Welcome To My Blog

Thanks for checking the blog out... Hope it offers something a bit different every now & again. Though I come from a pseudo - Mod background (Soul & Ska in particular), I have a diverse taste in music & hope my varied posts will reflect this.

Cheers Skamanc .... I'm not after your undying gratitude, but please leave your thoughts, comments & opinions on the posts & content. I regularly up- & download material, plus buy and trade items. As such, if I have inadvertently "trodden on anyone's toes" in posting anything then please let me know & accept my apologies. Also please support the artists involved & remember that the blog is merely a pointer toward these various downloads, which are stored elsewhere. Legally, any downloads should not be retained for more than a week. So now I've told you the legal bit !

Feel free to give me a shout : waltjabsco@hotmail.com

Manchester M22, September 2016

For my kids, Dylan & Tommy. Bollocks to the ex Mrs!

Special thanks to Steve White (software), Gordon Waring (music), Shaun Robinson (artwork), Paul Buddery (DVD's / software) & Sonchey Barrett (essential technical advice!).

"Thank you" also to regular contributors Herr Pauli (Malente, Germany), Phil (Shetland), Deco Mc Dermott & Mark Pengelly of Dublin, Martin Smith (Barnet), Paul Baily (London) and Rodd (Australia).

Thursday 18 March 2010

Big Star : Keep An Eye On The Sky (Part 1) - Alex Chilton In Memoriam

"Keep An Eye On The Sky" is a fantastic 99 track (over 4x CDs) Big Star retrospective / box set. I've had this for a while & have been waiting for the right time to post it. I received many favourable messages about the "Best of Big Star" post and had just finished uploading the files with this in mind when word reached me about Alex Chilton's death yesterday (17th March). As a result, I'll be posting the set in four parts, all respectfully dedicated to the late, great Alex Chilton & Chris Bell. As usual, comments are very welcome. PLEASE !! http://rapidshare.com/files/365131935/BigStar-1.rar 1. Psychedelic Stuff - Bell, Chris 2. All I See Is You - Icewater 3. Every Day As We Grow Closer - Chilton, Alex 4. Try Again (early version) - Rock City 5. Feel 6. Ballad Of El Goodo, The 7. In The Street (alt. mix) 8. Thirteen (alt. mix) 9. Don't Lie To Me 10. India Song, The (alt. mix) 11. When My Baby's Beside Me (alt. mix) 12. My Life Is Right (alt. mix) 13. Give Me Another Chance (alt. mix) 14. Try Again 15. Gone With The Light 16. Watch The Sunrise (single version) 17. ST 100/6 (alt. mix) 18. Preacher, The (excerpt) - Rock City 19. In The Street (alt. single mix) 20. Feel (alt. mix) 21. Ballad Of El Goodo, The (alt. lyrics) 22. India Song, The (alt. version) 23. Country Morn 24. I Got Kinda Lost (demo) 25. Back Of A Car (demo) 26. Motel Blues (demo)

7 comments:

  1. Great blog. I'll be here all weekend. :)
    What's the password? cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops yeah...!! Password for all the Big Star files = zinhof

    I'll post this on the main blog as well...

    ReplyDelete
  3. many thanks for the big star boxset d/l any ideas where one could buy this gem..its not on amazon..remember bloggers buy new second hand doesnt pay the artistes.
    RIP Alex

    ReplyDelete
  4. There's a copy on e-bay right now. Hovering arounfd the £28 mark though still about 8 days to go on it...

    ReplyDelete
  5. FIRST POST TO A BLOG EVER – BE NICE! (lol)

    Hi, I'm new to the world of music blogs (how could I not know such treasures existed?) and they are a wonderful throwback to the great 80's heyday of the mix tape. And they work on the same principle: if you like it, you'll most likely buy it. And if you didn't like it, well no loss you wouldn't have bought it anyway. No one ever bought LESS music because of mix tapes.

    I found this page looking up more details on the Big Star set and there it is . . . a FANTASTIC introduction to newbies (I'll buy it anyway) and a great tribute to Alex.

    People knock his post-Big Star career as patchy the way he would rely on covers, insist on first takes even if the band wasn’t ready, etc, but I think he was a George Best or Peter Cook style personality: someone who hit the ground running as a fully formed genius and had nowhere to go. Just listen to his vocal on The Ballad of El Goodo, his songwriting on Thirteen, his dual lead/rhythm riffing on O My Soul? Where DO you go from there? He could toss off a heartbreaking vocal in one take while reading a newspaper. So like Best and Cookie, he liked to mess it up and mix it up to keep it interesting for himself - regardless of whether it was interesting for us!

    Sure he committed career suicide in the late seventies with the deliberately chaotic Bachs Bottom and Like Flies On Sherbert, becoming a punk hero for all the wrong reasons, but it's oft overlooked that he did get back on track and spent the last 25 years of his career as on a blues/soul/early rock and roll groove cutting some pretty respectable - if not classic - tracks.

    For a complete opposite check out I Am the Cosmos by Chris Bell, the co-founder of Big Star and actually the architect of the band’s sound – his solo album has as much right to be classed a Big Star album as Third (but that’s another story). He wasn't born a great singer or performer like Chilton - perhaps a blessing because he became a meticulous craftsman who by hard work and care created some of the finest pop unheard.

    You are doing a FANTASTIC job with this blog. Ska was never my bag but I’ll browse around if you don’t mind. And if I see anything I fancy I’ll let you know!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanx very mucho. I hope I don´t have to say some day RIP to music blogs.

    ReplyDelete