Uno dei gruppi europei più interessanti dei primi anni Ottanta, fra i pochi in grado di unire e fondere al rock elementi tratti dalla tradizione musicale scozzese e dal folk celtico.
I Big Country nascono nel 1981 per volere del talentuoso Stuart Adamson e dell'amico Bruce Watson ai quali si uniscono il solido bassista Tony Butler e il batterista Mark Brzezicki. Adamson ha alle spalle piccole esperienze in ambito musicale avendo militato per un periodo negli Skids, un gruppo di stampo punk-pop il cui maggior successo era stato il disco "The Absolute Game". Dopo un singolo d'esordio non particolarmente fortunato ("Harvest Home"), i Big Country irrompono nel 1983 nelle classifiche britanniche con i due brani successivi: la famosissima "In A Big Country" e "Fields Of Fire" subito seguiti dall' album d'esordio "The Crossing". Prodotto dall' abile Steve Lillywhite, "The Crossing" è un'opera compatta, interessante, curata ed estremamente ben suonata. La critica per descriverlo conia il termine "bagpipe rock". Gli intrecci di chitarra creati da Adamson e Watson richiamano infatti quelli delle cornamuse scozzesi; questa matrice folk, unita a un potente rock, assicurano al disco un buon successo di pubblico. "The Storm", "Porrohman" e "Lost Patrol", tre brani molto evocativi e ricchi di suggestioni celtiche, sono i momenti che più si ricordano di un disco riuscito e ancora oggi piacevolissimo che si affianca per valore ad altre opere pubblicate in quel periodo come "War" degli U2, "Declaration" degli Alarm e "New Gold Dream" dei Simple Minds. Particolare è anche l'uso da parte di Stuart Adamson sulla chitarra dell' E-bow, un effetto che renderà ancor più suggestivo e riconoscibile il suono della band. La carriera dei Big Country proseguirà con successo per tutta la durata degli anni Ottanta grazie all'ottimo "Steeltown", disco ispirato ed impegnato, al discreto ma vendutissimo "The Seer" e allo sbiadito "Peace In Our Time". Purtroppo a causa della scarsa originalità, il quartetto continuerà a replicare stancamente la consolidata formula musicale nel corso del decennio successivo producendo dischi poco riusciti e per nulla ispirati come il deludente "No Place Like Home", l'altalenante "The Buffalo Skinners" e lo scontato "Why The Long Face".
Da questo punto in poi i Big Country iniziano una discesa inarrestabile nei circuiti minori. Nonostante una continua e frenetica attività live, testimoniata da vari dischi, segni di una timida ripresa artistica si avranno solo nel 1999 con l'album "Driving To Damascus", ispirato ad un certo rock americano. Purtroppo sarà anche l'ultimo lavoro in studio dei Big Country che, a causa del tragico suicidio di Stuart Adamson avvenuto nel dicembre del 2001, termineranno qui e in tono minore la loro avventura.
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01 In a Big Country (04:44)
I've never seen you look like
This without a reason
Another promise fallen through
Another season passes by you
I never took the smile away
From anybody's face
And that's a desperate way to look
For someone who is still a child
In a big country
Dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice
Fires the mountainside
Stay alive
I thought that pain and truth
Were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with
Every single hope you had shattered
I'm not expecting to grow
Flowers in the desert
But I can live and breathe
And see the sun in wintertime
In a big country
Dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice
Fires the mountainside
Stay alive
In a big country
Dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice
Fires the mountainside
Stay alive
So take that look out of here
It doesn't fit you
Because it's happened doesn't mean
You've been discarded
Pull up your head off the floor
Come up screaming
Cry out for everything
You ever might have wanted
I thought that pain and truth
Were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with
Every single hope you had shattered
I'm not expecting to grow
Flowers in the desert
But I can live and breathe
And see the sun in wintertime
In a big country
Dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice
Fires the mountainside
Stay alive
In a big country
Dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice
Fires the mountainside
Stay alive
In a big country
Dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice
Fires the mountainside
Stay alive
02 Inwards (04:38)
I wouldn't want to go home on a night like this
When I find out that some of the past has been missed
And the light in the window has burned it's fuse
I pull everything inwards but everything's loose
Everything inwards, but everything's loose
Everything inwards, but everything's loose
I wouldn't want to stay out with news like this
All the engines too loud all the pavements hiss
How the scouts in the stairwell will ?meet? again
I pull everything inwards but everything's ?changed?
