Big Star

I mean sure there are weird production choices and touches and a lot of the delivery is off-the-cuff but the songs themselves have very definite structures

oh man, i should check that out. in the allmusic review of Kangaroo it mentions that Chilton recorded the guts of it on a single track, just 12-string guitar and vocal, and all of the other stuff was added the next day. i'd love to hear that original middle of the night version, although i love the washes of chaos of the recorded version too.

if there's a solo 12-string demo version of Kanga Roo (similar to those for Stroke it Noel, Big Black Car, Downs, Jesus Christ etc), it's not on the box set. The liner notes to the ryko reissue go into how Kanga Roo was recorded - iirc Jim Dickinson said Alex had overdubbed the mellotron and feedback and some other stuff all one channel as a deliberate challenge/test of Dickinson's patience and mixing skills

my other favorite anecdote from the Ryko reissue was about using a basketball as a snare drum for Downs

i got all 3 albums on some weird german 2cd many years ago... the tracklist for sister/lovers is 17 tracks long and really weird...

Kizza me
You can't have me
Jesus Christ
Downs
Whola lotta shakin' going on
Thank you friends
O, Dana
Femme fatale
Stroke it, Noel
Holocaust
Nighttime
Kanga-roo
For you
Take care
Blue moon
Dream lover
Big black car

that is weird. and plus, it loses the back to back order of Holocaust into Kanga-roo (Kanga Roo? Kangaroo?) which works so well not only because they're both in the same otherworldly bleak territory but also because the beginning of Kangaroo uses an almost identical melody to the one in Holocaust.

Holocaust chords are "borrowed" from Yoko Ono's "Mrs. Lennon" fwiw

I need "Blue Moon" near the end, find orderings where it's not p hard to follow

similarly, I find any arrangement that doesn't put Stroke it Noel first absolutely baffling

haha I love the Ryko opening with "Thank You Friends"

Holocaust chords are "borrowed" from Yoko Ono's "Mrs. Lennon" fwiw

never knew this, fwiw. mind's on crooked now.

it's pretty blatant - same key, tempo, piano part, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLeZTKEVGVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQ977u8Wuk

Damn, you weren't kidding.

Yoko ruins everything.

I should finally listen to Big Star. I have everything else released on Ardent and a lot of records recorded there. The Hot Dogs and Cargoe have become two of my favorite records, but I keep putting Big Star off for some reason.

speaking of mrs. john lennon and holocaust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXRExocnpUw

Third turns out to be even better when you're wasted and bummed out! who could have predicted that?!

seriously though, as much as i enjoy the first half, there's this run from blue room>take care>jesus christ>femme fatale(well, eh on that one tbh)>o,dana>big black car>holocaust,kanga roo>thank you friends that's just astounding

very seriously though

opening chords to angie always make me wanna go "on a dark desert highway..."

blue room lol

blue room>take care>jesus christ>femme fatale(well, eh on that one tbh)>o,dana>big black car>holocaust,kanga roo>thank you friends

otm tho (except femme fatale cover is good too)

oh, i didn't mean the carrot signs to mean lesser than or greater than, i just meant i liked that whole flow from song to song!

and i like femme fatale cover too, actually, just not in the context of that slide into wasterdom

i just meant i liked that whole flow from song to song!

oh yeah, me too. might be my favorite song sequence anywhere ever. awesome in that it's relatable no matter how good or bad i'm feeling, and however dark it gets, it never brings me down. plus just songs. could live inside blue moon forever.

i'm so happy to have Third in my life. I dunno, this afternoon I devoted some serious time to #1 Record and Radio City, but Third is just...way more appealing to my ears. I always try to stay open to stuff, and i'll revisit their first two over and over again (and probably update this thread in 2017 or something), but at the moment Third really appeals to me more than the others.

first two are really great (like REALLY great), but i agree. third forever.

