Check out this brief Rhino-licensed video which appeared on a giveaway compilation bundled with a recent issue of "Oxford American" magazine:



To give you some idea of how rare this footage is: I was one of the 4000 weirdoes who bought #1 Record in its first printing when I was a teenager, been a Big Star fanatic ever since, and I've never seen motion pictures of the original band before!

Now, originally this box set was slated to contain a DVD of '70s footage including the above. Sadly that's been shelved, but who knows, since Rhino has possession of the films now maybe they'll release a separate DVD down the line. Meanwhile, what we're getting is a 4-CD box set with plenty of unreleased, demo and live material:

Product Description
KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY - arriving September 15 - spans 1968 to 1975 and the collection uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis. The lavish packaging includes extensive liner notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, and insightful essays about the cult of Big Star and the band's history. Spotlighting the band's roots, the box set opens with several songs recorded before Big Star formed, including 'Try Again,' one of the first songs Bell and Chilton wrote together. Big Star inspired a fevered allegiance among fans of power pop, giving rise to a cult of believers who spent decades spreading the gospel. Their enthusiasm turned this obscure Memphis pop band-one that got little airplay, sold few records, and only played a handful of times-into a remarkable rock and roll resurrection story. Big Star's trek from obscure Memphis band to standard bearers for an entire genre of music has never been fully mapped - until now.

Disc: 1
1. Psychedelic Stuff (Chris Bell)
2. All I See Is You (Icewater)
3. Every Day We Grow Closer (Original Mix) (Alex Chilton)
4. Try Again (Early Version) (Rock City)
5. The Preacher (Rock City)
6. Feel
7. The Ballad Of El Goodo (Alternate Mix)
8. In The Street
9. Thirteen (Alternate Mix)
10. Don't Lie To Me
11. The India Song
12. When My Baby's Beside Me (Alternate Mix)
13. My Life Is Right (Alternate Mix)
14. Give Me Another Chance Alternate Mix)
15. Try Again
16. Gone With The Light (Chris Bell)
17. Watch The Sunrise
18. ST 100/6 (Alternate Mix)
19. In The Street (Second Recorded Version)
20. Feel (Early Mix)
21. The Ballad Of El Goodo (Alternate Lyrics)
22. The India Song (Alternate Version)
23. Country Mom
24. I Got Kinda Lost (Demo)
25. Motel Blues (Demo)

Disc: 2
1. There Was A Light (Demo)
2. Life is White (Demo)
3. What's Going Ahn (Demo)
4. O My Soul
5. Life is White
6. Way Out West (Alternate Mix)
7. What's Going Ahn
8. You Get What You Deserve (Alternate Mix)
9. Mod Lang (Alternate Mix)
10. Back Of A Car (Alternate Mix)
11. Daisy Glaze
12. She's A Mover
13. September Gurls
14. Morpha Too (Alternate Mix)
15. I'm In Love With A Girl
16. O My Soul (Alternate Version)
17. Back Of A Car (Demo)
18. Daisy Glaze (Alternate Take)
19. She's A Mover (Alternate Version)
20. I Am The Cosmos (Chris Bell)
21. You And Your Sister (Chris Bell)
22. Blue Moon (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
23. Femme Fatale (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
24. Thank You Friends (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
25. You Get What You Deserve (Demo) (Alex Chilton)

Disc: 3
1. Lovely Day (aka Stroke It Noel) (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
2. Downs (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
3. Nighttime (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
4. Jesus Christ (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
5. Holocaust (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
6. Take Care (Demo) (Alex Chilton)
7. Big Black Car (Alternate Demo) (Alex Chilton)
8. Manana
9. Jesus Christ
10. Femme Fatale
11. O, Dana
12. Kizza Me
13. You Can't Have Me
14. Nighttime
15. Dream Lover
16. Blue Moon
17. Take Care
18. Stroke It Noel
19. For You
20. Downs
21. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
22. Big Black Car
23. Holocaust
24. Kanga Roo
25. Thank You Friends
26. Till The End Of The Day
27. Lovely Day
28. Nature Boy

