Review #474: #1 Record, Big Star
#474: #1 Record, Big Star
Here, way down at the bottom of the list, is Big Star’s debut. Every one of their other records made it onto RS’s list (at least the ones released in the Seventies), so you’d think that Big Star experienced a lot of success in their time. But they didn’t.
RS paints them as good-natured about it, quoting Alex Chilton as stating, “If you only press up a hundred copies of a record, then eventually it will find its way to the hundred people in the world who want it the most.” But really, it sounds like they were disappointed, so much so that a founding band member bailed. They named themselves “Big Star” for crying out loud.
Big Star was the brainchild of Chilton and Chris Bell. Though this is the only record Bell is on, he had a huge hand in its creation — the two of them wrote most of the songs collaboratively, and took turns singing lead. Producer John Fry has stated that Bell was also the most interested in producing, which is why their two subsequent albums sounded a little rougher than #1 Record.
I have to agree with him — one of the things I clocked immediately was that even though this record was only released five years after Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow, #1 Record sounds so much cleaner and crisper. And the songs Bell sings lead on ended up being the ones I knew the best — I don’t know where I’ve heard the opening riff from “Feel” from, but I know I’ve heard it somewhere. But I knew immediately where “In The Street” was from — Hanging out/ Down the street/ The same old thing/ We did last week. That’s right, Cheap freaking Trick covered it for That Seventies Show. Big Star’s is a little more dreampop, and Cheap Trick changed like eighty percent of the lyrics, including adding the We’re all alright! Weird, but it works!
Bell’s songs tended to be a little edgier than Chilton’s — he’s got a captivating, falsetto-filled screen. See “Don’t Lie To Me” and “My Life Is Right,” which I’m fairly certain inspired Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” His one acousticky song is “Try Again,” which is almost a God-fearing hymn about trying to do the right thing. But even that has a punkish edge.
Chilton, on the other hand, tended towards acoustic ballads. I heard Elliott Smith all over it. The most famous is “Thirteen,” a slow acoustic song about the innocence of being teenage sex. (Which was also featured on That Seventies Show — they just loved Big Star, I guess.) See also the empathetic “The Ballad of El Goodo,” the complicated breakup ballad “Give Me Another Chance,” and the beautifully optimistic “Watch the Sunrise.” He does sing on some punchier ones, like “When My Baby’s Beside Me,” but he never sounds quite as punk rock as Bell does.
Two wild cards here: “The India Song” was written and sung by bassist Andy Hummel. Honestly, I enjoyed how different it sounded, but thought it was the weakest in terms of lyrics. I’d like to go to India/ Live in a big white house in the forest/ Drink gin and tonic and play a grand piano? Okay. And “ST 100/6” has no lead singer, just the whole band singing in their trademark harmony, begging us simply to Be my friend.
After this record’s underwhelming sales, Big Star fell apart. They apparently physically fought each other, then went on to smash one another’s instruments. Bell quit just seven months after #1 Record was released and pursued a solo career. Then six years later, he died at age 27. Despite all the tumult, I think he’d be happy on Big Star’s outsized impact on popular music.
