Big Star

As far as I know, noone has used my favorite Eggleston photo as an album cover:
https://elephant.art/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/13.05-William-Eggleston-600x899.jpg

^^Pink Martini kicking themselves right now for passing that one by.

This revive caused me to finally pull the trigger on buying a (reprint) copy of William Eggleston's Guide.

Hadn't heard of that!
Recalling that Eggleston is xpost Lesa Aldridge's cousin, I searched their names together, but so far haven't found a WE pic of Alex and Lesa. Did find this somewhut atypical WE portrait, now in National Gallery, of Lesa consoling her friend Karen re "boy trouble," as the author says here; it's mostly about Eggleston and the making of the picture, without getting too forensic: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/they-needed-to-talk-152046601/
10 years later, this article about Lesa, by Holly George-Warren, author of the Chilton bio A Man Called Destruction, describes the boy trouble as being the circumstances under which the two girls met Chilton, and how he reacted when Karen tried to help him with his date, who was ODing or something, and yadda yadda later the three of them were in a little occasional band*, among the activities here I still hope to hear recorded evidence of, like the Alex & Lesa country tapes excerpted on Complete Third, along with Lesa's lead vocal on an outtake of "At The End of the Day" (HGW doesn't mention these as being among the scant legit release evidence of Lesa, because CT wasn't out yet or she hadn't heard it; also we now have--well I don't, but an LP of the Klitz reunion was announced, and I do somewhere have Edd's recording of a reunion show). Anyway, tells a lot of stuff, incl. relevant to AC and Big Star writing and covers ( Upthread, someone mentioned BS covering "The Bed," and Berlin is mentioned here re AC/LA relationship)
https://main.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/1150-the-muse-of-memphis

*

Another outlet for such music-making was Gangrene and the Scurvy Girls—Alex, Lesa, and Karen Chatham. In addition to old-timey tunes, the trio performed songs by Lou Reed, Bonzo Dog Band, the Troggs, and Les Paul and Mary Ford. They were mostly playing for the fun of it; the homespun trio rarely appeared in public. “I didn’t feel like he was humoring me,” Lesa reflects. “He really liked playing together.”

Don’t know what I did with it but for years I kept a souvenir ticket from a museum exhibition of his work in Germany which had a picture on it of a woman in a yellow dress sitting on a bench as if waiting for a bus. Exhibition had a cool title too.

Something like HI DERE WHAT IS IT MADE?

Misremembered the photo slightly. It’s one of the photos known as “Untitled (Memphis)”

http://www.artnet.com/WebServices/images/ll00150lldYt9GFgUNECfDrCWvaHBOcJbYE/william-eggleston-untitled-(memphis).jpg

At War With The Obvious, maybe? Although that was the title of a show later at The Met.

Here's what seems to be a good article by a familiar name: https://www.salon.com/1999/09/07/eggleston/

It was How you look at it: Photographs of the 20th Century at the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany, May 14-June 8, 2000. Not just Eggleston. Maybe I should buy the catalog.

https://gallery.98bowery.com/2022/william-eggleston-how-you-look-at-it-folded-card-sprengel-museum-hannover-germany-2000/

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/william_egglestons_photos_of_big_star

No doubt already linked upthread

My wallet doesn't thank you.

Meanwhile:

Amy: There’s a funny story I have about Alex and Lesa from early on, way before the Klitz formed. I was fifteen years old and my mother, who had just gotten divorced, was taking a trip to England. She had Lesa, who was eighteen or nineteen, babysit me and my younger sister Gretchen. My mom loved Lesa and figured she’d make a great babysitter since she had so many siblings (laughs). It was one nonstop party. Alex was over the whole time. I remember scrubbing wine stains out of the furniture before mother got home.

...Elise: We named the band on one drunken evening. Marcia thought of it. We were drinking at Zinnie’s, going over band names for forty-five minutes. Finally, Marcia said, “Let’s just name ourselves 'The Clits.’” Alex got that grin—"Klits with a 'K.’“ And I said, "Yeah. And let’s end it with a 'Z.’” That was it: “The Klitz.” Later on, I told my Granny Gail the name of our band. She replied, “Oh, yes, Klitz: German for 'pistol.’” She was German. Bless her heart.

Many years back I was working at a museum that put on an Eggleston show and I did a short interview with Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World about using an Eggleston artwork. https://unframed.lacma.org/2010/12/01/jim-adkins-of-jimmy-eat-world-on-william-eggleston-and-album-art

Nice! I like that comment about the trophies.

