BIG STAR - FULL DISCOGRAPHY DEEP DIVE
INTRO:
Big Star is one of those bands that EVERYONE should be aware of.
However, I am constantly surprised in conversation how many people - even some musicians - don’t know them or are only aware in peripheral ways. Like Velvet Underground and The Ramones, they stand on elevated ground in laying very specific foundations for countless artists to emulate in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways - Cheap Trick, R.E.M., & Tom Petty among many, many more.
Admittedly, I didn’t come to listen to Big Star until after college. I recall reading about them in an article on R.E.M. and started with the Rykodisc reissue of Third/Sister Lovers (probably ‘93-ish). I was hooked immediately and haven’t made a moody/perfect-for-rain playlist since that hasn’t included either “Holocaust” or “Kangaroo.” Out of the many Full Discography Deep Dives that I have taken on, I am selecting Big Star as my first to post, because I honestly can’t think of a better starting point.
Enjoy - Cheers! NOTE: For each album, in addition to including thoughts, I will be offering a Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down rating, as far as whether I would suggest the album to a friend. I also give a letter Grade to more specifically share where each album falls on my personal scale. For what it’s worth.
#1 Record
Personnel: Chris Bell (guitars, vocals), Alex Chilton (guitar, vocals), Andy Hummel (bass, vocals), Jody Stephens (drums)
Produced by: John Fry
Recorded at: Ardent Studios, Memphis
Released: April 24, 1972
What a fucking joy this album is to listen to. And a perfect example, as I post my first Full Discography Deep Dive, of a collection that absolutely gets a perfect score from me. It is just one of THOSE albums. Because I initially tunneled into Big Star through the band's 'final' album, Third, I found that that their two original albums didn’t get the same attention from me out of the gate, but that certainly changed as I gave the records their due individual attention.
And cranking through #1 Record a bunch of additional times for this discography journey really brought forward all of those positives.
To me, this album is almost a perfect sister-companion to The Stone's Exile on Main Street (which was only released a few months prior). The similarities of the horn arrangement in the opener “Feel” is pure Stones and the whole album balances Jagger & Richards’ fantastic ability to tackle both balls-out rockers and sentimental ballads on equal footing. The big difference is that The Stones - though they had absolutely already hit album perfection prior - released 11 albums before Exile.
Big Star’s debut is so very impressive in the way it presents a fully-rounded and musically expansive approach out of the gate - Chilton's prior success with The Box Tops notwithstanding.
It is certainly easy to hear the way their influence scattered to other bands. Cheap Trick (“In The Street” especially) is such an obvious one - as are later artists from Robyn Hitchcock & XTC to Teenage Fanclub & The Jayhawks - all artists I love. I’ll probably talk about musical DNA a bunch, but this is such a prime, undeniable example of that influence playing out in really striking ways.
I did scratch my head a bit when I came across an article years ago with Paul Stanley talking about how Big Star was an influence on Kiss, but with “Don’t Lie To Me” you can totally hear the connection as it really does read like a prototype for the first few Kiss albums to a T.
What surprised me even more (though I guess this should have been obvious in my mind) was the fully-formed link from Big Star to Tom Petty (“When My Baby’s Beside Me” could have been a winning single from any of the early Petty albums - easy).
I especially appreciate the acoustic and ballad numbers. The rockers are great and I don’t think I have ever enjoyed them as much as I have with these recent listens, but holy crap - the way this band can really lay down some intense emotion with slower, melancholy tracks is just astounding.
“Thirteen” is a true perfect piece of acoustic pop sensibility. I also love “Give Me Another Chance”, but I found myself holding “The Ballad of El Goodo” in the highest esteem. As a HUGE fan of The Jayhawks and Wilco, this track is both mother & father to those particular purveyors of acoustic mellowness, lush vocal harmonies, & simply beautiful turns of a phrase. It is a track I could listen to again and again without it ever wearing thin.
Like Lennon & McCartney, Chilton & Bell credited all of their individual writing together as a united team. Knowing this is the only Big Star album that Bell appears on adds to the pleasure of enjoying all the really incredible ways their combined textures, layers & approaches work together. CONCLUSION: Thumbs Up over and over again. And while bestowing them is a rarity, this album receives a Grade of A+.
Radio City
Personnel: Alex Chilton (guitar, vocals), Andy Hummel (bass, vocals), Jody Stephens (drums)
Produced by: John Fry
Recorded at: Ardent Studios, Memphis
Released: February 1974
This album is always an especially interesting listen for me.
Other than the entirety of Third, the two tracks I knew best from Big Star (prior to digging in deeper) are from this album (“Back of a Car” and “September Gurls”).
