In a big country, dreams stay with you

Yes - it's time for another list!  

I thought I was done with groups that put out debut albums in '83 and was about to move on to the badlands of '84 - but then I realised I was missing out on one of my favourite bands from the time. Shame on me!

Whereas REM, Billy and Natalie all have reasonably strong ties to the US (even if Billy didn't exactly start there), there's absolutely no danger of anyone thinking Big Country are anything other than Scottish - however, there is, somewhat amazingly, a link between them all. In the summer of '90, 250,000 fans gathered in Glasgow to celebrate it being the European City Of Culture (fun fact - I was there for Hogmanay earlier in the year). There were a load of bands playing across the city, including Big Country and Billy Bragg, and Billy had Natalie as a special guest and she brought Michael along as well! - so it all ties together nicely (much to my surprise!). 

But let's head back to the very beginning...

Big Country were formed in Dunfermline in '81 with Stuart Adamson having left Skids (alongside Richard Jobson, better known later on as a TV presenter) and casting around all of Scotland for some new band mates, finally settling on guitarist Bruce Watson, bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki. A couple of singles followed - "Harvest Home", which got to the dizzy heights of #82 and "Fields of Fire (400 Miles)", which got to #10 and hence attracted more people's attention - including mine. 

The Crossing, their debut album, then followed - but it took two more singles "In A Big Country" (#10) and "Chance" (#9), to tempt me to purchase it. Although even then there was a further delay because I really wanted the red cover, but (as I now know) that boat had sailed because it was only available for initial pressings - so I had to settle for the blue one.

And it's fair to say I'm a fan - so much so that this is the first album ever to get a THIRD review. It's also special because it was the subject of my first ever post (over five years ago now) but it's fair to say the formatting was all over the shop back then so it was given a proper write-up when we met it in '83 - but now it's getting a full-on track-by-track write-up!

Side One

1. In A Big Country
Arguably their signature track and the one that introduced them to a lot of people - and it certainly gives you a good idea as to what you're gonna get. I like it, but it's nowhere near my favourite off the album (which is true for quite a few of the singles) - I think it's fair to say the lyrical content isn't their most complex work.

2. Inwards
Decent enough with some good guitar work, but another one that certainly isn't my fave.

3. Chance
I really like this and bought it as a single (it's got a surprisingly decent version of "Tracks Of My Tears" on the b-side). It's a little less full-on bagpipe-y than the other singles but it's also got much better lyrics - "he came like a hero from the factory floor, with the Sun & Moon as gifts - but the only Sun you ever saw, were the two he left you with". There's also a very decent cover version on Karine Polwart's Scottish Songbook album (which is well worth a listen if you like slightly folky covers). 

4. 1000 Stars
Nicely anthemic - "the luck of 1000 stars can't get me out of this". And very bagpipe-y!

5. The Storm
I really like this one - it starts slowly with some proper swirly guitars and wailing backing vocals on it before bringing in some surprisingly normal sounding guitars. It all builds nicely and feels like a properly constructed track.

Side Two

1. Harvest Home
Their first single, but possibly my least favourite track on the album.

2. Lost Patrol
This is another one that builds nicely which is definitely a bit of a theme as far as my favourites go here (and we've still got the buildiest one to come). It's got very poetic, doom-laden lyrics as well - "we can do nothing more than move on headlong through the gloom. the thorn between our lips is the missionaries tune"

3. Close Action
This is very similar to the previous track but with even less understandable lyrics - "A score of years this line has run above the crests that drown the sun. A mile high the turbines turned, the stokers sweat, the monkeys burned".

4. Fields Of Fire (400 Miles)
The other single off the second side and, whilst I can understand why they picked them, they just don't work so well for me.

5. Porrohman
And this is the buildiest track on the album - 2:20 of swirling guitars and crashing drums before we get any actual words! I really like this one and, until now, I had absolutely no idea what a porrohman was - I'm sure you already knew it's "a mythical spirit from Scottish folklore representing a saviour or guide for industrial workers, linked to the idea of a blacksmith's ghost helping labourers in steel mills". It's got great guitar and drum work on it and sounds very good loud.

I like this album and it's obviously iconic because it's the one that introduced us to the Big Country sound, but it's not actually my favourite of theirs - and the singles are generally my least favourite bits of the album. Having said that, "Chance" is going on the playlist, along with "The Storm", "Lost Patrol" and "Porrohman" - some great guitar work across that lot. 

Wikipedia tells us this is their debut album (but we obviously knew that) and, most importantly, that they used "the MXR Pitch Transposer 129 effect pedal to create a guitar sound reminiscent of bagpipes". They also use the EBow (which I only know of through the R.E.M. song "E-bow The Letter") but it is, I now learn, "a hand-held device which, through the use of magnets, causes the strings of an electric guitar to vibrate, producing a soft attack which sounds more like strings or a synthesizer" - clever stuff. In completely Captain Obvious mode, it also tells us "the music often demonstrates a clear influence of Scottish traditional music" - I sometimes wonder what I'd do without Wikipedia!

Critically, it was pretty well received with four stars in most reviews and 10/10 from Classic Rock, but Smash Hits wasn't a fan only giving it 4/10. And commercially it did best here, getting to #3 (for three weeks) in a 68 week run. But it did better away from these shores than you might expect, getting to #4 in Canada, #8 in New Zealand and #18 in the US - and also #11 in The Netherlands and #17 in Sweden, showing the appeal wasn't confined to English speaking countries. 

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version for three quid but if you want an unopened 30th anniversary deluxe boxset then it's going to set you back £130. For a change though, there are copies available I might be tempted by - I can pick up a red album cover version for about £15 (and maybe go back to being 16 again?). This album very much takes me back to my youth but I still enjoy it and like the way it hasn't dated - because no-one else has ever really sounded like them (and, I suspect, no-one ever will).

Rarities - some oddities