Big Star

i wish old butch and you would touch

i didn't believe the "i was your butch" line either until i heard mike mills sing it a week ago with the world's big star experts standing behind him (stephens, stamey, the posies guys, etc.).

they prob don't know either.

Lots of incorrect lyrics on that Big Star Reference page fwiw

hmm ilx thread Big Star vying to replace bigstarreference.com for all your Big Star reference needs.

"Speed of Sound" is my favorite in spite of the pained vocals in the first verse.

yeah the synths on this album (is it just that song?) are really great

Much more importantly, the bio & film documented that Bell in fact had a pretty decent hand in writing Radio City as well. perhaps someone can jump in with more info, but given that there isn't a bad song on that record, but it seems like I have read it's more than just 'Back of a Car' which is more than enough.

― campreverb, Sunday, July 7, 2013 10:07 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

from the Rob Jovanovic book

So it was hardly surprising when Chris Bell quit Big Star in November. The band had already started work on a number of new tracks, including 'Way Out West', 'O My Soul', and 'Back of a Car'.

...

'We had four songs,' Hummel says. 'A couple were written at Alex's house one night. If memory serves, they were "Back of a Car", "Got Kinda Lost", "There Was a Life", and I'm not sure of the other but it was one of Alex's songs, maybe "You Get What You Deserve.'

Lots of incorrect lyrics on that Big Star Reference page fwiw

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, July 8, 2013 5:13 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whole forum page on that site to discuss what the lyrics really are - "This board was created to discuss/debate the accuracy of the lyrics posted on the Big Star Reference. Start a thread by using the song title in question as the subject. State what line you are questioning and offer your opinion as to what is being sung."

http://www.bigstarreference.com/cgi-bin/bsrboard/bsrboard.cgi?board=lyrics

First song I looked was a mess:

"O, DANA"
(Chilton)

I rather shoot a woman than a man, *** "I'd rather..."
I worry whether this is my last life
And girl, if you're listening
I'm sorry, I can't help it

O, Dana
O, Dana
Come on

I'm forevermore fighting with Steven
We do our big boo coos *** "we do our big beau coups"
But we know, over Boulder Dam *** "...overboard and down"
And strung out twice

We seldom know what things are
Two illusions going very far

I got busted across the bridge
They rounded up every soul
But, now I'm on the East Side
She says, "Don't give a girl a chance"
She's not afraid to take a chance

She's got a magic wand
That says play with yourself before other ones

Alex and Chris's harmony on 'Sister' sounds like they're put through a phase shifter. Or is that clean?

'You and Your Sister" that is

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

Harmony on "Thirteen" during "and I'll take you" is phased.

I think Alex once said something to the effect that the dates in the song had to do with star signs and such.

That is correct. (Alex Chilton, b. Dec. 28)

Saw somebody reading about this new doc in one of the free subway newspapers- at last Big Star has arrived!

listened to the first disc of that ardent records story comp this morning -- totally recommended if you haven't heard it. a bunch of cool late 60s psych pop.

do you mean Thank You Friends,? that's a great comp!

yes, that's the one. really great, i wish it was four discs instead of just two... and just the minute of chilton singing "don't worry baby" at the end is worth price of admission alone. and the "big black car" demo! i don't think that's appeared on any of the other big star rarity things, for some reason.

I listened to that comp too and don't recall the non-Big Star -related stuff (which makes up almost half the set) being all that impressive. Will have to listen again. Cargoe seems well regarded, their albums are on Spotify. What other Ardent stuff should I check out?

Wow, just heard that Terry Manning album, which is nuts. Also found some comp o Memphis garage-scuzz from the era.

first disc has plenty of throwaway beatles rips, but it's all entertaining enough. never anything less than charming.

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

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

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."