Big Star

lol that sounds like a dickinson tall tale to me, but I guess it's true:

He was once asked why he did not play piano on “Wild Horses.” Stu laughed and said “minor chords! “I don’t play minor chords. When I’m playing on stage with the Stones and a minor chord comes along, I lift me hands in protest.”

maybe not "refused to" but "couldn't"

"I lift me hands in protest" huge lol

I don't see how it's possible to be able to play major chords on piano and not be able to play minor chords - it's not like one's more difficult than the other.

A gang of Minor Chords beat Stu w/switch in a stable when he was a mere lad.

My friend just told me the story of a famous session bassist (not being coy, forget his name!) who iirc refused to play a low E because you could't hear it on the radio.

From "Great Moments in Recording Studio History," Spin magazine, April, 1989:

In the middle of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" session, piano player Ian Stewart stopped things dead, and told Charlie Watts that his tom-toms were out of tune with the bass guitar.
"I never tune my drums," Watts told him blankly, and they started playing again. But a bit later, Stewart stopped everyone again and looked at Watts.
"What do you mean you never tune your drums?"
"Why tune something I'm just gonna go and beat the shit out of?" Watts answered. "I'll hit them for a while and then they'll be in tune again."

I bet John B and Eddie K tuned the shit out of the drums (in contrast)

So if you'd like this on vinyl or a possibly better-sounding CD than the Ryko:

Big Star
Live On WLIR
Release date: January 25, 2019

Pre-Order CD $16.98

Pre-Order 2-LP $29.98

Description
Remastered and restored performance originally recorded and broadcast in 1974
Big Star recorded their second album, Radio City, as a trio, after the departure of founding member Chris Bell. When it came time to tour, original bassist Andy Hummel decided to return to school to pursue his engineering education. With this departure, Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens recruited fellow Memphis native John Lightman to take over on bass duties, and the band readied their live set.

That set is on display as Big Star recorded a radio session at Ultrasonic Studios in New York for broadcast on the city’s preeminent WLIR. Nearly two decades later, those recordings were issued as Live in 1992. Omnivore Recordings is proud to reintroduce those recordings, restored and remastered from the original tapes, as Live On WLIR, on CD—and, its first official release on LP.

The 15 track set features material from the band’s two releases, as well as a cover of “Motel Blues” by Loudon Wainwright III (which originally appeared on his classic 1971 sophomore release, Album II).

With new, updated liner notes from Memphis writer/filmmaker, Robert Gordon (who won a Grammy® for his essay in 2010’s Big Star boxed set Keep An Eye On The Sky) and an interview with John Lightman by Chris Bell biographer Rich Tupica (There Was A Light: The Cosmic History Of Big Star Founder Chris Bell), Live On WLIR enters the Big Star canon in the form it deserves. Because, you know, you get what you deserve.

CD / 2-LP TRACK LIST:
SEPTEMBER GURLS
WAY OUT WEST
MOD LANG
DON’T LIE TO ME
O MY SOUL
INTERVIEW
THE BALLAD OF EL GOODO
THIRTEEN
I’M IN LOVE WITH A GIRL
MOTEL BLUES
IN THE STREET
YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE
DAISY GLAZE
BACK OF A CAR
SHE’S A MOVER
LP does not include a download card.

related:

Van Duren
Waiting: The Van Duren Story (Original Documentary Soundtrack)
Release date: February 1, 2019

Pre-Order CD $16.98

Pre-Order LP $21.98

Digital Available February 1

Description
Soundtrack to the original documentary film Waiting: The Van Duren Story.
Memphis musician Van Duren had it all going for himself. He was managed and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham (The Rolling Stones) in the 1970s, he was a contemporary of Big Star and was in a post-Big Star band (Baker Street Regulars) with Chris Bell and Jody Stephens, and had made a debut album, Are You Serious?, that had some people comparing him to Paul McCartney. But instead of being the next big thing, he faded into obscurity.

