It's the early-mid 70's: Had you heard/seen Big Star?

I have a rundown on the Ardent problems in the interview I posted... I talked with John Fry, circa 1975. You can access that info at

www.angelfire.com/retro2/cargoe1/Fry.html

Also, Pop Culture Press posted the Cargoe story, which can be accessed at

www.popculturepress.com

Click on Web Exclusives and scroll down to Cargoe. While Big Star is only seen through Cargoe eyes, so to speak, the Ardent situation is seen in detail.

FYI, I picked up on Big Star and Cargoe out of the box--- part of my follow-the-unknowns idiosyncrasy. I wrote a short piece on Ardent for BOMP in the mid-70s, which Greg Shaw beefed up with info on Privilege (Manning's label, post-Ardent). My continued interest in Big Star was helped along by writers Ken Barnes, Alan Betrock and Jon Tiven, among others. Along with Shaw, I owe much of my attitudes toward the record business to them.

Frank G

 

I was a Box Tops fan back in the day and heard about Big Star(can't remember where) because of the Alex Chilton connection. Never saw their albums anywhere around here during their initial release. Picked up a promo copy of Radio City in the late 70s when a radio DJ was having a gargantuan blowout sale in his mobile home(came with a multitude of clippings and promotional inserts). Absolutely became a hardcore fan after hearing it and got all the rereleases of their 3 albums plus the radio broadcast CD and the Norton "live" CD release Nobody Can Dance and Chris Bell solo Cd. Really eagerly anticipating the forthcoming Ardent archival release and have preordered it on Amazon.

 

How would a Big Star song wind up on a Cheap Trick comp?

What always bugged the hell out of me as someone who is EXACTLY the age of the kids portrayed on that series, is the use of that song.

Trust me, high school kids in the midwest weren't cruisin' around listening to Big Star in '76...for two reasons. First of all, we HADN'T had any exposure to Big Star. Secondly...we were all listening to Boston, Nugent and Aerosmith records...or whatever...but we weren't listening to stuff (by and large) that was three or four years old.

"Dazed and Confused" is pretty much dead on.

I probably first heard Big Star in about '82. By then I'd read them cited as an influence dozens of times. Definitely a band's band.

 

They recorded "In the Street" for That's 70's Show for one of the seasons (at least).

 

Cheap Trick recorded the song -- or a bastardization of it. That's them doing the theme on all the episodes of "That 70's Show" after season one. I think their version may be on all the syndicated episodes.

Love Cheap Trick -- hate their version of the song.

 

I've still never heard of Big Star.

 

I never heard of them until I bought the Replacements' Don't Tell a Soul and started reading about them, around 1990.

 

approx 2 months after release of first lp we checked them out. not so easy back then to get release dates..... we were knocked out by "feel". true power pop with dreamy, beatlesque, edgy wisdom. one of the great 70's songs. became confirmed listeners. 2nd lp...totally impressed. not as easy to wrap our ears around as a lot of other music, but that created it's own fascination. by 75/76 you could go in a strawberries record store and see the boxes piled high, their records as cutouts for less than $2. and i mean, in boston, the strawberries in cambridge bought 300+ (!) at a time. more than new releases. the buyers had the ear. hit or no, anyone interested in rock music of that era should check them out. better late than never. and don't miss the chris bell solo album.

 

They didn't have hits but they shoulda. "In The Street," "Thirteen", "Ballad of El Goodo", "September Gurls" and "Back of my Car" all sound like hits to me. Maybe even the pretty ballads "Blue Moon", "Night Time" or "For You" from 3rd, though those might have been a stretch because they are so naked sounding. I think poor distribution was a bigger problem than being out of step with the time.

As rrc implies, above, some of it was also a little weird. Not just pretty or catchy power pop, also weird power pop, starting with the 2nd record and going out to lunch by 3rd/Sister Lovers.

 

I lived in record stores and read music periodicals constantly at the time, and didn't hear of Big Star until they hit the cut out ($2.99) bins.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thank-You-F...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1203535770&sr=8-1

I just asked Alec Palao, and he said it was fine to post details. It shows as being released March 31, 2008. The track listing is on the link above. Here's a few details to whet your appetite:

The first dozen tracks are mega-rare early recordings at Ardent, dating from 1960-1968. Four of 'em were released by Ardent Records, 3 more on other labels. Five are previously unissued. Included on these are several of Terry Manning's early bands, Lawson & Four More, and hte Goatdancers. There's also two unissued Manning solo tracks (he would've been a teen then). Jim Dickinson wrote and produced several of them. One track is by The Honey Jug, a Dickinson production featuring Ron Jordan, later in the pre-Box Tops Ronnie & the Devilles, and a famed local DJ.

Sid Selvidge and Lee Baker can be heard in early recordings (both are well-known in Memphis, partly thru their ongoing Dickison affiliation as Mudboy & the Neutrons).

Chris Bell's "Psychedelic Stuff," previously issued as a Big Star outtake (it's not, never was, it predates Big Star by a coupla years) on a Rykodisc promotional sampler from 1994 called A Little Big Star. This is its first appearance properly mixed. The song was untitled, incidentally, Psychedelic Stuff was just written on the tape box.

Icewater was an informal line-up with Chris Bell & Stephen Rhea (drums) as the primary 'members' (with a bass player, and later, with Terry Manning on keyboards). The Icewater version of "Feel" from #1 Record has previously appeared on Terry Manning's Rock City album, released on Lucky Seven Records a coupla years back (the same track with new overdubs was used on #1 Record). There are two previously unissued Icewater tracks included, never before heard even by hard-core fans. Probably circa 1969.

