Why don’t I get Big Star?

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sal paradise
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Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by sal paradise » Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:52 am

I really want to like them. But it just doesn’t click. It almost sounds like they’re CCR one minute, then buffalo Springfield, then Simon & Garfunkel, then the beach boys, then allman brothers etc… I don’t know who Big Star are. Or maybe that’s their charm. What am I missing?

I was brought up on 60s/70s blues/folk/country rock. it should be right in my happy place. Any recommendations of where to listen first appreciated
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by GreenKnee » Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:45 pm

I found them by going backwards - Elliott Smith and Yo La Tengo both cover Big Star songs and cite them as big influences. This led me to listen to Big Star and yeah they're great.
All the albums are good, with some crap songs too for my taste. That one about going to India to drink tea?? Not for me.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by s_mcsleazy » Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:49 pm

i feel like big star are a stepping stone band. like one of those bands that other bands built their sound upon. not a bad band, but more novel.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by sal paradise » Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:54 pm

s_mcsleazy wrote:
Tue Mar 21, 2023 12:49 pm
i feel like big star are a stepping stone band. like one of those bands that other bands built their sound upon. not a bad band, but more novel.
That’s the thing though, I don’t hear anything unique. I just hear other bands they seem to be copying. And given Yo la Tengo & Elliott Smith as above, I must be overlooking the cleverness & writing it off as derivative.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:21 pm

Funny thing, I also was listening to them for a while and didn't get it. Then one night I got high, which I don't do now and rarely did back then, either, and I put on the third album and all of the sudden Stroke it Noel just made total sense to me. Loved it ever since, and ever since then all the rest of the Big Star stuff fell into place.

To me one of my favorite things to listen to with Big Star is Jody Stephen's drumming. On the third album he was presented with a bunch of demos to play to, and so the timing wasn't strict, and listening to that man play around the beat and bring it all together is a thing of wonder to me still.

The songs aren't driven, they just happen as they need to. It's not easy to do that.

Keep at it, I guess. It took me a lot of listens also.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by dinosaurkale-> » Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:35 pm

doesn't the harmonizing just get to ya mannnnnn ?

also (original poster)...your description of them makes them sound...awesome

ps- huge Big Star fan here . "number 1 record" is a perfect album, is it not?

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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by Telliot » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:11 pm

I don't love everything Big Star did, but I have a lot of respect for them and the influence they had on the indie music scene in the US. You have to remember what they were doing at the time was bucking the trends. They recorded their entire first album at night by themselves at Ardent Studios where Chris Bell worked during the day, and the music they were making was earnest and vulnerable which was the exact opposite of what was cool at the time (of course later in the 70s it became the norm, but Big Star were ahead of the curve). The fact their albums were critically acclaimed but their lack of distribution due to the financial problems Stax - who owned Ardent studios - were having at the time meant that radio stations and record stores couldn't get the pressings and the band struggled to get any real traction. I can only imagine how frustrating that must have been.

Anyway, I think they're an interesting band with a sad story and a cult following that has kept them in the conversation for much longer than they probably ever anticipated. The fact so many musicians, especially in the midwest, have been inspired by them is icing on the cake for me. For some odd reason, Big Star and The Flying Burrito Brothers share adjacent neighborhoods in my head - maybe because of the general obscurity and subsequent influence they both had.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Mar 21, 2023 2:55 pm

Of all the bands mentioned so far, though, none of them have an album like Sister Lovers, though. That's the one that will always set Big Star apart from everyone else. It's the sound of a band realizing that no one was going to listen to this album, either, and that sad fact somehow freeing them up to do anything they wanted.

It's a dark masterpiece but it wasn't supposed to have been that or anything.

One of my favorite moments is at the end of "Thank You, Friends", a song that is very sardonic, thanking everyone who "made this all so... probable", so you get the idea that Alex Chilton had an idea that things were coming to a close, and in fact the album was never finished and only released years after it was recorded.

Despite that, the song is also a genuine expression of hope and thanks amidst the dying embers, and buried in the end he sings, "Never too late to start," because he knows he's going to have to start over.

Which is what he did, he moved down to New Orleans and worked as a dishwasher for a while until he could make his next move.