Though he didn’t break through with Are You Serious?, and a second album was recorded and shelved (eventually released in 1999), Van continued making music. With his band, Good Question, he had a regional hit with the song “Jane” that had record companies sniffing around, but again, to no avail.

Forty years later and a world away, two Australians, Wade Jackson and Greg Carey, came across Duren’s lost album, fell in love with the music and set out to discover what went wrong. They tracked Van Duren down on Facebook and despite having never picked up a movie camera, they journeyed to the U.S. to meet Van Duren and tell his story.

Along the way, they crossed paths with rock stars, Scientologists, and a host of talented musicians who never quite made it. The film took them to North America, Columbia, Japan and back to Australia, staying true to their pledge to finish the film and shine light on Van Duren.

Van’s lost career is a parable of the trials and tribulations of the music industry—an industry that leaves countless broken dreamers behind in its wake. Waiting: The Van Duren Story is a love letter to the artist and his music that should have helped define a generation.

The film will go a long way to right a decades-old wrong, and the Omnivore soundtrack, Waiting: The Van Duren Story Original Documentary Soundtrack—due out February 1, 2019—will put Van Duren where he’s belonged all along, in the record racks for music lovers to discover.

CD / LP / DIGITAL TRACK LIST:
GROW YOURSELF UP
CHEMICAL FIRE
WAITING
YELLOW LIGHT (Live)
TENNESSEE, I’M TRYING
POSITIVE
ANDY, PLEASE – Duren Stephens *
MAKE A SCENE
TORN IN HALF (Live)
JUST YOU TELL ME (Live at Ardent Studios) *
CATCHER IN THE RAIN – Good Question
JANE – Good Question
* Previously unissued.

The filmmakers who did the Van Duren doc used some of my interview w/ Van, which is kinda cool. I haven't seen it yet. "Andy, Please" is from the Ardent sessions Van did before he cut the first album, and I've heard all of those sessions and they're actually better than what Jon Tiven did on the first LP, which was a bit stiff and lacking the aural depth of the Big Star albums. The version of "Grow Yourself Up" from the Ardent demo sessions is superior to the one on Are You Serious?/Staring at the Ceiling, which is the UK title for the album.

There's also a live Van Duren album from around 1979, Chemical Fire, that's OK. I'm not a big fan of his later work solo and w/ Vicki Loveland; pretty good kind of post-McCartney stuff lacking the eccentricity and bite of his early work or Big Star's, sorta Emitt Rhodes lite which is already McCartney lite. Van's been playing in Memphis for years, a journeyman. The Van Duren-Tommy Hoehn records are OK, kinda XTC lite, a bit more interesting than you'd think.

Article on the Memphis scene.

https://memphismagazine.com/features/longform/the-golden-age-of-memphis-power-pop/?fbclid=IwAR2Y0ggcaorpboLmaOz0f8n64jpSBk07JXsWR4-PkeNPW6_ADH-qgZLMnyQ

I pulled a vintage cut-out copy of Tommy Hoehn's debut Losing You To Sleep from the bargain bin at a local vinyl sale last month. Didn't get around to actually spinning it until a couple weeks ago, only find it had some edge warp that ruined the openers on each side. Looking online for a replacement I discover it's going for a little more than I want to spend rn, but I manage to land a sleeveless copy of Spacebreak, the indie label version of the album (minus one cut) for about $5 on ebay, and it arrived the other day.

It strikes me as sort of weird that we've seen so much Big Star-related ephemera reissued and reissued again these past several years, but this record has still (mostly) escaped the net. Good album, hits a nice middle ground between early Big Star and Dwight Twilley Band. Hoehn's solo version of "She Might Look My Way" is here, alongside the coulda-been underground hit "Blow Yourself Up".

I notice there's a Hoehn comp on Spotify that is also called Losing You To Sleep--it has the whole album interspersed with demos and bonus tracks.

