Big Star - #1 Record (1972) (1 Viewer)

[Jerry Twig]

This is the fucking business.

The next one is even better IMO

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Yeah, one of mine. Pure magic.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The next one is even better IMO

Yeah, for me it was a toss up between the two. Think this one just has more memorable songs. Third is amazing as well.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

One of those bands I heard ALOT about over the years. Much revered by people in the know. When I finally did hear this album I was a bit underwhelmed. Its almost like when I heard the grateful dead, I would hear the name mentioned and had built up this idea in my head of this highly unique and original music. A band that were on a different level. Then I hear it and its pretty ordinary, not much different from other bands of the time. It does sound like Chilton and Bell both had enough songs for a full album, but they made a decision to alternate between the two.
Chilton's songs would be more what I think of as the big star sound. Chris Bell's songs seemed surprising ordinary, meat and potatoes blues rock. I'm going to give it another proper listen.

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I like this.
But
They belong in a box with Television and The Replacements as stuff from an earlier era that I admire, I like, but don't really love.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I like this.
But
They belong in a box with Television and The Replacements as stuff from an earlier era that I admire, I like, but don't really love.

3 of my TAC choices right there, bud : )

 

[pete]

Yeah, I like this. Sounds like a bajillion other bands, and the songs all start to blend in together, but who cares? Good stuff.

 

[rettucs]

the acoustic stuff near the end is a bit trying.

Overall I like it. Not mad on the acoustic stuff, is all

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

I don't think there's a bad song on it but it is hard to hear why it's so lauded (and I'm in agreement with @Mormon Nailer abour Television, never listened to The Replacements). There are some great songs on it but not so great as to make them really stand out as a band. I really like "Thirteen" but only because I know it as a Garbage b-side and only found out last year when I bought this album that it was a cover. It's a good mix of radio rock (shades of Zeppelin, Stones, etc. bleeding through) and it's an album I like to put on when it's nice outside and I'm having a beer. I haven't listened to their other albums and will do just that this week.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The one about India is pretty cringey

 

[Lili Marlene]

It's a very nice album, part of its appeal is that it was really unsuccessful at the time, right? Everyone loves an underdog story.

I have to say i'm struggling to find a context to get into it though. It's made by and for white, affluent middle America; pure escapism of a certain kind. Nothing wrong with that but it's not really what I'm looking for in music these days.

I like all of it generally speaking, definitely more into the heavier ones, Don't Lie to Me is fantastic.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

The one about India is pretty cringey

I don't have a problem with it, I was surprised to see so many comments here about it being a dud.

 

[Anthony]

I bought this a while back and I mustn't have digitized it because it's not in my library and I'm not about to start opening boxes looking for the CD.
As far as I remember it's a great album to put on while working and it's a pity it's not all as good as the great songs.
Saw "big Star" in the RedBox back in the day. Hardly anyone there. It was fantastic.

 

[travispickle]

It's a great album, but again it's one of those that its so hard to be objective about. It has a great collection of songs. Like some commenters, I don't mind the India Song so much though it is a weaker track than most others on the album and doesn't really fit the template to my mind.
I love the sound of this album; great production, really well written songs played brilliantly - the musicianship on this is fantastic; a great guitar player's album.
Radio City is great too, Third (Sister/Lovers) has its moments but all are worth checking out as is the documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me.

 

[hugh]

I was at that Red Box gig too. It was so much better than anyone expected I think. The Posies lads did a really good job of making up the rest of the band and the bit when they did Chris Bell's I Am The Cosmos was just magic.

re: Lili Marlene's point about it being music made for and by white affluent middle-class Americans. I suppose it is. It really reminds me of Richard Linklater's film Dazed And Confused (were Big Star on the soundtrack? If not, they should have been) in terms of that yearning for a comfortable middle-class teenage mid-American life. But it's also desperately sad in parts so it just nails that nostalgia thing better than anyone else I can think of.

Some of the reaction to it here is along the lines of "yeah it's just a pretty good 1970s rock record" and that's true but for me, it's about the best 1970s rock record that there is. The playing is brilliant and the songs are (mostly) brilliant. It's one of those records that I have been listening to for years and I never tire of it. The songs are surprisingly complicated (try working them out guitarist musos!) but instantly accessible too.

