finished, none of the songs were performed live until the band's comeback in the 1990s; and, even then, only two songs were included on the Columbia: Live At Missouri University album. The Live In Memphis set had four.

Highlights of this amazing evening (which is also on two CDs) include Chris Stamey and Mitch Easter (of Let's Active) who are in charge of guitar duties and provide terrific leads and fills. Mike Mills from R.E.M. takes lead vocals on the power pop classic "September Gurls" as well as "Jesus Christ" from Third. Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer from The Posies (both of whom played with Chilton and Stephens in the comeback version of Big Star) sing "Feel" with Benmont Tench on keyboards. Pat Sansone from Wilco handles the sweet "I'm In Love With A Girl" and joins Jeff Tweedy, also from Wilco, as they rip it up on "When My Baby's Beside Me." Later in the show, Tweedy also sings "Kizza Me" from Third. And newcomer Skylar Gudasz performs a lovely "Thirteen" and brings a guitar to the party when she joins Mills on Third's rocking "You Can't Have Me."

One of the best things about the concert is the participation of drummer and sole surviving Big Star member, Jody Stephens. Stephens is part of the concert band and sings his "For You" and also covers Chilton's "Blue Moon," both from Third. Stephens is still only in his early sixties and he looks great. You can see how much this evening means to him. He glows.

No tribute to the music of Big Star, obviously, could be done without acknowledging Chris Bell. Bell was co-founder of the band with Chilton, and #1 Record was very much a collaboration between the two. But after leaving the band and recording the tracks that would eventually become the I Am The Cosmos album, Bell couldn't get them released. It was Chris Stamey's record company that put out the "I Am The Cosmos" single, so it's fitting that Stamey performs a heartfelt "Cosmos." Pat Sansone, with the help of Brett Harris (taking the Chilton vocal part), sings the single's B-side "You And Your Sister."

To me, one of the most amazing things Stamey and his musicians and vocalists have accomplished in the Third performance --in addition to the great guitar playing and sympathetic vocals on "Dream Lover" and "Holocaust" -- is recreating the album's sense of things barely being kept together. On "Kanga Roo," the best example, you have the sense of things falling apart even as the you're listening to Chilton's recording.

A lot of this, astonishingly, is reproduced in the concert. A crucial element is the use of the original wind and string arrangements by Carl Marsh who conducts the orchestra. And it doesn't hurt to have The Kronos Quartet as part of the concert's string section.

I've always felt many things about Third: it's difficult, it's dark, it rocks, and it can be uplifting. But it wasn't until I listened to this great concert that I was able to also say that Third is beautiful. Thank you, friends.

Thank You, Friends: Big Star's Third Live … And More is out now of Concord Bicycle Music. It's available as a 2-CD/DVD or Blu-Ray combo pack or a stand-alone 2-CD album.

Big Star, Complete Third, 2016

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

When Big Star released their first album, #1 Record, in 1972, the band consisted of Chris Bell, Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. In 1974, Radio City came out; and Chilton, Stephens, and Hummel were Big Star. Recording sessions for another album began in the fall of 1974, and Chilton and Stephens were the last men standing.

When recording was completed on what would be the last Big Star album, it still didn’t have a title; and it didn’t have a track listing (although producer Jim Dickinson and Chilton had agreed on a first and last song). Dickinson and John Fry (engineer on this recording and producer on the band's previous two outings) put together a song sequence and made a test pressing of the album. They visited record companies across the country to try and drum up interest in the disc but were met with comments like, "I don’t have to listen to that again, do I?"

Normally, this would signal the end of the road for a record. However, Big Star had developed a small, but devoted, following; and, in 1978, around the time that Alex Chilton began his new career as a singer of rock and punk material that had little connection with his earlier music, the indie label PVC put out the album which was simply titled Third.

In the '90s, as people who had heard the album started to create a buzz about it, Rykodisc released the album as Third/Sister Lovers (both Chilton and Stephens had been dating sisters at the time the album was recorded). Using the same master tapes as PVC, Rykodisc's track listing was slightly different (and both are different than the test pressing), and they used the other songs that had been mastered as bonus tracks.

