Big
Star –
Keep
An Eye On The Sky
4
x CD box set, U.S. , 2009
Rhino
Records
If
only for Alex Chilton's haunted version of “Nature Boy” with
photographer William Eggleston on piano, that this 4 CD box set by
Big Star is a must. It's funny due to this version of the classic,
I think of Chilton as being Chet Baker's younger soul brother.
Lost, but on solid ground with his music. They also share a real
sense of cool, not movie cool, but cool that one can only be born
with.
Keep
An Eye On The Sky is
very much an essential package to get, not only for the demos of Big
Star and Chris Bell classics, but the way it packages and frames the
career and vision of Chilton & Co. Listening to Big Star and all
of its off-shoots is a highly emotional ride into a dark night that
has no answers. In a way it is a hopeless meditation on one's place
on this earth. Blues music that is not technically the blues, but
expresses the anxiety of those who wander into the myst that's
culture. In this case its strongly placed in the Memphis landscape.
I rarely buy box-sets (I have about five, and they're all pretty
essential, and will get to them later here), but Big Star is a band
that is often seen in fragments, so this set places them in a bigger
frame. Wonderful.
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