Wonderful fucking song.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by sal paradise » Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:03 pm

Interestingly, I thought the later stuff sounded more velvet underground like. And that worked better for me.

I’m gonna go back & start with 3rd, rather than the more well-trodden tracks.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:18 pm

Every song on that album is wonderful. Well, actually, I never loved the opening song "Kizza Me" all that much.

"Nighttime" is heartbreaking, it starts off a nice little ballad and towards the end he just breaks down singing "I hate it here, get me out of here," and it's not hard to know that he meant it. I mean he didn't even stick around to finish his album and as far as he could tell, it didn't get done.

"You Can't Have Me" lets Jody Stephens loose on the drum kit and is an all around great song.

"Take Care" is a good bye from a person who very well knows they aren't going to be around to protect someone they love much longer.

And all of this stuff is done with some lush and often over the top orchestration that just works. I listened to the demos recently, they are on Spotify and shit, and you can hear that Alex Chilton did a bunch of demos with his twelve string guitar and handed them off and then other people to finish, so it's a massively produced album, again it works, though.

But like I say he didn't stick around to actually finish it, so there's a lot going on there.

Give it a bunch of spins, it takes a while.

Oh, and listen to Jody Stephens on those drums- he also sings "For You" and does a great job with that. But fuck, his drum playing on that music is among the best drum playing I have ever heard, I always wanted to be like him.
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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by echobaseone » Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:22 pm

Big Star are band that people I loved loved. I tried a few times to get into it, but just didn't see what all the fuss was about. As I got a bit older, I started to like it a bit more, but it wasn't until I watched a documentary on them that I really started to appreciate what they were up against. Context is everything I suppose. And timing. If I'd never loved the Chameleons, I'd think Interpol were the greatest band ever, you know? Anyway, not sure if this is the doc I saw, but have a peep. Big Star Documentary
Also, "I AM THE COSMOS*" is just amazing no matter what.




*song, not the album
Last edited by echobaseone on Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by marqueemoon » Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:38 pm

My intro to Big Star was seeing their very first reunion show in Columbia, MO with John Auer and Ken Stringfellow* from The Posies rounding out the band. It was a RIPPING set that was recorded and released and had all of the “hits”.

Big Star is spotty because Alex Chilton and Chris Bell were not the most stable people and were all over the map as songwriters. There is some serious dark and strange stuff of Third post-Chris, and I Am The Cosmos (the album) is a bit of a mess. It was released posthumously, so that likely has something to do with the unevenness.

The inconsistency is just part of the deal. I don’t personally dig most of Alex’s solo work. Too scattered for me.


*Before the long list of allegations about him.

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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by Plumerai » Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:29 pm

I'm only familiar with September Girls because the Bangles covered it. Might be one of those bands when a song finally clicks everything else starts to shine. Right time/right mood.

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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by cestlamort » Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:57 pm

For years, Big Star were the records that were misfiled in the Big Black section (see: Smithereens in the Smiths section for more on this). I eventually really came to love them, but that was after having them floating around from all sorts of different directions (and covers!): The Posies (of course, but they did a 7" of Feel / I am the cosmos which was my first conscious hearing of "this is a big star song"), This Mortal Coil (!! I'll admit to not being aware at the time that so much of that project was covers), Teenage Fanclub, Elliott Smith, Replacements, and just a general buzz of a favorite band of people older than me, etc.

They make a lot of sense to me now as a key influence on other stuff I love, sort of a secret history or the missing link between 60s pop and 80s/90s college rock.

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Re: Why don’t I get Big Star?

Post by stevejamsecono » Tue Mar 21, 2023 6:36 pm

I took forever on them myself, especially because going backwards from the Replacements left me wanting for more "rock". I just didn't get the appeal.

The thing to do is on that first really nice warm day of summer, go for a long walk and throw on #1 Record. If you don't like it after that, then its not for you and that's totally ok.

Fwiw I generally prefer Badfinger who are similar contemporaries. I find Alex's post Big Star temper tantrum albums childish and annoying so I don't really buy into the worship of him specifically. Them as a band though? Great.
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