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Big Country - The Best of Big Country Audio CD

A fair review of the Big Country "The Best of Big Country" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Big Country reviews here, or go back to the Big Country tabs.

Big Country Band: Big Country
Title: The Best of Big Country
Rating:
Release Date: 1994-02-22
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Harvest Home 2: Fields of Fire (400 Miles) 3: In a Big Country 4: Chance 5: Wonderland 6: East of Eden 7: Where The Rose Is Sown 8: Just a Shadow 9: Look Away 10: Teacher 11: One Great Thing 12: King of Emotion 13: Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys) 14: Peace in Our Time 15: Save Me 16: Heart of the World 17: Republican Party People

Big Country's Populist Sampler
"Where the Rose is Sown", "Peace In Our Time" and "Post Nuclear Talking Blues" leave no doubt what they thought of war. In the best traditional of Rock-n-Roll, Stuart Adamson/Big Country wrote and sang about and FOR the poor and working class, even as the rich and powerful reaped the profits. It's too bad that "All Go Together" didn't make this collection, as it accurately foreshadows the global warming, which the scientific community agrees is underway right now. "Republican Party Reptile" describes a man who stuffs corporate kick-backs into offshore bank accounts while confident that plastic surgery will keep his wife looking young.


Long Live Big Country
Another review said " This Band Should have been Huge" and I say yes 10000 per cent. This is no ordinary Pop Big 80s Collection, for Big Country was not an ordinary 80s band. They had everything that should have made them alongside U2 as a power band of Celtic origins.
The Videos of Fields of Fire and In a Big Country show scenes of Scotland as well as them desplaying stories, for In a Big Country they are in search of a treasure with a mistchevous Girl running in competition against them; when Fields of Fire is about the band being on a train and them seeing a Bagpipe Player, when then they see a WW2 Battle, while in all of this it is all just how a child plays innosently with his Train set.
Many videos have the band just playing while others have the band again telling stories, and Look Away is one such video and song, for the song is about an outlaw and his love and him dying as he is captured and finaly hung for his crimes, although in the video he was really forced to fall to his death from a hillslope, when in escape. He was also originally to be shot and supposedly by the family of the man who the Outlaw killed in a drunken rage. The video was made very well but half in a studio and half out in the areas of Scotland supposedly around Glasgow and Edinburgh.
I can go on for hours of all the songs, but in closing the song of Where the Red Rose is Sown is a song that reminds me of the Patriotism that is needed today in our fight againt our enemy.
This is a great collection.


A Solid Collection
If you're a casual Big Country listener, this is the CD for you. If you're a Big Country fan and own all their CDs, stay away because you'll already have all of the songs on the CD. Awesome collection of BC's best. If you only want one BC album, purchasing this is the way to go. All of their best music is on this disc. But my advice is to spend some extra cash (even go into the zShop) and buy the first 4 studio albums instead, along with the last studio album. I always find greatest hits albums a little pretentious, especially when the band only has 2 or 3 "legitimate" hits.


Sad end to a promising career
Unfortunately, their often political/social music had a hard time finding an audience in the greed of the 80's. When "In a Big Country" first came blasting out of stereo's in 1983, it seemed like Big Country the band would be the next big thing. Although they never repeated the success of "In a Big Country", those of us who followed their career still delighted in songs such as "Fields of Fire" and what I consider to be their best song ever, "Look Away". Lead singer Stuart Adamson's tragic death on December 16, 2001, makes the fact that they never duplicated their early success even sadder.

For those of you just looking for "In a Big Country", you might want to try to find that song on an 80's compilation. This CD is truly for the Big Country enthusiast. The songs all pretty much have that same Scottish beat, which may have also hampered their success here in America. Continued chart success depends on the ability to change with the times. Irish rockers U2 have stayed in the mainstream because they have experimented with different styles of music and different sounds.

As I grow older, it seems somewhat sad that so many artists I idolized in the 80's pass on without much notice (Robert Palmer, Laura Branigan, etc. ) It is bittersweet to put on this CD now and listen to all the energy and youthful enthusiasm this band put into their music 20 years ago. For fans of this music, buy this CD and enjoy the memories of a time gone by.

I only give the CD 3 stars because the band really did not have enough hits to warrant a higher ranking. .


The Band That Had It All
Music that stirs the soul, with awesome guitar work, meaningful lyrics, and drums that just drive. I can not say enough good things about Big Country. This CD stays in my CD changer.

One down side to the Best Of, is the drum work in the beginning of "In A Big Country" is cut short.

Aside from that criticism, I highly recommend The Best Of.

One of the best tracks on this CD is "Just A Shadow". Giving this song a listen is more than worth the price of the CD.
Give it a listen!

In my listmania list I placed The Best Of Big Country as No. 1 for music with meaning.


You can see a complete list of all Big Country discography, or go back to the Big Country tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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