However, I feel like I had barely paid all that much attention to this full album over the years for some reason - and I’m not sure I had EVER listened to it in a concentrated way with such close proximity to #1 Record.
Two major things jump out:
Though I felt like I appreciated “Chilton’s” songs from the first album the most, I now have a huge dose of appreciation for what Bell brought to the table - mostly on the sonic and production/arrangement side. With pretty much all of the rest of the working pieces the same on this sophomore release, it is hard to ignore what Bell must have meant to the way the songs were fleshed out.
And because of this absence, I feel a much larger connection to the first wave of acts that played such a huge role in feeding & incorporating these influences through a new lens to essentially map out modern alternative rock. The first album speaks much to the 60’s hangover and pre-glam/power pop, but the beautiful wreck that is Radio City has WAY MORE in common with bands like Replacements, REM, and even post-punk acts like Television.
I love this album, but comparing it to #1 Record is like comparing an orange to an avocado. There are similarities of sorts, but we really are talking about fairly major differences.
Watching the fantastic Big Star documentary, Nothing Can Hurt Me, and understanding how completely engrossed Chilton would become in punk/noise/performance rock, you can see him already starting to push those boundaries here. And with Bell not there to counter ideas and round things out in the wash, there is a certain breaking down that is captured on tape just the way it was delivered.
I have always been a big fan of this sort of approach (though I obviously love its counterpart equally/as passionately). The rawness of this recording (and the memory/expectation of what happens next on Third) has so many high points - even if it isn’t wrapped up quite as neatly as their debut.
The two standout singles (“Back of a Car” and “September Gurls”) still hold their weight in gold, but I was really pulled in by some of the other tracks that were not as well-known to me. Leading that pack (and maybe even in competition with the ‘big two’) is “You Get What You Deserve.” I just love that track. It hits such a sweet spot of the rock Americana that Petty would emulate so effectively, but it really sets a course for so many of my favorite early alt rock acts. “Way Out West” was another very pleasant surprise. Simple and honest - it really delivers. And it’s pretty hard to ignore the angst and frustration that is captured so heartbreakingly in “What’s Going Ahn”.
You wrap all of this up with Bell’s departure, the struggles the remaining guys were facing (both personally and with their label and the music business in general), you can almost assume too much - but whether the push-back was truly felt or inspired, it works very significant magic on the way this album spills out - and over.
CONCLUSION: Another easy Thumbs Up. This album receives a Grade of B+.
Third/Sister Lovers
Personnel: Alex Chilton (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Jody Stephens (drums)
Produced by: Jim Dickinson
Recorded at: Ardent Studios, Memphis
Released: March 18, 1978 / Reissue: 1985
I can already hear the arguments revolving around the length and the wandering nature of the full Rykodisc reissue, so I’m going to focus my review on the overall effect of the songs and less on the specific artistic statement made in any ‘one’ version of this particular album. After all, even Chilton & Stephens are on record saying that they feel like this isn’t even really fair to judge this album as a complete big Star artistic statement.
The way I see it, #1 Record is a mission statement, Radio City is a declaration of independence, and Third is a cry for help.
Each, of course, pulls and claws in different ways, but I have always been a sucker for pain expressed through art (especially music) - and boy do I get plenty of it on this collection. There is no question, even the manicured (to a degree) Rykodisc version is still somewhat of a mess. But to my ear - and my emotions - it is an absolutely beautiful mess.
I can’t overstate the impact that the songs on this album had on me as a young musician & songwriter. “Holocaust” & “Kangaroo” are a total master class in how to capture pain, distress, & haunting deterioration on tape. That the iconically gothic This Mortal Coil (a landmark collaborative in their own right) would choose to include not one, but both tracks on their debut speaks volumes to the impactful presence these songs play in serving as such a ground zero for mournful emotional & abstract milestones in modern music.
And one amazing thing I always think about when I hear those two songs - especially “Kangaroo” - is how absolutely deconstructed they are. Seriously - take a moment to imagine “Kangaroo” with an up-tempo 4/4 drum beat and bouncy keys & guitar backing. It is a surefire catchy pop song. But Chilton had other plans - he twisted it and tore it down until it barely hangs together at all. Just such a brilliant artistic statement and decision.
And then there is "Holocaust." Damn, has any pop song ever ended with a more depressing and haunting trio of lines - “You’re a wasted face, you’re a sad-eyed lie, you’re a holocaust”. It just makes you feel torn inside for what Chilton must have thought of himself (assuming you agree that the song is about him).
