BIG STAR: #1 RECORD (1972)
1) Feel; 2) The Ballad Of El
Goodo; 3) In The Street; 4) Thirteen; 5) Don't Lie To Me; 6) The India Song; 7)
When My Baby's Beside Me; 8) My Life Is Right; 9) Give Me Another Chance; 10)
Try Again; 11) Watch The Sunrise; 12) ST100/6.
The legend of Big Star, the proverbial
«out-of-time underdog», radiates such a strong field that for each of Big
Star's three «classic» albums, there is its own group of champions — and then
there is a fourth one that claims all three are equally great, but my
understanding is that these guys are mostly poseurs, because there is no way
one could have equally strong feelings for #1
Record, Radio City, and Sister Lovers, so different are they in
terms of songwriting, production, attitude, and cohesiveness. Personally, I
have always belonged to the #1 Record
camp, and the more I listen to this album, the more I feel that the band's
legendary status may be fully justified by it and it alone. Speaking of Big
Star in clichéd terms of «the greatest band you have never heard of» is an
uninteresting occupation, but, fortunately, one does not need to do that in
order to just sit back and enjoy some of this wonderful music.
The actual «wonder» is generated by a brief,
happy collaboration period between two talented songwriters — Alex Chilton,
formerly of the Memphis-based blue-eyed soul combo The Box Tops; and Chris
Bell, formerly of Rock City and Icewater, also Memphis-based but incomparable
to The Box Tops in terms of chart success or overall notoriety. Chilton's
original idea was to establish a Simon & Garfunkel type of partnership,
but Bell convinced him to retain the rock'n'roll band format, and, fortunately,
good sense prevailed, or else we'd have no power-pop aesthetics and millions of
aspiring indie kids and hipsters would be deprived of their biggest idols.
Of course, «power pop» is an extremely vague
term, and if you think of it in purely musical terms («pop songs with hard rock
guitar riffs» or something like that), #1
Record hardly even qualifies. There might be, like, just two or three
«power pop» songs like that on the entire album — ʽFeelʼ, ʽIn The Streetʼ,
probably ʽWhen My Baby's Beside Meʼ (ʽDon't Lie To Meʼ has more of a blues-rock
feel to it, not a proper «pop» tune). Most of the songs are quite soft, with
acoustic foundations, owing much more to the folkie idioms of the West and
East coasts than to the Kinks, the Small Faces, or Cream. This, by the way, is
the source of much misguided disappointment: plenty of people come to #1 Record, expecting «power», and come
away disappointed because all they got was some sissy acoustic strumming and
whiny vocals.
But the real trick of #1 Record is not «power». Its real trick is a mix of emotional
simplicity, naïve idealism, musical honesty, and melodic talent. Chilton and
Bell sounded just as passionate and convinced about what they were doing as the
craziest prog rock stars of the time, but saw no need for infusing that passion
into ever-more-complicated musical formats. On the other hand, they saw no need
to pander to ongoing trends and fashions, either, eschewing excessive sentimentalism
or artificial sweetness à la
Carpenters — everything on #1 Record
sounds totally healthy and organic, no sappy strings or cheap Broadway
inference allowed.
The second side of the album has been especially
frequently subject to criticism by «power pop fans» — a silly thing to do,
really, because, to my ears, it contains one of the finest sequences of
beautiful ballads ever committed to tape. How they managed it is something I cannot
understand, and can only ascribe to a great big positive influence that Chilton
and Bell had on each other, and which neither of them could subsequently recreate
on their own. ʽGive Me Another Chanceʼ deals with a fairly simple and
well-studied topic — guy gets mad at girl, girl throws guy out, guy repents and
begs forgiveness — but each and every line of the vocal melody is so totally
realistic (this may be the sorriest "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" I've ever heard)
that one cannot help but be reminded of all those Lennon ballads, late in his
Beatles or early in his solo career, that operated along the same lines: take a
simple theme of love / repentance / sadness / anger, etc., and strive to make
it sound like you really mean it.
Or ʽTry Againʼ — isn't it a wonder how its
melodic twists so meaningfully echo its lyrics? "Lord, I've been trying to
be what I should...", done in a slightly lazy, twangy, hammocky country
mode (so you already get a feeling that maybe the hero hasn't been trying that hard). Chord change, a touch of
tenseness and darkness, "but each time it gets a little harder", a
Harrison-esque "I feel the pain" (and he does, he does), "but
I'll try again" — loop, revert back to the beginning. ABC-level simple,
100% efficient. Then the vocal melody is lended over to the guitar, and they repeat
the same stuff without words — to exactly the same effect. Chillin'.
