The Smiley Smile Message Board

OK... I'd seen extended thread on the last board and didn't bother to read into it. Knew about Chilton & The Box Tops years ago. Was at a friend's party on NYE and he was blasting the 2-fer of the first 2 LP's. Amazing shite. How can one NOT be hip to them. I ordered one off amazon the minute I got home from his party- hope it hits my doorstep in the next day or so.
Full review forthcoming!

I know I'm going to be beaten up badly for saying this, but I can live without the Third Album (Sister/Lovers, whatever). That's because I don't enjoy Casualty Damage Rock as a genre (Skip Spence, Syd Solo, Later Roky, Brian Wi- no, scratch that). But those first two albums (I have them on vinyl - smirk - gorgeous covers!) are the dog's bollocks.

I'm a casual fan of the three albums and the Chris Bell solo album, too.

Cool, another Big Star fan!

Don't let everyone scare you away from Third/Sister Lovers, give it a try. It takes the weirder stuff on Radio City and carries it a step or two or three forward. (Just don't listen if you are having suicidal thoughts). There is some great pop to be gleamed from Third: Kizza Me, Thank You Friends, Jesus Christ, O, Dana, Stroke It Noel, For You, Nightime, Take Care...a great cover of Femme Fatale...

No journey into Big Star land is complete without the following:

Big Star Live - A radio broadcast where Chilton does a acoustic set featuring:  The Ballad Of El Goodo, Thirteen, I'm In Love With a Girl, Motel Blues 

I Am the Cosmos - A collection of demos, singles from Chris Bell after he left Big Star.

Well, you are the same f*** that hates Love You, no?  :)

BURN!

Haha, it's never too late, Monkee. And DO NOT skip Third, it just may be their best.

I'm sure everybody who cares has already seen this, but just in case you missed it...

http://jefitoblog.com/blog/?p=567

I love Third, and that's the first Big Star album I bought and listened to, but I was disappointed when I heard the first two albums on the twofer. I just can't get into the songs on the first two albums.

Well, I had the first two first, and have been listening to them incessantly. Meanwhile, I've given the Third a couple spins and just haven't been able to warm up to it...yet!

(apply Eastern Indian accent) Hate iz a vedy strong verd my friend.
But in verds, you do speak wut one might call a relative truth.
And so it iz written.
(http://img317.imageshack.us/img317/1545/swami11vh.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

I think the three actual Big Star albums (actually, I'm not sure Third/Sister Lovers even counts, does it? Kind of posthumous for the band, after all...) are fantastic. I also like some of Chris Bells' I Am the Cosmos.

Anyone who knows my tastes can probably guess that Third/Sister Lovers is my favorite, and it is by far, actually. Beautiful and haunting.

I strongly recommend against buying the new Big Star album, though--just came out a few months ago. I give it one big eh. It isn't absolutely awful, but for me it just isn't Big Star at all. (People say the same about Smiley Smile and the Beach Boys and get lectured, so I'll drop it there!  ;))

Either way Knutz you're on the money here.  But I gotta see you shine the Love You shoe.

I've had the two-fer for years and didn't see what the fuss was about. Then I finally bought Third/Sisters lovers and suddenly it clicked.
Now I love them all.

I love the entire output (I started with the twofer about a decade ago), but Third is one of my all time favorite albums - despairing, fragile beauty doesn't come any better.

I'm a "first two albums and not so much third" fan. That's 'cos I like Chris Bell a hell of a lot -- I loves me some Chilton, but the first album just SHINES becuase of Chris Bell. Its a heavy-hitter, that one, and the 2nd one too -- "Mod Lang," "Back of My Car," "September Gurls" -- how can one NOT get into the songs from that album?

I love 'em all, and I'd rank them, in terms of preference, in the order they came out. My faves are probably "The Ballad Of El Goodo," "Thirteen," and "I'm In Love With A Girl." Haven't checked out the new one yet.

Crowcries, thank you for that link!!!!

I'm In Love With a Girl is really nice.

