Big Star's 'Third' to Be Performed by All-Star Lineup in New York

Posted on Mar 22nd 2011 1:15PM by David Chiu
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Daniel Coston

Musician Chris Stamey remembers his first encounter with Big Star's 'Third' -- aka 'Sister Lovers' -- album back in the mid-'70s when a bootleg was offered to him by an acquaintance. At the time, Big Star had previously released two power pop-influenced albums, 1972's '#1 Record' and 1974;s 'Radio City.'

"'Radio City' had already been a big change from '#1 Record,'" Stamey tells Spinner, "but 'Sister Lovers' certainly seemed to have jumped a few steps! I was in music school at the time and was taken by the modern elements such as the colors on 'Downs,' 'Kanga Roo' and the harmonics on 'Nighttime.' The scattershot, fascinating lyrics seemed to be a parallel to the musical extensions, although already hinted at on 'Radio City' on some songs."

In Big Star drummer Jody Stephens' recent words, the period surrounding the making of 'Third' was "dark," "melancholy" and "moody," and now, the album is getting its proper due in front of a live audience. This Saturday, March 26, the music from the record will be performed in its entirety at New York's Mason Hall with a lineup that includes Mitch Easter, Matthew Sweet, Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan, Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and others alongside Stamey and Stephens.

Led by Stamey, a member of the dB's, Big Star's 'Third' was first performed last December at Cat's Cradle in North Carolina. "It was almost a contradiction: there was a great, positive spirit about playing the music, even though it is very dark at times," Stamey says. "Actual quotes from the players and audience were almost scary: 'life-changing,' 'perfection,' for example."

To Stephens, hearing the music come to life onstage was like a resurrection. "It's fascinating to me to hear those strings. [It's] like nothing I've ever experienced before," he says. "It was perplexing for some reason -- beautiful but perplexing."

The idea of mounting the Big Star's 'Third' show began five years ago when Stamey was involved in a performance of Elliott Smith's music. One obstacle, however, was that the original string charts for the 'Third' album were lost. "Then, in January 2010, I spoke to Carl Marsh, the original orchestrator," Stamey recalls, "who said that he'd redo the charts if Ardent [Records] could get him the multi-tracks he needed, and, to my surprise, [engineer] John Fry at Ardent agreed."

Stamey got the blessing from Stephens for the project, but things hit a temporary snag when Big Star singer and songwriter Alex Chilton died last year. "I wasn't sure whether or not to proceed, but everyone I spoke to seemed to think it was still worth doing, the idea of giving a further life to great music had validity," says Stamey.

From there, it wasn't a problem in getting the musicians on board for the North Carolina event. "Everyone has leapt to be a part of this," Stamey says. "It's been fantastic in that regard. Mitch Easter was the perfect guitarist for this. He'd known Alex and recorded with him and I knew he would do the hard work of mastering the songs, both with his fingers and his sounds. Mike Mills was friends with Jody and Mitch and myself, and that was an immediate 'yes.'"

"It's fun playing with friends, and of course I'm a fan of them too," says Easter. "Like, playing onstage with Jody Stephens is pretty rad -- he's one of my all-time top favorite drummers! But it was really something to hear the sound of that record happening live. It's hard to feel properly rehearsed with such a big group, but as far as I could tell, it all clicked."

Stamey says that he would like to possibly do more Big Star's 'Third' shows -- perhaps in Los Angles, Memphis and Nashville -- one by one. "I don't think this is about being a tribute to Alex, although he's certainly deserving," he says. "I see it as a way to potentially experience the music more deeply, or at least in a different way, than is possible over the stereo speakers. I do like the idea of the singers changing from town to town, but I feel an obligation to make sure that all the guest singers are great singers as well as great artists, because Alex certainly was both."