Big Star

Ultimately, I'm most partial to Third/Sister Lovers, but the first two certainly have a prominent place in my collection.

O My Soul

September Gurls

Down The Street

Mod Lang

I'm In Love With A Girl.

Yep. Legend secure...

The Rasperries - NO! Sugary proto-poodle soft-metal.

I also like 'I Am The Cosmos',the posthumous Chris Bell alb.

I heard Big Star before I heard either the Posies or Replacements or even the Fannies (a brother who had exceedingly bad taste most of the time finally got something right when he got "#1 Record" / "Radio city" in '91), and I've converted my fellow bandmate (a Fannies / Replacements / Smithereens fan) into a BS fan, his trying to convert me on the 'Mats and Smithereens has never worked in my direction for some reason. But we're totally agreed on the Posies and the Fannies though. Odd. I just can't get my head around the 'Mats at all, I've tried loads of times with different LPs of theirs, but still nothing. Mind, Paul Westerburg's last solo LP was rather good!

Bandwagonesque was all fine & good, but a bit slow (even when going fast) and surprisingly bland as a whole. Pleasant in certain situations, though. This is the only album I can confidently speak on, so feel free to ignore my pronouncements.

'Britpop' = term with huge ever growing scope creep

The Stax org was in such disarray in the early '70s that it's a wonder the records even got out there as much as they did. I've read that each of the first two albums only got into the marketplace in ridiculously small quantities...4000/5000 is a number I've seen.

I don't know if they "define" any era. A post above maintains that to define era, their records would've have to been bought by somebody. So I guess they were one of the first true indie/critic's bands...the reviews were mostly glowing. In retrospect they do seem to define the period much better than any number of more popular acts, though. I see nothing wrong with revisionist nostalgia myself.

For a long time I loved them without reservation, then went thru a period during which I'd just heard them too much. For a lot of us they were like the Beatles, the absolute gold standard of pop records. Now I just accept them as a great pop band, period, and wish people would quit gushing about them so much, or maintaining that they weren't really all that good. As a live band they seem to have sucked; but I can't think of any better-conceived record than "Radio City." Such style. And they seem to define not an era but a state of mind, one epitomized by the Eggleston "red ceiling" photo that graced the original "RC" LP...bad dreams and vibes in an oversexed room, distilled into melancholy, perhaps? With a few good times vaguely recalled? Maybe that's the '70s, I don't know.

Interesting to see what the new Big Star album will be like...

of course, Chilton & company could scrape a chalkboard with rusty chisels and this guy would say it's the best thing ever.

(I think I listen to Third the most, too)

I wonder how committed Chilton is to the whole idea of Big Star these days. Probably not very. I didn't think much of "Hot Thing."

I like it. Pollard’s output has been generally strong with this latest lineup.

Why talk about it here? Not policing, just curious.

It's a tribute to Big Star called "Alex Bell".

The title kind of broke my brane.

Ha, it took me seeing the 7" cover art to actually understand the title.

I assume he wanted to avoid confusion with the former Hull City striker.

https://www.programmecollector.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/book_chillo.jpeg.jpeg

a musical tribute to alex trebek and kristen bell

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_classic_big_star_songs_that_arent_big_star_but_a_studio_project_du

I love the whole record, but those three songs are certainly Radio City highlights. It's hard to imagine the record without them.

Wow, never knew! Also hilarious to picture Chilton pointing to a Dolby Noise Reduction button or switch and saying "what's this Dolby fucker do?" That's like a perfect throwaway line in a Coen brothers movie.

Who would ever have thought that the personnel on a Big Star album was somewhat ambiguous?

also: that big photo from three months ago-doctor, my eyes!

whoa! At least “What’s Going Ahn” is a co-write with Hummel.

Thanks! & good to know about the book they quote:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31ZTkHuWLgL.jpg

of course, Third/Sister Lovers is all over the place, and Complete Third omg duhhh, but even/especially that is *going* all over the place, with own sort of momentum.

Oh, speaking of Stones as packrats, try Metamorphosis.

That book is good.

It always amazes me how often Terry Manning shows up in different contexts. Just the other day was revisiting the fact that he engineered Hot Buttered Soul.

Sorry, my last two posts were meant for Major 'informal' albums

you forgot to add #onethread #pvmic

xxpost Manning also worked on Led Zeppelin III at Ardent:
https://www.memphisflyer.com/remembering-led-zeppelin-iii-generations-of-memphians-affected-by-album

or rather "mixed and mastered at Ardent," with TM also engineering some overdubs.

Well I said he worked on it yeah did all that

I’d told Chris to stay away, but he couldn’t help it. He came by sheepishly, with a bottle of wine. So we let him in, and Jimmy and Chris and I hung out. We listened to Gimmer Nicholson all night. And Ali Akbar Khan.

Was Richard Rosebrough etc not always credited on the album?

mine's a repress but he has a writer's credit for "mod lang"

original side B label
https://i.discogs.com/SbWXndkZDowKOzSr6RJqmoTUmzdywFQDGVs-kcCsddU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:597/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM4Mzkw/NjctMTM0NjQzMDQ1/Mi0zMDY2LmpwZWc.jpeg

Jody interviewed by a lil nipper for Nippertown: totally charming, v. informative:

Jody chats with Ellie Everywhere!https://t.co/G1srdyCS9z

— Big Star (@BigStarBand) July 18, 2022

Wow, hooray for my local blog! And I briefly freaked out thinking Jody Stephens had played here recently and I somehow missed it.

