Big Star

I assume he wanted to avoid confusion with the former Hull City striker.

https://www.programmecollector.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/book_chillo.jpeg.jpeg

a musical tribute to alex trebek and kristen bell

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_classic_big_star_songs_that_arent_big_star_but_a_studio_project_du

I love the whole record, but those three songs are certainly Radio City highlights. It's hard to imagine the record without them.

Wow, never knew! Also hilarious to picture Chilton pointing to a Dolby Noise Reduction button or switch and saying "what's this Dolby fucker do?" That's like a perfect throwaway line in a Coen brothers movie.

Who would ever have thought that the personnel on a Big Star album was somewhat ambiguous?

also: that big photo from three months ago-doctor, my eyes!

whoa! At least “What’s Going Ahn” is a co-write with Hummel.

Thanks! & good to know about the book they quote:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31ZTkHuWLgL.jpg

of course, Third/Sister Lovers is all over the place, and Complete Third omg duhhh, but even/especially that is *going* all over the place, with own sort of momentum.

Oh, speaking of Stones as packrats, try Metamorphosis.

That book is good.

It always amazes me how often Terry Manning shows up in different contexts. Just the other day was revisiting the fact that he engineered Hot Buttered Soul.

Sorry, my last two posts were meant for Major 'informal' albums

you forgot to add #onethread #pvmic

xxpost Manning also worked on Led Zeppelin III at Ardent:
https://www.memphisflyer.com/remembering-led-zeppelin-iii-generations-of-memphians-affected-by-album

or rather "mixed and mastered at Ardent," with TM also engineering some overdubs.

Well I said he worked on it yeah did all that

I’d told Chris to stay away, but he couldn’t help it. He came by sheepishly, with a bottle of wine. So we let him in, and Jimmy and Chris and I hung out. We listened to Gimmer Nicholson all night. And Ali Akbar Khan.

Was Richard Rosebrough etc not always credited on the album?

mine's a repress but he has a writer's credit for "mod lang"

original side B label
https://i.discogs.com/SbWXndkZDowKOzSr6RJqmoTUmzdywFQDGVs-kcCsddU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:597/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTM4Mzkw/NjctMTM0NjQzMDQ1/Mi0zMDY2LmpwZWc.jpeg

Jody interviewed by a lil nipper for Nippertown: totally charming, v. informative:

Jody chats with Ellie Everywhere!https://t.co/G1srdyCS9z

— Big Star (@BigStarBand) July 18, 2022

Wow, hooray for my local blog! And I briefly freaked out thinking Jody Stephens had played here recently and I somehow missed it.

R.I.P. John King. Co-founder of Ardent Records & a brilliant promo man from Memphis music's golden era, he helped build the legend of Big Star (coming up with the idea for the 1973 Rock Writers Convention). Here's a look at his colorful life and legacy. https://t.co/SDn63gPOnF

— Bob Mehr (@BobMehr) August 2, 2022

Good story, Bob Mehr does it again. But why were Big Star albums so hard to find? I read plenty about them, but the only ones I ever saw, decades before the Line twofer CD and Ryko series, were vinyl promos, sold for 99 cents (somebody beat me to them, going back from the magazine rack to the bargain bin).

We were both reading Creem that day...

I think the Caropop podcast with Jody talks about this, but the first album was sabotaged by Stax's shitty deal with CBS Records. Clive Davis made the deal, then was famously fired for misuse of company funds, and the people who took over didn't give a shit about Stax - to them it was like, "why should we spend a dime on them? We should be using that money for OUR R&B acts." Stax tried to get out the CBS deal, but in perverse fashion, CBS refused because they also didn't want Stax to sign with another big label and become direct competitors. (Makes Mo Ostin's passing feel all the more sad - he really was one of a kind.)

I forgot what happened with the third album, but I think by then the money wasn't there for anybody (they were no longer under CBS's control) and I don't think they believed they had a profitable record either so they might've balked at spending too much of what little money they had left.

I should say the first TWO albums were sabotaged by the CBS deal.

And yes, Big Star wasn't an R&B act, but regardless it's still the same principle - spend money on CBS acts, not Stax.

By the third LP there wasn't really a band to tour with, so spending money on the record may have seemed like throwing good money after bad.

Even when there was a band to tour with, they barely toured. Do we even know how many live shows they did when Chris Bell was in the band?

xp The fact that they couldn't even finish the third album - like just sequence it and say "THIS is the album, it's DONE" - probably hurt as well. Like imagine if you're a company that's putting out an indie film and the director can't be bothered to finish his cut, even though you gave him creative control. You're not even sure if you have a complete work to put out - the last thing on your mind is "let's pour everything we got into this!"

Thanks, yeah, all that sounds right: been so long since I read Ron J.'s Big Star book, but yeah.And Stax, if you read their own story, was pretty much on the skids then, direction-wise as well as financially. Complete Third, as discussed and live-blogged upthread, is creatively, not commercially, justified and ancient, despite a few good-faith missteps (and even those are to be determined by individual listeners, who may change their mynds, suiting mutable moods and music).

