| Third (Sister Lovers) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Big Star | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Recorded | 1974 | |||
| Genre | Power pop | |||
| Length | 52:34 | |||
| Label | PVC Records | |||
| Producer | Jim Dickinson | |||
| Big Star chronology | ||||
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Third, also (since 1985) issued as Sister Lovers[1], is the third rock album by American power pop group Big Star, recorded in 1974 and eventually released in 1978 by PVC Records. The album was produced by Jim Dickinson.
Contents |
After the commercial failure of Big Star's first two albums, #1 Record (1972) and Radio City (1974), Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens returned to Ardent Studios in late 1974—accompanied by what biographer Bruce Eaton describes as "a large and revolving cast of Memphis musicians"—to record, under producer Jim Dickinson, "a batch of starkly personal, often experimental, and by turns beautiful and haunting songs that were anything but straight-up power pop."[2] Ardent's John Fry, producer of the first two albums and also involved with the third, recalled that the sessions were burdened by severe personal issues; Eaton tells how Fry "finally called a halt to the escalating madness" and the album was mastered by Larry Nix on 13 February 1975.[3]
Different opinions exist regarding the categorization of Third as a Big Star album. According to Chilton, "Jody and I were hanging together as a unit still but we didn't see it as a Big Star record. We never saw it as a Big Star record. That was a marketing decision when the record was sold in whatever year that was sold. And they didn't ask me anything about it and they never have asked me anything about it." Stephens said, "I've seen it in different ways. To a great extent it is an Alex solo record ... It's Alex's focus, it's his emotional state of being but I brought in the string section for the one song I wrote and Alex hit it off with Carl Marsh ... and started using Carl and the string section for other things. What would that album have been like if it didn't have the strings?" According to Eaton, the mastering card identifies Chilton as the recording artist.[3] Jovanovic, meanwhile, notes, "Whether the band was still called Big Star is debatable. The session sheets have the band name 'Sister Lovers' (Chilton and Stephens were dating Lesa and Holliday Aldridge at the time) clearly written on them. This may well have been a joke, although Chilton and Stephens did use the Sister Lovers name for a radio broadcast in early 1975."[4] Lesa Aldridge, a cousin of photographer and Radio City album cover creator William Eggleston, contributed vocals and was, in the words of Dickinson, "a big, big part of the record". Dickinson said that Chilton, whose relationship with Aldridge was stormy, "reached a point ... where he started to go back and erase her—there was a lot more of Lesa on the album than there is now".[5] During the sessions, Chilton recalled, "Jim and I did all sorts of weird things ... in off hours here and there".[3] Steve Cropper contributed guitar work to a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale".
Third takes the original Big Star sound and abstracts it, with synthesizers, strings and saxophones emerging from the mix. The album deals with bitterness, loneliness and emotional devastation, but does so in a way that retains some elements of pop music, as on "Thank You Friends," which features female backing vocals reminiscent of those found on Elvis Presley recordings of the late '60s. "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust" have often been compared to some of the raw recordings of Yoko Ono and John Lennon. "You Can't Have Me" is akin to a deconstructed song by the Who, and the halting ballad "Dream Lover" contains the famous line about "Beale Street green." Although many critics regard Radio City as the definitive Big Star album, Third is perhaps the most innovative album the group ever recorded, and influenced many subsequent bands, including Primal Scream and His Name Is Alive. In addition, the album contains what are arguably Alex Chilton's finest vocal performances.
Though Ardent created test pressings for the record in 1975, a combination of financial issues, the uncommercial sound of the record, and lack of interest from Chilton and Stephens in continuing the project prevented the album from ever being properly finished or released at the time of its recording.
In 1978 the tapes were acquired by the PVC label and given their first official release. Numerous reissues by other labels on vinyl and CD would follow, often varying the title, running order and cover art, as no 'definitive' version had ever been agreed upon by the band. In addition to the original songs, covers of The Kinks' "'Til the End of the Day" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" were variously included or omitted. The 1992 CD release on Rykodisc, assembled with Jim Dickinson's involvement, was regarded as the first attempt at a presentation of the original album concept devised by Dickinson and the band in 1974.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
| Robert Christgau | (A-) link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
| RS Album Guide | link |
| sputnikmusic | link |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | link |
| Piero Scaruffi | link |
Like Big Star's first two albums, Third/Sister Lovers did not have commercial success at the time of its release but has more recently attracted wider interest. It was listed on David Keenan's "The Best Albums Ever...Honest" by the Scottish newspaper The Sunday Herald.[6] In 2003, the album was ranked number 456 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
It was ranked #1 at the Top 30 "Heartbreak" albums of all time by NME.[7]
"Kangaroo" and "Holocaust" were both covered by This Mortal Coil on the band's debut LP, It'll End in Tears. The 1992 Rykodisc CD release of Third/Sister Lovers includes a "thank you" to This Mortal Coil in the liner notes in acknowledgment of this.
All songs were written by Alex Chilton, except where noted.
Third/Sister Lovers
Rykodisc Edition, 1992
This version created by Jim Dickinson is alleged to represent the band's original intentions for the album.
Sister Lovers
Ardent Test Pressing, 1975
Side A:
Side B:
3rd
PVC Vinyl LP, 1978 (first issue)
Side A:
Side B:
(Note that, compared to the promo, this version removes "Downs" and "Whole Lotta Shaking", and adds "You Can't Have Me" and "Big Black Car." It consists of the first 14 songs of the Rykodisc CD, in a different order.)
The Third Album
Aura Records UK LP, 1978
Side A:
Side B:
The Third Album and Sister Lovers - The Third Album
Line Records CD, 1987 and Castle/Dojo Communications CD/LP, 1987
(both editions feature the same tracks, in different running orders)
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