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Posted: 04/18/07
An album you should own:
Big Star, #1 Record/Radio City. Stax 1972/1974
Mike Morris | managing editor
mmorris2@smcvt.edu
Do you like pop music? Of course you do. It’s a stupid question, really, sort of like asking if you like breathing. The genre “pop” comes from the fact that it is popular, and its popular because it’s good.
To clarify, I’m not talking about the one-off pop musicians who come and go, like that guy right now who is trying to tell us why he’s hot. I’m talking about pop music with staying power, like Elvis and the Beatles, pop music that will still be pop decades from now.
One of the best practitioners of this kind of pop was Big Star, a Memphis group with a penchant for making good music. Sadly, the music world is an unjust one, and Big Star was never regaled as triumphantly as it should have been. Thankfully though, this relative obscurity means that you can get your hands on Big Star’s first two albums (which are both found on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time) on one CD for like $12, which is practically nothing.
Chances are, you already know a Big Star song by accident. Remember That 70s Show? The theme song, played for the show by Cheap Trick (another one of the great pop bands) is a Big Star track called “In the Street” and found on its first record, uncreatively, if ironically titled #1 Record. Guitarist and vocalist Chris Bell, Paul McCartney to lead singer Alex Chilton’s John Lennon departed after this record, but not before lending it great pop-songcraft and harmonies, the latter of which is missed on Radio City.
#1 Record features the tracks “Thirteen” and “The Ballad of El Goodo,” two of the greatest songs ever, two Chilton numbers that abound in melancholy. “The Ballad of El Goodo” features a higher than high pitched and uniquely flanged guitar under lyrics about facing opposition (for what, it seems unclear) and eventually overcoming. It sounds like a cheesy concept, I know, but it's saved by a superb lead vocal from Chilton, and that guitar.
“Thirteen” is a sparser track, featuring a few acoustic guitars and gentle harmonies (in true pop tradition). This is a song of young love, though it closes with a mature and slightly heartbreaking sentiment.
Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?
Would you be an outlaw for my love?
If it's so, well, let me know,
If it's no, well, I can go.
I won't make you.
It’s just about perfect, and on its own makes a case for owning #1 Record.
Another track worth mentioning is “Watch the Sunrise,” another acoustic number, though this one has a stronger Bell influence. You can tell because it’s happier.
I can feel it, now it's time
Open your eyes
Fears be gone, it won’t be long
There’s a light in the sky
It’s okay to look outside
Your love it will abide
And watch the sunrise.
One more track in and Radio City starts with the funky “Oh My Soul.” I may have only talked about the quiet and acoustic songs from #1 Record, which was not to say that there aren’t some good stand-up guitar tracks on it. But “Oh My Soul” is a different Big Star. Anchored by huge 70s guitar and pump organ chords it plows through the speakers for almost six minutes without letting up. It’s an experience.
Radio City is a more diverse record than its predecessor, and though it leaves behind some of the outwardly pop trappings of #1 Record, the charm remains. The songs are more complex and layered, and sound more organic than before, venturing into territories of soul, blues and even some Velvet Underground style pre-punk.
Also, it includes “September Gurls” which may be one of the best pop songs ever. It’s jangly, endearing, immediate and expressive. There’s not much more to ask for in a song. This one’s covered a lot too, but you need to hear it here. If "Thirteen" is worth buying #1 Record for, “September Gurls” would make a Big Star box set worth the purchase.
Anything I can say after that would seem anti-climatic, but the closing track is, well, really good too. “I’m In Love With A Girl” is a return to the earlier Big Star sound, and shows Chilton at his happiest. With simple lyrics and a measured guitar, it does exactly what it should. Big Star almost always did.
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