Don’t wanna see your face. Don’t want to hear you talk at all

Lesa Aldridge, last seen way upthread, singing with Mr. C. and delivering her own version of "Til The End of the Day" (also co-writing "Downs") on The Complete Third, is now back in The Klitz baby, who are Basement angels, at least when performing on the head of a pin, with tiny sharp sounds coming though just fine in a set recorded by Edd Hurt at Hashville's The Basement: plenty of Moe Tucker appeal I'd say, with girlie voices usually---especially in effective contrast with the likes of boy-associated songs like "Hanky Panky, "I've Had It," and "Rock Hard," which is the only Chilton song I recognize here---but also getting louder and other things when appropriate, and always got flexible doo-wop-surf-rockabilly-Velvets rhythm guitar and drums, with keys and bass surfacing or felt just enough. Longest song is about 2:48-50, most about half that, never skimpy.
I'll have to buy a record player to hear their '18 collection, Rocking The Memphis Underground: 1978=1980, but they've also posted things on YouTube,
Edd's backstory and new quotes here: https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/features/article/21047981/after-40-years-memphis-punk-legends-the-klitz-make-their-nashville-debut

In Space reissue Oct. 25 on Omnivore:

In Space featured new 12 tracks (11 originals and a cover of The Olympics’ “Mine Exclusively”) recorded where Big Star began, at the classic Ardent Studios. The new line up was creating a new chapter for the band while minding and honoring its past.

With original vinyl going for outrageous prices, In Space returns as an LP on translucent blue vinyl, and expanded CD with 6 bonus tracks including “Hot Thing” (previously available on the out-of-print Big Star Story) and 5 previously unissued demos and alternate mixes. Packaging contains liner notes from Rougvie, original album co-producer/engineer Jeff Powell (who also cut the new vinyl), assistant Ardent engineer Adam Hill, and surviving band members Jon Auer, Ken Stringfellow, and Jody Stephens.

i really really felt nothing for this album when it came out.

yeah me neither

From a long-ass 2005 feature leading up to Big Star 2.0 and wake-of-Katrina AC--note link to Edd piece, incl. comments on then-(and sometimes now) hard-to-find recordings:

