Retro Spins: Big Country - Steeltown

 

Big Country hit my radar in the early New Millennium, and it's been a wild ride ever since.

Stuart Adamson, Bruce Watson, Tony Butler, and Mark Brzezicki were the magic behind the band, coming together in 1981. They released their first single, Harvest Home in 1982, and though mildly successful, it failed to chart. This was followed by their second single, Fields Of Fire (400 Miles), which reached the UK's top ten, and lead to the release of their debut album, The Crossing in 1983. Kurt Loader, who at the time was writing for Rolling Stone magazine, gave the album a glowing review.

Steeltown was released in 1984, but chart wise, was not as successful as its predecessor. Its overall negative press is often attributed to the lyrics, which dealt with the misfortunes of Scottish workers and contained references to British politics, not being relatable to Americans and other international nations.

As for me, I dig the album. I'm a big fan of the percussion and guitar work of Mark Brzezicki, and Bruce Watson. Quite frankly, I find Brzezicki to be a far superior drummer to the likes of Neil Peart, Kieth Moon, and even Sheila E (to name some of my personal favorites). I also find Watson's guitar work to be unlike any other of the time. How you make a guitar sound like bagpipes is beyond me, but he has a talent for it. Throw on top of that the haunting vocals of Adamson, and sprinkle it with the bass work of Butler, and everything comes together to form a sound unlike any other.

Is Steeltown a powerhouse album from front to back? No, not at all. In fact, some songs are simply passable. However, where it stands tall is with the tracks it delivers in full force. Flame Of The West, Where The Rose Is Sown, Come Back To Me, Tall Ships Go, Rain Dance, and Just A Shadow are where it's at, from my perspective.

Though the band had hits, they never really made that big of an impact in the USA, and that's kind of a shame. They're one of the few 80's groups to keep hammering away during the 90's, releasing eight albums in total through 1999. Sadly, it would be around this time that lead singer Stuart Adamson would relapse in his decade long sobriety from alcohol, and start disappearing in spurts. After doing so again in 2001, he was fond dead in a hotel room, ruled to be by suicide.

Big Country recorded and released a final album in 2013. However, it would only be original members Brzezicki, and Watson who would return to record, with other performs filling the gaps left by prior band mates.

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THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS
February 22, 1986

Retro Spins: Big Country - The Crossing

It was the early New Millennium when I was first introduced to Big Country via a compilation album, which for the life of me I can't remember the title for, nor find an image of which puts the puzzle piece in place as to which one it was. However, through it I was introduced to so many great tracks that the band quickly became a favorite of mine. Favorite in a sense that I liked their music, but not necessarily followed them in any big way.

As the years rolled by, and the CD collection began to grow, Big Country remained on my radar as a band who I needed to track down the studio albums for which featured my favorite songs from the compilation album I had owned. Unfortunately, I found myself having quite a bit of issues with this. It was through doing a lot of research on their albums that I found the original studio pressings didn't necessarily contain all the tracks I was looking for as some were B-sides, or previously unreleased songs which were added to re-issue releases.

The end result was, while I eventually tracked down the albums I was looking for to get all the songs I wanted, they are all over the map in terms of when they were released. I don't own any of the original pressings, nor do I honestly want them since they're lacking songs which I would have wanted anyway.

Today, I'm taking a listen to the bands 1983 debut album, The Crossing, which for the purposes of this write up, is coming from the 2002 re-issue. I'll break this down into two different sections. The first will be discussing the original ten tracks from the album. The second part will discuss the five remaining tracks which come from the 2002 released, and also known as, Wonderland Mini LP.

One of the biggest draws to this album is its unique sound compared to a lot of music of the era. The almost bagpipe style of guitarist Bruce Watson, the masterful drumming of Mark Brzezicki, solid bass riffs of Tony Butler and haunter vocals from Stuart Adamson combine to draw you in for a session of fantastic and deep songs.

While it was the track In A Big Country (also included on the album) which drew me first to the band, I have since found several, far superior songs, many of which are included on The Crossing; Chance, The Storm, Harvest Home, Lost Patrol, Close Action, Fields of Fire, and Porrohman.

Enjoying nine out of ten tracks definitely makes this a great album in my book. It also leaves me wanting to hear more from the band. So let me do just that.

As mentioned above, this particular version of the alum is the 2002 re-issue which includes the Wonderland Mini LP. The song, Wonderland, is also the reason I wanted this particular version.

With a run time of twenty-five minutes, the mini LP, in my book, is only about one song shy of being, in and of itself, a full album. It starts up with the track, Wonderland, and from there leads into a decent, but not necessarily the best, remix of Giant in the form of All Fall Together. The song Giant, which isn't on The Crossing, is actually a bonus track itself from the re-issue of the band's 1986 album, The Seer.

I didn't find myself enjoying the follow-up tracks, Angle Park and The Crossing. Nor did I particularly get excited for the "single version" of Chance. While I like this song, getting an extra twelve seconds isn't enough to really notice a difference, nor blow me away. I also much prefer the original without the unnecessary intro.

With all that said, overall, I enjoyed my listening session of the 2002 re-issue of The Crossing. It's hard to be sad about getting ten good songs out of fifteen. I'll definitely be listening to more Big Country in the near future. You should too.

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