CD Preview: Big Star’s Live at Lafayette’s Music Room

Omnivore Recordings has become the source for all things related to legendary Memphis rockers Big Star. From 2009’s Grammy® Award-winning box set Keep An Eye On The Sky and Alex Chilton solo albums to the rescue and reissue of Chris Bell’s recording history, Omnivore has provided great fan service to long-suffering Big Star fanatics. The tradition continues in 2018 when the label releases Live at Lafayette’s Music Room, a long-lost Big Star live disc plucked from the depths of the band’s archive.

The tale is the stuff of legend for the Big Star faithful – in May 1973, the band played a single promotional concert for the Memphis Rock Writers Convention at the city’s Lafayette Music Room. Their incredible performance created a legion of fans among the critical cognoscenti, who subsequently extravagantly hyped the band’s lone album, #1 Record, to a largely indifferent public. Largely unknown to the casual fan, however, is that Big Star played the same venue several months earlier, opening for R&B legends Archie Bell & the Drells, a show caught on tape for posterity.

Originally released as disc number four of Keep An Eye On The Sky, that early Big Star performance will be released by Omnivore on January 12, 2018 as Live at Lafayette’s Music Room in CD, digital, and double-album vinyl formats. Live at Lafayette’s Music Room has been provided new mastering and restoration from Grammy®-winning engineer Michael Graves and Grammy®-winning producer Cheryl Pawleski. The twenty-track collection features material from #1 Record and songs from the yet-to-be-recorded Radio City as well as covers of band favorite songs by Todd Rundgren, the Kinks, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and others.

All the various Live at Lafayette’s Music Room formats include a download of a previously-unissued 1972 interview with Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel with local radio legend DJ Jon Scott from Memphis’ FM 100. The package also includes new liner notes from noted rock critic and historian Bud Scoppa. Altogether, Live at Lafayette’s Music Room promises to be a welcome addition to the Big Star catalog, courtesy of Omnivore Recordings. Complete track list is below, along with video trailer and a link to buy this essential set from Big Star.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Big Star’s Live at Lafayette’s Music Room

Big Star’s Live at Lafayette’s Music Room track listing:
1. When My Baby’s Beside Me
2. My Life Is Right
3. She’s A Mover
4. Way Out West
5. The Ballad Of El Goodo
6. In The Street
7. Back Of A Car
8. Thirteen
9. The India Song
10. Try Again
11. Watch The Sunrise
12. Don’t Lie To Me
13. Hot Burrito #2
14. I Got Kinda Lost
15. Baby Strange
16. Slut
17. There Was A Light
18. St 100/6
19. Come On Now
20. O My Soul