Big Star

I did post this on another thread, but I was pleased with it, so I'll post here to – a piece I wrote last year about Third/Sister Lovers and its aftermath …

"Post here, too," even

Pre-coffee, dirty glasses, I saw this exchange:

^^fair amount of Jim Dikinson garage autuer stuff too.

yeah! that guy needs a box set of his own.

And thought I was reading the Jim DeRogatis thread. Phew!

Christ "O My Soul" is good. The bit where Chilton comes back after the breakdown with "You're really a nice girl!" is such a brilliant 70s transmutation of 60s British Invasion sensibilities.

tacos

Christ "O My Soul" is good. The bit where Chilton comes back after the breakdown with "You're really a nice girl!" is such a brilliant 70s transmutation of 60s British Invasion sensibilities.

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, July 12, 2013 11:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Absolutely.

Has tom petty ever acknowledged big star as an influence?

Be surprised if he'd heard them when he started out, undoubtedly borrowing from the same sources however

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT5CEzFvAuo6Lv19rqj45Qkrm2JUBpHUrhEw5TWeDOSv5LBls7nRg

i doubt petty heard them in the 70s, but i have a 1973 mudcrutch bootleg where they play george harrison's "isn't it a pity" and it sounds pretty close to big star.

I wonder if Chilton ever listened to Zeppelin. House of the Holy, musically, sounds an awful lot like bits of Big Star.

"I made [Big Star] to be as big a success as possible, but I did it my own way. … I’m not gonna start letting what’s current in the taste of the music business dictate what I do," he told Gordon. With a marked tendency to opt for obscurity or infamy rather than conformity, he admitted, "I’d be happier doing anything in this world— delivering papers, I don’t care—than if in 1971 I’d tried to sound like Ten Years After or Led Zeppelin."

i remember playing "feel" for someone who had no idea who big star was and when the vocals kicked in he said it sounded like led zep. and it kinda does!

i thought the same thing the first time i heard them!! didn't tell anyone because it felt like a ludicrous thing to think but i clearly remember thinking it.

xpost To be fair, Chilton was the model of an unreliable witness to his own life …

Feel is def a weird "first song" for Big Star -- at least it was not what I was expecting, having read about them before hearing them.

Chilton hated Zeppelin.

Bell was more of the mainstream rocker--"Feel" and "Don't Lie To Me" were his songs.

Feel is def a weird "first song" for Big Star -- at least it was not what I was expecting, having read about them before hearing them.

^^^ this. was very relieved to hear el goodo after feel, the very first time i listened to #1 record - was much more what i wanted to hear.

"September Gurls" guitar tone is like being insanely high.

That sound's not a guitar – it's a Fender MandoGuitar. You can perhaps guess what two instruments it combined.

Dog and manduitar?

Ha

I found recently that I could get nearly that exact tone with a compression pedal cranked up all the way.

(with a Fender Jaguar, if it matters)

I bought a JangleBox compressor on the strength of some gear nut forum threads that specifically discussed the recording of "September Gurls."

I used a Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone.

Second from treble pickup on a strat

i've said it before, but chilton is an amazing guitar player -- some of the stuff he pulls off on live recordings is astonishing.

Think I've probably said this before as well, but in that respect he is like Jonathan Richman, a guy known as a songwriter, performer and "personality" but who obviously works to keep his guitar chops up.

Does anyone know, specifically, what Chilton's problem was? He seemed to become spectacularly spacey and incompetent almost at the same time he was producing some of his strongest work... Hallucinogens? Booze? Doesn't have the telltale signs of coke or heroin, although Bell obviously went down to horse so hard drugs were obviously on the scene...

incompetent???

though if there was a problem, it may have stemmed from his inadvertent discovery that children by the millions were not, in fact, singing for alex chilton.

That sound's not a guitar – it's a Fender MandoGuitar. You can perhaps guess what two instruments it combined.

I thought it was just a capo-ed Strat put through the same kind of massive tube compressor that the Beatles favored on stuff like the "Nowhere Man" solo.

http://jazzmando.com/new/images/MandoStrat.png

That appears to be the very rare "bass" guitar.

B-b-but what kind of amp was it played through?

Ha - after writing that post I put a Tele through a dialed-out compressor and felt like I was insanely high. Didn't realise Big Star played Mandocasters - even the bridge pickup on my Tele was pretty close.
Dunno if you're having a dig, Naive Teen Idol, but that is indeed an electric mandolin - they are only about 2 feet long overall, as opposed to the 34" scale of a bass.

overrated Grandpappy Indie (VU notwithstanding); not worthless, but nor are Wishbone Ash, for goodness sake
― mark s, Wednesday, October 17, 2001 5:00 PM (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cool Internet discourse
A+ poptimist excreta

Ry Cooder on the Mandoguitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2FrFBceLuY

Digging Nothing Can Hurt Me, which is alternative takes and re-mixes, as seen in the movie of the same name apparently.

I thought it was just a capo-ed Strat put through the same kind of massive tube compressor that the Beatles favored on stuff like the "Nowhere Man" solo.

Maybe it is, maybe it's not-- but like I said, you can get a sound that is pretty damn close without a Mandocaster (which I'd never even heard of).

Went through the vinyl section of the one remaining centre of town record/cd shop today and found they had both #1 Record and Radio City in there. Not sure if I should be as surprised as I was. Good to see, but does leave me wondering how well known they are these days.
Are they something every semi aware indie kid has known about since Teenage Fanclub were popular?

There are some odd semi obscure cd titles that appear in that record shop on a regular basis . That is to say odd titles appear regularly not individual titles reappear I don't think. Not sure if there's one semi informed cd buyer in the place or if there is a directive of what to buy from elsewhere. Somehow still not got around to really ask after several years.

You can get new audiophile pressings of the first two fairly cheaply ($25-30 for the pair).

And the SACD twofer if you are into niche digital formats. Plays on ordinary players too. It sounds BRIGHT but I think those controls were turned up at Ardent Studios rather than at the mastering plant.

I'm a wasted face, I'm a sad-eyed lie, I'm a holocaust.

Documentary is on Netflix now.

Watching now. Really well done. "When I said Ardent, people thought I had said Argent!"

TGIFs?

great documentary. wish it discussed the making of third a little bit more but can't really complain