MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In 1973 Big
Star recorded its second album, Radio City, as a
trio, after the departure of founding member Chris Bell. When the time came to
tour, original bassist Andy Hummel decided to return to school to pursue his
engineering education. With this departure, Alex Chilton and Jody
Stephens recruited fellow Memphis native John Lightman to
take over on bass, and the band readied its live set.
That set was preserved, as Big Star
recorded a radio session at Ultrasonic Studios in New York for
broadcast on the city’s preeminent modern rock station WLIR-FM.
Nearly two decades later, those recordings were issued as Live in
1992.Omnivore Recordings will
reintroduce them, restored and remastered from the original tapes, as Live
on WLIR, on CD and in its first official release on double LP. Street
date is January 25, 2019.
The 15-track set features material
from the band’s first two albums, as well as a cover of “Motel Blues” by Loudon
Wainwright III (which originally appeared on his 1971 sophomore
release, Album II).
With new, updated liner notes from
Memphis writer/filmmaker Robert Gordon (who won a Grammy® for
his essay in 2010’s Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky)
and an interview with John Lightman by Chris Bell
biographer Rich Tupica (There Was a Light: The Cosmic
History of Big Star Founder Chris Bell), Live on WLIR enters
the Big Star canon in the form it deserves.
As Gordon observes in his liners:
“Alex is, in this trio, playing all the guitar and singing lead, and he’s
giving it about all he’s got. The road and the march of time eventually wore
down that Alex, as time wears on all of us. But this recording is a clear
window into the impenetrable past, making it a thrill today to hear Alex so
young and enthusiastic.”
Track list:
1. September Gurls
2. Way Out West
3. Mod Lang
4. Don’t Lie To Me
5. O My Soul
6. Interview
7. The Ballad Of El Goodo
8. Thirteen
9. I’m In Love With A Girl
10. Motel Blues
11. In The Street
12. You Get What You Deserve
13. Daisy Glaze
14. Back Of A Car
15. She’s A Mover
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