Big Country came up screaming with the Scottish new wave folk of their dynamic debut. The band was started by Stuart Adamson after the breakup of punk pop group the Skids. He teamed up with his friend Bruce Watson in Scotland's Dunfermline. They originally were a five piece with Peter Wishart (later of Runrig) on keyboards, his brother Alan Wishart on bass, and Clive Parker, drummer from Spizz Energi. After an unsuccessful tour with Alice Cooper, Adamson and Watson fired the rest of the band and their manager brought in studio musicians bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brezezicki.
'The Crossing' was produced by Steve Lillywhite in London at The Manor, Oxfordshire, and RAK Studios with Stuart Adamson on vocals, guitar, piano, and e-bow; Bruce Watson on guitar, mandolin, sitar, vocals, and e-bow; Tony Butler on bass and vocals; and Mark Brzezicki on drums, percussion, and vocals. Through the use of a MXR Pitch Transposer 129 Guitar Effect, they were able to mimic the sound of Scottish bagpipes with their guitars.
'The Crossing' was an international phenomenon, going to number eighteen in the US, seventeen in Sweden, eleven in Denmark, eight in New Zealand, four in Canada, and number three in the UK. Adamson from the liner notes: "It all begins with a sound in your head, a disarray of word and music, an awareness of something coming to the surface. Small pieces occasionally break through but the whole is a mystery. Take the mood, the emotion, the passion for it and make it live. Focus it all, crystallize the essence of it, let it become a living thing, share it. The music I felt wasn't like the music I had grown up hearing, or rather, not like any one of them. It was all of them jumbled up and drawn into something I could understand as mine. I found I could play this music and connect the guitar directly to my heart. I found others who could make the same connection, who could see the music as well as play it. The sound made pictures. It spread out wide landscapes. Great dramas were played out under its turbulent skies. There was romance reality, truth and dare. People being people, no heroes just you and me, like it always is. The music told stories, little stories. Lands were not conquered, treasure was left in the tombs, the magic was in the everyday. We learned how we are together and how we come apart. Life happens."
http://www.bigcountry.co.uk/
http://www.bigcountry.co.uk/thecrossing/
"In a Big Country" became the band's biggest hit in the US, going to number seventeen on the pop chart and number three on the modern rock tracks chart. It charted around the world, hitting thirty-four in New Zealand, seventeen in the UK, and number three in Canada. Watson recalls: "Dreams are great especially when you are young, but the older and more cynical I get, the only thing I believe in is reality. I always remember after we recorded the demo for "In a Big Country," and letting Bono and Lilywhite hear it and they both went ape-shit for it. It was around this time that we were starting to get early success and media attention. It was a wild, crazy, exciting time but that was 20 years ago and I am no longer a young boy with the same dreams and ambition. Although to say I don't have dreams and ambitions would be untrue they are just not the same ones."
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xn759i_in-a-big-country-big-country-1983_music
In A Big Country - Big Country~1983 by Mark215
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.
And 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...
And 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...
And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive...
"Harvest Home" was their first single released before they recorded 'The Crossing'. It peaked at number ninety-one in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhqh1CdUDd4
"Fields of Fire" was their second single. It made it to number fifty-three in the US, twenty-six in New Zealand, and ten in the UK.
Big Country - Fields Of Fire by theCooltrax
'Chance' went to eighteen in the Netherlands and nine in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er8J4JSqb3E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsUPtkQlYU
'Wonderland' was recorded and released on an EP after 'The Crossing'; but was added to some versions of the album. The single charted at eighty-six on the US pop chart, forty-eight on the US modern rock tracks chart, and number eight in the UK.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xkvx_big-country-wonderland_music
Big Country - Wonderland by jpdc11
'The Crossing'
full album:
"In a Big Country" -- 4:44
"Inwards" -- 4:36
"Chance" -- 4:26
"1000 Stars" -- 3:50
"The Storm" -- 6:19
"Harvest Home" -- 4:19
"Lost Patrol" -- 4:52
"Close Action" -- 4:15
"Fields of Fire (400 Miles)" -- 3:31
"Porrohman" -- 7:52
"Angle Park" -- 4:08
"All Of Us" - 4:09
"The Crossing" -- 7:09
"Heart & Soul" -- 5:13
"In a Big Country'' - (Pure Mix) -- 6:19
"Fields of Fire (400 Miles)''(Alternate Mix) -- 5:19
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