Am I the only person who thinks Big Star's "Radio City" is completely overrated?

For me, it was a slow grower. And still, I think #1 Record IS the superior record. 'Cuz I'm a poppy motherfucker like that.

"#1 record" is the only one that really deserves to be highly rated, IMHO.

x-post

I like 'Radio City' because of its ultimate middle-albumness, the way it's still got some of the pop sheen/focus of the 1st alb but at the same time already seems to be sliding down ("any downs at all") into the total breakdown/collapse of the 3rd alb - and yeah, Jody Stephens on 'Radio City', sure is some of the most distinctive rock drumming I've ever heard.

There are maybe more great songs on the first alb, but there are no total duds on the 2nd (I can't really face the 3rd one too much any more and besides, 'Like Flies on Sherbert' is more fun, more scary and just generally more drunken/drugged/wigged out)

The first time I ever heard #1 Record/Radio City I feel asleep. Listening to it conscious, I found it impressive but not heart-tugging; then a year later it all seemed to make perfect sense.

It's like Beatles '65 played in Al Jackson time but not funky in any obvious way. It's hard to describe.

yes, i think arab strap took notice of this particular song structure in their own way.

I bought #1 Record/Radio City when I still didn't have as much knowledge of music (believe I bought a copy of a Phantom Planet CD the same day, so this was a little less than 2 years ago). And I only bought it because I remembered reading a review of it in a friend's copy of Rolling Stone and being fascinated so I had that imprinted in my brain and eventually picked it up. Replace Big Star with Pavement and Rolling Stone with Spin and thats the same way I got into Pavement a year or so before that. So my point is Big Star or any of their albums are not overrated. Big Star isn't one of those bands I have recordings of because they are rockcrit favs and I am only a casual fan of them. I listen to Big Star all the time and feel passioniately about the music blah blah blah.

I'm also a huge Posies fan whose love for Big Star is somewhat lukewarm, so while I appreciate them, it's more for their influence than their actual music. I'm gradually finding more to enjoy about them, though.

That's the received wisdom. The first album has a hard rock
perversity and dark jolt they never chose to go back to for
the length of an entire record. "In Color" might as well
have been a different band -- good but not tough sounding
like the first, production's completely different. I never cared for "I Want You to Want Me." It was Cheap Trick's "Beth"
on "Budokan."

Third album didn't get very far at the time of release. It was
"Budokan," the import edited for the screaming leedle
girl and boys who are still girls in Japanese-land that kept them alive, putting some of the same tunes in front of an American audience for a second time with packaging no one domestically had
the brains to think of.

I played an odd-sized EP released after "Dream Police" called "Found All the Parts" a bit, too. Epic put it out in a series with a
couple other bands, I think, none of which went anywhere.

SBd you and Bruns and every other amusical cunt just in case it really was yr moms

Oh yeah...after ten years of trying to like Big Star I've given up--there's no there. As Woody Allen once wrote, "another one for the Academy of the Overrated" (and he should know!)

there's no there there. there.

this record is underrated.

^^^^^

i know who iago g. is

go ahead, spill it velko! the name's doug eklund...who are you?

hi doug

hey doug big star rules

i just think that the shorthand for this record being, you know, "classic power pop" isn't quite nailing what is so great about it. it's classic power pop, but it's a lot more too. Recent thing that knocked me out while listening: the end of "What's Going Ahn," that anguished Chilton vocal echoing back and forth, the booming drums, that brutal guitar. It's genius.

this record is wonderful

yeah, I know, I know, everyone loves them, great. i kinda just felt like trolling, some of their stuff is OK--Radio City is sure a lot better than #3 sister lovers or whatevs. the question is, who are you, velko? you get one more chance after this!

hey doug sister lovers is golden

my name is rafael

rafael what? one more shot then you get a big old piece of chicken

i don't really like big star but i do love the chris bell record and recently i've been thinking of buying those cheap big star reissues and forcing myself to like them, do i do it in the name of science?

do it in the name of spring

rafael is also my last name

someone was telling me that big star was music for the beach & firm young tits. xp

i would add beer and warm, pre-summer breezes to that list

que otm

thought so...

i'm worried that big star is gonna be like gaddis with us, que--i love so much of what you do and then completely i am lost.

maybe try third first then? it's probably closest in spirit to that Chris Bell record

but third is not available for $12 new on LP! i'd have to like, buy a CD or get a tape or something. my friend r0b3rt mcn3ill (do you know him from teh crypt daze??) said he was gonna tape it for me in his preferred running order. i should maybe ask him about that.