Long ago, I knew that Chilton wrote September Gurls (Bangles fan, ya know), but had no idea about Big Star. Why the lack of press/critical acclaim for these guys?

You mean now or then?  Now I find them pretty inescapable.  Then, I guess it was an issue of poor distribution.

Probably out of step with the times, too.

Both!!
85% of my friends are music fans or musicians and I never heard any of them mention Big Star. Some have spoke of Chilton and/or the Boxtops, but BS never came up in conversation. Other sorts of BS, however!
I mean, I'm pretty saavy when it comes to pre 80's rock & roll and even know of the more absolute obscure crap, but I'd never heard of them until the recent Smiley thread, that has now vanished. More over, I'd never seen any of their LP's at shops or record shows. Never seen any of the 45's and I always scour the 45 bins.
On a sad note- Amazon cancelled my order for the 2-fer- damn them. I need to reorder. SHITE!

How did y'all find out about Big Star?

That 70s Show, 8th or 9th grade.  Then I got the first two albums.  A few years later I got the third one.

Shoot, now I don't remember! I think I found out about them from allmusic, actually. When I went to buy the twofer, the local store actually had it!

Yeah, Best Buy usually has it too.  Or at least used to.

The music press wrote glowing reviews when the Big Star albums first came out in the pre internet seventies. The problem was their record company couldn't get the product into the stores. There was a revival of interest in the eighties when the Replacements wrote the song "Alex Chilton" on the LP "Pleased To Meet Me" (another album you should purchase ASAP if you have never heard it). Other groups (Teenage Fanclub, REM, The Bangles, etc) also started mentioning Big Star's influence. It's been said Big Star in the 70s were like the Velvet Underground in the 60s, everyone who heard their records started their own band.

Yeah, I knew of The Bangles cover cuz I liked/still like them, but assumed Sept. Gurls was an unish'd Chilton gem.
Dolenz almost cut that for Monkees release in '87.

Wow, really?

I am VERY SURPRISED, thou hip Monkee.

Replacements and Bangles hipped me to the Star.

That's astounding to me. I find them to be critical darlings--any "hip" (admittedly, therefore annoying) critic and/or fan tends to mention them as one of the absolute essentials from the '70s, especially if power pop is coming up.

I, like Ian, discovered Big Star via the Replacements -- their tribute song, "Alex Chilton." This was about 14 years ago, and then all the Big Star stuff was finally given its due on domestic reissues, which made the albums -- until then, extremely fodaing rare -- pretty easy to find.

So I picked them up. I was young, impressionable, and, for me, everything I was hearing on those albums was the apotheosis of everything I loved about music. But I wasn't as exposed to as much as I am now, fortunately. Different era. Maybe if the Internet had been around then, and I'd had easy access to the bands that inspired Big Star in the first place, like so many folks who are underwhelmed by Big Star seem to have had, then I might not have caught the bug as intensely. I mean, if I'd heard Moby Grape first, maybe I wouldn't get it, either. I count myself lucky, then. Big Star became  -- and remains -- my favorite band.

But on another level, I'm with Monkee -- I don't understand how anyone could, beneath those Beatlesque and West Coast pop influences and that stellar studio technique, not hear the deep and genuine pain at the heart of Big Star's music. Chris Bell was deeply tormented, and you don't have to know that he struggled with his spirituality or his sexuality or any of his other All Music bio stats to understand that, either; all you have to do is listen to "Try Again" or "I Am the Cosmos." There's a realness to Big Star's music that, for me, is inescapable. Ditto Chilton's work: The third album is my favorite of the three by far, and my favorite record ever. And Chilton's vast contribution to the first album is often overlooked by Bell acolytes, as is his simply incredible solo career by everybody. "Like Flies on Sherbert" is the equal of any of those Big Star albums.

Preach it, brother. Great, you summed the whole deal up and I agree with every word.

