How I became a fan of Big Star…

I recently took a trip to NYC with my girlfriend and it was incredible to walk past some of the hippest record stores and see the Big Star “Keep An Eye On The Sky” box set sitting there in the windows.  And a couple weeks back, Josh Cosby of Star & Micey was by the coffee maker at Ardent Studios and said he had a dream of a song and started humming it.  It was Ballad of El Goodo, my favorite Big Star song and it’s just amazing to see people take such a liking to the band once they listen.  That’s how it was in my case.  My Aunt Diane (pictured with Alex Chilton) had worked at Ardent in the 70s and would always tell me stories when I was growing up about a local band that wrote some songs about her.  That band was Big Star and I had always dismissed her stories until I finally took the time to listen a couple of years ago.  I was completely blown away!  I had Ballad of El Goodo on repeat for weeks and it’s still in heavy rotation on my iPod, along with a bunch of other Chris Bell and Big Star songs.

Diane was working at Ardent back when Radio City was being written and recorded and she used to run around with Alex Chilton and the band.  She claims that “September Gurls” (about her and John Fry’s sister-in-law), “She’s A Mover” (talks about Diane in Catholic school, I believe), “O My Soul” (Diane said Alex didn’t know what a soul was but only knew soul music) and “I’m In Love With Girl” were written about her (or at least that’s what Chilton was telling her).

A little over a year ago, we were getting some things out of Diane’s storage for my brother and we came across 3 or 4 boxes of her vinyl records, which were collecting dust.  She said I could have any of the records I wanted.  I found 8 mint condition, original promo copies of #1 Record (1 was unopened) and 3 copies of Radio City, also in mint condition and original promo copies!  I immediately gave them to most of my co-workers at Ardent because they are the folks that appreciate the band most and I kept a copy of each for myself, of course.  Now I need to get Big Star’s Third on vinyl, but I definitely have all the digital tracks.

Also, Ardent engineer, producer and Big Star guru, Adam Hill, found this picture of my Uncle Buddy (Diane’s brother) with Chris Bell from the 70s.  Buddy was in a local band called Target and I believe this is from one of the mini-tours they did with Big Star back in the 70s.

Like so many others recently discovering Big Star, I wanted to share my appreciation of the band and some of my family history regarding the originators of power pop.  Click HERE to download some free tracks from Big Star and Chris Bell that will give you a little introduction, just in case you didn’t already know about them.  And here are some links to purchase their music if you like what you hear.

Big Star “Keep An Eye On The Sky” Box Set 4-CD Set
Chris Bell “I Am The Cosmos (Deluxe Edition)” 2-CD Set

Big Star “#1 Record” Vinyl
Big Star “Radio City” Vinyl
Big Star “3rd” Vinyl
Chris Bell “I Am The Cosmos” Vinyl
Big Star “#1 Record/Radio City” CD
Big Star “3rd” CD
Big Star “#1 Record/Radio City” MP3 Download
Big Star “3rd” MP3 Download

For anyone that cares, I’ll have another post up soon regarding my Granddaddy, Richard “Johnny” Davis, who was one of the best trumpet players in Memphis.

Joseph Davis
Ardent Music