BIG STAR "3rd" (THIRD) 1978 PVC-7903 1st PRESSING STERLING +INNER SLEEVE NM-/NM

$

242

THREE YEARS AGO I LOST ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS TO CANCER, HE WAS A COOL MUSICIAN A DRUMMER BY TRADE, ORIGINALLY FROM SEATTLE, BUT RELOCATED TO L.A. IN 1985, HE AMASSED A VERY LARGE MUSIC COLLECTION, AND HAD KILLER TASTE FOR ROCK & ROLL, SADLY I AM SELLING OFF A LOT OF HIS COLLECTION ON BEHALF OF HIS WIDOW TO HELP PAY OFF DEBTS INCLUDING BILLS, TAXES AND STORAGE UNIT FEES. I AM NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR THIS SERVICE, DOING IT FOR MY FRIEND (MISS YOU DAVE!). THIS ITEM IS FROM HIS COLLECTION.

THE PHOTO'S MAY BE A LITTLE BLURRY, HAVE A LITTLE GLARE, SOME REFLECTIONS OR IN SOME CASES YOU MAY SEE SPECKS OF DUST. BUT THE PHOTO'S ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM YOU ARE BIDDING ON. I DO COMBINE SHIPPING. BUT I DO NOT ACCEPT “BEST OFFERS”, THE MONIES GO TO MY FRIENDS WIDOW.

THESE ARE VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED. LET ME REITERATE I DO NOT TAKE “BEST OFFERS”.

ARTISTS: BIG STAR

TITLE: “3RD” (ON LABLES & SPINE LISTED AS “THIRD”)

TRACK LISTING (SEE PHOTOS & BELOW):

A1

Stroke It Noel

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:04

A2

For You

Written-By – Jody Stephens

2:45

A3

Kizza Me

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:45

A4

You Can't Have Me

Written-By – Alex Chilton

3:11

A5

Nighttime

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:53

A6

Blue Moon

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:07

A7

Take Care

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:48

B1

Jesus Christ

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:38

B2

Femme Fatale

Written-By – Lou Reed

3:32

B3

O, Dana

Written-By – Alex Chilton

2:35

B4

Big Black Car

Written-By – Alex Chilton, Chris Gage

3:37

B5

Holocaust

Written-By – Alex Chilton

3:55

B6

Kanga Roo

Written-By – Alex Chilton

3:47

B7

Thank You Friends

Written-By – Alex Chilton

3:05

Companies, etc.

• Recorded At – Ardent Studios

Credits

• Arranged By [String Arrangements] – Carl Marsh (2)

• Bass – Tommy Cathey, Tommy McClure, William Murphy

• Design – Murray Brenman

• Drums – Jody Stephens, Richard Rosebrough, Tarp Tarrant

• Engineer – Alex Chilton, John Fry, Richard Rosebrough

• Guitar – Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson, Lee Baker (2), Steve Cropper

• Keyboards – Alex Chilton, Jim Dickinson

• Photography By – Michael O'Brien*

• Producer – Jim Dickinson

• Reeds, Woodwind, Synthesizer – Carl Marsh (2)

Notes

First official release in 1978. Cover and inner sleeve refers to the album "3rd". Spine and label refers to the album as "Third". Liner text begins on back of jacket and ends on the inner sleeve. Original has the Black and white photo cover as opposed to the later reissue with black and blue cover.

LABEL: PVC RECORDS

CAT. #: PVC 7903

YEAR: 1978

RECORD CONDITION: THE RECORD IS IN EX+/NM-CONDITION.NO VISIBLE WEAR, SCRATCHES, LINES ETC. NICE SHINEY LUSTER TO THE VINYL. BOTH LABELS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. LOOKS VERY CLEAN ALL IN ALL THE SONGS PLAY SUPER CLEAN. ALMOST TOTALLY DEAD AIR BETWEEN THE TRACKS.

SLEEVE CONDITION: THE JACKET IS IN NM/MINT- CONDITION THERE'S NO WRITING ON THE JACKET. STRAIGHT EDGES, NO WRITING, TEARS, WRINKLES OR SEAM SPLITS, ETC.ETC.

MORE INFO: THIS RECORD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT. THE MATRIX # MATCHES WHAT DISCOGS LISTS AS THE 1st. PRESSING. NO RESERVE! INCLUDES ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE. (SEE PHOTOS), ORIGINAL BLACK & WHITE WITH RED LETTERING JACKET.

MORE ON THE ARTIST & RELEASE:

Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new lineup 18 years later following a reunion concert at the University of Missouri. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Byrds. Big Star produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before they broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations", in the words of Rolling Stone as the "quintessential American power pop band", and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". Big Star's first album—1972's #1 Record—was met by enthusiastic reviews, but ineffective marketing by Stax Records, and limited distribution stunted its commercial success. Frustration took its toll on band relations: Bell left not long after the first record's commercial progress stalled, and Hummel left to finish his college education after a second album, Radio City, was completed in December 1973. Like #1 Record, Radio City received excellent reviews, but label issues again thwarted sales—Columbia Records, which had assumed control of the Stax catalog, likewise effectively vetoed its distribution.

