If you're a Big Star fan, you've likely heard the news of the box set coming September 15th. Thanks to the people at Blurt for getting the details out first. Here's the link to Rhino
The Rhino site is streaming Lovely Day (which eventually became Strike It, Noel). One song that some of the Big Star band members mentioned as being one of their favorites when they were together that you don't see name-checked as much as some of the other covers they did was Lou Reed's Perfect Day from the Transformer album. Listen carefully and you might be able to hear a distant connection between the two songs. Or perhaps not...
I've heard the raw live recordings for the box set from early 1973 and they'll be worth the price of admission alone. A few observations....Andy Hummel stands out as a bass player who can not only lay down the foundation but also add melodic lines that add to the song a la McCartney and James Jamerson. Alex Chilton's folk and bluegrass roots from his time in NYC are quite apparent in his guitar playing. Given his simple guitar / amp / no effects set-up, he has no problem replicating his studio sound live. And as you might expect, Jody Stephens doesn't let the band slack for a second (he also has that Ringo "slow drag" hi-hat style down cold).
As always, thanks for the nice words about the book. If you can find your way to leaving a good review on amazon.com, it will be much appreciated.
Heard from Peter LaBonne...there should be a website going up shortly that has voluminous amounts of unreleased material (actually, pretty much everything he's ever done is unreleased) available for you listening pleasure. Will keep you posted.
4 comments:
The box set sounds amazing - can't hardly wait! Any idea what extras the "deluxe" version of I Am the Cosmos will include? I've heard some alternate mixes of several tracks (which I actually prefer) - I hope they make it to the CD
Thanks for the link. That version of Lovely Day (which I'd never heard!) gave me goosebumps!
Please post any info about the Chris Bell tracklist as soon as you have it!
Is the book available at any of the fine local bookshops? If HOTH was still around, we could've had a book signing!
One last thing, I sent Casey the link to this site so I'm sure he's checking it out!
Book is available at Barnes and Noble in Williamsville. As soon as Artvoice runs their piece I'll make sure it's elsewhere. Also check with Talking Leaves. Amazon has it on sale. Will be doing a release party / signing soon and will let you know. Really wish HOTH was still around.
As far as the Chris Bell set...I'm out of the loop but I think there's enough people on the case that I'll find out relatively early when details are released. Will certainly post them here. When doing research for the book I saw some photos of Chris that were just great – really brought him to life. You could really grasp the sense of humor that he had. I hope some of them make it to the deluxe issue.
Rhino does great work - I'll definitely check this out
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