Like the Velvet Underground without the success of Lou Reed's solo career to kick their profile up a notch higher -- it's been a slow crawl for Big Star's recognition.  I was in high school when they came out.  I read Rolling Stone, Creem, Circus, Crawdaddy, later Musician -- I was into fairly overlooked to obscure stuff in a related vein (NRBQ, pre-Arista Kinks, VU, the even more criminally neglected -- IMO --, less 'serious' Flamin' Groovies) and Big Star flew under my radar for a few years.   In the late 70s I heard the Searchers' version of "September Gurls" and figured I had to find out more -- by then you couldn't find their records!  Finally in the mid-90s I got the CDs -- and it has taken the ensuing years for the music to kick in -- which is actually a compliment -- most of the music I really really love (like the BBs/Brian) has been earned.

I guess the first LP is my fave -- I liked the Beatles best when McCartney and Lennon weren't just cutting solo tracks.  And yes there is a real depth to the music and lyrics -- heard "September Gurls" yesterday in the wake of  heartbreak and it hit the right chord of yearning, sadness, angst, and rage for me.  And that guitar -- geez!

What is a "September" gurl btw?  Am I a "December" boy?  Feel like it sometimes!

Hey, Aum! Good to see you around again! (Andy Monkey = Boxer Monkey)

"September Gurls" are Virgos. The song is about astrology. Alex Chilton is a "December boy;" I believe his B-day is Dec. 28.

I didn't like "Third" the first time I heard it. Took a few months to get into -- I remember thinking how lame and fey "Kizza Me" sounded the first time I heard it. I was like, "What is this merda?"

It is surprising, though, how many people don't know who Big Star is these days. My first question when talking music usually is, "Do you like Big Star?" And something like 95% of the time, I will get a blank stare in response. Then I have to bring up "That '70s Show," which I'd really rather not -- can't stand Cheap Trick's version of "In the Street" -- and then, most of these people not liking that song, either, they show zero interest.

Big Star's profile has really dropped these last few years. In the '90s, they were probably the most name-dropped of all bands.

I never realised that about that song.
Is Chilton into astrology?
Because when I saw him live, he did Solar System and named it his favorite BW tune.

He's an astrology nut. I've heard he does charts for prospective band members to determine whether they'll fit in. And if the stars are off, they're out of the running.

And

He also covered "What's Your Sign, Girl?" and then there's this bit from "Morpha Too":

Kitty asked me
To read her stars
I had liked her from afar

Well, I suspected he was nuts, now I know it!

I actually had the solo albums I am the Cosmos and Like Flies on Sherbert first. I learned about them through a Dutch music magazine OOR, way back in the late Seventies/early Nineties. I was especially interested because I read about all those Beatles influences. And I am a big Beatles nut.

Couldn't find any Big Star albums then. I lked what I heard.
Finally I found the two-fer. Was somehow disappointed. Perhaps I expeted the 15th Beatlesalbum? I don't know. It's too long ago.

Then, a year or two ago, I came across that Third album, and I really, really, love that one.

But it's true: not that many people know Big Star, especially here in Europe. A friend of mine has thousands cd's and vinyl albums. But when I showed him my Big Star cd's he had never heard of them.

So, it's good to see them discussed: spread the news.

I got my friends to listen to Big Star a bit. And my sister... I put Thirteen and In the Street in front of her and she was hooked to those songs (not the rest of the catalogue, but she's not an album person).

He's whacked, that's for sure. He produced my friend's band in N.O., L.A. called The Royal Pendletons. Garage trash that's at the top of the garbage heap. You wouldn't have thought that someone of his calibre would have produced these top knotch hacks.

Boxer!  I mean Andy!  Peace on you brother!  Hope you are thriving.

Wow -- astrology references!  It is amazing how we can so misinterpret a song and still glean meaning.  Somehow I associated "September" girls with seeing the new, beautiful chicks when you came back to school after summer -- the ones who drove you mad and broke your heart.  "December" implied a spiritual winter for me -- guys like me who always carried a degree of sadness.  You know -- classic Power Pop fodder!  But it's about Virgos and Capricorns...sheesh!