After a third album, recorded in the fall of 1974, was deemed commercially unviable and shelved before receiving a title, the band broke up late in 1974. Four years later, the first two Big Star LPs were released together in the UK as a double album. The band's third album was finally issued soon afterward; titled Third/Sister Lovers, it found limited commercial success, but has since become a cult classic. Shortly thereafter, Chris Bell was killed in a car accident at the age of 27.

During the group's hiatus in the 1980s, the Big Star discography drew renewed attention when R.E.M. and the Replacements, as well as other popular bands, cited the group as an influence. In 1992, interest was further stimulated by Rykodisc's reissues of the band's albums, complemented by a collection of Bell's solo work.:13

In 1993, Chilton and Stephens reformed Big Star with recruits Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, and gave a concert at the University of Missouri.:253 The band remained active, performing tours in Europe and Japan,:253–260 and released a new studio album, In Space, in 2005. Chilton died in March 2010 after suffering from heart problems. Hummel died of cancer four months later. These deaths left Stephens as the sole surviving founding member. Big Star was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

Since December 2010, several surviving members have appeared in a series of live tribute performances of the album Third/Sister Lovers, under the billing "Big Star's Third". As of 2017, that project has remained active.

Third/Sister Lovers

Main article: Third/Sister Lovers

In September 1974, eight months after the release of Radio City, Chilton and Stephens returned to Ardent Studios to work on a third album: They were assisted by producer Jim Dickinson and an assortment of musicians (including drummer Richard Rosebrough) and Lesa Aldridge, Chilton's girlfriend, who contributed on vocals. The sessions and mixing were completed in early 1975, and 250 copies of the album were pressed with plain labels for promotional use:

Parke Putterbaugh of Rolling Stone described Third/Sister Lovers as "extraordinary". It is, he wrote, "Chilton's untidy masterpiece. [...] beautiful and disturbing"; "vehemently original"; of "haunting brilliance":

To listen to it is to be "plunged into a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. Songs are drenched in strings and sweet sentiment one minute, starkly played and downcast the next. No pop song has ever bottomed out more than "Holocaust", an anguished plaint sung at a snail's pace over discordant slide-guitar fragments and moaning cello [...] On the up side, there's the delicious pop minuet "Stroke It Noel", the anticipatory magic of "Nightime" ("Caught a glance in your eyes and fell through the skies," Chilton rhapsodizes) [...] Big Star's baroque, guitar-driven pop reaches its apotheosis on songs like "Kizza Me", "Thank You Friends" and "O, Dana". [...] Without question, Third is one of the most idiosyncratic, deeply felt and fully realized albums in the pop idiom.[

Fry and Dickinson flew to New York with promotional copies and met employees of a number of record labels, but could not generate interest in the album.When a similar promotion attempt failed in California, the album was shelved as it was considered not commercial enough for release. Fry recalled, "We'd go in and play it and these guys would look at us like we were crazy".[In late 1974, before the album was even named, the band broke up, bringing Big Star's first era to its end. Dickinson later said that he was "nailed for indulging Alex on Big Star Third, but I think it is important that the artist is enabled to perform with integrity. What I did for Alex was literally remove the yoke of oppressive production that he had been under since the first time he ever uttered a word into a microphone, for good or ill."

Since quitting the band in 1972, Bell had spent time in several different countries trying to develop his solo career. In 1978, after his return to Memphis, the first two Big Star albums were released together in the U.K. as a double album, drawing enthusiastic reviews and interest from fans. Soon afterward, Big Star's recognition grew further when, four years after its completion, the third album too was released in both the U.S. and the U.K. By now, the hitherto untitled Third/Sister Lovers had become known by several unofficial names, including Third (reflecting its position in the discography), Beale Street Green (acknowledging the legendary site nearby, once a focal point for Memphis blues musicians), and Sister Lovers (because during the album's recording sessions, Chilton and Stephens were dating sisters Lesa and Holliday Aldridge).

Not long after the release of Third/Sister Lovers, Bell died in a car accident. He apparently lost control of his car while driving alone and was killed when he struck a lamp post after hitting the curb a hundred feet before. A blood test found that he was not drunk at the time, and no drugs were found on him other than a bottle of vitamins Bell is believed to have either fallen asleep at the wheel or become distracted.

Third (reissued in 1985 as Third/Sister Lovers is the third album by American rock band Big Star. Sessions started at Ardent Studios in September 1974. Though Ardent created promotional, white-label test pressings for the record in 1975, a combination of financial issues, the uncommercial sound of the record, and lack of interest from singer Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens in continuing the project prevented the album from ever being properly finished or released at the time of its recording. It was eventually released in 1978 by PVC Records.

After two commercially unsuccessful albums, Third documents the band's deterioration as well as the declining mental state of singer Alex Chilton. It has since gone on to become a cult album, and was placed at number 449 on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Composition and recording

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."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 February 13, 1975

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.

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."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".During the sessions, Chilton recalled, "Jim and I did all sorts of weird things ... in off hours here and there".

Steve Cropper contributed guitar to a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale", while Eggleston played piano on a cover of eden ahbez's "Nature Boy".

