Chris Bell (Big Star) Retrospective Release?

I am not trying to start a rumor with this, but I am wondering if Omnivore has any plans of releasing a definitive Chris Bell set. In the liner notes for the Big Star Complete Third box set, the producer writes, "I'd like to thank everyone who has worked so passionately on all the Big Star, Chris Bell and related releases across the years." I don't believe Omnivore has done any Chris Bell releases, and she could well be talking about the Rhino Handmade project, but I wonder. A vinyl collection would be wonderful.

Clearly Omnivore has access to the Bell tapes, as they remixed a couple of tracks (impeccably) for the Nothing Can Hurt Me film soundtrack. There is a 4 Men with Beards vinyl pressing of I Am the Cosmos, but I doubt if 4 Men with Beards would cause much of a conflict - both a Omnivore and 4 Men have done pressings of Big Star Third.

Ideally, I would like to have all the material on the Rhino Handmade set, but maybe with some of, if not all of it remixed like they did for NCHM. I don't really consider I Am The Cosmos to be an actual album, more of a posthumous collection, so I think it would be ok to mess with the mixes, running order and title. In a perfect world, they would do the full original 'album,' bonus material and then a new remix with a reimagined running order etc. It would be a labor of love, but this is music that deserves the Royal treatment.

 

I would not say "no" to buying more Chris Bell releases, but I suspect it would be hard to come up with a truly new take on the recordings that exist. The Rhino Handmade release was basically a re-doing of the original 1992 Ryko release, remixing and reimagining what the "album" was, plus unearthing more alternate takes and unreleased recordings. Some of the album tracks were sped up slightly, while "Better Save Yourself" is a completely different mix with a different vocal. So I'm not sure there is much to be done, unless one wanted to radically alter the mixes. But I don't see that happening.

Perhaps the best options are:

1. Center any new releases on any potential material that may remain unreleased. Are there any demos we haven't heard? Any additional studio sessions? Any live tracks? (I once saw a photo of the Ardent tape storage shelves and couldn't help but notice there was a tape box that said "Icewater Live" on it.)

2. Release a high quality LP of the Cosmos album, improving upon the lacklustre 4MWB release.

 

Have to think that the Rhino Handmade set will be the final word on a comprehensive set, but wouldn't argue with a nice LP version of just the "album."

 

Given the demand for the 4MWB LP version (check out eBay & Discogs prices), I would be surprised if Omnivore didn't cash in and put out a nice LP set. I would also be surprised if they didn't create a new identity and package for the set, but maybe it's all peppered with wishful thinking. Still, I feel it would be a missed opportunity for Omnivore to do nothing.

 

I just don't think there's much more Chris Bell material in the vaults. The running order of the Rhino set shows that there wasn't much more, although I can envision a set that brings together the post-Big Star material with all of the Icewater and Rock City material and whatever live stuff survives...

 

I'd happily take a 2-disc Cosmos reissue with the original album and a couple of the remix tracks ("Better Save Yourself") thrown in as a bonus.

 

Sometimes you just gotta accept that there's no more stuff.

 

Not looking for "more stuff" - just a decent LP copy of what is already out there.

 

Sources I'm close to at Ardent confirm that there is not really anything left; surprising to me, since Bell was such a perfectionist and spent so much time in the studio recording and re-recording...perhaps he used the same tapes and just spend the time overdubbing. I'm amazed that there is not more, though.

 

That pretty much matches with what I have heard. He didn't have a great quantity of material, and would keep working on the same tapes over and over. Apparently the "I Am The Cosmos" tape was nearly worn out... plus it had been a recycled tape from the start. You can hear dropouts in the recording.

 

We still need a lossless (digital) release of 'Another Time, Another Place & You'.
This track is rather nebulous as to who wrote it. The Omnivore vinyl says it's a Chilton/Rosebrough composition.

The Big Star movie credits the piece as a Bell/Rosebrough composition.

So which is it?

Is some future release going to correct the misinformation?

 

Wouldn't that be cool if it was true?!?

 

The Rhino Handmade is a great release, worth adding if the price is reasonable.

 

I have the old Ryko cd. Maybe I need to upgrade. What's on the 2 cd version to tempt me? Anything essential?

 

More music/tracks and better sound!

 

I'm still on the fence. One reviewer on Amazon says to avoid the deluxe and stick with the Ryko - something to do with the sound. I Don't Know...!

 

Chris Bell - I Am The Cosmos

 

That 4MWB pressing is the first time a piece vinyl jumped out at me for sounding so terrible. I might have to hit the classifieds or eBay........

 

Hey, Chris Bell fans. Any idea what this is? It is on Amazon's site, but not Omnivore's.

Chris Bell - Looking Forward: The Roots Of Big Star - Amazon.com Music

 

Looks like a compilation of recordings of Bell solo, Icewater, and Rock City. Most of this is probably a duplication of what ended up on the Big Star box set, the Rock City CD, and the 2CD Cosmos release. But I see a few tracks here that don't look familiar: A Chance to Live, Feeling High, The Reason. Hopefully those are "new" songs that have been discovered. The backing tracks also might be interesting, especially the Oh My Soul recording. This was supposedly one of Chris' compositions, so if there is an early backing track that he compiled, it might show his original vision for the song.

 

Funny, I happen to have the Rock City disc in my car as I type this. There’s certainly a fair amount of overlap between that disc and this new offering. The RC material was interesting because it demonstrates that the Big Star sonics were in place quite a bit before Chilton’s return to Memphis. However, the material is just kinda OK. IIRC the writing is split maybe 80/20 Tom Eubanks to Bell, and Eubanks, while not a bad singer/writer, was clearly not in either Chilton or Bell’s league. (No shame in that, for sure.) And Sunday Organ is just Terry Manning on organ! This material is worth hearing a couple times, but it’s not something I find myself returning to that often, although Think It’s Time To Say Goodbye is pretty cool.

Glancing at this track listing, there’s not all that much new material. Out of 22 tracks, ten are Rock City and four are backing tracks. It doesn’t appear essential unless you want to be a completist and don’t have the ’03 RC disc. I am curious about the presence of O My Soul, though. Chris was definitely in on the writing for that; he was supposed to have taken the lead vocal.

 

Is it too much to ask for a "I am the Cosmos"/"You and Your Sister" 7'' re-release?

 

Thanks for the info, guys. I have yet to pick up the Rock City disc. Sounds like I should.

 

New Book & Box Set to Detail Short, Brilliant Career of Big Star's Chris Bell: Exclusive Chapter & Song Premiere