#1 Record is probably the better overall album (barely), but Radio City has my favorite Big Star song ("Daisy Glaze"), so haters can fuck the fuck off.

hmmm the only r0b3rt from those daze that i know lived/lives in Holland. is that him? i dunno, i don't wanna lead you astray, they might not be your thing. this time of year is the time of year when i fell in love with them and i fell hard.

ah, r0bert plays in the country teasers but is wholly american. lived in uh, wales? for a while? anyway, yeah we're gonna see.
i will just listen to the first two records at work tomorrow and see what happens.

there's some other thread where we argue about what the best track order for 3rd is (I agree w/Shasta, whose favorite originated from some Italian bootleg of it iirc). Third was my intro to Big Star and is an amazing record but in a lot of ways it doesn't bear too much resemblance to what came before.

That twangy guitar riff on "O, My Soul" has forever reminded me of "Footloose."

Heh

Fun fact:

Loggins: “On the session, I asked my guitarist, ‘Gimme that Chilton thing, you know, like on Radio City.’ The guy looks at me like I have two heads. I said, ‘You know, Big Star? Radio City?’ He just looks more confused. So I ran out to my car, grabbed my tape that has #1 Record on one side and Radio City on the other — I’m telling you, that tape never leaves my car — and put it on for him. There’s that little riff just before Alex starts singing, and I said to my guitarist, ‘That! That’s what I’m looking for!’ So he picked up on it, and it became the main riff in ‘Footloose.’”

(OK, I just made that up.)

Well done.

It totally sounds like a rip-off, it’s even the same notes no?

I can totally imagine the singer of "I Met Her at Church" singing "Kick off your Sunday SHOEZZZ!"

Bowie: "I said to Stevie Ray Vaughan, 'Stevie, have you heard of this obscure band called Big Star? There is a song of theirs with this great little guitar intro. Do you think you could maybe tweak it a little for a song I am currently working on?' And boy, did he ever. He listened to the Big Star, paused a moment, then picked up his guitar and immediately worked his magic. And that's how 'Modern Love' was born, and a guitar hero was made."

there is a clip on youtube of Loggins on Live from Daryl's House that is almost this exact scenario except he's trying to get the drummer to play "Modern Love" so they can start the song, we may have unlocked the secret to Footloose

I think of all of these examples as deriving from Duane Eddy, though I don't have an individual song in mind?

In other words, it's a common rockabilly lick.

The difference I hear is that Chilton is sliding up to the note while Kenny (or his guitarist) is bending the string.

Yeah, my guitar teacher (who had never heard "O My Soul" before I played it for him) described it as a "Strat master class."

lol Footloose is so similar. Sounds like something a guitarist does to warm up his fingers tbh.

Every time I hear twang my default ref is Duane Eddy.

one time I read the book "Heaven is Real" for funsies which is not very fun and kind of distressing however at the end of the book there is a picture of the man a toddler recognized as Jesus

https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2019/12/14/6183dc8a-3d9f-409a-b4e2-d4cc944f3259/thumbnail/640x860/6bc4a044ac9f825340caf6d86b81bccb/Prince-of-Peace-hi-res.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3c/Kenny_Loggins.jpg/440px-Kenny_Loggins.jpg

I was pretty old before I realized that Loggins had a long and storied career before his '80s run, both with Messina and without. "Keep the Fire" is totally sophisticated yacht rock with a track that features Michael Jackson on backing vocals.

Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, on their 1968 touring guitarist:

The one positive aspect of the tour was playing with Kenny Loggins. I know where he's at now, but at that time he was a hard-core rocker and a pure joy to watch play. He went full-bore, full-out every night. Then back at the hotel he'd play some great song he'd just written. He was one talented son of a bitch.

Oh! Is this the thread from which sprung “terrifyingly consistent” and it referred to Jody’s drumming? I’m so happy