...Then, after a couple of
decades of going solo, Chilton suddenly agreed to a Big Star "reunion"
performance, again with Jody Stephens, and new recruits Jon Auer and Ken
Stringfellow, guitarist and bassist, respectively, of the Posies. On Zoo's Columbia,
Live At Missouri University 4/25/93, there no bad dogs, even on songs from
Third/Sister Lovers, but also missing is its (and previous albums') consistent
commitment to expressive detail. About (a scattered) 50-60% of the set kinda works
anyway, but the other half's just high-generic, early-70s-associated Classic
Rock, suitable for sweatin' to the oldies "The Ballad of El Goodo" was once
poignantly self-assertive, and even (gasp!) personally responsible. ("You can
just say no, " Chilton advised Nancy Reagan in '72.) On Columbia, it's more
like Mott The Hoople's wet-hanky-waving "Ballad Of Mott." Stringfellow's bass
lumbers all over the place. Big Star lite 'n' heavvy too.
And now! A mere twelve years later, Chilton's Columbia crew bring us a
studio album of all-new tracks, In Space, where lightweight-to-high-generic
qualities seem deliberate, and sometimes witty, like they're saying, "Hello,
fellow collectors! We're influenced by Big Star!" Pleasantly hooky, tap-along,
sing-along, ho-hum-along ballads currently reside in the McCartneyesque portion of
our programme. But my fave raves are more like chillin' Chilton's better solo
joints. The veddy classical "Aria Largo" gets tortured by the twang of an
electric guitar, one (faithful!) note at a time. (I checked it vs.
pre-transcribed, chamber orig.)"Love Revolution" sounds like a longhaired Carolina beach
band covering Archie Bell and the Drells' "Tighten Up," which is surely a signal
to the shade of Big Star's tightly-wired,increasingly cracked,
upside-down-semi "McCartney," Chris Bell, who did want a Love Revolution, in the name of
Jesus!. Seeking to drive (incompetent) money changers and other bugs and swine
from the temple, and the program! For, as previously mentioned, Chris and the
other original Stars were trained in engineering by Big Star studio
mentor/founder John Fry, but Chris was the one who obsessively tinkered for years on the
same set of solo tracks, as he would have on some Big Star tracks, if he
hadn't wrung himself out of the group. (And do the tighten up, ma blue-eyed boy,
like when young A.C. was but the frustrated clapper 'ttached to Bell Records'
own Box Tops.)
This alluvial- plain-as-thee-Memphis-on-yr.-phizz bell of allusion is
closely observed by the guy behind the shades and the finally-getting-creepy,
fake British accent, who's "Hung Up With Summer." When the sun goes down, "Do
You Wanna Make It" conjures a big fat drunk chick, doing the bump with/to those
elegant Kinks. Yes, baby's got bass, and there's a Big Star tattooed on it.
Once again, Big Star shine where the sun don't shine. ('Cause after all, they're
stars of the underground!)
(Update: ever the gentleman, Mr. Chilton insisted
on keeping a blind date with a lady called Katrina, down in New Orleans. He
almost became a star under the underground, but ended up settling for the
Astrodome. (Poor bastard. I don't really know what I'd do.) Now recuperating in "a
place he refuses to name," behind a wall of rumors, his usual home away from
home, at least. Hopefully not too far for A.C. and his Nola to make up, without
breaking up; there's been too much of that already.)(Updownsidate:
Wherever he is, somebody tell him Big
Star's tourette has been rescheduled for December. That's '05, Alex. I think.) For
a more concentrated hit of Big Star, book and band, see Edd Hurt's trenchant
investigation:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Music/2005/09/01/Mod_Lang/index.shtml (link don't work no more! Is there another one, Edd??)

This? https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/article/13012262/mod-lang

Yesm thanks so much! He discusses what gets called power pop and why, how Big Star fits and when and how---once caveat, re Two Yanks in England: the one time I heard it, seemed like the Hollies were trying to compete with mid-60s Dylan lyrics, and got only the verbosity, but the Everlys coped.

Well not "yesm" but otherwise yeah, thx.

this Everly Brothers record is fascinating.

I bought that Chilton bio on Kindle but never finished it. Good but a pretty depressing read.

A Man Called Destruction?

Yep

I have agreed to play 2 songs in a Chilton celebration/annual shindig and realized 1) just how unusual some of the drum parts are and 2) this is clearly one of the things I always liked about these songs even when I was too young to realize it.

So in my searching, I learned that Richard Roseborough existed and played on Chris Bell's solo stuff too. It's all making sense! Apparently his toms were tuned lower?

Anyway, I thought Big Star fans might enjoy these links. I did
Drum questions directed at Terry Manning, apparently? http://repforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php?topic=16977.0
Interview w Jody Stephens where he talks about it a little bit http://zenandjuice.com/music/bigstar/text/stephens.html

A: One thing I noticed about that album was that the drumming was totally
free and unrestricted. The whole thing sounded just rawer. When you
compare "O My Soul" to "Ballad of El Goodo", the rhythm section just sounds
like they were able to let loose [Stephens and Hummel]. What was behind
that creative change? As a drummer on the album, what was different for
you?
J: I think I just got a little better as a drummer. I was stretching out a
bit. I don't think I was feeling quite inhibited as I was on the first
album. I think the performances were appropriate for the first album. On
the second record, the material and Alex's performances changed and were a
bit freer and a bit wilder. So, the drumming got a bit freer and wilder.
A: At times, it almost reminded me of Mitch Mitchell [of the Jimi Hendrix
Experience.]
J: God, that's a compliment. I'm a big fan of Mitch Mitchell. This is
something that a lot of people don't know, and that is, a guy named Richard
Roseborough [Chris Bell's sideman on I Am The Cosmos] played drums on
"What's Going Ahn", "She's a Mover" and "Mod Lang". He played drums on all
those.
A: Wow. I didn't know that!
J: He's a great drummer.