Release

In 1978 the tapes were acquired by the PVC label and given their first official release. Third was first released by Aura Records in London in 1978. The PVC release in the US came later that year. 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' "'Till the End of the Day", eden ahbez's "Nature Boy" 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. In October 2016, Omnivore Recordings released Complete Third, a box set that includes every demo, rough mix, outtake, alternate take, and final master from the Third sessions ever known to exist.

I DO COMBINE SHIPPING! THE $4 FLAT RATE ALSO INCLUDES THE MAILER WHICH COST AROUND $1 EACH. THANKS! NOTE: INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING INCREASED IN JAN. OF 2020.

ALL 12” RECORDS WILL BE MAILED OUT IN CARDBOARD MAILERS DESIGNED FOR SHIPPING WITH ADDITIONAL CARDBOARD SUPPORT. I DO COMBINE SHIPPING WITH OTHER LIKE SIZED ITEMS. ADDITIONAL LPs $1 EA. IN THE U.S. VIA MEDIA MAIL OR OTHER USPS SERVICES. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING IS BASED ON WEIGHT AND COUNTRY. FOR THE U.S. THE $4 COST OF THE MEDIA MAIL INCLUDES MY COST OF THE MAILER, PACKING MATERIALS & TIME. THANKS! BOB

INTERNATIONAL BIDDERS TAKE NOTE !!!

IF YOU OPT TO NOT PAY FOR THE EXTRA INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED MAIL, AND OPT FOR THE REGULAR INTERNATIONAL FIRST CLASS WHICH HAS NO TRACKING AT ALL, I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR PACKAGE, AND I WILL TAKE PICTURES OF MY POST OFFICE RECEIPTS AND MY U.S. CUSTOMS FORMS AND SEND THEM TO YOU AS PROOF OF MY MAILING YOUR ITEM OUT, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FAILINGS OF YOUR COUNTRIES POSTAL SERVICE, KNOW THIS BEFORE YOU BID ON ANY OF MY ITEMS!!! IF YOUR ITEM DOES NOT ARRIVE DO NOT BLAME ME!

DUE TO THE RECENT INCREASE IN THE INTERNATIONAL MAILING RATES THAT WENT UP IN JAN. 2020, I WILL NOT DO A FLAT RATE FOR ANY ITEMS, FROM NOW ON YOU WILL HAVE TO CALCULATE THE RATE BASED UPON YOUR COUNTRY. ALSO ADDITIONAL COMBINED ITEMS WILL MEAN A HIGHER SHIPPING CHARGED BASED ON EACH ITEM. SORRY ABOUT THIS, BUT THERE’S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT THAT.REGISTERED INTERNATIONAL MAIL WHICH ALLOWS FOR DOOR TO DOOR TRACKING IS AN ADDITIONAL $15.00.

I DO COMBINE SHIPPING……….

CHECK OUT MY OTHER AUCTIONS

International Buyers – Please Note:

Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility.

Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding or buying.

PLEASE PAY FOR ALL ITEMS WITHIN 5 DAYS, OR MESSAGE ME TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU CAN’T,(IF YOU ARE BIDDING OR PLAN TO BID ON OTHER ITEMS) I WILL DO A ONE WEEK WAIT FROM THE DATE OF THE END OF THE FIRST AUCTION WIN, TO COMBINE SHIPPING ON ITEMS, AFTER THAT I NEED PAYMENT IN FULL AND WILL MAIL OUT THE ITEMS , EVEN IF YOU ARE BIDDING ON OTHERS, THUS BEGINS A NEW BILLING/SHIPPING CYCLE. THIS CASH FLOW IS MY SOURCE OF INCOME FOR PAYING RENT/BILLS, ETC. IF YOU HAVE WON AN ITEM AND I DO NOT HEAR FROM YOU ONE WAY OR THE OTHER WITHIN 7 DAYS I WILL OPEN AN “UNPAID ITEM CASE”, IN ORDER TO FREE UP THE ITEM FOR A POSSIBLE RE-LISTING OR A “SECOND CHANCE OFFER”. PLEASE WHEN YOU WIN AN ITEM TRY AND PAY FOR IT IN A TIMELY FASHION OR LET ME KNOW YOU ARE LOOKING AT OTHER ITEMS I HAVE LISTED, I MAIL ITEMS OUT WITHIN TWO WORKING DAYS ONCE PAYMENT IS RECEIVED. DO NOT ASK FOR ITEM TO ME MARKED “GIFT” ON CUSTOMS FORMS, INTERNATIONAL BUYERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL DUTIES AND CUSTOMS FEE’S! CHECK WITH YOUR POST OFFICE, I WILL NOT PAY THEM.

NEW NOTE TO ALL POTENTIAL BIDDERS PLEASE! DO NOT BID IF YOU HAVE NO INTENTION OF PAYING FOR AN ITEM YOU MIGHT WIN, ALSO IF YOU ARE AN INTERNATIONAL BIDDER, PLEASE! BE AWARE OF THE COST OF INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING. I DO NOT LIKE OPENING UNPAID ITEM CASES BUT I WILL IF YOU NEGLECT TO PAY.