Big Star

did i ever post this here? i was just listening to the 45 tonight. love the Bell-tones on this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=newVegT-jjs

love this song too. would have been a perfect big star b-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8aJ-iqekdM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YTjJg-GAEE

Wow. Would have thought that "Love You (All Day Long)" was a Raspberries tune if it didn't say otherwise.

A Man Called Destruction just arrived.

Initial thoughts: it's a hardcover book, totally unnecessary for my needs as a Alex Chilton theorist. Why do publishing companies persist? It was 20 bucks, why couldn't they ship a trade paperback?

because it hasn't been printed yet? do you know how publishing works?

I love a hardback tbh. My daily commute seems to pulverise paperbacks. By the time I finished Nixonland the first half of the book had already turned to mulch.

because it hasn't been printed yet? do you know how publishing works?

Publish an expensive an unwieldy "collector's" edition that differs only in form factor, wait a year for no apparent reason, publish a paperback edition that contains the same content. Makes sense to me!

It's like if you wanted to buy an iPhone 6 and Apple made you pay for an iPhone 4S, wait a year, then finally gave you option to buy the iPhone 6 you originally wanted for less money. They both run iOS 8, but one of them is slimmer and nicer than the other.

I hear R&B in Chilton's vocals. One of the pluses of the otherwise diffuse and muddled 33 1/3 book about Dusty in Memphis is its explanation of how this Wexler-Mardin ethos drew towards itself the tight rhythm of Stax. When I hear "September Gurls" Chilton's vocals sound like he's invoking Dusty Springfield more than the Beatles.

This is so OTM. I can't really put my finger on it; every time I hear them I can't help hearing a feeling of displacement and isolation, which I think may be related to them doing music which did not belong in the place they were making it; in Dusty's case she was doing r&b and soul in the middle of the Swinging London, while Chilton was making English-influenced rock/pop music in the geographic heart of the r&b and soul "movement", so to speak.

Regarding Big Star and their influence in REM and the Mats, I think it's undeniably there. REM sounds like more of a #1 Record band, more aligned with the traditional power pop scene. To me, even though that's just an ingredient in their mix because they have a very unique, personal sound, I can hear it in stuff like Near Wild Heaven, for instance.

With The Replacements and Westerberg, I hear more Radio City in them, alternating the mindless "rockier" sound (Mod Lang) with the cynical approach (Life is white) and the total heartbreak (What's Going Ahn). I can also hear some Pavement in Big Star; the intro from Feel reminds me of the one in Silence Kid, and in my mind the Mats is the band that connects Big Star and Pavement into some kind of lineage, though I can't really pinpoint why, other than the fact that they share some sensibility traits, Westerberg being the Chilton fan everyone knows he is, and Malkmus often mentioning both Chilton and Westerberg as influences.

It's like if you wanted to buy an iPhone 6 and Apple made you pay for an iPhone 4S, wait a year, then finally gave you option to buy the iPhone 6 you originally wanted for less money.

so the answer is "no, I don't understand how publishing works" ok cool

So obviously I'm a consumer. Didn't realize knowledge of a series of arcane rituals called "publishing" was required to comment on why it seems strange I have to buy a hardcover or else wait a year to read a book I want to read in an age where the customer generally chooses the form factor in which they want to enjoy their content. So please, just explain it to me instead of being a dick about it.

Outic is shakey fyi

I have to buy a hardcover or else wait a year to read a book I want to read

You have heard of these things called "libraries" perhaps?

an age where the customer generally chooses the form factor in which they want to enjoy their content.

hahahahahaha

the answer is money. any number of yahoo answers or google searches will explain the rest of the details

xp

not really going to go into why a book is not like a tech product, which is ridiculous on its face just due to stark differences in how the two are produced, used, sold, marketed etc.

Holy shit, RIP John Fry. Guy was a genius, and nice as can be.

RIP. seemed like he might have cared more about big star than anyone actually in the band.
the man behind some seriously great sounding records.

FUCK. A young friend of mine just got geeked out on Big Star in the same way I did when I picked up Keep an Eye on the Sky. I let him borrow that and the Ardent "Thank You Friends" comp. Some of the best sounding records ever.

Damndamndamn Fry and John Hampton within a week of each other. Not good times in Ardentland. I guess Terry Manning and Jody Stephens are the last really connected to Big Star in their prime guys left?

