{"id":6616,"date":"2014-11-04T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T10:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=6616"},"modified":"2016-12-20T08:08:28","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T13:08:28","slug":"big-star-lives-with-live-in-memphis-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/04\/big-star-lives-with-live-in-memphis-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Star Lives! with “Live in Memphis” (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

As Jon Auer<\/strong><\/a> pointed out in metaphor form during our conversation, speaking of Big Star<\/strong> in a slightly different context, \u201cYou can write the greatest letter in the world to someone, but if the postman loses it, or doesn\u2019t deliver it, and no one ever gets it, no one’s gonna know how great it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the Memphis date wasn’t the revived Big Star’s final show; not by a long shot. They continued to perform on and off for more than sixteen years, and even cut an album of new material, 2005’s In Space<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Thankfully, and no doubt in part owing to the success of the earlier box set* and movie**, Omnivore Recordings<\/a> did<\/em> — as filmmaker Danny Graflund<\/strong> would say — indeed give a flying fuck. Omnivore has quickly developed a reputation as musical curators: their approach to releases might be described as, \u201cYou probably haven’t heard this before, but you should hear it. This deserves your attention.\u201d They do important, eclectic musical work. So now we have Live in Memphis<\/em> as both a single audio CD and a concert DVD.<\/p>\n

The twenty-song setlist as presented on Live in Memphis<\/em> doesn\u2019t differ significantly from the Columbia<\/em> set performed and recorded a year and a half earlier, but the songs included here provide a more well-rounded portrait of the \u201cnew\u201d Big Star. A faithful cover of The Kinks<\/strong>‘ \u201cTill the End of the Day\u201d reminds listeners of the studio version that was among the in\/outtakes from the band’s Third\/Sister Lovers<\/em> LP. And Alex Chilton<\/strong>‘s off-kilter choice of covers is made manifest not only with Todd Rundgren<\/strong><\/a>‘s \u201cSlut\u201d and the T. Rex<\/strong><\/a> number \u201cBaby Strange,\u201d but with a surprising run-through of Bruce Springsteen<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cFire,\u201d the bossa nova smash \u201cGirl From Ipanema\u201d (long a staple of Chilton’s solo shows), and the rock’n’roll obscurity \u201cPatty Girl\u201d by Dick Campbell and the Scarlets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Chilton doesn’t hog the spotlight, though. While his idiosyncratic style all but guarantees that he’d alter the phrasing of his vocal and guitar lines, Auer and Ken Stringfellow<\/strong> take a more faithful approach, following the original arrangements to, um, the letter. The result is an odd juxtaposition: at times, The Posies duo sound more like \u201cclassic\u201d Big Star than does Chilton. But when they take the lead vocals \u2013 most notably on Chris Bell<\/strong>‘s searing \u201cI Am the Cosmos,\u201d they achieve the feat of both remaining true to the original (and thus honoring Bell, who died in 1978) and making the song truly theirs. And when Jody Stephens<\/strong> takes his vocal turns, his fragile, heartfelt readings of \u201cFor You\u201d and \u201cWay Out West\u201d rank among the disc’s most scintillating moments.<\/p>\n

Still, Live in Memphis<\/em> is perhaps not the best place for a Big Star neophyte to begin; such a person would be best served by finding a copy of the (now out-of-print) single-CD set that pairs #1 Record<\/em> and Radio City<\/em> (the 2014 individual album reissues add no bonus tracks, and even use the same brief Mills-penned liner note essay in both!). Moreover, Live in Memphis<\/em> does lack a bit in terms of sound quality: while it’s entirely listenable, it’s only a few notches or so above an audience bootleg fidelity-wise. (Fortunately, and thanks to improvements in consumer technology, audience bootlegs from the 90s onward tend to sound pretty fine.) Still, for the faithful, Live in Memphis<\/em> is a must-have. And though I haven’t yet screened the companion DVD (sold separately), I suspect it’s even more<\/em> essential for lovers of Big Star.<\/p>\n