But they'll get theirs and we'll get ours if you can / Just hold on
July 9, 2013 4:52 PM   Subscribe

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me. With drummer Jody Stephens as their sole surviving original member, "the definitive story of the greatest band that never made it" is finally in theaters around the U.S. and on iTunes. One of rock's most mythic acts, the music fanatic's secret handshake, and (in the words of Robyn Hitchcock) a letter written in 1971 that didn't arrive till 1985 -- whatever metaphor best conjures up the mixture of beauty, chaos, and tragedy that defines the band, newcomers and long-standing members of the cult also shouldn't miss Don’t Lie to Me: An Oral History of Big Star.

Bonus: some recent interview and performance clips from the preternaturally youthful (and gracious) Jody Stephens here, here, here, here, and here (variously joined by Jon Auer, Jason Hiller, Luther Russell, and others).

(previous Big Star/Alex Chilton posts here; yes, I recognize that this is my third on the subject.)
posted by scody (38 comments total) 51 users marked this as a favorite
 
Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers is the best record I have ever heard. Layers upon layers. Can't wait for the film.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:04 PM on July 9, 2013 [3 favorites]


Saw it last night. Great. Tragic. Recommended.

What a majestic something Big Star was.
posted by parki at 5:09 PM on July 9, 2013


Recommended: She Might Look My Way by Alex Chilton, a long unreleased track from his audition at Mercury, post Big Star. Done with Tommy Hoehn, it's easily one of the most Big Star-like tracks Chilton cut after leaving the band. And it's great.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:12 PM on July 9, 2013 [3 favorites]


*sigh* I was too late to the game, and they were long gone before I knew they ever were. (And that's growing up in the same city as the Replacements, but being too dumb to ask who Alex Chilton was and why he deserved such an awesome song.)
posted by wenestvedt at 5:15 PM on July 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


Met Big Star through The Replacements and love them. They were so completely influential on so many different bands that I love that it took me a while to understand what the big deal was (like some other "unsung but influential" artists like Gram Parsons, Can and Wire). Big Star and #1 Record are both awesome, but it took Third/Sister Lovers to make me go "oh, holy shit, what the hell" and then fall in love with the first two records.

Some selected favorite tracks:

Get What You Deserve
Kangaroo
The Ballad of El Goodo
When My Baby's Beside Me
Back Of A Car
Holocaust

There's two dozen other amazing Big Star tracks out there. Also, one of Chris Bell's few solo recordings:

You and Your Sister

Every conceivable rock success cliche has been already been applied to Big Star by better writers than I, so all I can really add is that even this documentary isn't the amount of attention they deserve. Its a start, though.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:27 PM on July 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


I can't wait to see this. I loved the Box Tops on classic rock radio before I even know who Big Star was, and they're so beautiful it breaks my heart.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:27 PM on July 9, 2013


Had not heard of this film; thanks!
posted by thelonius at 5:32 PM on July 9, 2013


Maybe I'll sleep in a Holiday Inn...
posted by porn in the woods at 5:35 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


A blog for which I write has been all over this movie. Here is a review of the film, and this is a review of the soundtrack.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:37 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I remember when Alex Chilton passed and I was talking about him, listening to his music, and getting misty-eyed all damn day... hell, for days on end.

I couldn't help but think, "Is this how people who gave a shit about Michael Jackson felt the day he died?" He was that huge to me.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:39 PM on July 9, 2013


pxe2000, thanks for the mention of the excellent soundtrack. The backing vocals and drums are really pushed to the front in a number of the mixes, making them even more heavenly and heart-stopping than ever.
posted by scody at 5:43 PM on July 9, 2013


Man, a couple hours ago, the idea to look up the tab for Thirteen randomly popped into my head. Then, I'm just dickin around on youtube and stumble on this where Elliott Smith and Jon Brion cover Nightime, and now I see this post.

It's officially a Big Star Day.
posted by saul wright at 5:55 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I am really excited to see this, especially after the fantastic Big Star's Third concert in Central Park on June 30. That was the best show I've seen in some time, with a base band made up of Jody, Ken Stringfellow, Chris Stamey, Mike Mills, Mitch Easter, etc. joined by Pete Yorn, Jonathan Donahue, Sharon van Etten and more guests. Highly recommended if they bring their show near you!
posted by mountmccabe at 6:11 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


*copies Joey Michael's post, replaces the 'mats with This Mortal Coil, keeps all the same video links because they covered most of them anyway*
posted by eyeballkid at 6:22 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


This played at the ACMI in Melbourne through May and June, and I highly recommend it even as someone that doesn't know much about Big Star aside from some of the more popular songs (I was introduced to them via Jeff Buckley covers of 'Thirteen' and 'Kangaroo').

