Everyone knows about that 'difficult second album' syndrome - especially after a successful and well received debut.
At the time Steeltown came out, on 19 October 1984, it appears that at that time, the response to Big Country's second record was somewhat muted. Some said its production was too dense, and others in foreign lands perhaps couldn't relate to its themes too well. Luckily, history has been kinder, with many now seeing it for what it is - a fantastic record that was possibly a little out of kilter with its time.
For those expecting more of the impassioned, swirling, dare I say it, 'bagpipe' guitar sounds of The Crossing, what they got instead was a more industrial rock sound, with themes around the grim reality of unemployment, poverty and war.
The Steeltown of the title was not along the banks of the Clyde or the Forth in Scotland, but in fact, Corby in England, where with the backdrop of the Great Depression, many Scots went to work at the Stewart & Lloyd's steelworks in 1935. It was open through the second war and into the early 1980s.
That factory closing down, and the ongoing miner's strike and the fairly recent war in the distant Falklands, meant that these dark themes had a duality - framed in the past of the early twentieth century, but every bit as applicable to the UK of 1984.
Polar Expedition
After pretty much a full year of touring following The Crossing, a record that catapulted Big Country onto the globe as the saviours of guitar music, in an era where synths dominated the charts - there was an urgency, from label and management more than anything, to get them back in to the studio to capitalise on this success.
Flame Of The West (Audio only - an epic, huge sound to open the album)
Steve Lillywhite had rescued The Crossing from oblivion and was the obvious choice to do it again. The band liked him, he was highly skilled, yet allowed artists room to express themselves. Somewhat bizarrely, the band found themselves at Polar Studios in Stockholm, owned by no less than the members of ABBA (it is said that Benny and Bjorn were also present for some of the early sessions).
The romantic Highland spirit of the debut was in the rearview mirror and chief songwriter, Stuart Adamson, had stuff to get off his chest. He would later reflect on it; "As an album, Steeltown is hard a dense, listening to it from start to finish is exhausting. There's a lot of bleakness in there, but I had to do it." He added, "All my life I wanted to make a record that got all the chips off my shoulders - all the things I'd been carrying around since I was a kid."
Where The Rose Is Sown (Great live version from The Tube, 1984)
As mentioned, the themes harked back to the awfulness of early twentieth century Britain, which were still reflected in Thatcher's Britain. The stress of two world wars and the Great Depression, were replaced by the 80s reality of high unemployment, the miner's strike and the Falklands conflict. The aching line from Just A Shadow - "Why are faces filled with anger that should only shine with youth?" - was just as apt. Nestled in among all that, was Girl With Grey Eyes, a love song for his wife, Sandra.
Steinbeck novel?
While many reviews were less than favourable, Fred Schruers in Rolling Stone was all over it. "Clanging and crackling with energy, this second album from Big Country rings natural evolutionary changes on the band's stirring twin-guitar sound, even as it frames still better news; bandleader Stuart Adamson has rapidly matured into a songwriter capable of bringing meticulous craft to his obvious passion."
Steeltown (Live in NYC, 1986 - you can hear the steelworks resonate through this)
A more recent view of it (Progrography) compared it to the greatest writer about 1930s poverty. "Steve Lillywhite's production is more sophisticated, the sounds richer, the material as principled as poetry of a high order. I always hear a theme on this album like an English [slight geographical error by the author] Steinbeck novel about a working class people duped by the movers and shakers into a war they didn't want."
Louder Sound would later note that the two lead singles, East Of Eden and Where The Rose Is Sown, "showcased a new found grit and soul that Adamson never really surpassed", while Just A Shadow is a song that "most vigorously proclaims Adamson's gentle brilliance."
The beginning of the end?
The release of Steeltown was met with a sense of confusion because it wasn't The Crossing Part 2, but it still flew to the top of the UK album chart, the only time Big Country would achieve a number one. It knocked U2s Unforgettable Fire off its perch - but sadly dropped away just as quickly. It didn't get a grip in the US, like the first album, perhaps as has been noted, because the themes didn't resonate very far afield at the time and it only scraped into number seventy there.
Rain Dance (Live on German TV, 1986)
Many seem to feel that it was a high watermark album for the band, but in a UK context that is possibly a little unfair. The next two albums, The Seer and Peace In Our Time, both had singles that charted well (Look Away and King Of Emotion) - and it should also be noted that The Seer is a fantastic record that holds up to the first two, and there are bits of albums right through the 90s that still lifted us up.
Band biographer Allan Glen reflected on the setting of the making of Steeltown. "In the
summer of 1984, Bug Country were on the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. There was huge expectation around the band at the time; everyone from the label to the management were pushing for bigger sales, bigger tours and with that comes more pressure."
In the end, their A&R man (and massive fan) at Phonogram, Chris Briggs, felt that the issue was that the album lacked a killer single. East Of Eden, with its themes of unemployment and urban misery, was just not going to resonate, however good it was. Glen adds, "It's a superb song - the sound of iron on metal and a highly original structure and melody - but it was a huge risk to release it as the lead single."
Just A Shadow (Official music video for one of the best songs Adamson wrote)
Overall, Glen recently reflected on the album as being, "an outstanding piece of work; ambitious, progressive, unafraid and challenging.... It's greatest legacy is its prescience; the primary themes - struggle, conflict, hope - are even more relevant today than forty years ago."
For what it's worth, James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) lists it as one of his all time favourites - and for my part, it still firmly stands up to the test of time and still sounds great today. Also, Stuart Adamson's lyrics will form part of my epitaph....
Some days will stay a thousand years, some pass like the flash of a spark,
Who knows where all our days go?
Comments