Big Star- How the heck did I miss out on them?

[trumpet sounds]

How did y'all find out about Big Star?

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.

[monkee knutz]

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.

[Chris D.]

Dolenz almost cut that for Monkees release in '87.

Wow, really?

[I. Spaceman]

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.

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. merdaE!

How did y'all find out about Big Star?

I am VERY SURPRISED, thou hip Monkee.

Replacements and Bangles hipped me to the Star.

[the captain]

85% of my friends are music fans or musicians and I never heard any of them mention Big 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.

[Boxer Monkey]

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.

[I. Spaceman]

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

[Aum Bop Diddit]

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!

[Boxer Monkey]

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. Spaceman]

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.

[Boxer Monkey]

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.

[Boxer Monkey]

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

[I. Spaceman]

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

[peerke]

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.

[Mitchell]

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).

[monkee knutz]

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

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.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

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?"

I

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"?

[I. Spaceman]

Cheap Trick.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

Cheap Trick.

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

[Boxer Monkey]

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. Spaceman]

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.

[Chris D.]

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 

[Boxer Monkey]

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."



Alex Chilton and the Cossacks (with Chris Stamey, left) play CBGBs, late 1970s

[I. Spaceman]

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

[Boxer Monkey]

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