Search - Merle Haggard :: Big City (Exp)

Big City (Exp)
Merle Haggard
Big City (Exp)
Genres: Country, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (12) - Disc #1

Merle Haggard's Epic stint was short-lived and aimless; it produced a slew of celebrity duets, but little of merit except this, his 1981 label debut and 47th album overall. The first album Haggard produced himself has no f...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Merle Haggard
Title: Big City (Exp)
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Sony
Original Release Date: 1/1/1981
Re-Release Date: 10/19/1999
Album Type: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Genres: Country, Pop
Styles: Cowboy, Roadhouse Country, Classic Country
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 074646594728

Synopsis

Amazon.com essential recording
Merle Haggard's Epic stint was short-lived and aimless; it produced a slew of celebrity duets, but little of merit except this, his 1981 label debut and 47th album overall. The first album Haggard produced himself has no fat. With his love for Western swing peaking around this time, the Strangers are a bigger band than ever and get almost as much play as he does. But even when he brings in still more instruments, as on "Stop the World (And Let Me Off)," they're honed to a sharp, minimalist edge. The writing is also growing more ambitious. The title song is still an alt-country favorite, but the album also hides such gems as the slow-death "You Don't Have Very Far to Go," cowritten with Red Simpson. Can't say the bonus tracks add anything, but neither do they do Haggard any harm. --John Morthland

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CD Reviews

Best country album of the early 80's
Travis B. Hill | Little Rock AR | 01/11/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Arguably Merle's best album of the Epic years, this is a no-filler, must-have for any serious student of country music. The remastered disc sounds superb and is worth the price if you've got the older cd issue. I dispute the reviewer who asserts that Haggards Epic years were wasted with the exception of this classic. The Epic albums do have a different sound than the earlier Capitol years but that's only a natural progression of a man entering his 40's in a time when Nashville was swinging back to the "Urban Cowboy" pop period. Merle never gave in to the "Big City" sound and this album stands in clear contrast to much of what filled the airwaves then...and now. Pick it up and thank me later."
A country classic
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 03/31/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This may well be the finest of many excellent albums that Merle has recorded. The album yielded three major country hits - the title track (about a man in the city yearning to return to the country), My favorite memory (a very romantic song) and Are the good times really over (remembering the fifties).



There are plenty of other high quality songs too, including Good old American guest (a brilliant train song), I think I'm gonna live forever (about being glad that a failed relationship is over), Stop the world and let me off (about being upset that a failed relationship is over - this is a cover of a song most commonly associated with Patsy Cline), You don't have very far to go (a song that Merle wrote in the sixties) and I always get lucky with you (an excellent way to finish the original album.



As a bonus, this re-mastered edition includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks (Call me, I won't give up my train) - so there is more music than before and the sound is also improved. What more could anybody want? I think that this is an outstanding album by a country music legend."
The Hag
! | Athens, GA United States | 09/23/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Wish Coke was still Cola and a joint was a bad place to be.



Listen to the Master."