Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Big StarEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Published: 1992
CD Release Date: 1992-02-21
Music Label: Rykodisc
Soundtracks:
- Kizza Me
- Thank You Friends
- Big Black Car
- Jesus Christ
- Femme Fatale
- O, Dana
- Holocaust
- Kangaroo
- Stroke It Noel
- For You
- You Can't Have Me
- Nightime
- Blue Moon
- Take Care
- Nature Boy
- Till The End Of The Day
- Dream Lover
- Downs
- Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
Free Music Notes for Third/Sister Lovers
Free Music Review: Five Big Stars
Hit: 5 Stars
Alex Chilton is one of rock's most fascinating mysteries wrapped in an enigma. He has been worshipped by Paul Westerberg to the point of having a song written about him. According to a man I spoke to in a bar - a highly articulate, well-informed, and obviously intelligent man - Chilton was a janitor somewhere in Tennessee not too long ago. Most recently, this New Orleans resident was reported missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Fortunately, the reports of his possible demise were exaggerated. Musically, he was the teenage vocalist on the classic #1 single "The Letter", the unlikely producer for The Cramps, and a major influence on the folky, cryptic alternative rock of R.E.M., the trashier rock of The Replacements, and the more straightforward power pop of Teenage Fanclub. (And that's just to cite the ones who are keen enough to know that they were influenced by him and his band.)
Although Big Star is thought of as the quintessential American power pop band, you would never know it from their third CD, which I will hereafter refer to as Sister Lovers, because I like that title better. Granted, the disc contains "Thank You Friends", which is in the tradition of their classic "September Gurls". (Neither of which are, in my opinion, as perfect as the greatest power pop song ever, "Shake Some Action" by The Flamin' Groovies, who are also a strong candidate for the quintessential American power pop band.) Apart from that, almost all of the songs on Sister Lovers are stark affairs, ones which stick in your head not because they are catchy but because they're haunting. The range of the band's - or just Chilton's, as the case may be - are indicated nicely by the covers on the record, which include the sparse "Nature Boy" (made famous by Nat "King" Cole), an even slower (and French-flavored) version of The Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale", and a spirited take on "Till the End of the Day" by The Kinks (which they start off with the opening riffs to The Who's "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere"). Chilton is clearly the star of this CD, as he wrote all but one of the original songs. But drummer Jody Stephens gives him a run for his money with his single contribution, "For You". This track speaks as much for the tone and brilliance of Sister Lovers as any of Chilton's songs do.
There are a few weaker tracks, like "Kizza Me", "You Can't Have Me", and the cover of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On". If nothing else, at least they lighten the mood of the record a bit. The absence of Chris Bell, whose presence was so strongly felt on their debut #1 Record, may explain the lack of higher quality soul and power pop. (Bell had left the group in 1972, and was killed in a car crash in 1978.) However, this same absence allowed Chilton to make Sister Lovers the tormenting masterpiece that it is. This may have disappointed many Big Star fans, but the band was never obligated to be a pop group, and they had very little chance of coming out of this record intact anyway. Hence, the result is a record full of frightening tales of despondency, like the horrifically unsubtle "Holocaust" - "you're a wasted face/you're a sad-eyed lie/you're a holocaust" - and loneliness, like "Nighttime" - "I hate it here, get me out of here". Other songs seek comfort and salvation in whatever may offer it, be it driving ("Big Black Car"), religion ("Jesus Christ"), or love ("Blue Moon"). And that is hardly where the great songs end. The string-laden "Kangaroo", "Strike It Noel", and "Take Care" are all amazing and probably unlike anything you'll ever hear in popular music.
Given the anguished tone of the record, one does have to wonder - as many already have - if the triumphal sounding "Thank You Friends" is sincere or bitterly ironic. In this sense, it reminds me of The Kinks' song "All of My Friends Were There". While this also sounds celebratory, the lyrics indicate otherwise: "And just when I wanted no one to be there/All of my friends were there/Not just my friends, but there best friends too/All of my friends were there/To stand and stare". Alex, meanwhile, says "without my friends I got chaos". Well, if the remainder of the record is any indication, chaos is what he's got a lot of! Is Alex in fact friendless, or were the friends he had simply not there when he needed them to be?
Whatever the case, lonely is something that Alex Chilton will never be in the world of popular music, as evinced by a couple of tribute albums and dozens of artists who admire Big Star. Sister Lovers was a departure from the snap crackle pop of their first two records, but arguably even more ambitious and fully realized than either of them. But while it may be the masterpiece of the band called Big Star, it can't really stand as their most representative opus, as #1 Record and Radio City are just as essential. Alex Chilton once said that he felt that he was joining Chris Bell's band when he became a member of Big Star, and that Bell was the biggest Anglophile in Memphis. With Bell's departure, Big Star clearly became Chilton's band. Thus, Sister Lovers might more accurately be his personal masterwork, while remaining a fascinating piece of the Big Star puzzle.
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