Artist: Big Star
Album: #1 Record / Radio City (double album)
Released: 1972 / 1974
Label: Columbia Records
Genre: Power Pop
Purchase date: 22 Aug 2010
Format: AAC files
Source: iTunes
Founded Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, Big Star was a critically-acclaimed and hugely influential band from the early '70s that never really caught on with the public. Chilton, formerly of The Box Tops (known for their 1967 #1 hit "The Letter"), was the primary creative force of the band. Their sound combined British Invasion and American '60s rock with dark and introspective lyrics. The resulting power pop sound beguiled contemporary music critics, but their label mishandled concert promotion and record distribution, and the band never caught on with the public. A few weeks after their third album was released in late 1974, Bell was killed in a car crash.
Big Star was one of the bands to pioneer the power pop sound: driving guitar rock with tight harmony vocals and a pop sensibility. While they weren't successful commercially, Big Star was a huge influence on other bands. It was so much of an influence that at times Big Star's music sounds overly familiar, or even deriviative, of late-70s power pop, when in fact it was an originator.
I first heard of Big Star about a year ago, when the news broke of the unexpected death of Alex Chilton just before he was scheduled to perform Big Star songs at the 2010 South by Southwest music festival in Austin TX.
Key tracks on this double-album set are "The Ballad of El Goodo," In The Streets," and "When My Baby's Beside Me" from #1 Record, and "O My Soul," "September Gurls," and "I'm In Love With A Girl" from Radio City.
I do recommend that everyone check out this neglected corner of rock history.
Rating: A-
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