Posted by Nolol on 5/19/2012, 2:25 am
70.188.22.113
Well, sort of. I pretty much feel the same way you do about Big Star, but I wanted you to know a couple of things, namely about Chris Bell. You mention in the intro that Alex Chilton was the main songwriter and list Chris Bell as just a sideman. Alex Chilton gets way more credit than he deserves in my humble opinion. Chris Bell actually wrote at least half the songs on the debut, maybe more, and while there's no definitive proof, there are a lot of rumblings that he wrote a good chunk of Radio City's material before leaving. Also, the artistic direction is most likely due to Chris Bell as well, since he'd done some power-pop that sounds a lot like Big Star before the band had formed, whereas Alex Chilton hadn't.
Also, you say the band split up and the members pursued various solo careers except for Chris Bell, who died in a car accident. Actually, while Alex Chilton had a prolific solo career, Andy Hummel went back to school and off the radar, Jody Stephens didn't do much of anything but try to live off of Big Star's underground success, and Chris Bell has a posthumously released solo album that's considered a cult classic (haven't heard it all myself, yet, but "I Am The Cosmos" is a cool song).
Chris Bell also had a really sad life story that's worth reading up on.
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