Really good stuff uao. I keep hearing references to BStar but didn't know anything about them. I saw the Boxtops as a youngster, (with the Cowsills!). The comparison to Eric Burton seems quite apropos, very similar voices. Thanks,

Thanks, Antfreeze, I appreciate the comments. Give Big Star a listen; you may enjoy 'em.


UNRELATED NOTE: I have spent the past hour trying to figure out why the Amazon links won't appear on this post. I can't figure it out; and I've got to go to work. Apologies to Eric and the gang; I'll try to fix it during my lunch break.

Never mind; I fixed 'em. Still not quite sure what happened...

Being a Beefheart fan I get the feeling I might prefer the "flat basketball percussion" period to Alex's more accessible stuff. Again, really well written and researched post.

This is a very interesting piece. Thanks for the thoroughness. I've always known that Chilton had quite a career behind him, but never knew just how interesting it was.

I gotta tell you, I never did get Big Star - an overrated underrated band, if you get my drift. But your article was thorough & accurate, and I think you really captured the sense of their great potential & sad demise. Thanks - after reading this, I may have to go back & try them again.

Thanks for the article. I really liked it. I have Big Stars 2 first albums, but must also get hold of their last ones.
Ingemar

Great write-up. I'm firmly among those who consider Big Star to be among not just the most influential, but very best bands ever. I still listen to their three main albums all the time. Another decent one you didn't mention is Nobody Can Dance, a combination of live-in-studio and live tracks that offers rawer takes on some of the tunes from the first two albums. Chris Bell's posthumous album is quite good (if partially unfinished and repetitive); worth it alone for "I Am The Cosmos" and his duet with Chilton, "You & Your Sister." Last year saw the release of Rock City, an album by Chris Bell's pre-Big Star band; he only sings on a third of the tracks (the others are so-so power pop), but it's an interesting look at early versions of a few BS tunes.

good info; it is, ahem (you must not be from the south) "Like Flies on Sherbert." Two Rs. "Sherbet" ain't really a word.

And really, too, you're entitled to your opinion on "Sherbert," but I don't agree--it's not perfect nor is it supposed to be. It's a record about HOW you play music; the songs themselves, I could give a shit in the best Memphis tradition of taking something pretty much worthless or ephemeral and turning into something else. You know, like Elvis did. I think it's a masterpiece of indirection.

Otherwise, good review, altho it's obvious at this late date that Big Star was more about Chris Bell than Chilton ("Third" is the whole enterprise of songcraft, Brit-invasion-inspired tuneage, and sanity itself dispensed with, given a fond goodbye by people too proud to abandon their craft but all too willing to jump ship). "Radio City" IS superior to the first record, and it's the one time when Alex Chilton really did imitation right, having already gone thru imitating Dan Penn in the Box Tops. Very odd music that never gets old; and I think Alex's solo career is a lot better than it seems on the surface--what are we, hung up on perfection, too serious to groove to Chris Kenner's "Sick and Tired" or "What's Your Sign Girl"? Oh right, we're ABOVE all that, gotcha.