Sound Bites: 'In a Big Country' by Big Country

Subscribe to my monthly newsletter here for all my latest writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD657TZDHZqj4&v=657TZDHZqj4

Stuart Adamson of Big Country had a tragic demise. All the more tragic, perhaps, because it’s a demise that’s all too familiar. He rose to fame young and, it seems, wasn’t prepared for the lifestyle that touring brought and the stress it would place upon his family. He died at the age of 43 having battled addiction. Indeed, his authorised biography ‘Stay Alive: The life and death of Stuart Adamson’ has just been published by Cleeve Books, written by Scott Rowley. Adamson, though, did write what I would rate as one of the (most underrated) rock anthems of the twentieth century with ‘In a Big Country’ (1983). 

I realise the extent of that claim, but if you haven’t already heard it then you’re in for a treat. There are many wonderful elements of this song, but the most captivating for me is how he makes the Yamaha SG2000 sound Scottish, like some kind of electrified bagpipe. This was, I have come to understand after a little research (i.e. a Google search) his signature sound. But what a sound. In the hands of a less confident band this would sound at best naff, and at worst twee, but the youthful bluster of Adamson and Big Country makes it blow the metaphorical doors off. 

I listened to this song pretty much on repeat while I was writing my third collection of poetry, Swans We Cannot See. The reason for this is that I was only able to write at night whenever everyone else was in bed, so I found myself staying up late. But that meant that I needed something to keep me awake, keep me energised, and this song did that. There was also something kind of strange and mysterious about the lyrics: ‘In a big country, dreams stay with you, like a lover’s voice across the mountainside.’ The atmosphere happens to be both romantic and surreal. 

As someone who taught themselves how to play the guitar as a teenager I also loved the riffs, power chords, arpeggios and solos (three?) of this one; this song doesn’t muck about in putting the sound of the distorted electric rock guitar front and centre.

To say they don’t make music like this anymore makes me sound like an old fart, and with my fortieth birthday on the horizon this July, maybe that’s case, but I really don’t think they do make it like this anymore. However, we could also say that Stuart Adamson paid a high price for such a song and indeed carerr, and maybe the music industry is better at protecting prodigious talents such as Adamson these days – I certainly hope so. But, it goes without saying that the polished, pseudo-Springsteen and frankly boring Sam Fender et al could do well to learn something of the rawness of Adamson’s Big Country.

Knowing what we know now of Adamson's decline, however, it's hard to listen to lyrics such as 'I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered/ But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered' and not feel a sense of pity for Adamson, and a glimmer of the darkness he might have carried around inside himself, the demons he may have battled, even if they did give rise to one of the great rock songs of the century.