I am a Cappy too btw -- dated some Virgos too -- good women!  Hearth and home and all that!  But LOVE them Scorpios...rrrrrooowwwwww!

I haven't heard "Third" in years -- I had owned it a few months when it was stolen when my apartment was broken into several years ago and I haven't replaced it.  Will move its procurement to a higher priority.  I do recall it's dark vibe -- I was/am a big VU guy so that's not a problem!

Who does the "That 70s Show" version of "In the Street"?

Cheap Trick.

Okay now I get it.  Which explains the "Surrender" riff at the end as well.

What isn't as easily explained is why Cheap Trick's version of "In the Street" is so abominable. This should've been such a simpatico match-up it's not even funny. I mean, Cheap Trick -- besides Big Star, the band who pretty much set the template for power pop. They even recorded demos at Ardent Studios (home of Big Star) before they got signed. But they fodaing butcher the song! Anyway, Alex Chilton doesn't seem to mind. He calls "That '70s Show" "That $70 Show" -- apparently that's what he makes per first-run royalty.

I think that Big Star twofer, great as is it is, does something of a disservice to "Radio City," which is a far more accessible album than "#1 Record." But a lot of new listeners give up before that. Sad but true.

Virgos are ... evil, hypocritical prisses, at least in my experience. But then I'm a Gemini, and we're all fodaing angels ya know.

I think #1 is more accessible, to my ears anyway. if you don't dig When My Baby's Beside Me, you won't like any of it.

I hate that song and I love others  ;D

Lux Interior of the Cramps talks to Nick Kent about Alex Chilton, 1979, and explains perhaps why Chilton ended up in New Orleans:


Talk turns to Alex Chilton, boy genius, guiding light of Big Star, the figure behind a thousand strange and lurid tales and, according to Lux, "a guy blessed with...I don't know what...something anyway! He's done the most reckless suicidal things and gotten clean away. Talk about a cat having nine lives. Alex must have 90."
Alex saw The Cramps in New York and his Memphis-bred rocker consciousness clicked immediately with the band's particular sound and vision. Declaring them "the greatest rock'n'roll group in the world", he took them to Memphis to produce a brace of tracks that have been released as singles in the States and which make up 'The Cramps Gravest Hits' package that Miles Copland's label is issuing any day now.

Chilton's reputation in Memphis is apparently one of uniquely awesome propoprtions. Half-beloved, half-hated, Lux claims that when news of the band flying in with Chilton to the latter's hometown hit the city, "There were guys with guns, man...all sorts of crazy things." The reasons for Chilton's epic hometown notoriety have something to do with "the fact that he's probably f***ed every chick in the state. Literally. And those chicks' boyfriends are out to get him." Chilton, however, like a proverbial Jesus' sunbeam, floats along usually so totally drunk and poly-drugged out that all threats - "literally hundreds" maintains Lux - wash over him like winter off a duck's arse.

"He's the greatest liar I've ever met too", continues the Cramp. "Like, he'd drive out to where he claimed "the real blues was born" or something (laughs) and it'd be some old shack! And you knew he was jiving you but you'd go along with it 'cos he was so damn funny." Such was Chilton's rep in Memphis that when The Cramps played a gig there they attracted a crowd of easily 1,000 just on the prestigious link-up with Chilton. "He's a real Southern boy is Alex. He believes in the Lord and the Lord sure as hell takes care of him. I mean, one night he was so f***ed up on booze and drugs he pissed on his electric cable - like there was 1,000 volts of electricity open and he just urinated on all these open wires. Anyone else would've been burnt to a crisp, but not Alex."

The band haven't seen Chilton for maybe a year now. "We've heard he's playing in a band called Panthers Blazing. He's not singing or writing songs. Just playing on guitar. He says he won't be doing either until he can find a good reason to start up again."

Meantimes Chilton apparently has burnt out just a little too many of his lives as far as his homestate is concerned. "We hear that there's no way he can return to Memphis right now. No way at all."