03 Chance (04:25)
All the rain came down
On a cold new town
As he carried you away
From your father's hand
That always seemed like a fist
Reaching out to make you pay
He came like a hero from the factory floor
With the sun and moon as gifts
But the only son you ever saw
Were the two he left you with
Oh Lord where did the feeling go
Oh Lord I never felt so low
Now the skirts hang so heavy around your head
That you never knew you were young
Because you played chance with a lifetime's romance
And the price was far too long
Oh Lord where did the feeling go
Oh Lord I never felt so low
Oh Lord where did the feeling go
Oh Lord I never felt so low
Oh Lord where did the feeling go
Oh Lord I never felt so low
Oh Lord where did the feeling go
Oh Lord I never felt so low
Oh Lord where did the feeling go
Oh Lord I never felt so low
05 The Storm (06:21)
I came from the hills with a tear in my eye
The winter closed in and the crows filled the sky
The houses were burning the flames gold and red
The people were running with eyes filled with dread
Ah my James
They didn't have to do this
We chased them for miles I had hate in my eyes
Through forest and moors as the clouds filled the skies
The storm broke upon us with fury and flame
Both hunters and hunted washed out in the rain
I know I can never return
To the time of hope when I was born
Let the strength of peace run through my hand
When we walk away from the ?stormy shore?
Then I will be afraid no more
And now I'm sure of where I stand
Let the strength of peace run through this land
And nobody smiled as we took back our own
While rain beat upon us the thunder did moan
And nobody smiled when we knew what was lost
We knew well enough only time proves the cost
06 Harvest Home (04:20)
Who saw the fences falling
Who broke the ploughman's bread
Who heard the winter calling
Who wore the tailor's thread
How many sheaves were counted
How did the carriage shine
How many thoughts were doubted
How did the landlord dine
Just as you sow you shall reap
Who led the mayday feasting
Who saw the harvest home
Who left the future wasting
Who watched the families go
See where the bowls are empty
See where the arms reach
See where the butter melted
See where the altars creak
Where were the days of promise
Where were the gifts divine
Where were the heroes honest
Where was the summer wine
Watch how the waves must shatter
Watch how the shore divides
Watch how the nets will tatter
Watch Canute and his bride
07 Lost Patrol (04:53)
We lay the night in anguish, snakes drawn out by the tide
The compass of decision falls always on one side
But many went before us, and still the cries are clear
There is no beauty here, just the stench of wine and beer
We save no souls
We break no promises
We can do nothing more than move on headlong through the gloom
The thorn between our lips is the missionaries tune
Men with open arms turn their faces half away
Observe as we approach that we have not come to save
We stand as thick as vines though the fruit is torn away
There is no beauty here, friends, just death and dark decay
08 Close Action (04:16)
A score of years this line has run
Above the crests that drown the sun
A mile high the turbines turned
The stokers sweat the monkeys burned
I will carry you home with the gods in my eyes
I will carry you home while the westerlies sigh
The continents will fly apart
The oceans scream and never part
Divided souls can never rest
Must join the nations break the test
For endless hours the sirens wail
Await the tide that brings the sail
Cling to the walls and close the shore
The lovers wait who walk no more
09 Fields of Fire (03:32)
Beween the father and his son
Between the city and the one
Between the teacher and the test
Between the journey and the rest
The shining eye will never cry
The beating heart will never die
The house on fire holds no shame
I will be coming home again
Four hundred miles
Without a word until you smile
Four hundred miles
On fields of fire
Between the woman and the boy
Between the child and a toy
Between the following of the west
Between the journey and the rest
10 Porrohman (07:53)
Night hangs on the city like a blanket on a cage
A sacrifice prepared
Laughter lies on faces where the sun has never shone
The fear of life is strong
We are waiting in the forest deep and dark behind the wall
What is hidden in our hearts
Absolves of all worry when our fate is in the hands
Of a demon or a god
Porroh man come from the inside of time
Takes his dust from a moving line
On our knees with our eyes on the ground
Those once lost have now been found
Save us from all worldly pain
Save us from the glowing rain
Save us all from love and hope
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