Joey Michaels mentioned Chris' solo work, and there's a bit of a look in to that in the documentary too - it was the first time I'd ever heard "I am the Cosmos" and it blew my mind.

Bonus: Here is some footage of Ardent Studios remastering the "I am the Cosmos" / "You and Your Sister" 45. In my opinion, Big Star were fortunate to have such a devoted and attentive friend / archivist in John Fry.
posted by curious.jp at 6:27 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I listened to September Gurls for the first time a few days ago, and it was genuinely revelatory. I could hear The Beatles, Weezer, The Beach Boys, Death Cab, The Clientele, Buddy Holly, and so many more, and the music I heard was this vital force uniting, reflecting, influencing them all, but in the form of a paradoxically unique sound. It was amazing.
posted by clockzero at 6:27 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


But I just had a Big Star day! Welp, here goes a few more.
posted by desuetude at 6:32 PM on July 9, 2013


Hopefully it gets out my way eventually, but its only scheduled date in California right now is in San Francisco. I guess it's poetic that it's playing in the little college town where I first heard them?

My fave song has always been Daisy Glaze, but I never needed to hit "next" on their albums.
posted by LionIndex at 6:39 PM on July 9, 2013


I think I say this in every Big Star thread, and it probably goes without saying, but I'll say it again, anyway:

September Gurls is the most perfect pop song ever written.

Being young and in love is wonderful, but also terrible. September Gurls is about the weight of memory, the first scratch on new paint, the way time robs us, what the moonlight smelled like. It says none of that, of course, but when that guitar chimes in with that single chord dragging just slightly behind the beat, it hollows me out and it fills me up and for three minutes everything falls away. Nothing so ephemeral should hold such power.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:04 PM on July 9, 2013 [17 favorites]


I really wish this was available on Amazon. I am more than willing to pay, but I don't truck with that bloated iTunes nonsense.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:07 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Saw the movie on Friday and it was really good--definitely recommend catching it. It's truly impressive how many people they managed to interview. And it was really interesting to hear a lot of alternate mixes and/or isolated tracks.
posted by equalpants at 7:35 PM on July 9, 2013


I believe the DVD is slated for release in November, for those who don't have a chance to catch in the theater or prefer to avoid iTunes. (I saw it here in L.A. last month at the Grammy Museum and this past weekend at the Nuart, and during the Q&A sessions they said they're hoping to keep rolling out as many screening locations as possible over the summer, and hopefully get it to the UK soon, too.)
posted by scody at 7:42 PM on July 9, 2013


Saw the doc last week, before the show a woman got up in front of the theatre and explained that 20 years ago she wrote a local Big Star fanzine and she'd found a bag full of old issues, she passed them out for free to whoever wanted them and everyone waiting for the show happily flipped through really high quality super old school fanzines reading all sorts of Big Star bits until the lights went down, really a nice night.
posted by Cosine at 7:44 PM on July 9, 2013 [7 favorites]


Until I see the movie I'll have little to add, but I do want to note for posterity that "Feelin' like a hundred bucks" is one of the most perfectly calibrated throwaway lines in pop music history. Followed the breadcrumb trail from there to Big Star itself. Marvelled, as everyone does once they get there, at how these songs weren't like Fleetwood Mac huge.

Why no children by the millions?
posted by gompa at 8:08 PM on July 9, 2013 [4 favorites]


God damn. Just had to go and put on some Big Star, and now I will be unable to listen to anything else for days on end. That's just how it goes with this band. I will be simultaneously blissed out and heartbroken. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
posted by fikri at 9:04 PM on July 9, 2013


Hearing the frustration and disappointment in Alex Chilton's voice on "Big Black Car" for the first time during a bleak part of my 20s remains the most intense, comforting musical experience that I've had. For a long time, "Sisters / Lovers" helped me put one foot in front of the other.

