Thoughts on Big Star


I've read a little about Big Star after getting two of their songs on a southern music CD sampler. I really like "For You" and "Stroke it Noel". After sampling some of their other stuff I found that I also like "September Gurls".

I really like those three songs but I'm having a hard time finding other stuff of theirs that I like.

Just wondering if anyone else is into them, which albums you might like best, which songs you like best, best approach to getting into them, which recordings/format you prefer? 

They seem to have been one of those 'influential' bands with critical acclaim and with a strong but small following. Sometimes I find that I just don't see the magic in some 'cult' bands of that sort but liking the three songs mentioned above I feel like they might be worth getting to know. My only streaming is low end iTunes....for now.
n80

Showing 3 responses by bdp24

I saw a great documentary on Big Star a couple of years ago, should be easy to find somewhere. There are quite a few Pop groups who are cult legends, never achieving much commercial success, but inspiring a lot of members of groups/bands who did. Big Star were one of those. Their dual frontman/songwriter/singer dynamic was also found in Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks, The dB's, a few others.

Big Star is another band with two visionaries/songwriters/singers, each very different from each other in some ways, similar in others. Others have included The Beatles, The Stones, Rockpile, The dB's, Uncle Tupelo, The Jayhawks, and The Move.

Though Alex Chilton gets more attention, Chris Bell was just as interesting, as well as troubled. He died at only 27 years old.

@reubent, I didn't want to be a negasaurus, so didn't say anything. But upon finally learning of Big Star in the late 70's via Greg Shaw's fantastic Bomp! magazine, I fully expected to love them. Try as I might, I just don't hear it. "September Gurls" deserves to be considered a Pop classic, but other than that, much ado about nothing. Okay songs, okay singing, okay musicianship, nothing really great. But then I feel that way about quite a few cult bands and artists I'm "suppose" to like more than I do. The Velvet Underground, for instance. One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

On the other hand, I like quite a few bands and solo artists who never achieved widespread notoriety, such as The Skeletons/Morells out of Springfield, Missouri. Other fans of theirs include Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, and Elvis Costello. Great band!