Big Star is one of those bands that are held in high esteem exclusively by other bands. They are the proverbial "missing link" between The Beatles and R.E.M. doing guitar driven power-pop when that kind of music was losing steam.
Big Star started as four fellows from Memphis: Chris Bell, Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. Chilton had success when he was just a teenager with The Box Tops...you've probably heard this. He got pretty disenchanted with the whole scene, tired of being handled and wanting to do his own music. Enter Big Star. They only have three proper records but they are all brilliant in their way: #1 Record is the only one that features Chris Bell and is their brightest record, with "classics" like "Thirteen," "The Ballad of El Goodo" and "In The Street" which Cheap Trick covered for the opening titles to That 70s Show. Tthe follow-up, Radio City, was a bit darker but contains two of their best songs: "Back of a Car" and "September Gurls." The last record, sometimes called Third and sometimes called Sisters Lovers is their least accessible but fascinating as a portrait of a band in complete melt-down mode. (There is a fourth one from a few years ago which includes Jon Auer and Ken Stringellow from the Posies supporting Chilton and Stephens but it's not really any good).
Chilton has always been an irascible figure. On a live set recorded for radio he comes across as supremely jaded by the whole experience. The first two records were both critically acclaimed in 1972 and 1974 respectively, but poor label management sent them into the dust-bin. That failure took it's toll; on Bell and his leaving the band and his ensuing battles with drink and ultimately tragic death in a car wreck in 1978, and on Chilton. The music he created on the third record is a harbinger of what he would create in his solo records, an artist who continually thumbs his noise at the business and his fans, making music for himself and damn it if anybody buys it.
I actually got to see Big Star twice. In the mid 90s they did a couple shows in NYC that me and friends trekked up to see. Both times had Chilton and Jody Stephens supported by Auer and Stringfellow and both times was amazing. Chilton, for all his curmudgeon-ness, seemed to be having a real good time, especially with the positive reaction of the crowd. The bills were good to...one of them had Perfect (Tommy Stinson's band post Replacements and post Bash and Pop), Superdrag, and Meat Puppets. The other had Yo La Tengo. It might have been some mix of those bands but I remember seeing all of them.
Nothing Can Hurt Me is the name of a new documentary about Big Star. I haven't seen it yet but plan to as soon as practical. This 2 LP set was a Record Store Day release that I was able to (cheat and) get through eBay. It's alternate versions of songs; different mixes, sometimes different lyrics. All in all it's a very interesting set and very enjoyable. I am already listening to it for the second time today.
Cool story: in college we read on the internet (the early days of the Internet as we know it now) that Jody Stephens was still working at Ardent Studios in Memphis and you could order Big Star t-shirts. Remember this was before the days where you could buy anything you can dream of on the Internet, so the possibility of getting Big Star t-shirts was too awesome to not follow up on. My buddy Eric found the phone number for Ardent and called them up. he asked for Jody and was told he was out to lunch could she take a message. To nerds like us that was pretty cool! Jody called back and we were able to order t-shirts. I still proudly wear my when I feel like upping my street cred at shows.
It's easy to say that Big Star was one of those bands that didn't quite make it or to view them as some kind of sad tale. But the impact they had on guitar bands is, although not known or overt, is still striking. Bands like REM, Tom Petty, the whole wave of early/mid 90s guitar bands all owe a lot to the songwriting of Chilton and Bell.
Here's "September Gurls" which was interestingly covered by The Bangles on A Different Light.
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