(http://www.lacoctelera.com/pepsounds/imagen/stamey_chilton.jpg)
Alex Chilton and the Cossacks (with Chris Stamey, left) play CBGBs, late 1970s

Panthers Blazing???
Hello, Lux, Panther BURNS!

(http://www.limbos.org/tavfalco/pics/rending-tr.jpg)

Tav Falco's Unapproachable Panther Burns: (from left) LX Chitlin, Tav Falco, Ross Johnson

I love those guys.
Shade Tree Mechanic is the best trashy rocka-bluesa-punka-billy song of the 80's, narrowly but undeniably beating the Cramps' Garbageman.

There was a goodly chunk of recovery time after the breakup of my last serious romantic thing that I spent listening to Tav's "The World We Knew," the album but most esp. the song itself, over and over and over. Love Sinatra's version, of course, but Tav's has so much more personal significance for me -- and some great fuzz bass from LX! It's ghastly, ghoulishly good.

Absolutely adore the Panther Burns. I have a friend who played a fill-in gig as their drummer, and he claims that, after the show, he and Tav strung Alex up by his heels and left him to dangle above the stage!

I got into Big Star when I bought their first album, the year it came out. I still have that copy, plus the second. Very interesting little label, Ardent.

While I can appreciate why people rate the Third album, I'm a long way past the time when I could, you know, listen to an artist's pain. These days, I'd rather play some Duke Ellington, or take the dog for a walk, than listen to more from-the-edge/haunting/damaged/cracked ditties about how f  u  c  k  e  d  -  u  p the singer/the world is. If that's your thing (and your thing was once mine, dewd) then the Third album is indeed your cup of meat. For simple souls who like songs and beat, however, the first two are just great.

They've always had a following in the UK - getting hold of their albums on import was not unusual. I remember I also liked Blue Ash at the time, but they haven't weathered as well.

No one ever mentions "Columbia" the live album by Chilton, Stephens, and the Posies guys. That's what got me interested in Big Star, since that concert happened here in the town where I live. I wasn't there because my love/hate feelings about college students told me not to go. But then when the disc came out, I had to buy it to find out what I missed. I liked what I heard so I got more. I like the first three albums and "Nobody Can Dance". It doesn't give anything new, but it is an enjoyable collection. I haven't heard the new one yet so I have no opinion on it yet.
I also have Chris Bell's "I Am The Cosmos" which is a bit disjointed since it's a collection culled from a number of different sessions, but it does show his dark, melancholy outlook. Big Star was definately a different band without Bell.

So far, I have not heard anything from Big Star that would make me bitch.

(http://www.prettyfakes.com/archives/images/cosmos%20color.jpg)

(http://www.torpedopop.com/images/articles/702_bell.jpg)

Big Star wasn't so much of a different band without Chris Bell, honestly. "O My Soul," "Daisy Glaze" and "Back of a Car" are songs he is believed to have had a hand in writing. In fact, the band recorded versions of several "Radio City" songs with Bell, cut live in the studio (much like the alternate, single version of "In the Street") and mixed in mono, which demonstrates to some degree that the more immediate direction the band would take with "Radio City" (as opposed to the intricate production of "#1 Record") was in part advanced by Bell.  Unfortunately, these recordings are gone -- allegedly destroyed by Bell upon his leaving Big Star. John Fry, who owned Ardent Studios and engineered the Big Star records, says the Bell version of "O My Soul" was much better than the one eventually releaed, that the band never recaptured the original, "hot" vibe of the track. (The later version was put out in mono, though.)

Anyway, if you wanna know which songs off "Radio City" were Chris Bell's, check out which songs from that album Alex Chilton hands off to the Posies at the reunion shows. Alex won't sing the Chris Bell stuff.  But that's not to say "Radio City" is entirely a Chris Bell-led Big Star effort, either -- the skewed, chaotic vibe that fuels the album could only have come from Chilton. But I think much of the sound was formulated by Bell.  But of course "Third" doesn't sound like Bell. It's not even a Big Star album; it's an Alex Chilton solo with Jody Stephens on drums. ("I would probably call it 'Alex Chilton's something or other,'" Chilton once said about "Third.") Either that or a new band consisting of Stephens and Chilton called Sister Lovers. (They even played out under this name at the time.)


