1000 Day Album Challenge (#42) Big Star: #1 Record (1972) [11.02.24]
won't you tell your dad get off my back? / tell him what we said 'bout Paint It Black…
was there a critics’ band before Big Star? I guess The Velvet Underground, but as the decades have passed they have become too embraced to be considered a critics’ band.my sense is that Big Star’s appeal has yet to slip past the level of genuine music aficionados.
given the bands I was into in the eighties like R.E.M., The Replacements, and The dB’s discovering Big Star was inevitable. in particular, R.E.M. and The Replacements were not shy about being Big Star fan boys. for example Peter Buck, R.E.M.’s guitarist once claimed, "we've sort of flirted with greatness, but we've yet to make a record as good as Revolver or Highway 61 Revisited or Exile on Main Street or Big Star's Third."
The Replacements recorded Pleased to Meet Me (1987) at Ardent Studios in Memphis where Big Star recorded each of their three studio albums. Jim Dickinson who had produced Third/Sister Lovers for Big Star manned the board for The Replacements on Pleased to Meet Me. they also wrote and recorded Alex Chilton as an homage to Big Star’s guitarist and vocalist.
I think that this was the third Big Star album for me. I’m pretty sure I bought Record City first and then Third/Sister Lovers. despite my eighties heads up about Big Star I might not have bought any of their albums until the nineties. part of the reason that I can’t remember is that their albums grew on me over time. I liked each of them right away, but I don’t think I embraced them obsessively as I have with some of the other albums included so far on this list.
despite not instantly and enthusiastically embracing their records, Big Star’s sound really is a prototype for much of the music I listened to in the eighties – jangly guitars, sweet harmonies and well written songs. their music is also quite delicate and personal. it feels like music a close friend has written and is sharing with you.
for me, the album opens quite strongly. three of the first four songs are my faves: Feel, The Ballad of El Goodo, and Thirteen. the other, In The Street, should be recognized by fans of That ‘70s Show. the theme song is not the original, but a slightly reworked cover by Cheap Trick.
it turns out my favorite song on the second side, Watch the Sunrise, is the song reference by the vocal hook in Alex Chilton by The Replacements: “I'm in love / With that song.”
over time, this is their album that I have listened to the most. 15 or 20 years ago, I probably would have said Record City or Third/Sister Lovers. now it turns out this is the one.