R.I.P. John King. Co-founder of Ardent Records & a brilliant promo man from Memphis music's golden era, he helped build the legend of Big Star (coming up with the idea for the 1973 Rock Writers Convention). Here's a look at his colorful life and legacy. https://t.co/SDn63gPOnF

— Bob Mehr (@BobMehr) August 2, 2022

Good story, Bob Mehr does it again. But why were Big Star albums so hard to find? I read plenty about them, but the only ones I ever saw, decades before the Line twofer CD and Ryko series, were vinyl promos, sold for 99 cents (somebody beat me to them, going back from the magazine rack to the bargain bin).

We were both reading Creem that day...

I think the Caropop podcast with Jody talks about this, but the first album was sabotaged by Stax's shitty deal with CBS Records. Clive Davis made the deal, then was famously fired for misuse of company funds, and the people who took over didn't give a shit about Stax - to them it was like, "why should we spend a dime on them? We should be using that money for OUR R&B acts." Stax tried to get out the CBS deal, but in perverse fashion, CBS refused because they also didn't want Stax to sign with another big label and become direct competitors. (Makes Mo Ostin's passing feel all the more sad - he really was one of a kind.)

I forgot what happened with the third album, but I think by then the money wasn't there for anybody (they were no longer under CBS's control) and I don't think they believed they had a profitable record either so they might've balked at spending too much of what little money they had left.

I should say the first TWO albums were sabotaged by the CBS deal.

And yes, Big Star wasn't an R&B act, but regardless it's still the same principle - spend money on CBS acts, not Stax.

By the third LP there wasn't really a band to tour with, so spending money on the record may have seemed like throwing good money after bad.

Even when there was a band to tour with, they barely toured. Do we even know how many live shows they did when Chris Bell was in the band?

xp The fact that they couldn't even finish the third album - like just sequence it and say "THIS is the album, it's DONE" - probably hurt as well. Like imagine if you're a company that's putting out an indie film and the director can't be bothered to finish his cut, even though you gave him creative control. You're not even sure if you have a complete work to put out - the last thing on your mind is "let's pour everything we got into this!"

Thanks, yeah, all that sounds right: been so long since I read Ron J.'s Big Star book, but yeah.And Stax, if you read their own story, was pretty much on the skids then, direction-wise as well as financially. Complete Third, as discussed and live-blogged upthread, is creatively, not commercially, justified and ancient, despite a few good-faith missteps (and even those are to be determined by individual listeners, who may change their mynds, suiting mutable moods and music).

Although original Third/Sister Lovers (the one on Ryko is all I know) is fine its own self.

Not that Stax's struggling with direction, trying to adapt, didn't lead to skids only: for instance, Edd Hurt pointed me toward the frequently remarkable round-up Stax Country a few years ago.

not that Stax's etc *led* to skids only, I should have said.

Stax was already caput by the time the Third sessions wrapped up (part of why they were able to drag on so long is that there really wasn't anyone left at the label to formally pull the plug), and so John Fry was free to shop the tapes to other labels, but iirc he or Jim Dickinson said nobody would even accept the tapes as demos to finance rerecords.

Just prior to Chris Bell's death there was some renewed interest in the band, with Ardent being able to strike deals with EMI in the UK to reissue the first two albums as a double LP, and a little later the first commercial release of Third happened on a US Indie, with several variations to follow.

Stax was still having big hits with Johnnie Taylor up until around '75: they could still market R&B, but didn't know thing 1 about selling Rock.

@dow the Ryko Third is probably the definitive version, so I think you're good. Maybe not in terms of sound/mastering, but the presentation is great. Omnivore's box set is great and sounds a bit better, but it's not really a good comparison because it's everything and not everyone's going to want two discs of demos, alternates, etc.

Forgot one detail from the Caropop podcast - it sounded like "Sister Lovers" was intended as a potential band name. According to Jody Stephens, Chilton told him "we should call ourselves Sister Lovers!" because they were both dating sisters, so if he wrote that on the label, it might've been a new band name he was considering since it wasn't entirely Big Star anymore with Bell and Hummel gone.

I wonder if Taylor's success made Big Star's unfortunate situation worse. Like if CBS was afraid of letting Stax out of their contract and turning into formidable competition elsewhere, Taylor's success would only validate those concerns.

It's possible. I mean, after Stax went down, Taylor signed with Columbia and immediately had his biggest hit ever with "Disco Lady".

FWIW Omnivore has a "back to school" sale that ends today - 50% off everything except pre-orders and new releases, and they've got a ton of Big Star, Alex Chilton and Chris Bell releases that are eligible, so now's a perfect time to scoop them up.

Thanks for the heads up! Ended up with no Big Star (have a lot already), but a lot of Buck Owens, Bobby Rush, and Uncle Walt's Band, so I think Alex would still approve.

The site doesn't say the Posies' Frosting and Amazing Disgrace lps are out of stock, but I can't add them to my cart. Assume they're out and just not showing it, but that's a bummer (even though Ken Stringfellow is a human trash can).

yeah thanks for the tip. i got some muffs, some gladiators, and mumps!

filling out my "mu" section apparently.