Disc: 4
1. When My Baby's Beside Me (live)
2. My Life Is Right (live)
3. She's A Mover (live)
4. Way Out West (live)
5. The Ballad Of El Goodo (live)
6. In The Street (live)
7. Back Of A Car (live)
8. Thirteen (live)
9. The India Song (live)
10. Try Again (live)
11. Watch The Sunrise (live)
12. Don't Lie To Me (live)
13. Hot Burrito #2 (live)
14. I Got Kinda Lost (live)
15. Baby Strange (live)
16. Slut (live)
17. There Was A Light (live)
18. St 100/6 (live)
19. Come On Now (live)
20. O My Soul (live)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002BFO8HS/?tag=imwan-20

And I wasn't expecting the Ace ARDENT RECORDS STORY set to be topped...fingers crossed!

I like Big Star, but I'm a big Posies fan, hope they leave Jon & Ken off the box & save my wallet!

Now there's a catalog I'll gladly buy all over again. Bring it on!

Wow. I am SO there.

Thanks for the tip, Linda! This is great news, if it truly happens.

And here I thought that the (excellent) "Nobody Can Dance" was going to be the last word in unreleased Big Star material, at least in my lifetime

Hmmm a release that actually involves some effort and (presumably) some licensing on their part coming out on modern-day Rhino? Maybe they're going to start actually being a decent label again...

That was the most interesting part to me: Rhino doing a completely-licensed box set! Haven't seen something like that in years from them (although they still do cross-license with projects like the SAN FRANCISCO NUGGETS box). Let's hope it happens...

If this happens, I'll be on it like flies on sherbert.

Linda, how was it that you became a fan right away? I didn't even know this band existed until the early 80's. Tell us the story.

I was a power pop kid back before the term was even used. (Be fair, I still am. This is my favourite kind of music.) Anything that sounded Beatle-esque thrilled me. I remember reading a review of #1 Record in some magazine back then — probably Creem — where they were lumped in with The Raspberries, Badfinger, etc, so I bought the album. Totally fell in love with it. Big Star has been my Best Band Ever ever since.

That's pretty cool. Did you ever think they'd have the status they do now?

I was pretty excited when I discovered them in the early 80's. I started reading about them here and there, and then the Bangles covered September Gurls, which I thought was a great tune. I started hunting for the albums, and I couldn't find them ANYWHERE. When I finally tracked them down after several months, I was afraid they'd never live up to my expectations. They did and then some. One of my favorite bands.

At least Alex is still around to enjoy the belated acclaim (not that he seems to care much anyway ). It's tragic that Chris didn't live to see the vindication of his talent. No, I never thought they'd be anything more than a little cult interest and it's very cool that so many bands ended up drawing inspiration from them. Justice!

"Children by the millions wait for Alex Chilton to come around.............." M.

Anyone here have the "Live @ Columbia University"??? Great live album..................M.

Yes, I agree it is good.

Linda, I'm curious what you think of Alex Chilton's solo albums, if you collect them or not. I've read they make for rather difficult listening.

I respect Alex a lot for doing whatever he wants to do, but my love of his work is confined to Big Star.

You might like Box Tops as well, more straightahead pop, though.

"I'm in love with that song" "I'm in love, what's that song" M.

Rhino press release:

Big Star inspired a fevered allegiance among fans of power pop, giving rise to a cult of believers who spent decades spreading the gospel. Their enthusiasm turned this obscure Memphis pop band-one that got little airplay, sold few records, and only played a handful of times- into a remarkable rock and roll resurrection story. Big Star's trek from obscure Memphis band to standard bearers for an entire genre of music has never been fully mapped-until now. Rhino presents the definitive look at the definitive power-pop band with a four-disc boxed set divided between key cuts from Big Star's three studio albums and unreleased music. KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY will be available September 15 from Rhino Records at all retail outlets, including http://www.rhino.com, for a suggested list price of $69.98 (physical), it will also be available as a digital release the same day. A Deluxe Edition release of Chris Bell's solo album I Am The Cosmos is due September 14 from Rhino Handmade.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY spans 1968 to 1975 and shows the progression of Big Star through selections from such studio precursors as Rock City and Icewater; music from Big Star's acclaimed recordings (#1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers); and relevant solo work by group principals Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, who formed Big Star in 1971 with bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. The collection also uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis.

