Hiking all of this Big Country

Same trail, different pace. With this (semi-) new (semi-) addiction to improving my running times (even if it's only little by little) I almost can get to forgetting what it's like to enjoy a nice hike. Six months ago hikes would out-number 20 to 1 my runs. I'm a hiker and even though runs seems to out-number 20 to 1 my hikes now, I still consider myself a hiker. I'm confused.

In any case, a very nice time out there this evening.

Just a few minutes over 2 hours on the trail...

musico de Scotland:

Big Country

Come Up Screaming (2000)

(Hmmm... i don't know how it happened but i listened to the 2cd set backwards, this order being the exact reverse of how I shoulda listened to it... next time.)

Fields Of Fire

In A Big Country

Chance

Porroh Man

We're Not In Kansas

Wonderland

Inwards

13 Valleys

Lost Patrol

The President Slipped And Fell

You Dreamer

Look Away

Dive In To Me

Somebody Else

Come Back To Me

Where The Rose Is Sown

The Storm

John Wayne's Dream

Driving To Damascus

King Of Emotion

Harvest Home
+
In A Big Country (acoustic studio version)

Well, that was an incredible set of music! When I listen to it again -- in the correct order -- I'll get a better feel of what it was like to be there. Recorded live on May 31, 2000 at The Barrowlands in Glasgow, this was Big Country's second to last show (they played one more not too long after this in Malaysia.) The band had decided to call it quits... or sort of? Lead singer Stuart Adamson decided to move to Nashville and take time off from Big Country although I believe it's said that he wanted/hoped to revisit the band in the future. Sadly, that was never to be. He took his own life in a hotel room in Hawaii a year and a half later, right at Christmastime... a not so Mele Kalikimaka.

I've always known Big Country as a one-hit wonder because of their hit song In A Big Country. It's interesting, though, that in Scotland and the rest of the UK, they were not the same band they're widely known as here in the U.S.... across the pond over there, Big Country, since that song, has been an extremely popular and much-loved band. On their final tour the band never sounded more tight, together, and rockin'. But Adamson wanted to explore other avenues and that's fine. It's just a shame he felt the need to off himself. There's no way on Earth his life coulda been that bad. I'm not one who understands the connection between depression and suicide so to me it's just... it's sad, of course, but I just don't get it and I guess I'm not expected to. Like that insane dude who blew away all those people at Virginia Tech last week. He turned into some evil being due to his mental illness... why he did what he did is another something that we, normal citizens, aren't expected to understand.

Suicide's whacked. More often than not it's just a loss that wasn't necessary so Just Say No to offing yourself!

Anyway, I am so looking forward to exploring, in the future, more of Big Country's music. And what I'm wondering now -- why the heck did they leave off the last encore song: Neil Young's Rockin' In The Free World?!?!?!?!?! OUCH! Since this was a 2cd set clocking in at about 112 minutes, there was plenty of space left. Ohhh man. Oh well. If I had never accidentally found a setlist for their final European show I never woulda known and all woulda been good. Now I'm kinda bummed... but give me a minute or so and I'll get over it.