Alex Chilton, formally of the Box Tops, formed Big Star in 1971 with Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummell. Their first two albums were critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful. The band folded in 1974 but reappeared in 1993 with vocalist\/guitarist Chilton and drummer Stephens joined by two members of The Posies: guitarist\/vocalist Jon Auer and bassist \/vocalist Ken Stringfellow. The band recorded and performed together until Chilton\u2019s death in March of 2010.<\/p>\n
While there are a number of live Big Star recordings around, their Memphis concert of October 29, 1994 was the only one to have been professionally filmed. That concert has now been released as a DVD, CD, and double vinyl LP. <\/p>\n
Despite being professionally recorded, the sound and video is average by today\u2019s standards. However, the energy of the band more than makes up for it as it was a homecoming concert and was advertised as their farewell performance. The band is trying very hard and it shows in this superior live show. <\/p>\n
The material is primarily drawn from their first two albums, plus a number of cover songs that Chilton liked to include in their live shows. The exception is a poignant cover of deceased member Chris Bell\u2019s solo tune \u201cI Am The Cosmos.\u201d Jon Auer provides the vocal as they salute one of their founding members. <\/p>\n
The highlights of their tunes from their acclaimed first albums are \u201cSeptember Gurls\u201d and \u201cThe Ballad Of El Goodo,\u201d which are presented in all their harmonic pop glory.<\/p>\n
Chilton always had an eclectic taste for other people\u2019s material and that was on display in this concert. The covers range from a wicked interpretation of Todd Rundgren\u2019s \u201cSlut,\u201d to a rocking cover of the Kinks \u201cTill The End Of The Day,\u201d to the pop\/jazz classic \u201cThe Girl From Impanema.\u201d He even reaches into the obscure past with a cover of the long-forgotten Gary and The Hornets \u201cPatty Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
Live In Memphis <\/i>catches the second generation Big Star at their best. While their first two albums remain must listens, this live albums presents a different version of the band that was about to carve out their own legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":32194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5658],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-43946","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-big-star","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43946"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43946"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}