The extra good news is that the quality found on this album doesn’t come close to ending with those two iconic tracks. It is sometimes way too easy to recall The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ when discussing a collection that seems to wander yet somehow stay connected in really fragmented, intriguing ways, but this release has, for me, always stood as one in the minority where this comparison is pretty apt.
Another major track is “Big Black Car.” Not only are the lyrics indicative of the withdrawn and isolated nature of Chilton’s head-space, but the languish approach to create such a gloomy and dreamy backdrop is so extremely effective.
Many of the uptempo rockers recall earlier Chilton/Big Star tracks. They manage, at the same time, to shake off the past a bit in subtle touches of the arrangements and performances. It’s a little tricky (though one is easily forgiven for reading into things given the band’s history and knowledge of Chilton’s psyche) to totally gauge where he is coming from with some of the songs.
For instance, I read “Thank You Friends” as a bit of throw-away fun. Likewise with “Jesus Christ”. Was he earnestly trying his hand at a Christmas song - or was this a slight at Bell’s newfound obsession with becoming ‘born again’? Hard to say.
Of the covers, I could probably do without the Underground & Kinks’ tracks as they are so closely adapted from the source material. Truthfully (though I couldn’t find anything to support this), I honestly wonder if they weren’t just in-the-studio warm-up fun (like The Beatles did with old 50s rock numbers when they recorded the tracks for Let It Be). They are true and earnest testaments to seminal acts that obviously served as inspiration, but the guys don’t really take the songs anywhere new. On the other hand, “Nature Boy” is just a stunning phenomenon. I also love the original Nat King Cole version, but this take travels to some really interesting places and makes for perfect post-midnight listening.
Any way you come at it, I would find it impossible to understand how the overall artistry and obvious songwriting talent found here wasn't more discovered and appreciated. We certainly know that this album served as such a catalyst for so many amazing bands - and that alone is a pretty good reason to sing its praises.
Truth is, I find myself gaining more each time I listen to it. These concentrated listens are certainly no exception.
CONCLUSION: Super big Thumbs Up. This ‘album that isn’t an album’ (even averaging in the A+ that both “Kangaroo” & “Holocaust” earn) receives a solid Grade of B.
In Space
Personnel: Jon Auer (guitar vocals), Alex Chilton (guitar, vocals), Jody Stephens (drums, vocals), Ken Stringfellow (bass, keyboards, vocals)
Produced by: Big Star, Jeff Powell
Recorded at: Ardent Studios, Memphis
Released: September 27, 2005
Yes, this is a “Big Star” album, but I think it’s completely useless (and totally unnecessary) to judge/gauge this against their groundbreaking releases from the 70s. Here’s what I take away from this collection. It sounds like Alex Chilton & Jody Stephens are having a blast - and good for them! Considering the varied and checkered history that the band (and especially Chilton) has had, it is hard to find any real fault with an album like this.
I must say - I’m also really glad that, before Chilton passed, this ‘dedicated’ version of the band had the chance to document themselves. The guys from The Posies were obviously doing this (and continued to do so after Chilton’s death) as a pure act of love. There is something really beautiful about that - and so what if this comes across more as a likable & breezy collection that echoes a general Beatlesque/jangy-pop approach than the trend-setting sounds the band unearthed in their original form.
The arrangements still shine - great harmony vocals, nice horn adds, and tremendous playing - especially by Stephens. It’s an album filled with tight pop songs that sound like a band influenced by Big Star, more than actually being ½ of the original Big Star themselves, but that is totally fine with me.
Speaking of Stephens playing - I did dig in a bit deeper in checking out the two albums he recorded with the alt-Americana supergroup Golden Smog - featuring a slew of amazing songwriters & musicians from bands (Wilco, The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, & The Replacements) that would all proudly list Big Star as one of their main original influences - Weird Tales (‘98) and Another Fine Day (‘06). They sound EXACTLY how you’d expect, considering who is involved. That is to say, pretty fucking solid - with some especially impressive high marks. I know it isn’t part of this particular discography, but tag those two albums and circle round later when you have the chance - I think you’ll find it worth your time.
Overall, the songs on In Space move along pretty effortlessly and without any offense. I will say that I found the one-two combo of “Lady Sweet” and “Best Chance We’ve Ever Had” to be the highpoint, but even the less-inspired moments still managed to satisfy in simple ways.
Don’t miss the humor & goofiness of “Love Revolution” - I hear it as a total tongue-firmly-in-cheek piece of blowing off steam wandering, but I dug it and really appreciated hearing Chilton let down his guard to that degree. And I think the horns are a fun addition.
CONCLUSION: For the particular satisfaction, if not the more monumental impression of their 3 main albums, this collection gets a Thumbs Up and a Grade of C+.