Excerpt from a Jeff Buckley interview:

Q: I hear a heavy Big Star influence. You do "Kanga Roo" [from “Third”] live. Was Alex Chilton a hero of yours?

JB: Why, wasn't he everybody's hero? You know how Alex was at the time? Complete mental breakdown in the studio. Absolutely. I cry every time I hear it. It's so simple. It blows away everything I'll ever do.



"Columbia" is a great, fun album. For me, the version of "Don't Lie to Me" on it blows away the one on "#1 Record." I also love the story in Rob Jovanovic's book of how, when it came time to rehearse "I Am the Cosmos" for the Columbia show, Chilton at first begged off, claiming he didn't know it, but when the band eventually ran through it Chilton played "Cosmos" perfectly. He seems to have either enormous respect for Bell or -- if we're to believe Jon Tiven -- maybe feels some sort of guilt for allegedly "stealing" Bell's band.

Radio City is only missing Chris's voice. Otherwise he's all over that record. One comparison to Sister Lovers makes that apparent.

It's too bad we don't get to hear Chris Bell singing any "Radio City" songs.  But I feel like Alex Chilton acquits himself admirably on that album, and, even by that point, he was already surpassing Bell as a guitarist.

Others don't feel that way, though. Read on for more in the Whose-Band-Was-It-Anyway Debate:


Letter to Nashville Scene by Jon Tiven:

I read Edd Hurt’s article about Big Star with great interest, having been somewhat involved with the band and their subsequent post-BS recordings (“Mod Lang,” Sept. 1). With all due respect to Mr. Hurt, he and many others didn’t quite read between the lines of Jovanovic’s bio. Big Star was Chris Bell’s band, period, and if there was any single person who epitomized power pop it was Chris, not Alex.  Before meeting and working with Alex Chilton, I was duped into thinking he was the one responsible for the style and greatness of Big Star, and I apologize for whatever contribution I have made to furthering this lie. Ardent Records wanted to make Alex the center of attention as he had an exploitable history as singer in the Box Tops, and Chris Bell was too artistic, intelligent and volatile to be depended upon to do the do. The only reason Big Star’s second album had any kind of power pop resonance was Chris’ presence on the recordings (he had long since left the band by the time the album was issued), and by the time the third (Sister Lovers) album was underway, Alex was trying to emulate Lou Reed—any Beatles references were long gone.

After the group broke up, Chilton dismissed the entire power pop canon as “pukes” (as in regurgitating Beatles) and had no interest in this kind of music until Big Star suddenly loomed large as power pop icons and there was an opportunity to cash in. My own struggles recording Chilton in 1975 made it very clear to me that Alex had no interest in making records that were pop (or even coherent, unfortunately), and although I was able to cobble together a record that had some resemblance to his previous acclaimed work, he was determined to bury his past. Which does link up nicely with Hurt’s quote from Michael Bane regarding Memphis. So should we expect anything tuneful or life-affirming from a post-Chris Bell Big Star? There’s a lot of greatness in the first two Big Star albums, but nothing since has substantiated the iconic treatment of the group or Chilton solo. He got the kudos for the Box Top’s success when the bows should have been taken by the great Dan Penn. Likewise him stealing Chris Bell’s thunder with Big Star, but dead musicians can’t take any bows or complain.

Jon Tiven


Of course, it's not like Tiven doesn't have an ax to grind with Chilton, who, according to Tiven, had one of his bodyguards try to pin him down so Chilton could put out a lit cigarette on his face during Chilton NYC punk days. Tiven told Rob Jovanovic that he broke free, kicked their asses, and that it was the last he's seen Chilton since.

Great post, man.

I found that on Wikipedia.  Is it true?  There's pre-Big Star Big Star floating around?

