It's because their description is much better than their actual output.

Their music reminds me of Rads' description on Bob Pollard/GBV -- a lot of good ideas for songs that they never quite make into songs.

Man, have you actually heard their songs? Like "Back of a Car" or "Kangaroo"? I can see how someone could say that for GBV, but Big Star? No way.

Subjectivity sucks.

But, any opinions on whether I should get a Box Tops comp or this Alex Chilton comp?

I like Big Star, but I didn't always. And I'm not always in the right frame of mind to really love their stuff, but sometimes I am. And it's a different frame of mind for #1 Record/Radio City than it is for Third/Sister Lovers.

I can't really agree with you here. Big Star has good to great songs but their execution of them often seems to be flat or just missing something. Pollard/GBV have kernals of incomplete songs which they occasionally still make sound good despite huge flaws in the songwriting. They really have the opposite problem. Maybe GBV should become a Big Star cover band.

?

Terrible terrible news.

Yesterday in the U.S. House of Representatives:

wait, what?

I nay have gotten this wrong, but that's how it always seemed to me. A little lazy power pop band that survived on the legacy of The Letter and was never nearly as good as all the fanboys wanted them to be...not to shit on the guy's grave or anything.

I'm sure that the answer is "yes", but have you ever actually listened to any of their albums?

I can see how somebody might say that about Sister Lovers, if you expect pure power pop. But then, that album has to be taken out of context and not listened to as a power pop album. Because it's not. The first two, however, are damn near miraculous, in just about every way. (Maybe one or two throwaway songs total between them, but that's it.)

Normally I can see where somebody is coming from when they disagree with me on something musical, but not here.
If you just said, "I'm just not a fan," that I could get. But everything else, I'm having a hard time with.

yeah you definitely got this wrong

Admittedly, Sister Lovers is the album I have spent the most time with, so maybe that's where I'm coming from.

yeah then i can see where youre coming from. but for reals, you gotta listen to the earlier two. thats kinda what we're talking about here

Like I said, if you listen to that album as a "power pop" record, I can totally see how you think that. But, as Ryan said, it's the first two albums where they got their rep for being perfect power pop.
Still, keep in mind, that the third record is a totally different animal. Listen to it with different ears... listen to it as the sound of a band (and a man) falling apart and it takes on a whole new sound. The third one was my first intro to the band, as well and it baffled me, too. I couldn't understand how folks thought the band that made that record were such a great, melodic band. Then, I heard the first two and it put it into context. Now it's probably my favorite of the three. Just fucking heartbreaking, really.

I hope that you'll give them another chance, because then I think that you'll find something that you will really, really love.

Also, stop failing Gar.

I've openly witnessed you cranking "O, Dana" at top volumes.

yep, that one song out of 1000 i've heard is good. who fails now?

You do for being you.

Doesn't really matter what anyone says now anyway. You've made your statement about Big Star.

#1 Record/Radio City is a little bit different record though. Also, the problem with someone expecting "Power Pop" is that the term has been applied to over 35 years of bands now and everyone may have a different expectation of what it should sound like.

To me, these guys could just write a great pop song. Period. I don't know how anyone can hear "September Gurls" and not hear greatness.

"September Gurls" is spectacular, and there's a handful of other great pop songs scattered around those first two albums, but if you listen outside of a precious indie context you can hear exactly why no one bought Big Star in 1973. I like them well enough, and respect Chilton for his stubborn iconoclasm, but there's a ramshackle, half-baked quality to so much of those first two Big Star albums that simultaneously explains and belies the modern fanboy claims of greatness.

That 3rd album is a whole nuther thing. One of those albums like Closer and Oar and The Madcap Laughs in which a listener is presented with the real-life psychological breakdown of the artist. There's a lot to respect on it, a lot to wonder and fear on it, a lot to appreciate in myriad ways, but I'm not sure if there's much to actually like. Unless you like pulling the wings off flies and watching them suffer.

Most will probably have heard (and disliked) this, but here's the Big Star tribute album. I find it interesting if only to hear a more professional take on the songs.



Tracklist:

Gin Blossoms "Back of a Car"
Afghan Whigs "Nighttime"
Matthew Sweet "Ballad of El Goodo"
Juliana Hatfield "Don't Lie To Me"
Idle Wilds "You Get What You Deserve"
Whiskeytown "Give Me Another Chance"
Kelly Willis "When My Baby's Beside Me"
Teenage Fanclub "Jesus Christ"
The Posies "What's Goin Ahn"
Wilco "Thirteen"
Big Star "Hot Thing"

Now I really wish I had #1 Record/Radio City (at what point did these two become one album, and why?) with me at work. It's the perfect sunny Friday for this business.

I think they were joined together because they both could fit on one cd as "value set." I've untangled them on my ipod though.

I certainly can see your point but then how does a band like The Raspberries get Top 40 hits and not them?

Honest question. Packaging? Better production maybe?

I can understand a song like "I Wanna Be With You" which is catchy as hell but shit, "Let's Pretend" was a top 40 single. WTF? Big Star certainly had singles as good if not better than that.

My opinion? The Raspberries were able to actually rock. They had the "power" in their power pop that Big Star didn't.

over the years my appreciation for the first two albums has waned a bit but the opposite has happened for the third album. its hard to listen to, as said above, but its a great album.

I'm going to take this as 100% vindication.

Sometimes weaknesses are strengths and weaknesses are... well you know.