By the way, I presume everyone knows that Alex Chilton was the teenage singer of 60s white-boy pop/soul group The Box Tops and that Big Star were signed to Memphis label Stax Records? I think you can clearly hear the influence of soul in it and I love the fact that their stuff was being put out by a label more commonly associated with Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs etc ....

 

[Kermit McDermott]

The one about India is pretty cringey

I quiet like it. Then again I am a fan of late 60's baroque pop.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I was at that Red Box gig too. It was so much better than anyone expected I think. The Posies lads did a really good job of making up the rest of the band and the bit when they did Chris Bell's I Am The Cosmos was just magic.

re: Lili Marlene's point about it being music made for and by white affluent middle-class Americans. I suppose it is. It really reminds me of Richard Linklater's film Dazed And Confused (were Big Star on the soundtrack? If not, they should have been) in terms of that yearning for a comfortable middle-class teenage mid-American life. But it's also desperately sad in parts so it just nails that nostalgia thing better than anyone else I can think of.

Some of the reaction to it here is along the lines of "yeah it's just a pretty good 1970s rock record" and that's true but for me, it's about the best 1970s rock record that there is. The playing is brilliant and the songs are (mostly) brilliant. It's one of those records that I have been listening to for years and I never tire of it. The songs are surprisingly complicated (try working them out guitarist musos!) but instantly accessible too.

By the way, I presume everyone knows that Alex Chilton was the teenage singer of 60s white-boy pop/soul group The Box Tops and that Big Star were signed to Memphis label Stax Records? I think you can clearly hear the influence of soul in it and I love the fact that their stuff was being put out by a label more commonly associated with Otis Redding, Booker T and the MGs etc ....

Point taken, although it seems were signed to Ardent records, which had a distribution deal with Stax (which was a label owned by a white brother and sister don't forget!)


Of note the original Rolling Stone review states: "There's not a trace of Memphis soul in Big Star"

Anyway, I'm not trying to paint them as white supremacists or anything silly like that but what's the deal with power pop and being white as white as white can be? I can't find a single person of colour in any group in here... Power pop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It seems bizarre to me since a lot of it comes from Mod music, which obviously was obsessed with black pop.

It also strikes me as odd that this blissful teenage album came out in 1971, after years of civil rights marches and race riots, right bang in the middle of the same year as the likes of There's a Riot Goin On and What's Going On coming out. Even John Lennon was talking about this kinda thing with Imagine that year....

Maybe it was a reaction against all of that stuff? Maybe they felt they had no right to comment on it all, maybe they just weren't listening, I dunno.

Obviously I'm overthinking it but hey, that's what I do.

Gonna play it again anyway, it's a good album.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Probably should add that i'm on my 4th listen to it today, really loving The Ballad of El Goodo. Them backing vocals, they're like Flo & Eddie on Electric Warrior done straight.

 

[travispickle]

It also strikes me as odd that this blissful teenage album came out in 1971, after years of civil rights marches and race riots, right bang in the middle of the same year as the likes of There's a Riot Goin On and What's Going On coming out. Even John Lennon was talking about this kinda thing with Imagine that year....

They weren't great on the lyrical front, it has to be said. They weren't really about social commentary, but as their music is just pure escapist joyous pop with killer hooks and melodies, they get away with it, imo.

 

[hugh]

Of note the original Rolling Stone review states: "There's not a trace of Memphis soul in Big Star"

Anyway, I'm not trying to paint them as white supremacists or anything silly like that but what's the deal with power pop and being white as white as white can be? I can't find a single person of colour in any group in here... Power pop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'll respectfully disagree with Rolling Stone but on your other point about power pop .... yeah, but that's an accusation that can be levelled at many many genres - metal, hardcore (yeah, I know, Bad Brains - but exception that proves the rule and all that), "indie" in general.

And on the other thing - it's obviously not a political record and as you say, not overly troubled by "what's going on". But, in one way, that's part of what makes it so good - dealing with universal experiences of growing up and falling in love and feeling sad and "hanging out" - though granted these experiences are more easily had over long Summer days in the leafy suburbs of Memphis than in the ghettoes of Detroit or whatever ......