Big Empty

[seattlesound]

This song has been my all time favorite song for quite some time now. I think many of you rank this very as well from what I’ve read over the years.


I get the gist of how this song was released... using it instead of ‘Only Dying’...


But what I’ve wondered about is... had the unfortunate circumstances causing the band to hold back ‘Only Dying’... do you guys think Big Empty may have not seen the light of day... or do you think the band was possibly already sitting on this song, waiting to put it on their second album anyway?


The way the story plays out with only dying... it somewhat gives the impression that big Empty was put together just for that situation.


I just would like to hear your guys impressions on the idea. Knowing how bands could easily toss a song or two on the side and it gets lost in the shuffle. I just think it’s wild to imagine a STP discography if big Empty had never been released...

[IMJ]

I first heard this song on the cassette release of the Crow soundtrack. Up until then I had only heard the chorus on the trailers for the movie, and so when the track started playing in my car while leaving the mall I bought it from, I was confused as to whether or not it was the STP track. The whole tone of the song is different than what you'd imagine from hearing only the chorus.
It's still one of my favorite STP tracks of all time, and because I was indoctrinated to it from the Crow soundtrack, I always felt that it flowed better on that album than it did on Purple.
On that note, the Crow is getting a limited RSD 2-vinyl set release this year. I'll definitely be picking it up.

[loungefly611]

This is where it all started for me. This was the song that got me into the band. I first heard it, like many of you did, it the Crow movie trailers.


I was always under the impression that the song would still be on the Purple record, but was added to the Crow soundtrack due to the circumstances. If you recall, they did debut it during their MTV Unplugged sessions, so they definitely were going to release it in some fashion.

[loungefly90]

Am I completely alone in wishing that "Only Dying" would have still made it onto the soundtrack? Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the circumstances as well as the decision-making and adding "Big Empty" certainly boosted the band's popularity. I guess I'm just entertaining a what if scenario.

While I understand the band's decision not to include it, death is a major theme in the film and therefore, many of the songs that are on the soundtrack deal with very dark subject matter including death and murder. Perhaps STP was pressured by Atlantic not to include it as their song was the only single from the album.

[IMJ]

Am I completely alone in wishing that "Only Dying" would have still made it onto the soundtrack? Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the circumstances as well as the decision-making and adding "Big Empty" certainly boosted the band's popularity. I guess I'm just entertaining a what if scenario.

While I understand the band's decision not to include it, death is a major theme in the film and therefore, many of the songs that are on the soundtrack deal with very dark subject matter including death and murder. Perhaps STP was pressured by Atlantic not to include it as their song was the only single from the album.

I agree with the sentiment here, but on that note, "Only Dying" may not have been the commercial success that "Big Empty" was. "Big Empty", "Dead Souls" and the Cure's track arguably sold that soundtrack before the film did. The use of the "Big Empty" chorus in the trailer for the film was incredibly well placed and might've gone a long way to hyping both the film and the soundtrack. "Only Dying" is a great tune, but given the nature of the beats, the tuning, the sentiment and vibe of the song it might've been left out of the promotional elements of the Crow and could've even resulted in a completely different sound track history for that movie than we see now. It's not something that could've hyped the movie in a trailer the way that the chorus of "Big Empty" did....

[Erik B.]

This is where it all started for me. This was the song that got me into the band. I first heard it, like many of you did, it the Crow movie trailers.


I was always under the impression that the song would still be on the Purple record, but was added to the Crow soundtrack due to the circumstances. If you recall, they did debut it during their MTV Unplugged sessions, so they definitely were going to release it in some fashion.

This was likely the spark that went unnoticed by me for my intro to the band, whereas when a buddy convinced me to see them live in 1997, and they opened with Crackerman, that song became my instant favorite, and probably still is, to this day, despite Tiny Music being my favorite album.

[MAJOR METAL]

The Unplugged performance of "Big Empty" has to be one of their finest live performances.