Who says I never heard of 'em?.............
Posted on 07/31/2012 12:22:50 PM PDT by HMS Surprise
I have an alter ego in the blogosphere. Here, it’s politics, but on Facebook I blog about popular music, usually leaning heavily towards rock and roll. And until a few days ago I never imagined that there would be any ideological cross-pollination to worry about. But then I had an epiphany…
I’ll start my little tale here- I blog about music to promote a fiction book that I wrote 3 years ago. The book is about a garage band from the early 70′s that was on the cusp of making it big, but then fell just short. I plot an improbable future success for the fictional band decades after they break up and go their seperate ways, and then have some fun as our heros revitalize and reenergize the sad state of contemporary music. Why is this relevant to the dicussion of culture and politics today? Wait for it…
(Excerpt) Read more at teapartytribune.com ...
I knew of them (but never heard their stuff) because I was a fan of The Boxtops’s Alex Chilton.
Alex Chilton is another story. Do you know he was 16 when he sang The Letter? He is without question in the pantheon of great songwriters of rock and roll history.
Their “September Gurls” track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAIuim4GXK0
Money quote: “In the drugs, sex, and rock and roll universe of that era even the occasional acknowledgement of Jesus were unacceptable. So Alex Chilton and Big Star never had a chance. When other lesser bands were lavishly promoted, their record company failed to perform even perfunctory obligations. The only difference between them and the few bands of similar talent that I have detected is their unwillingness to avoid the standard American religious narrative.”
Any rock band mentioning Jesus was anathema to Columbia Records.
There was a group called The Little Angels from UK that did very well but the record company prevented them from going into the American market.
Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes ‘round
They sing “I’m in love. What’s that song?
I’m in love with that song.”
I never travel far, without a little Big Star
Hat tip to The Replacements...
Blew my mind when I learned that factoid.
He sounds so world weary and so knowing that you really feel he had missed many a fast train and really needed an aeroplane.
Kind of like when little Stevie Winwood declared he was A Man. (Yes he am, but he can't help but love you so)
Best version of “September Gurls”, IMHO, was by the SEARCHERS, on the second SIRE LP.
Who says I never heard of 'em?.............
I’ll definitely check Little Angels on Youtube. Always looking for buried treasure.
Wrong Big Star.
Maybe they just didn’t have good publicity. There was plenty of Christian themed stuff doing OK in that era, You Light Up My Life hit in 1977. Lord Have Mercy on my Soul was around then. Spirit in the Sky had been a hit in 1969 and would be again in ‘83. Plenty of others I’m too lazy to look up. But the short answer is that to assume this band failed because of Christian themes is kind of silly given who was having success in the same time.
In the early 1970s there was a lot of Jesus music coming out of the Jesus movement of the hippie era.
I’ve heard ‘em all, I must choose the original. Big Star’s albums are very well structured though, so just listening to individual songs doesn’t quite have the same impact.
I checked that, and for instance “One Toke Over the Line” and others were seldom earnest.
I made the point that there were spiritual songs allowed, just not overtly in-your-face christian material.
Bump for Later
Really? Explain Elvis.
Easy. Elvis was force of nature AFTER he seduced millions of women. It’s impossible to keep him off the airwaves at that point. Columbia wanted to make money, Big Star wasn’t money, they were only potential. Elvis was money in the bank.
After reading this article I went to youtube and listened to a couple of songs while reading about them in Wiki. I’m a big fan of old Genesis and this reminded me a bit of that music.
That said, I was finding that I was not that impressed with what I was hearing from these guys. I did listen to a new mix of Holocaust that was not bad.
It’s not that I think they are bad, but I can understand why the record companies looked at them like they were crazy when they tried to demo Sister Lover. This was a time of a much bigger sound and even Genesis had moved in that direction by then.
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