In 2009, Rhino Records released the 4-CD Keep An Eye On The Sky box set which chronicled Big Star's career including recordings made by the band's leaders Chris Bell and Alex Chilton before they teamed up. The box also included some demos for songs from Third, many of which were being heard by fans for the first time.

And this is were Omnivore Recordings comes in. In 2011, on Record Store Day, the company released copies of the test pressing that Dickinson and Fry had put together. Rough mixes and demos came along on the soundtrack for the Big Star film Nothing Can Hurt Me and the Record Store Day "Jesus Christ" EP (a song from Third and Chilton‘s Christmas song).

Having spent 10 years searching for more demos, mixes, and outtakes from Third, Omnivore has just released Complete Third, a three-disc, 69-song collection -- every recording from Third known to exist including 29 songs that have never been heard.

The box also has a booklet with an essay by long-time rock journalist and Big Star fan, Bud Scoppa, as well as comments by Jody Stephens and fans of the band and the album such as Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies and who, along with Chilton and Stephens, was part of the Big Star reunion in the '90s) and Chris Stamey (of The db's and producer of some of Chilton's records in the '70s).

Complete Third is a comprehensive listen to an album that was initially dismissed and is now revered as a classic. It's obvious that a lot of care has gone into this project. All of the music, demos, mixes, and masters that were recorded more than forty years ago, sound terrific.

The first disc eases listeners into the work. We hear most of the songs that will be used on the album through Chilton's acoustic guitar and voice demos. It's a nice first look at songs that would become dark, but still beautiful, in mixes and the final masters (Disc 2 sequences mixes for "Kanga Roo," "Holocaust," and "Big Black Car" together). Throughout, there are also lovely, positive songs like "Take Care," "Thank You Friends," and the gorgeous "Blue Moon" and Stephens's "For You."

Disc 2 is made up of rough mixes by Dickinson and Fry. You can hear the difference between mixes and masters in "Oh, Dana" (Dickinson did the rough mix). An even better example of how things progressed is "Big Black Car" which, over the course of the three discs, is presented as a Chilton acoustic demo, a demo with the band, a Dickinson rough mix, a Fry rough mix, and a final master.

The sessions for Third have been described as chaotic by many of those who participated, and this is made clear in "Pre-Downs," an edited version of the nearly 30-minute banging and guitar noodling that would become "Downs." There's also Chilton and his girlfriend Lesa's take on The Beatles' "I’m So Tired" and Chilton performing "Baby Strange" by T-Rex.

The third disc is made up of the final masters. Omnivore based the order of the masters in this set on their test pressing release but also included the other masters (many of which Rykodisc used as bonus tracks). You can also sequence it yourself.

Complete Third is out now on Omnivore Recordings.

The Great Albums Went to Memphis

Special Episode w/ Jody Stephens and Luther Russell

"I never travel far without a little Big Star," says Paul Westerberg on The Replacements' "Alex Chilton." For many fans of popular music, the albums put out by Big Star -- #1 Record, Radio City, and Third / Sister Lovers -- are, well, great. It makes sense then that our friends Bill and Brian of The Great Albums Podcast (which featured Yours Truly blathering on about Pavement a few weeks back) took a little field trip a couple of weeks ago down to Ardent Studios in Memphis where they met with former Big Star drummer, Jody Stephens, and songwriter / multi-instrumentalist, Luther Russell, to discuss the pair's new project, Those Pretty Wrongs.

The guys get into how Those Pretty Wrongs came to be, and they do a track by track preview of the band's self-titled debut. Throughout, Stephens and Russell discuss their own approaches to songwriting, how they collaborated on Those Pretty Wrongs, and -- of course -- what makes an album "great." There are a few Big Star-related anecdotes peppered throughout the interview as well.

You can head over to TheGreatAlbums.com to listen or you can just click below. Make sure you give The Great Albums Podcast a like on Facebook, so that you can keep up with all the great stuff they're doing.

Those Pretty Wrongs is out now via Ardent Music / Burger Records.

I Never Travel Far Without a Little Big Star...

And It's Here...

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.  Stay in school.