Three tracks from Alex Chilton's 1969 solo album (called 1970 when released a few years back by Rykodisc). In the original 1969 mixes, the album was known locally among fans and friends who had tapes of it as "The Mono Album," and these tracks appear for the first time anywhere in their original 1969 mono mixes (what came out as the album '1970' were new stereo mixes by Manning).

Two excellent tracks from the afore-mentioned Rock City album (Bell, Stephens, Tom Eubanks, & Manning) are included, including their masterpiece, "Think It's Time To Say Goodbye" (which is in the running for all-time best Memphis pop/rock track).

And finally, there's a track from Terry Manning's 1970 album (recorded in '69) Home Sweet Home, a cover of Jack Clement's "Guess Things Happen That Way" with Chris Bell's first released guitar appearance on vinyl.

Disc two is just total gold for Big Star fans:
"In the Street" (aka theme from That '70s Show) in its original single mix, but now with some pre-song stuff found on the master. This is a rerecording, cut live with the 4-piece Big Star (Bell, Chilton, Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel, with Richard Rosebrough also on a 2nd drum kit). B-side of the "When My Baby's Beside Me" single, which is also included, and is the ONLY Big Star song included in it's normal version.

There's also the original version of "My Life Is Right" from #1 Record, with it's original intro reinstated. Two demos from after #1 Record: "I Got Kinda Lost" (a Chilton sung version of a track later rerecorded for Chris Bell's unreleased solo album) and the original version of "Back of a Car."

From Radio City, we get "September Gurls" with pre-song intro never previously heard, and two terrific outtakes, "Mod Lang" and "She's About a Mover." There's also the first (?) version of "Big Black Car" that later appeared on Sister Lovers/Third, here in a 3-piece Big Star version circa Radio City with Alex on 12-string.

There's a pre-Sister Lovers/Third Chilton demo (that HAS been bootlegged on vinyl many years back), "Lovely Day." Another demo, a far poppier version of "Downs" is also heard for the first time anywhere.

Sister Lovers/Third is represented by four tracks, but wait! they're all the ORIGINAL test pressing mixes from 1975, NOT what you've ever heard on commercially released vinyl or CD: "For You," "Holocaust," "Thank You Friends," and "Kizza Me."

In the non-Big Star tracks, there are two of the Hot Dogs' best ever tracks, "I Walk The Line" and "Let Me Look At The Sun." (both in their single mixes), as well as two of Cargoe's finest tracks "Feel Alright" (which, it might be argued, just might be the finest Ardent single -- those of you not from Memphis may not know that this was Ardent's biggest hit) and "I Love You Anyway," both in their single mixes.

The only Christopher Bell solo track actually recorded at Ardent is included: "You And Your Sister" (a 1974 duet with his ex-partner Chilton).

Tommy Hoehn's magnificent "Blow Yourself Up" backed with "Love You (All Day Long)," two tracks cut at Ardent but released on Power Play, a local label owned by Henry Loeb, are also included, the latter in a never-before-released original mix found in the vaults (it's not the single mix, I a/b'd it myself for Alex, which appeared mislabeled on a Japanese CD under the name Prix).

And finally, there's the best Scruffs' track, "My Mind" (found on their debut album Meet The Scruffs, on Power Play, and now released on CD as well as having previously appeared on Rhino's DIY Power Pop series. And for fun, a fragment of Chilton covering a Brian Wilson song.

A full review of this will appear in the next issue of Pop Culture Press (www.popculturepress.com) which will be on the stands here in Austin by SXSW mid-March, nationally a coupla weeks later.

 

I bought the first two albums on Ardent as imports back in the day.

 

There was a small owner-run record/CD store I used to hang out in a lot around the mid-80's-90, getting many of my special order solo-Beatle related imports etc. Right after the Big Star two-fer CD first came out, he played it for me exactly for that reason--if I loved Badfinger, I'd love Big Star. He was right. I bought the two-fer that day, and still love it.

Personal service music stores like that are sadly lost to the past around here. He turned me on to John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett too!

 

WOW! Thanks so much Kent!!!!

Can't Wait to Get My Hands On This!!!

 

My memory: I bought the first album when it first came out in Alexander's Dept. Store in Milford Ct. They also had "Radio City" when it first came out. I guess I was motivated by a rave review in Rolling Stone, written by Jon Tiven, who had had a fanzine called "The New Haven RockPress," or something like that.
I liked it fine. I felt out of sorts with current rock. I liked a lot of Soul-Type records, but that seemed to be receding too. Living close to New York, with the emerging punk scene was very exciting. Big Star played at Max's Kansas City, but I missed it.
It sounds better then ever (meaning the quality of the songs). I listen to it now on CD-r needledrop on a tube amp with Klipsch Heresy speakers, and it sounds real good, but it sounds harsh and tinny on other systems I have (especially the car stereo).

 

I knew of them long before I actually heard them. They were cited as an influence by many other bands in the late 70s early 80s. After that I looked them up.

I had heard Alex Chilton and the Box Tops in the late 60s early 70s but that was it.

 

A friend of mine has a greenish cover of the first album, and it has a little better sound that mine does.

 

A Radio City era version of Big Black Car This is almost too good to be true. I'm really stoked about all this stuff. That intro to My Life Is Right is so gorgeous. The pop version of Downs is the very stuff of legend.

 

Hey Kent,

This is wonderful news! Can't wait to hear that version of Back Of a Car.

Bobby