Yeah, it's true: "Try Again" is straight from the Rock City sessions, only remixed. A version of "Feel" also is on the Rock City CD.

http://www.luckysevenrecords.com/

(http://www.luckysevenrecords.com/LSEV9209_Mini.jpg)

LS-9209 presents, for the first time ever, the music of ROCK CITY. This group was the immediate precursor to the famous group, BIG STAR, and its members included both Christopher Bell and Jody Stephens of BIG STAR, as well as Thomas Dean Eubanks and Terry Manning. (Alex Chilton replaced Tom Eubanks as singer, and Andy Hummel became the bass player when the group morphed into Big Star.) The ROCK CITY album has long been rumoured to have been recorded, but until now, no one outside of the group has ever heard it! Also included are two tracks from a Thomas Dean Eubanks' solo effort, and one track by ICEWATER, basically the same group as ROCK CITY recording under the different name. Included in the packaging are several never-before-seen photos of all involved, including a shot of Christopher Bell playing live in ROCK CITY!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009WVTK/104-4301678-7946316?v=glance&n=5174

Awesome.  You have a lot of musical knowledge.  It took me a while to warm up to you, but now I always love reading your posts, Boxer.  They're an education and I couldn't see either board being too strong without you.

And now I am out of tears.

Yeah, Boxer's the man. Cool dude royale, with a big heart that sometimes gets obscured by his wicked humor. But bitterness is bred by caring too much, not caring too little.

Precisely, precisely.

Thank you guys so much. And ditto back at you both re: all that nice stuff.

Has anybody got the Big Star Norton rehearsals & live LP?? Scroll about 1/3 way down... just below my boys- The Hentchmen.
http://www.nortonrecords.com/index2.html

Yeah, it's really good, in a shambolic way. Great version of T. Rex's Baby Strange.

"Nobody Can Dance" -- the Norton disc -- is a great "for fans" album, although there are a couple of cuts that transcend barrel-scraping status. Chilton's stomp with Big Star through the Box Tops' "The Letter" has historic value, but it's more than a curio -- it's *really great* rock 'n' roll. (Still, it's nothing compared to what he'd do to the song on "Live in London." That guitar solo alone could bring down an airliner! Really, if you wanna hear Chilton cut loose, "Live in London" is the one to get. And it's one of the best "drunk" albums ever.) But, if you're really into Big Star -- and I'm of the opinion that, if you are, you need nothing less than everything (what, me obsessive?) -- you've gotta have "Nobody Can Dance." For starters, it's the only document of a vintage Big Star concert (the second half of the disc, recorded at Memphis' Overton Park in May 1974, the month I was born), and the rehearsals for the WLIR gig come off way better than the actual show released by Rykodisc as "Big Star Live," albeit without that disc's absolutely essential solo acoustic set by Chilton. The only fly in the ointment is new bassist John Lightman, who is a bit wobbly, but Chilton and Stephens are in full flight throughout "Nobody Can Dance." Get it, but only after you already have everything else.

I LOVE Big Star Live!

"So, Alex, how were those days touring with The Box Tops?"

"Pretty scummy, about as scummy as now...".

thirteen is one of the most amazing songs i have ever heard!!!

I never do this sort of thread bumping any more, and I see it comes with a warning that it has not been posted in for at least 120 days, and that unless you're sure you want to reply (to these long gone, except for a few posters I know) you should START A NEW TOPIC.  Well that answers that about starting new threads, that note is straight from the MODs.  So let's stop using "I tried to search this topic first, but couldn't find one" as the opening to so many threads around here.  Let the MODs merge them if they see fit, as they did with the xtc place.  Let's stop fretting over trivial stuff and be friends to all who visit here.  But for Now, I'm making this a Now thread.  Fresh and ready to use as you will, or let it drop back to page 25 out of lack of use.

Big Star - BIG FAN! :woot



That reminds me, there was a new Chilton book released recently. Still haven't gotten around to getting that.. Anyone read it?

(http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/1523-1/%7BB5F484FB-6576-4F0F-88AA-548E06597D0A%7DImg100.jpg)

Any views on the In Space album? Pretty enjoyable album with enough big star heritage intact to make it legit for me.