When it comes to loudness and, well, «power»,
Chilton and Bell are equally capable. Look at how ʽFeelʼ is all based on
descending chord patterns — echoing the «personal apocalypse» mood of lines
like "you're driving me to ruin" and "I feel like I'm dying, I'm
never gonna live again" — even though, in general, the song is so loud and
rock'n'rollish and even has a brawny brass section during the instrumental
breaks. Conversely, the main riff of ʽIn The Streetʼ is always rising and going
in circles, well adapted to the song's «cruising anthem» stylistics. And ʽWhen
My Baby's Beside Meʼ is their equivalent of ʽI Want To Hold Your Handʼ — repetitive,
triumphant, oblivious to everything other than that overwhelming love wave.
But the album's magnum opus, no doubt about it, is ʽThe Ballad Of El Goodoʼ. A
young pop boy's impression of a deep gospel-soul anthem — a song about standing
up for oneself, with just a little help from God — it sounds particularly
ironic in the overall context of Big Star's misfortunes, yet at the time it
was written, the future did look
promising, and Chilton's performance here is totally credible. The hooks are actually
very simple: the song does not «properly» pick up until the chorus / bridge
part, and, basically, all they do is hammer the same two-part message in your
subconscious — "ain't no one going to turn me round" and "hold
on" — but the first part is determination incarnate, and the second part gets
by not through shouting, but through stretching out the "hold" part
so as to actually convey the impression of hooooooolding on to something. So
simple, so clever, so unforgettable. If ʽFeelʼ does not succeed in making you a
lifelong friend of this band, ʽEl Goodoʼ will complete the task with a
flourish.
Even though I have not mentioned all the
greatness of this album (ʽThirteenʼ and ʽMy Life Is Rightʼ deserve their own extended
kowtows), the things that have been
said probably suffice — #1 Record is
a product of spontaneously, perhaps even accidentally, generated melodic
genius, and the first in a never-ending, though slowly dwindling, series of
great records that kept the simplistic pop idealism of the Sixties alive and
kicking through the following decades. From that point of view, there was no
competition whatsoever for this sort of style in 1972, since the other two ends
of the «holy power pop» triangle of the early 1970s, Badfinger and The Raspberries,
did not have Big Star's ambitions. Chilton and Bell were «pretentious», yes,
and it shows up not only in their chosen band name or their chosen album title,
but in their playing style, in their vocal harmonies, in their quasi-religious
attitudes, but all of that, when coupled with said melodic genius, is to their
advantage. Pretentious, but simple; trivial, but bombastic; always accessible,
but never «fluffy», #1 Record is
certainly not an album that could be brushed off as mere light entertainment —
it does lay a serious claim to the
status of #1 record for the year 1972, at least in the «simple pop» department.
(Although, for the record, I do wish they would have kept bassist Andy Hummel's
ʽThe India Songʼ off the album — it is superficially pretty, but not only does it
have nothing to do with India, being all acoustic guitars and flutes, it
actually sounds like a second-rate flower power era outtake from some long
forgotten Frisco hippie band).
On a historical note, rumors saying that #1 Record was either ignored or
maligned at the time are grossly exaggerated: most of the critical reviews
recognized the album's genius (and how could anybody with ears not recognize it?), and, with proper
marketing strategies, at least its rocking numbers, such as ʽIn The Streetʼ or
ʽWhen My Baby's Beside Meʼ, could have been major hit singles like anything
else at the time. Unfortunately, Stax Records, responsible for the distribution,
somehow flunked at it, and even though the record got sufficient airplay, it
was simply unavailable for purchase throughout the States, or so it has been
said — a proverbial tale of bad luck and the importance of good management for
great art to find its way. On the other hand, really great art will always find its way, eventually, even without
proper management, so I am happy to know that #1 Record does not need my thumbs up endorsement in the slightest to help it
achieve «classic» status: like the even less-selling Velvet Underground's
debut, it is one of those albums that launched a thousand ships anyway.
Check "#1 Record" (CD) on Amazon
I learned of Big Star four years ago after seeing a "milestones albums" section on iTunes. I got instantly hooked on the band; surprisingly my local retailer had copies of their albums. Undoubtedly my favorite song of the album is "Thirteen": a poignant, heartfelt, emotive ballad.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I find the B-side slightly lacking I still maintain my opinion that this is a very good album- albeit not their best (this distinction has to go to "Sister Lovers".
Yet again, this is another massive improvement on your original review, George. And that was already pretty damn good to begin with. I also notice that you're far more favourable about the album than you were last time - though why barely a word on my own personal favourite track on the album, thirteen?
ReplyDeleteDon't know why India Song often gets criticized, I find it has the most sardonic lyric and some of the boldest chord changes on the album.
ReplyDeleteThis is simply a beautiful group of songs.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm baffled - apart from the highly memorable "Ballad of El Goodo" and "Thirteen" this is a collection of okayish songs which range from the above mediocre to the mildly irritating.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, it's all okay, just a long, long way from being a masterpiece.