Although original Third/Sister Lovers (the one on Ryko is all I know) is fine its own self.

Not that Stax's struggling with direction, trying to adapt, didn't lead to skids only: for instance, Edd Hurt pointed me toward the frequently remarkable round-up Stax Country a few years ago.

not that Stax's etc *led* to skids only, I should have said.

Stax was already caput by the time the Third sessions wrapped up (part of why they were able to drag on so long is that there really wasn't anyone left at the label to formally pull the plug), and so John Fry was free to shop the tapes to other labels, but iirc he or Jim Dickinson said nobody would even accept the tapes as demos to finance rerecords.

Just prior to Chris Bell's death there was some renewed interest in the band, with Ardent being able to strike deals with EMI in the UK to reissue the first two albums as a double LP, and a little later the first commercial release of Third happened on a US Indie, with several variations to follow.

Stax was still having big hits with Johnnie Taylor up until around '75: they could still market R&B, but didn't know thing 1 about selling Rock.

@dow the Ryko Third is probably the definitive version, so I think you're good. Maybe not in terms of sound/mastering, but the presentation is great. Omnivore's box set is great and sounds a bit better, but it's not really a good comparison because it's everything and not everyone's going to want two discs of demos, alternates, etc.

Forgot one detail from the Caropop podcast - it sounded like "Sister Lovers" was intended as a potential band name. According to Jody Stephens, Chilton told him "we should call ourselves Sister Lovers!" because they were both dating sisters, so if he wrote that on the label, it might've been a new band name he was considering since it wasn't entirely Big Star anymore with Bell and Hummel gone.

I wonder if Taylor's success made Big Star's unfortunate situation worse. Like if CBS was afraid of letting Stax out of their contract and turning into formidable competition elsewhere, Taylor's success would only validate those concerns.

It's possible. I mean, after Stax went down, Taylor signed with Columbia and immediately had his biggest hit ever with "Disco Lady".

FWIW Omnivore has a "back to school" sale that ends today - 50% off everything except pre-orders and new releases, and they've got a ton of Big Star, Alex Chilton and Chris Bell releases that are eligible, so now's a perfect time to scoop them up.

Thanks for the heads up! Ended up with no Big Star (have a lot already), but a lot of Buck Owens, Bobby Rush, and Uncle Walt's Band, so I think Alex would still approve.

The site doesn't say the Posies' Frosting and Amazing Disgrace lps are out of stock, but I can't add them to my cart. Assume they're out and just not showing it, but that's a bummer (even though Ken Stringfellow is a human trash can).

yeah thanks for the tip. i got some muffs, some gladiators, and mumps!

filling out my "mu" section apparently.

Thanks birdistheword! I got in on that sale at the last minute, filling in some blanks in my collection and re-buying some stuff for the bonus tracks. And I love that Omnivore usually has good liner notes, too. Listening to "Looking Forward: The Roots of Big Star" right now; what's striking to me is just how much of a joy it is to hear Jody Stephens' drumming. My haul also included Game Theory, The Dream Syndicate and The Bangles - and I'm sure it's been said before, but being a Big Star fan (for those three bands) in the '80s was surely a kind of (not so) secret handshake...Game Theory covered "You Can't Have Me," The Bangles of course covered "September Gurls," and Kendra Smith in the Dream Syndicate sang on Rainy Day's cover of "Holocaust."

Scott Miller's next band The Loud Family also covered "Back of a Car", although I guess by 93 or 94 Chilton had a higher profile.

And, in somewhut adjacent early 70s musical sensibility news

Four Classic Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers Albums Set For CD & Vinyl Re-Release via @OmnivoreRecords
https://t.co/N3B4pGLOXE via @glidemag @MissingPieceGrp

— Cary Baker (@Conqueroo1) July 9, 2022

So now Omnivore is following up the Back To School Sale, w this, briefly:

Hello Omnivores,

Some folks happily stream their music, some listen to the radio, some spin CDs and vinyl—others however, really love to dig deep, they love the art of the artifact. If you’re one of those, for whom the objects themselves are precious, this sale is for you. Once a year or so, we canvas the warehouse corners, look under boxes and scour closets to find things that are rarities, one-of-a-kinds, limited edition leftovers and that sort of thing, we present them to you under the umbrella of Omnivore’s Rarities Sale!

Featuring a huge selection of test pressings: 7” singles, 10” EPs, full-length LPs, autographed items, and merch. Select titles will be available for 50% off from Wednesday September 7 through Friday September 9. Many of these are one-of-a-kind items—perfect for the collector, as well as a great gift for any music lover.

The sale only lasts three days (September 7–9), so don’t delay, these titles often disappear quickly. We hope you find something to treasure at this years’ Omnivore Rarities Sale!

You might be a William Eggleston fan and not know it - the multidisciplinary artist took the iconic cover photo for Big Star’s Radio City. He was known as the Warhol of Memphis - the hip scene was centered on him. I love this recently released collection of his synth experiments pic.twitter.com/Pby4ts8qOk

— the modern folk (@themodernfolk) September 14, 2022