I've just gotten into these guys in the last couple of months. Right now, I'm reading the Rob Jovanovic book; as far as the Chilton book goes, I've read nothing but good things!

The semi-recent documentary is worth a watch, too. I'm sure it's mentioned in this thread and I could obviously google the title for you, but, well, there you have it. My uselessness...

(It is worthwhile though.)

Nothing Can Hurt Me. That's what got me into them; I'd tried them before and didn't get it, and then I watched it on Netflix, and they blew me away.

I love that album but I think I'm in a minority. The opener "Dony" is my fav, nice mix of covers and originals with that homage to WIBN at the start of "Turn my back on the sun"

Its superb! Get it...

As others in this thread (going back years) have stated, Chris Bell was probably more of the reason that people like Big Star than, say, Alex Chilton. I think sometimes Chris doesn't get a fair shake in the Big Star story, because people like to focus on Alex. If you watch the documentary, though, you'll see that people say that Chris was the reason for that 'Sound' on the first 2. I love Third, and some of Alex's solo stuff, but when talking about that Big Star 'Sound', that's Chris. More people need to get into him.

I understand advocating for Chris Bell but you cannot dismiss Alex Chilton in the process.  To me it was an (all too brief) Lennon/McCartney thing.

Alex wrote all the best songs on those first 2 albums IMO - thirteen, goodo, sept gurls, back of a car, in the street though obviously the Chris songs were very good too.

The production is mainly Chris on the 1st album but Id say by the 2nd when he left, it became a bit more raw due to the live feel of the band recordings and less painstaking overdubs.

I'm not so much dismissing Alex Chilton as I'm saying that he shouldn't be regarded any higher than Chris on those first 2 albums.  I like Alex's work a lot, I love Third, and dig a bunch of his solo stuff. I'm saying that when I read an article that talks about how Big Star was HIS band, I stop reading. It's nothing personal against him, it isn't like he went out of his way to get the attention, it's just the way that the media sort of focused on him because of The Box Tops thing.

"Back Of A Car" was, despite the writing credits on the sleeve, principally (maybe even wholly) written by Chris Bell.  Numerous sources agree on this, not least Andy Hummel.

yep, sorry, yer right. think it was one of the 4 songs they began the radio city sessions with.

On another note, I'm really excited to see this - http://www.thesugarclub.com/listings/event/big-star-live-in-memphis - hope it gets a proper release!

Back in 1990,  I worked in a record/cd shop. The owner found out I was a Badfinger fan and said "if you like them, you should listen to Big Star", so I put one of their cd's on, one a quiet Sunday afternoon. Didn't do anything for me. Love Stealers Wheel, though.

Check this out!!! http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/two-remastered-big-star-records-will-be-back-in-print-this-fall-20140729

HOLY MOTHER OF ******! YES!!


(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H7xHIGlTq8Y/SRrk6FMF8yI/AAAAAAAABM4/HS71DiVDXs8/s400/bigstar.gif)

i have never listened to Big Star besides this one time i thought they just sounded like typical 70s rock

Gabo, if you don't love this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKSs1J38EA), I don't love you.

I don't know what it is, but you're doing something wrong. :-\

I get it. I was that way the first couple of times I listened. If you can, watch the Documentary, and I'm pretty sure it will change your mind.

one of my favorite TV show theme songs is the one from That 70s Show. Thank you Big Star and Cheap Trick  :listening :rock

Cheap Trick totally slaughtered the song.
Oh, well, apparently Alex made $70 every time the show aired.

what do you think of the first season's version? same? and yea at least Alex got paid  :).

Well, they are, which isn't insult or praise.  Wonderful band, unfortunately shackled to unnecessary cultural baggage like so many other great and misunderstood bands (this is a Beach Boys site, right?).  What most fans respond to with Big Star is their story.  Listen without thinking about their legacy, reputation, and all that nonsense and you may find more to like.  You'll certainly be closer to the truth of the music.