I'm looking forward to seeing this, but hoping it doesn't add to the hagiography that gets heaped on Big Star. It's the fact that they were unable to hide being flawed, suffering, vulnerable people that makes those records so special - not anything grandiose.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:04 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Man, my crush on Alex Chilton just does not ever fade.
posted by desuetude at 9:05 PM on July 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


I was fortunate enough to see Alex Chilton in '98 in Atlanta (Star Bar! Small club!). We were less than ten feet from him! Truly amazing, but what I noted was that he seemed... closed off. Reserved and serene at once. In retrospect, perhaps this is why such an extraordinary musician was never vaulted into the big time as he should have been. Many of us are drawn to him for precisely that reason, but to the public at large, he comes off as inscrutable. And, of course, at times intentionally abrasive (a bandmate and I used to blast "The Walking Dead" and "Bangkok" while designing a brochure for suburban real estate agents)...

Alex is another example of how folks (certainly not you!) often conflate success with mainstream acceptance. He'll be remembered long, long after Justin Beiber's love children have been buried in unmarked graves by their bitter grandchildren.
posted by cheekycheeky at 12:12 AM on July 10, 2013


Thank you, I didn't know about them. I'm confused that "September Gurls" isn't a classic that people sing in karaoke bars.
posted by vogon_poet at 1:13 AM on July 10, 2013


I remember my Big Star phase. Sometimes even with fondness.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 1:41 AM on July 10, 2013


Thank you, scody, for the three-peat. I so love Big Star (neck and neck with X for me) that I couldn't open this post last night. I'd had too long and hard a day and I knew the tears would come! Loved them a long time but saw them in Brooklyn at the last show for the first time. Big Star makes me remember everything, it's uncanny.
posted by thinkpiece at 3:57 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


Man, my crush on Alex Chilton just does not ever fade.
He kind of looks like Francois Truffaut!
posted by pxe2000 at 5:08 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


I've been following this project for a long time, since it was in its earliest days, with keen interest.

I'm impressed with what they've made of it since it starts off as a challenging doc to make - very little archive material, one main subject long dead, the other one refusing to participate and then dying mid-production before his mind can be changed. And, there's not an obvious narrative thread to lay out, it takes some skill to shape the film into one. I'm glad they got John Fry on board so early and so reliably.

the New Yorker just gave it a fairly positive notice, and getting a distribution deal is impressive.

I followed the usual Replacements/REM/Teenage Fanclub route in, but having done so - wow. The sonic qualities of those records, combined with the emotional tone, are why they are in the permanent canon.

For those of you mentioning "I Am The Cosmos", here's an early studio cover by the Posies when they are a lot, em, slimmer. Epic, and possibly the only justifiable use of/example of the concept of a Power Ballad. Do watch

Posies I Am The Cosmos
posted by C.A.S. at 5:13 AM on July 10, 2013


Cosine, I was at the Rio screening with my pal Judith Beeman, creator of Back of a Car fanzine (four issues). She has a TON of back issues she's happy to disseminate throughout the world for the price of postage only (international is cool; she's in Vancouver) or some interesting swaps. Anyone who's interested should drop her a line at jude.beeman@gmail.com!
posted by vickyverky at 12:07 PM on July 10, 2013


I really wish this was available on Amazon. I am more than willing to pay, but I don't truck with that bloated iTunes nonsense.

Actually, this is available on Amazon, or at least from the Amazon Instant Video app on our PS3. You have to search for it from the app, though. I couldn't find it on Amazon's actual website. It's currently available for rent, for $6.99 I believe.

Watched it twice, was totally blown away. It's a bit slow in a few places, but the interviews and behind the scenes footage were incredible. I'll be buying this the day it comes out on DVD.
posted by ralan at 1:40 PM on July 15, 2013


Nice article from Big Star's hometown paper on the theatrical run in Memphis opening this week: "a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity..."
posted by scody at 3:28 PM on July 17, 2013


I saw this last night in Nashville. I really enjoyed the film and Jody drove up from Memphis and played some songs with John Davis from Superdrag and a few others.
posted by ghharr at 11:29 AM on July 21, 2013


Won't be able to see the film for a while, dang it, but the soundtrack is grand. Another fine effort from Omnivore Recordings -- they also did Alex's Free Again: The "1970" Sessions last year.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:25 PM on July 21, 2013


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