Big Star
Springfest
Missouri University
Columbia, MO
April 25, 1993
soundboard production tape > low gen cassette copy > Nakamichi CR-7A transfer (November 2008) > Peak 5.2 > FLAC
01 Oh My Soul
02 Thirteen
03 Jeepster
04 Kansas City
05 Till the End of the Day
06 Duke of Earl
>>> songs not included on the Live at Missouri University album
"set run through"
unknown location
Seattle, WA
April 13, 1993
production tape (open mic in rehearsal space) > low gen cassette copy > Nakamichi CR-7A transfer (November 2008) > Peak 5.2 > FLAC
01 In the Street
02 Don't Lie To Me
03 I Am the Cosmos
04 Oh My Soul
05 Ballad of El Goodo
06 Back of a Car
07 Way Out West
08 Daisy Glaze
09 Thirteen
10 Baby Strange
11 For You
12 Feel
13 September Gurls
14 Thank You Friends
15 Slut
16 When My Baby's Beside Me
The first time I saw Alex Chilton perform, I naively asked someone if he ever performed Big Star songs. They said, "well, every so often, if he is in the right mood, he might throw one into the set." I waited and he did just that, playing one song that left the audience swooning. I wished for more, as many folks did.
I was living in Seattle at the time I started getting into Big Star, in part because local band The Posies was frequently covering Big Star songs in their sets. Years later when I heard Jon and Ken would be joining Alex and Jody for a reunited Big Star gig in Missouri, I couldn't have been more shocked and happy. Perfect choice.
Of course that one gig has turned into a long-standing if occasional Big Star reunion. But the Columbia show, memorialized on the Live at Missouri University album, remains something special, a moment where it seems a few fans willed a miracle to happen and it did (there's a great crowd shot in the CD booklet where Wilco's Jeff Tweedy can clearly be seen watching the set).
I have long loved that live album and the raw, honest recording of the show it offers. But it turns out six songs from the set were left off of the CD. "Thirteen," one of the Big Star's most beloved and certainly most frequently covered songs is among them, as was the show's ramshackle encore.
Many many years ago JEMS was given a couple of production cassettes, one of which contained the unedited Columbia show soundboard recording, the other was an open-mic recording made in a Seattle rehearsal space a couple of weeks before the Columbia show as Alex, Jody, Ken and Jon practiced the set.
The quality of the soundboard tracks is quite nice; the rehearsal is clear but like many such recordings the vocals are a bit distant (samples provided). But you do get to hear some chatter, working out of arrangements and a couple of songs that didn't make the live album. If nothing else, if you're a fan, this should all be new to you.
After SH posted that amazing new-to-the-world Big Star recording from Cambridge '74 on DIME several months back (sharing a bill with Badfinger no less), I thought I should transfer these tapes and post them.
Butterking for JEMS
tracks 01-06:
Springfest, Missouri University, Columbia, MO
April 25, 1993
soundboard production tape > low gen cassette copy
songs not included on the Live at Missouri University album
tracks 07-22:
"set run through"
unknown location
Seattle, WA
April 13, 1993
production tape (open mic in rehearsal space) > low gen cassette copy
The quality of the soundboard tracks is quite nice; the rehearsal is clear but like many such recordings the vocals are a bit distant. But you do get to hear some chatter, working out of arrangements and a couple of songs that didn't make the live album.