Yeah! Meanwhile,
At one point, Old Man Chilton described his later Big Star work as "the songs of a maudlin young man." Certainly not close to mostly true, but I'm reminded of it while listening again to his voice mushing all over "Holocaust," otherwise a good song and track. Listening again in comparison and high contrast to Pauline Murray and The Storm's take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmOE6HuSnpk

Oops, sorry so late seeing this, Jody!

⭐ Please join us in wishing Jody Stephens a very Happy Birthday! ⭐ pic.twitter.com/hR8fGFqqXC

— Big Star (@BigStarBand) October 4, 2022

Yet another Omnivore sale, Less Than Perfect (applies to packaging only; we're assured that vinyl and discs "are fine"). 50 % off, ltd. quantities, Dec. 5-7 (sorry, I just now saw it). Incl. Big Star's Live At Lafayettes 2-LP, and the monster Chris Bell box:
http://omnivorerecordings.com/less-than-perfect/

Just now got around to reading Stanley Booth's Salon profile of Eggleston; thanks for the link!

:)

kinda amazing yoko ono doesn’t have credit on “holocaust” at this point.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/320244251_3435985983391562_4810279882859262212_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=vetoUPyzJvgAX-eVReu&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&oh=00_AfA7Ui_pM4wt3Y2a2JkHBvub9KKPArOq6SZXU0U2BqEULw&oe=63A0462E

Wonderful! - is it your Christmas tree??

No, found it on facebook.

A+

There’s a fine line between stupid and clever and that falls squarely in the clever camp

Beauty! Even Chilton might approve (well maybe). Wonder if that's a real fireplace? If portable replica, I'd buy it.

2-Day 50%-off CD Sale over at Omnivore, including many Big Star and Big Star-adjacent titles

https://omnivorerecordings.com/welcome/

This tyme: Adjacent Central---

For three days only, Tuesday, July 11 through Thursday, July 13, take 50% off select titles from co-founders Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. (We’re even throwing Chilton’s sessions with dB’s co-founder Peter Holsapple into the mix!)

What does this lyric mean to you?

Won't you tell your dad, 'Get off my back'
Tell him what we said about 'Paint It, Black

Read two interpretations today that claim 'we' = narrator and the girl's dad (as if their mutual appreciation for a vintage Stones tune should cool tensions). That's a fucked take, right? To me this does two things: (a) dates the action of the song to the mid-'60s, which is closer to when Chilton would've been 13, and (b) implies that narrator and his girlfriend have some kind of ill-fated love pact involving this creepy nihilistic Stones tune, which to me adds a kind of strangeness and darkness to this otherwise cute and innocent tween love tale. You know?

Thoughts?

The latter.

I always read it as "you and I bonded over this song and yr dad will never understand"

I never even thought of the line as ambivalent, interesting how subjective this stuff is

I never even considered that “rock in roll is here to say” was what they said about “paint it black”, that’s some serious Ralph Viking shit on my part, thought it was just an unrelated aside

^

Why would the narrator be hanging out with the girl’s dad?

xxp

I imagine Alex as an obnoxious rebellious teen listening to the Stones back in the day, and dad just doesn't get it and doesn't want this creepy kid and his rock n roll around his daughter.

Girl’s dad drove narrator home from chess tourney and PIB came on the radio and they had a deep conversation about it

I always read it as "you and I bonded over this song and yr dad will never understand"

― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Friday, July 28, 2023 4:50 PM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

right, this is basically my interpretation too

A lot of your songs with Big Star were romantic songs, and some of them were even spiritual, but just what is “Thirteen” about?

I don't know.

"Thirteen" is prob in my top ten "songs-qua-songs" of all time, it is perfect in every way

top ten top five

I imagine Alex as an obnoxious rebellious teen listening to the Stones back in the day, and dad just doesn't get it and doesn't want this creepy kid and his rock n roll around his daughter.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, July 28, 2023 5:07 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This too. I was kind of overselling it with the love pact thing, but the fact that they bond over "Paint It, Black" and not "Love Me Do" definitely adds a menacing quality to the song / narrator

Tell ‘em what we said ‘bout 4’33”

Some guy was on cookandandbombd recently bending over backwards to use 13 and others as hard evidence that AC was a wrongun

Won’t you tell your dad to leave me alone
Tell him what we said about Coltrane’s Om

I think it is a near certainty that he was exactly the type of kid that southern dads wouldn't want any where near their daughters.

Sheets of sound are here to stay
Come inside where it's OK
And I'll annihilate you