I also learned from watching the 2010 live version of Daisy Glaze that the lyrics at the end are "you're gonne die!" over and over. Somehow I wasn't not aware of that until...today!

yeah his drumming is nuts, falling-down-the-stairs fills all over the place, there's just tons of variation from one bar to the next.

his = roseborough or stephens?

also this thread is so old <3

mostly Stephens although I confess it isn't always easy for me to tell them apart

Yeah I LOVE the drumming on Daisy Glaze and acc to Stephens that was him, but the forum said otherwise. I don't really care, they are both interesting drummers imo. I love the drums on I Am the Cosmos too and that was Roseborough. I do agree that the "Big Star drum sound" was in large part due to the drummers, not the gear or recording techniques.

It does remind me of Mitch Mitchell!

yeah "Mod Lang", "She's a Mover", "What's Going Ahn" is basically a different band backing Chilton, Roseborough and someone named Danny Jones. Always thought it was Stephens on "Daisy Glaze" though ... (Roseborough is credited for those other songs in the liners). But yeah, whoever is playing, the drums on Big Star records are always pretty cool, strange fills, off-kilter turnarounds.

I also learned from watching the 2010 live version of Daisy Glaze that the lyrics at the end are "you're gonne die!" over and over.

Not entirely true, he also throws in a "You're gonna decease!". :-D

but seriously, I've always thought the end of this crazy song was about overdosing from heroin (the "nullify my life" line that precedes this section is cribbed from Lou Reed/VU's paean to H). Memphis is such a weird town...

yeah, the VU reference passed me by for years (think i thought it was "gotta find my life"). but it makes sense, obviously Chilton was into that stuff (drugs and the VU). There's even some reference to Big Star covering Lou's "The Bed" live, which is pretty nuts. Guess it'd go hand-in-hand with "Holocaust."

me neither, I didn't get the lyrics to that song until decades after first hearing it

i love the "you're gonna decease!" part! now that i know it's there, i mean

the song i always associate with heroin is "ballad of el goodo" bc it reminds me of my friend who ODed :(

Update: it's actually going to be 4 songs!

To get even more psyched I am reading A Man Called Destruction" and haven't gotten very far -- I'm at the end of the box tops atm. the stuff about Chilton's early childhood was really interesting, and how the author talked to his friends. especially his female friends. I feel like I have read some music bios and rarely hear that perspective on a person as notorious as Alex Chilton (antihero or otherwise). You learn a lot about people that way and it made him seem kind of less enigmatic and more relatable in a way that I recognized him (not that I related to him personally). And the losses too :( so sad.

@edmasley
"I'd like to go to India/Live in a big white house in the forest/Drink gin and tonic and play a grand piano/Read a few books far from what saddens my heart."
Born this day in 1951, Andy Hummel of
@BigStarBand
whose many contributions to their legacy include writing The India Song.

Sad to report here that Jeff Breeze, the college radio DJ who called Alex Chilton and pitched the idea of a Big Star reunion show at the Universit of Missouri, passed away suddenly late last year. I'm still unclear as to exactly what happened, but it appears to have been cardiac related.

On today's Jeopardy, the Double Jeopardy round had the categories "Big Star" & "#1 Record".

I wonder what questions they would come up with for the topic "Sister Lovers"?

Hmm.

"Jenny and Pattie Boyd".

"Who were Mick Fleetwood and George Harrison's wives"?

Ringo and Joe Walsh?

don't really see it mentioned but they were some pretty handsome fellas

andy hummel's mom was a Miss America!

No denying that Jody Stephens is memorably beautiful 😍

I’ve been trying hard against unbelievable odds! https://t.co/DyjaOs71kN

— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) January 30, 2021

<3