i don't know, the first two seem relatively straightforward to me. don't get me wrong, it's great pop, and repeated listens earlier today i was enjoying them (and i'll keep checking them out and i'm sure at some point i'll revive this thread and feel like a dumbass for not loving them from the beginning), but Third really hits at something a bit skewed that really appeals to me.

yeah, that's the difference. first two are brilliant, aching power pop gr8ness. 3rd is alltime rip yr guts out weirdo darkness shit. and i'm way more in that camp, but you know, i'm cool with brilliant aching power pop too.

i'm sure at some point i'll revive this thread and feel like a dumbass for not loving them from the beginning

one week later!

ok, i'm officially obsessed. i don't think i've listened to anything else in the last week, and since i just started digging into the demos/i am the cosmos/icewater/rock city shit it's only going to deepen from here.

WHAT'S GOING AHN!!!!

having said that, with that said, that being said, that having been said, i am a little afraid to wade into the alex chilton solo stuff. also, that big star biography mentioned upthread by rob jovanovic has some nice tidbits and i'm glad i took a few hours to read it, but it really is pretty terrible.

Chilton album 1970 is well worth time even without having to try to "get" Chilton

oh, definitely. it's more the post big star output that i'm wary of. is there a good collection that picks out the good stuff?

It sounds like Third is the Big Star record for me by what you guys said above. How do Big Star compare to other bands on the Ardent label like Hot Dogs or Cargoe?

xpost re: good stuff. Speaking as someone whose favorite Chilton song is the fucked up version of "Take Me Home and Make Me Like It" I'm not sure how anyone could define "good" with reference to his post-Big-Star stuff. That 1970 album is pretty good without getting too complicated about things...been listening to it a lot since it appeared on Spotify.

How do Big Star compare to other bands on the Ardent label like Hot Dogs or Cargoe?

Oh Jacob.

What?? So I've never heard Big Star, their records aren't cheap ya know

i've never heard any other bands on Ardent. But check out youtube! just search for big star +

september gurls
the ballad of el goodo
big black car
holocaust
what's going ahn
feel
thirteen
kangaroo

and so on

impressive that anyone would've heard of hot dogs and cargoe without hearing big star first -- they're basically footnotes to the big star story. those records are decent, but imo they pale in comparison to big star.
as for chilton the top 30 comp is a pretty decent overview. i've grown to love pretty much anything he's been involved with, but suffice to say he was taking a radically different approach to music making in his post big star days.

Surely he was trolling?

I wasn't trolling. I've been hoping to find their records while out record hunting. With certain groups I put off listening to them until I find them. I could go on you tube and listen to big star or I could wait until magic happens and I find one at a flea market. It's silly but it's also fun leaving certain groups to be heard.

yeah, i can understand that! with big star, though, i don't think i've ever seen one of their records on sale! they had major distribution problems back in the day (they were on Stax for the first two) and very few records were printed in the first place (i think 5K or so for the first, maybe 20K or so for the second).

One trip through Tennessee didn't turn up a Big Star record, but I'll be there again this summer. What I really want is the Chris Bell solo record, if anything for being called I Am The Cosmos. What I love about the Cargoe record is the flashes of a southern feel underneath the power pop. I assumed that had more to do with Terry Manning though, I'm hoping Big Star have that too.

O man the beginning this thread. lol Old ILX. Ethan, such a worthless critic.

aside from a 45, Chris Bell had no solo vinyl.

Oh it's a collection of demos and stuff.

It is, but it wasn't issued until 1992 and only on CD not vinyl

That one 45 though, I Am The Cosmos b/w You And Your Sister is spectacular. Perhaps even a bigger vinyl score than the first two Big Star albums.

For some reason I assume it was a actual release, on pair with Dennis Wilson's solo record.

i am the cosmos (the collection) has had at least one vinyl reissue

Wasn't aware of that. I see there's also a new "deluxe edition" 2-CD Chris Bell set out with alternate versions on the second disc, including a later version of "Get Away" with Chilton on guitar.