So I had this idea for a review of this latest reissue of the third Big Star album. I thought that maybe I could point out the inequity of calling any set of recordings “complete,” even one that comes with such copious sleeve notes and demos and outtakes and rough mixes. I thought that maybe I could include all my drafts and edits and mistaken observations by way of infusing the reader with a sense of what it is like to experience Complete Third.
Method criticism.
Feature some notes to myself, like:
1. When you say you like Big Star, are you buying into the myth of Big Star—obscure, drug-riddled Memphis outsiders—or their music?
2. Who decides when something is complete? Why leave out the burps and cups of coffee and run-throughs that never made it onto one-inch magnetic tape? Have a listen to the appalling outtakes “Pre-Downs” and “Baby Strange,” included here toward the end of the first disc, Demos to Sessions to Roughs, and ask yourself: Why this desire for completeness, for an ideal that can never be attained? Is it not better to leave music incomplete?
3. “Don’t Worry Baby,” the uncovered Beach Boys cover featured here is… wow. Almost as good as the Beach Boys original.