Big Star

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

haha awesome. ken rocks

Champion move, kudos

WATCH: Sadler is joined by @BigStarBand drummer Jody Stephens, Tom Petersson of @cheaptrick and guitar great Audley Freed @SherylCrow for "The Ballad of El Goodo"- Big Star https://t.co/DJwUaHylCg

— Sadler Vaden (@SadlerVaden) February 2, 2021

Wow

HI DERE

Rad. Did they use taped backing vox?

I think that's Sadler, so yeah.

That's what I assumed.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/popturf/original_1388496647big_star_grocery.jpg

namesake (chain grocery store across the st. from Ardent's own storefront)

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/585acf7f44024385f58341d7/1484689263117-4NAG2UCG5AJPXF96L0HC/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kOTZN6w2ClZCx7E87SfMnYJ7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z4YTzHvnKhyp6Da-NYroOW3ZGjoBKy3azqku80C789l0p4XabXLlNWpcJMv7FrN_NJJURIssOfu_ahulRAGkKa01TrlHLaDGa9uAYadfdnQhQ/07_Ardent+National+St+Exterior.jpg?format=1500w

Yeah!

Has anyone read that Rich Tupica book about Chris Bell? It looks interesting, has a strong blurb from Bob Mehr among other things.

Hadn't heard of that.
xxp pic of the store reminds me now of recent experience:
GPS voice insists we've take a wrong turn somewhere in very weathered Selma sidestreets--we're vaccine-seeking time travelers, headed into sepia dried blood rust bone-gray Edmund Pettus heyday, still a few(?) blocks from his Bridge--back on track just after passing a battered cube, with its sign painted on concrete over the front door: Big Star Grocery---in small letters made of blessedly bright Kool-Aid Popsicle Vacation Bible School colors.

(Oh yeah, meant to mention AC & Hi Rhythm Section alb coming out in May, details here:
Alex Chilton S&D)

BIG STORE

Big Star drummer Jody Stephens — who often collaborated with the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow on recent iterations of the power-pop legends — announced Friday he would no longer work with Stringfellow following a string of sexual misconduct allegations against the artist....Stringfellow denied “these specific allegations” after several women accused him of sexual misconduct in an investigation by NPR’s Seattle affiliate KUOW. “I am a nonviolent person and I would never intentionally harm someone,” Stringfellow said. “Still, I am taking personal responsibility for the harm my behavior caused these women.” A relatively straightforward mea culpa, as these things so. Also bounced from Posies--- leading to possible musical improvements in Stephens-led Big Star tributes?
ollingstone.com/music/music-news/big-star-jody-stephens-removes-ken-stringfellow-misconduct-allegations-1250594/#recipient_hashed=970f9bb2306cb113cb73fc8b6356ff90c42825af7eda2f3e047

as these things *go*

ody Stephens & Luther Russell are Those Pretty Wrongs...

Those Pretty Wrongs (2016) & Zed For Zulu (2019) were both released to great critical success and the duo toured much of the US, Europe and Australia delighting crowds with Those Pretty Wrongs music. There's an undeniable influence of Stephens’ former band (Big Star) in the breezy melodies, the strong, simple and straightforward arrangements, beautifully built around the duo’s harmonies. Both albums were originally recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis.

Billed as "Double the PRETTINESS for the price of one" and inspired by the classic truck-stop LP two-fers (along with the desire to update the vinyl pressing with premium cutting, and packaging) Curation Records has teamed up with Those Pretty Wrongs to not only put their two LPs back in print, but to also remind the world of the power of "pretty music."

The deluxe reissue of Those Pretty Wrongs / Zed For Zulu will be available as a Limited 2xLP Vinyl Gatefold Set, as well as CD and digital/streaming formats February 2022 via Curation Records. Click here to pre-order. You'll figure it out.
Here's what folks have been saying about Those Pretty Wrongs...

"What shines through this gorgeous collection of tunes is the ease and simplicity of it all... it’s a collection of beautifully structured songs that could have been written any time between 1963 and yesterday." - Ian Rushbury, POPMATTERS

"... some extremely pretty folk." - Collin Robison, STEREOGUM

"These pure popsters contemporize ‘a golden age of rock and roll,’ with nary a whit of self-consciousness." - Doug Collette, GLIDE MAGAZINE

"Fans of Big Star and all the groups that they influenced - from REM to The dBs - will want to check this out immediately!" - Mark Smotroff, AUDIOPHILE REVIEW

"The music Those Pretty Wrongs makes is enjoyable, warm, heart-filling, soulful pop with acoustic flavors and harmonies – and I can ask for nothing better. Actually, here’s the simplest criteria – I love it. And so will you." - Min Read, POPDOSE

"If you like pop songs full of longing and wistfulness sung and performed with a master's touch, then this should be right up your alley. Those Pretty Wrongs have crafted a lovely homage to the softer side of smart pop that are perfect for late at night or a rainy afternoon." - Mark Deming, ALLMUSIC

"... a great LP that reflects the traditions of past acoustic music... overall it’s a solid win for these two veteran musicians." - Ben Rosner, PASTE

Sorry ody!

The guitar on Lucky Guy really does sound exactly like Thirteen

sequence from Sweet Soul Music thread (copied to main Alex Chilton thread

Judging by "Boogie Shoes" on YouTube, most of the appeal of the Alex Chilton/Hi Rhythm live album might be insrumental, which reminds me: here they are with Terry Manning, better known as a producer and engineer at Ardent etc. but his rough-and-ready vocal approach works better with HRS live than Chilton's (comparing just one track to another):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lyZHzReSk

(Chilton seems a bit cautious by comparison---their set was a one-off, but so was Manning's w HRS---filling in at the last minute for a no-show, and just taking the plunge, what the hell---this is the only live track on his album, and really seemed like the only keeper---according to the press sheet, he did a Box Tops Chilton parody for kicks, and was ordered to create an album around it, which mostly seemed like filler, but I didn't listen much)

However!
So Chilton does okay after all, though yeah of course Hi Rhythm Gang is the main interest, esp. horns and bass, though everybody steps up--most songs go on a little over four minutes and a half minutes; the studio originals were at least a minute shorter, but but we get more solo turns and full Section flexing, comfortably. Fave is the penultimate performance, "Hello Josephine," where a Hi man starts the vocal, Chilton coming in later: a very robust 7:12 work-out, calm as ever. Also: Motown gets the Memphis treatment on "Where Did Our Love Go," with Chilton as okay stand-in for Diana Ross, though this is one of he shorter ones, as it probably should be).Does not sing as high, loud and fast there as on "Lucille" or "Maybelline." Sounds like Pat Boone looking to go rong on "Kansas City." Any of yall heard this one? xgau sez:
On the Loose [Hi, 1976]
In which Al Green's sidemen, perhaps disgruntled at Al's unwillingness to record their material, get together and cut it. Some stickler for detail is sure to point out that the singing on side two is completely out of tune, but that's OK--so is most of the singing on side one, which I prefer to Full of Fire. One of the more carefully thought out tracks features a mildly malicious lyric about Green himself, but it's the eccentricity of the music, which sounds as if it includes a banjo, that does him in. Loose indeed. A-
Anyway, very good music for a holiday weekend, has me looking to go for b-b-q chicken.

― dow, Thursday, July 1, 2021