In these 98 tracks you can hear what turned artists as diverse as Cheap Trick, R.E.M., and The Replacements into Big Star fans. Spotlighting the band's roots, the boxed set opens with several songs recorded before Big Star formed, including “Try Again,” one of the first songs Bell and Chilton wrote together. Those early cuts are followed by Big Star's 1972 debut #1 Record, reimagined here using a mix of album tracks and unreleased alternate mixes of favorites like “Thirteen,” “When My Baby's Beside Me,” and more. Among the disc's rarities are “Country Morn'” (issued as a flexi-disc single by a Big Star fanzine), the demo for “I Got Kinda Lost,” and an unreleased acoustic demo of Chilton singing Loudon Wainwright's “Motel Blues.”

Ardent Records, the band's label, experienced problems with distribution that hindered any chances at success for #1 Record. Its failure was a major blow to Bell, who quit the band to go solo. In 1974, the Alex Chilton-led Big Star regrouped and released Radio City, an album more attuned to the band's live energy that featured the power-pop confections “September Gurls” and “Back Of A Car.” The second disc of KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY opens with a trio of unreleased demos: “There Was A Light,” “What's Going Ahn,” and “Life Is White.” The original song sequence for Radio City follows, combining album versions with unreleased alternate mixes (“Way Out West” and “You Get What You Deserve.”) The disc features unissued versions of “She A Mover” and “Mod Lang,” several unreleased demos for Big Star's third album, plus Bell's acclaimed 1978 single “I Am The Cosmos” and its B-side “You And Your Sister.” Sadly, Bell died in a car accident a few months after the single's release.

When Big Star reconvened in 1975 to record Third/Sister Lovers, only Chilton and Stephens remained (Hummel left shortly before Radio City's release). Famed Memphis maverick Jim Dickinson was enlisted to supervise the recording, which languished on the shelf for years before its release in 1978. Despite its bleak timbre, wild dynamics, and fragility, the music possesses a startling grace. KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY's third disc opens with seven demos (most previously unreleased) for songs that appear on Third/Sister Lovers, including “Jesus Christ,” “Take Care,” and “Holocaust.” Among the album's 19 songs collected here is “For You,” “Kizza Me,” and “Kanga Roo.” Also featured is “Lovely Day,” an early, unreleased version of “Stroke It Noel” with different lyrics; Chilton vamping with photographer Bill Eggleston at the piano for Nat King Cole's “Nature Boy” and a raucous cover of The Kinks' “Till The End Of The Day.”

The collection's final disc contains unreleased highlights from three sets Big Star performed at Lafayette's Music Room in Memphis in January 1973. It is the best live recording ever of the band. The show captures Chilton, Hummel, and Stephens playing many of the songs on #1 Record, which had just recently been released. The set list includes a retooled version of “ST 100/6” lengthened by both guitar and drum solos (with a middle eight heisted from the Rock City song “The Preacher.”) Also in the repertoire are “There Was A Light” and “I Got Kinda Lost.” In addition, the concert includes fully formed versions of several songs recorded later for Radio City: “Back Of A Car,” “Way Out West,” “O My Soul,” and a particularly rocking “She's A Mover.” Those originals are mixed with a selection of covers: Todd Rundgren's “Slut,” T. Rex's “Baby Strange,” The Kinks' “Come On Now,” and The Flying Burrito Brothers' “Hot Burrito #2.”

The lavish packaging for KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY includes extensive liner notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, and insightful essays about the cult of Big Star and the band's history. In the notes, Stephens reflects on the band's belated triumph. “Sure, it would've been nice to have been huge at the time. But, here we are, 30 years later, and Big Star is still playing, our music is turning up in movie soundtracks, and young people are still excited to discover the records. I mean, if that isn't success, I don't know what is.”

I hate to admit this, but prior to seeing posts about the band here, I'd never heard of them.

Really sorry to hear that the Chris Bell deluxe edition will only be a Rhino Handmade release. (I hate ordering directly from those nincompoops. Make it a general release, for goodness' sake!) No details available for that yet, it's not listed on their site. Oh, and Rhino's solicitation is way too obviously written by an "outsider" ... but whatever.

Sorry, I'm a huge fan so I'm being overly protective and pickayune here. I've already pre-ordered the box set from Amazon.