It's long overdue, so here goes; my long-winded and highly sentimental Big Star post!
First thing's first: these guys created music that makes you happy to be alive. It rocks, it shakes, it shimmers, it jangles, and ultimately it melts your heart. I have dedicated hundreds of hours over the past three years to digesting their music, and it has been the soundtrack to falling in love, major life changes, depression, and the day-to-day grind. Their music captures a wide range of feelings, from the lovestruck (Thirteen) to the angry (You Get What You Deserve) and on to the apocalyptic (Holocaust). Though they have a reputation as an underground band, the sort that hipsters love to namecheck, the truth is that they're nothing if not a populist band. Their music is very much for everyone, and for all moods. They made three albums, each one distinct, effective and influential on its own merits:
#1 Record (1972): the lovely one; listen to this when life is going good
Radio City (1974): the versatile one; throw this on any day, whether you're pissed off or in the throes of passion for life
3rd (1978): the fucked up one; listen to this when you're on the verge of a nervous breakdown
The arc their albums trace is an emotional and financial one. In the early days, singer Alex Chilton, guitarist Chris Bell, bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens had a lot going for them, including some of the best producers in Memphis and a great deal of industry hype. However, Chilton and Bell were not terribly stable and their stock dropped in large part due to their unwillingness to tour. They were also mediocre live, as they rarely rehearsed.
Instead, they spent weeks and months obsessing over their songs and production, and the initial result was #1 Record, an embarrassment of riches in songwriting and a treat for audiophiles. No less than three of its songs I would consider among the best ever written (Ballad of El Goodo, In The Street, Thirteen) and it boasted some truly brilliant ballads that were anthemic enough to beat Journey at their own game while tapping into songwriting skill of the Beatles. Cheap Trick's cover of In The Street was the theme song for That 70s Show, but Big Star's slightly more understated version (which still rocks) captures zeal for life just as well, while upping the delicious vocal harmonies:
Big Star In the Street - YouTube
It's here that you really tap into what makes the band great: the guitars crunch just right, the harmonies are out of this world but just sloppy enough to feel right, and the lyrics, while nothing extraordinary, communicate the song's message directly and personally.
Steal your car, and bring it down
Pick me up, we'll drive around
Wish we had
A joint so bad
Pass the street light
Out past midnight
Hanging out, down the street
The same old thing we did last week
Not a thing to do
But talk to you
What could be better? The scary thing is that Thirteen is even stronger, sketching out an image of youth and innocence so vivid that you instantly forget how great it is to have your own car and money.
Big Star - Thirteen 1972 - YouTube
There's a lot of power in simplicity, and Big Star always worked that sublimely.
But I wouldn't love this band as much had they stopped short at achingly beautiful proto-power pop. The fact is, they hadn't gained their power yet, truly. Throw in a couple of years of industry negligence and in fighting and you get Radio City, #1 Record's sleazier brother. It is, in many ways, the perfect amalgamation of melody and hard-hitting rock n' roll. The drums are a lot looser, the vocals are sloppier, and the visceral result is one of the greatest records ever.
Big Star-Way Out West - YouTube
It doesn't take a keen ear to pick up on the fundamental destruction of Big Star's poppy facade. They really stopped giving a fuck around this point. And yet there's no shortage of great songs either. September Gurls has been covered by countless artists...
Big Star - "September Gurls" - YouTube
Probably because they couldn't write anything better. One of the greatest examples of chiming guitars and lovelorn lyricism can be found here, besting even the Byrds' peaks. Right here is the blueprint for how to right a masterpiece that clocks in at under 3 minutes.
But, back in their day, no one listened. And so the band effectively broke up, leaving Chilton and Stephens to putter around in the studio for a couple of years, leaving an unfinished record that the label put out for whatever reason. It was called 3rd, and it has today become Big Star's ticket to superstardom in the indie underground. People really eat up underdog stories there, and the legends of mental breakdown and internal strife have given 3rd its appealing aura. What's great is that it sounds just as fucked up as it must have been to record it. By the time it was released, Big Star wasn't a band as such, so keeping to their traditional sound wasn't so important. It resulted in songs like this:
Big Star - Kangaroo - YouTube
Droning middle eastern influence, nonsensical drumming that barely kept time, surrealistic lyricism...Chilton sounds like he's dying...it's the sort of track that earns 3rd its reputation. Velvet Underground covers, Christmas songs and tracks that directly spit in the eyes of the music listeners that spurned them ("thank you, friends...wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you...") don't hurt its cause.
And yet, Big Star never forgot the tunes. Ever. The closing four tracks of the Third/Sister Lovers running order (as opposed to the original 3rd release, which had a bizarre sequence that the band didn't approve of) was as gorgeous as anything they ever recorded. I've gone out walking many nights with Nightime playing:
Big Star - Nightime - YouTube
I make a big fuss about lyrics, but when the delivery is right, and with music that majestic and beautiful playing behind it, lines like "and when I set my eyes on you/you look like a kitty/and when you're in the moon/oh, you look so pretty/caught a glimpse in your eyes/and fell through the skies" might as well be Shakespeare. It sounds childish, but what's wrong with that? When I have kids of my own, I'm probably going to feel similarly moved by their sentiments. I look forward to that, because it really feels awesome to have your walls broken down by something so honest, direct and distinctly human.
As close as my analysis may be of their music, it is ultimately expressions of humanity (love, anger, helplessness) that have caused me to fall in love with Big Star, and not their immaculate influences. I love the way they merge beauty with rock n' roll force, but I love those still, quiet moments in songs like Thirteen even more.
I'm getting very emotional writing this because I'm reminded that I'll never get to see this amazing band live. Alex Chilton passed on in 2010, as I was writing an album of music directly influenced by his work. I cried off and on for a couple of days, and while I eventually got over it, that window to experience their music in the present, in a live setting, died with him. Andy Hummel has passed on as well, last year I believe, and Chris Bell died in a car accident decades ago. Those three albums remain an insect preserved in amber, alive and yet not quite. I marvel at their work, and it continues to influence mine, along with the countless others who loved them (REM, Posies, Replacements, hell, Nirvana, the list goes on), so I suppose it lives and breathes. I play their songs on my guitar all too often, and I think about what it must have been like. It was probably shitty for them. But shittiness results in great art, and sometimes it's beautiful above all else. If you've ever been in love, if you've ever felt awkward or uncomfortable, if you've ever felt slighted, if you've ever been sad, if you've ever been happy, Big Star is the band for you. They've added so much to my life (only U2, The Beatles and maybe Beck have made a more profound addition), and the lives of many others. I hope they can do the same for you.
I love that album.
i'm not going to say i rival the most rabid u2 fans in bono-idolatry as the clash is to joe strummer, but when he died i definitely did think "shit, joe strummer can't die. gods can't die" for a moment before i realized how ridiculous that sounded. when i was in elementary school, i wanted to be paul mccartney. when i was in high school, i wanted to be joe strummer. i guess that's more like it.