RIP and Thank You For The Music.

Shared by Ardent on FB today

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10422482_10153373329288056_8801598654545945912_n.jpg?oh=b52d71073226b11cb776f2d96f2ab951&oe=55429871&__gda__=1426831813_7ec7b3e056bfc2d35780b785aca2bbe2

Fry, Hampton

RIP

Time for a new screenname

Man, everyone in the South goes early. I really need to lay off the brisket.

RIP... the best part of that big star documentary... was not actually in the documentary. it was a "bonus feature" on the DVD where john fry spoke extensively about recording and mixing the first two big star albums. totally endearing and smart and fascinating dude, seems like he was an exceptionally generous personality.

http://static.ow.ly/photos/original/7YQBk.jpg

Fry, Hampton, and---?

I still need to finish the Chilton book. I was obsessed with it for about two weeks and got distracted.

And yes, Fry's passing is totally sad. The guy came off about as unpretentious as possible in that documentary. Way too young.

I still need to finish the Chilton book. I was obsessed with it for about two weeks and got distracted.
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, December 27, 2014 11:09 PM (Yesterday)

Strike "music."

http://acerecords.co.uk/news/2014/john-fry

Some of that "Stax overflow was pretty impressive. Believe lots of Al Bell productions were recorded or mixed there, partly because he was trying to do something different from Steve Cropper. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan06/articles/classictracks.htm

The first inset of that article is more specifically about Fry. There seems to be something missing in the overall story about where the reggae influence came from, since I have heard in other places it came from the Muscles Shoals guys going on tour with Traffic and thereby being exposed to The Wailers, who were also on Island Records.

Jimmy Cliff recorded in Muscle Shoals in like '70-'71. That's the Swampers on "Sitting In Limbo".

Found it. 1971, Another Cycle, Cliff's last release before The Harder They Come, recorded in Muscle Shoals with backing from The Swampers.

Yes!

Good catch. That definitely came out before "I'll Take You There." Wonder if that was after that Wailers/Traffic tour as well. Nope. That was '72. Seems like the Jimmy Cliff connection gets left out frequently of the story- because Bob Marley is so much more famous?

I need to finish A Man Called Destruction. Was totally enjoying it last summer and got distracted just as he went off the rails in NYC in the late 70s.

has anyone heard of Gimmer Nicholson? he was apparently a major influence on Big Star's acoustic guitar sound. he recorded a solo acoustic album at Ardent Studios shortly before Big Star recorded #1 Record, and while it remained unreleased for over 30 years, Chris Bell was a fan of it at the time, according to producer Terry Manning. I can definitely hear some similarities between his playing and Bell's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT6ZwtLMmM0

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/11295631_910536365654239_2866583916654941842_n.jpg?oh=e1a69deedb3bf1afffd532ee19d089be&oe=55FBAAD6

What's A.C.? You know? Arkansas College?

def looks like a page from a yearbook

xposts but i have to say woww @ that gimmer nicholson clip

xp yeah i don't know -- i think someone over on facebook was saying somewhere in Athens GA

In reading A Man Called Destruction, was curious to learn of their jaunt through north Arkansas--Eureka Springs, elsewhere--circa Number 1 Record. I mean, West Memphis wouldn't be unexpected, but up there? Kinda weird. Circa '95 I bought a first press copy of Radio City from a little record shop in Eureka Springs. Talked him down to $10 cuz that's all I had! Radio City came out after their earlier show there, but it still makes me wonder about how the record ended up there. Perhaps a fan who'd been at the first show kept up with them after that. Who knows.

quick search turns up this, so yeah, A.C. = Athens College

https://archive.org/stream/columns1973athe/columns1973athe_djvu.txt

nice internetting!

i've read that the original quartet's set at the time included "cinnamon girl" which would be awesome to hear. i can almost hear it in my head.

Think that was mentioned in the book. Which I highly recommend for fans. Won't come away with a rosy picture of Alex. Sure was a character, often terrible. But no big surprises there I guess. Great read nonetheless. One thing I did love about him is that he adored Off the Wall and would cover "Rock With You," at least playing around at home with friends.

There's a straggly but cute version here. I love Alex's voice whatever he's doing -- I don't think I realised how much until I saw that terrible all star tribute show a couple of years back

http://youtu.be/DJTpdwpOHxU

O man thank you for that! Ha!