Big Country still sounds great to me

A Scottish guitar band that never quite got it's due

Do you ever wonder why your brain, at certain points in your life, seems to almost require a certain kind of music? When you’re driving or in the gym or sitting in your living room reading…

For example, when I was teaching, the last song I’d play as I walked into the classroom every day was a Bryan Ferry song called “Your Painted Smile.” I can’t really explain it. But for some reason, I needed to hear that song in that moment every day. The dancing, open-ended, spacey musical notes of that song seemed to clear my head, opened my ears and my mind, got me ready to teach. It’s not really even my favorite Roxy/Ferry song. But it did that for me, I counted on it. I have no idea why.

My musical tastes, I think, are pretty broad. Just to take a quick peek at the songs on my phone - The Band, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Marvin Gaye, Bryan Ferry, The Clash, Elvis Presley, Faces, James Brown, George Harrison, Howlin’ Wolf, Neil Young, Paul Westerberg, Pete Townshend, The Who, The Replacements, Rod Stewart, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols and U2.

But lately, the band that, for the last month of so, I’ve listened to more than any of these - they have a bunch of songs on my phone, too - is what we’ve come to think of as an 80’s band - Big Country, a guitar band from Scotland, of all places.

Do you remember them? I listen to these guys while I’m writing, while I’m at the gym, walking, reading. I love the guitars, the vocals and lyrics, the whole package. The music is hard-charging but at the same time, melodious, melodies and choruses that - to these ears, anyway - are catchy, exciting, fabulous.

They hit it semi-big in America with their first hit here - “In A Big Country” with an uplifting MTV video and a guitar sound that a lot of people said sounded like bagpipes. I didn’t hear that - but liked the song a lot. And went looking for more.

The MTV oft-played video of “In A Big Country” by Big Country in 1982.

Their first album, “The Crossing” did pretty well, spawned a couple other songs that hit the radio - “Harvest Home” and “Fields Of Fire.” MTV aired a live New Year’s Eve concert of their that I loved, even taped it on a VHS tape I still have somewhere.

But then, despite recording what to me was some absolutely terrific music over their next set of albums, they sort of disappeared. At least in America.

They continued to tour and were big overseas for a good while until their band ended due to tragic circumstances. (I’ll get to that later.) And for some reason a few months ago, I just happened to play a few songs from “Steeltown” - just a great record and the mostly ignored follow-up to “The Crossing” and I haven’t stopped. Thematically, “Steeltown” is almost a concept album, and geez, I loved them more than ever. Why, in picking and choosing what Big Country songs to include here, I had a heck of a time. I liked them all! And wanted my Substack friends, who have been so incredibly kind to me, to give ‘em a listen. See if I AM crazy.

The band’s songwriter, lead guitarist and singer Stuart Adamson, a crackerjack guitar player to begin with, writes songs that really are original, distinctive and not blues-based. I don’t know if he writes from guitar riffs or if the riffs and solos occur to him once he starts with the basic guitar song chords, a musical foundation that seems to inspire nifty guitar bits. Before you know it, you’re finding yourself singing along.

There’s also an irrepressible energy to their music; you imagine them in the studio, crashing and bashing and just having a blast. Their vibe somehow reminds me of what Bruce Springsteen’s recording session for “Cadillac Ranch” must have been like. It’s a song that only Bruce would think of and only he could write and only the E Street Band could respond and capture the way they do on “The River.” You KNOW there weren’t 20 takes on that one.

To me, Big Country’s songs have that kind of feel. While the public may say otherwise, there are so many winners on their records - you can listen to their albums straight though and not want to skip this one or that one. Adamson is an interesting lyricist and as he grew as a writer and singer, the songs got more complex - but still powerful. I admit, it’s not easy-listening music, which is not the way I ever have rolled. But now, it seems to speak to me.

For example, listen to “Where The Rose Is Sown” a great cut from “Steeltown.”

Or, the surging, charging, irresistible guitars on “The Great Divide.” It’s generally my shower song, music to shower by, that is. (Weird, I know. But it DOES sound great in the shower.) You just KNOW they had fun playing it.

And with all the stunning, electric guitar play that weaves in and out of their records, when Adamson turns to a song like “Eiledon” as utterly irresistible a melody as I can think of, you’ll find yourself singing along, too, imagining the Scottish landscape, the Highlands, the purple heather, it’s all there in that soaring, tender, unforgettable song.

One of their later songs, from their “Buffalo Skinners” record, is a tune that I always open my workouts with, a song that seems to speak to our current political situation more than Stuart Adamson could ever have known, writing this in 1993. Somehow, at this moment in my life as a Substack writer, it just seems to fit. Interesting, huh?

I know these are a lot of songs to put in one post. But I think Big Country was a sadly overlooked band. If their sound rings in your ear - like it does mine - you’ll love all of their records - “Steeltown” or “Buffalo Skinners” or “Why The Long Face” or one of their live sets “Come Up Screaming” like I do. There are others to pick from, too. There are lots of releases to pick from.

The sad thing for me is their leader, the singer, songwriter, guitarist, Stuart Adamson died - by his own hand - nine days before Christmas in 2001. Awful.

What especially gets to me, of course, was that key line in their initial, introductory, soaring, opening hit “In A Big Country.” As the song reaches its highest place, he screams out “Stay alive!”

If only he had listened to his own damn advice.