BIG STAR

"Power pop" has become a buzz word in recent years among rock writers, and its definition is as elusive as any such label. The only thing everybody seems to agree on is that it originates with this band. Much -- too much -- is made of the idea that this music is "the sum of its parts," its parts very clearly defined: The Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Who, and the Byrds most prominently, along with the Kinks, the Velvet Underground, and other '60s luminaries.

A lot of the music that has been categorized as the bedfellow to Big Star is distasteful and dull, which negates the entire argument of their music being a product wholly of its influences. They did love all of those bands, but what they learned from them was not so much a sound as a freshness, an ability to have a voice, something that, by the early '70s, had been lost as rock had wasted away to a decadent pile of nothing. Big Star seemed like a throwback at the time, which meant that all of their pop-conscious, beautifully accessible work bombed despite its infinite virtues, but ultimately they were far ahead of their time, anticipating the CBGB's revolution and the later alternative-rock boom, and, with THIRD/SISTER LOVERS, the ultimate failure of both and the continuing story of rock music as something turned to less than nothing.

When I hear Big Star, I am emotionally charged; it's some of the most powerful music I can remember. The twofer CD of their first two albums is in my CD player probably more than anything else. Leader Alex Chilton and partner Chris Bell's ultimate revenge to the industry that had gobbled up the former as a member of the huge teen combo the Box Tops was to create music that could not be pigeonholed, much like the Beatles had once done. If it seems like a resurrection of Beach Boys values, that's because Alex Chilton is one of the few people perceptive enough to be a protegé to the great Brian Wilson: a person whose genius transcends time, place, and age, and one resourceful enough to understand rock & roll as a vehicle for genius.

There is no songwriter like him. He came out of nowhere and should damn well have had his name emblazoned in the brain of everyone in America by 1973. He and Bell and the other members of this incredible band knew they were creating something remarkable, and they were disturbed at the lack of attention it received. I'm still disturbed about it now; one of the many feelings these songs instill in me is fury, at the way the industry turned its back not only on those who had founded it but on those who continued the initial values and kept the dream alive.

We must listen to Big Star to remember how important rock & roll can be. Moreover, we must listen to them because their music is head-bobbing, dancing-stupidly-around-the-room wonderful, and they kick the fucking ass of every namby-pamby poseur act around today. If, say, John Mayer is ever in a room with Alex Chilton, the only reason Chilton won't chew him up and spit him out is because he's a merciful, nice guy, and even though Mayer deserves it he's willing to let him off the hook. Listen to "Back of a Car." Fuck "power pop." That is rock & roll. It's not all the faux-sensitive guys and tattooed drunkards in the world, it's that noise. Kids, meet the real thing. Enjoy.

ANNOTATED DISCOGRAPHY

ALBUMS REVIEWED:
#1 Record (1972) [A+]
Radio City (1973) [A+]
Third/Sister Lovers (1978) [A+]
In Space (2005)

LIVE ALBUMS
Big Star Live (1992) [A-] (review coming soon)
Columbia (1993)

COMPILATIONS
Big Star Story (2003) [C-]

RARITIES COLLECTIONS
Nobody Can Dance (1999) [B+]


OTHER WRITING

WEBBLOG ARCHIVE:
Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full
The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet
lyrics
anybody want a mix
motel blues Daisy Glaze
Zombies / Love
Yo La Tengo in Carrboro
Yo La Tengo review
current music
another look at Beatles & Beach Boys
Radiohead review
Big Star in year in music
current music
Big Star quandary
piracy!
Depeche Mode: Some Great Reward
current music
Juke Box Jury: My Bloody Valentine
brief mention of "You Get What You Deserve"
Alex Chilton missing after Katrina! (later found)
Wuzzon #2
reunion
site opening
best CD's I own
Give Me Another Chance angst
200 bands assessed II
Nirvana rant