Big Star

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

The Big Star Bandsplain was great and talked a lot about this song. Alex didn’t like it (wtf). They talked a bit about how Alex missed out on being a regular teen. 16 and on was touring with the Box Tops, but before that his family life had gotten weird. His brother died and afterwards his parents spun out into being party people and didn’t really parent him much. He was drinking, doing drugs and grieving when he was 13. The song can be read as him fantasizing about the teen life he missed out on.

> He was drinking, doing drugs and grieving when he was 13.

Damn. Never thought of Chilton as a proto-Mark Kozelek.

Alex didn’t like it (wtf).

FWIW, he was dismissive of pretty much all of the classic Big Star stuff.

Hey 13, that's Alex Chilton

otm

always interpreted that paint it black lyric to mean the same thing as

Your sister says that I'm no good
I'd reassure her if I could

from Bell's "You and Your Sister" which seems like a continuation or almost a sequel to 13, just learned Chilton sang backup on that

FWIW, he was dismissive of pretty much all of the classic Big Star stuff.

It literally drove Chris Bell crazy that the press gave Chilton ALL the credit (per the Big Star doc) and to have Chilton dismiss that work altogether is like the biggest f*** you to his memory.

ouch, did not know that

To be fair, he did the songs, and he reformed the band. I know he could've used the income, but deep down I doubt he was really dismissive and just being his usual cantankerous, difficult self.

that scans, yeah

Alex? Cantankerous?

we went to see a reformed box tops at the hoboken arts fest. afterward my wife wanted to get alex to sign the set list she'd taken from the stage floor. i cautioned her that he might not take kindly to that, but he seemed to have been in a good mood for the whole show so she approached him and he smiled and signed it and was very gracious. a nice final memory of alex chilton.

Must have had a very good soundman at that show.

but deep down I doubt he was really dismissive and just being his usual cantankerous, difficult self.

I’m sure there was more than a little “fuck you, where were you when we couldn’t get arrested?” frustration on Alex’s part whenever Big Star was gushed over in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And “Where were you when Chris Bell was alive?” was probably part of that frustration.

This is probably somewhat true, but didn’t the rock press like Big Star, wasn’t there some press party in Memphis that encouraged them to keep going?

No doubt held at TGIF.

The Rock Writers Convention. May 25 and 26, 1973.

Guess there was some myth that they had broken up after Chris and only got back together for this convention. But it did give them a shot in the arm and motivate them.