Artist:     Big Star

Album:     Live At Lafayette’s Music Room

Label:     Omnivore Records

Release Date:     01.12.2018

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Omnivore Recordings has released Big Star Live At Lafayette’s Music Room on CD, digitally, and for the first time, on a double L.P. This recording dates back to 1973 and preceded the band’s legendary Rock Writers Convention showcase. Thanks to new mastering and restoration from Grammy-winning engineer Michael Graves, with supervision from Grammy winning producer Cheryl Pawelski, the performance has never sounded better. The package also features liner notes by Bud Scoppa. As an added bonus, all formats include a download of a previously unissued 1972 interview with Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel from the summer of 1971 with Jon Scott on Memphis’ FM 100.

By that time, the band had recorded only one album, #1 Record, and with the departure of co-singer-songwriter Chris Bell, they were unsure as to whether they would record again. Lacking the vocal harmonies and guitar work of Bell, this set shows the band in fine form as a power trio with a muscular performance at times more akin to The Who than “America’s answer to the Beatles,” as they were sometimes known.

The 20-track set features material from #1 Record and songs that would later appear on the not yet recorded Radio City, with covers by the Kinks, Todd Rundgren, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and T.Rex, which, for the unfamiliar, provides insight into the band’s sound. Standout tracks include the melodious “My Life Is Right” and the superlative “The Ballad of El Goodo” whose infectious chorus “Ain’t no-one goin’ to turn me round” leaves the listener wondering why the band never achieved the fame they deserved.

Drawing on the vocal harmonies of the Beatles, the jangle of the Byrds, and the southern rock & soul of the Stones, in many ways, Big Star invented power-pop, a well from which many groups would draw inspiration. It is fair to say that without Big Star there would have been no R.E.M, Weezer, Teenage Fanclub, the Replacements, who would pay homage with their tune “Alex Chilton” or even Wilco. While this release is probably best suited to ardent Big Star fans, it proves their prowess as master song-crafters and as a live act. Recommended.

—Mike Cobb