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Rating: Before I start, in forming an opinion about something, the views of others should only serve as advice and not as an infallible influence that falls upon us like something undeniable. Nonetheless, sometimes opinions are so unanimously positive or negative that they make you waver, standardize your taste, and you give in. You risk being convinced that, for example, Dark Side Of The Moon is a masterpiece even before you’ve heard it, or that Apocalypse Now is unbeatable even if you haven’t seen a single frame of it. But everyone says so…
On a smaller scale, this happened to me with the first two albums by Big Star, the legendary Memphis band led by two guitarists, Alex Chilton (also a vocalist) and Chris Bell. After their first album, aptly named #1 Record (1972), the two were praised for a songwriting symbiosis worthy of Lennon/McCartney, but Bell decided, after misunderstandings with his partner, to leave the quartet, which became a trio with Chilton as the undisputed sole leader.
This formation produced the follow-up to #1 Record, Radio City (1973), and broke up before releasing their third album, which came out posthumously in 1978 (Third/Sister Lovers, which I haven’t unfortunately heard but which you already have a review of).
Big Star and this pair of albums became cult classics almost immediately after being largely ignored commercially, a kind of 1970s Velvet Underground. But I can’t see it that way. All the innovation, freshness, originality, and taste attributed to these four young men I found to be quite negligible, and very diluted.
Let's start by saying that the Bell-Chilton album seems much more substantial to me, simply because Bell has an excellent melodic vein reminiscent of post-Beatles/Stones rock giants, and he knows how to soften and filter Chilton's excesses; the other tends to use a powerful, expressive voice in a very predictable and anonymous manner, as if from song to song he's always talking about the same subject.
Their signature sound is the alternation between acoustic folk and hard-rock blues parts; and this is very wise, making everything more varied and digestible. It's a shame that the average quality of the songs makes this strategy wasted.
There are some great ballads, such as the simple yet genuine “Thirteen,” covered far and wide, “The Ballad Of El Goodo” (which I dedicated, at 16, to a girl and she had her parents call me), and the syrupy yet adorable “Give Me Another Chance” (and this one I’ve covered to death!!).
But then what? A thousand little choruses, a thousand guitar strums on the usual chords already tried by all the best artists (from Led Zeppelin to Rod Stewart) of the previous 5 years. Songs about India that seem like a mix between a Christmas jingle and “Sloop John B” by the Beach Boys (“The India Song”) and a continual sense of inconsistency that reappears every now and then.
But if the problem with the first album is perhaps that it's too superficial, going in one ear and often out the other, the problem with the second is that everything is weighed down by the indulgence of the leader, who must and/or wants to do everything alone. A bit like the syndrome Damon Albarn suffered with Think Tank. And thus, everything becomes almost indigestible, or at least confusing. The precision of once has turned into pop schizophrenia, with three-minute songs that don’t know where to go, unable to hold onto a chorus, constantly changing chords, not out of experimentalism but due to a suspected inability to give a clear shape, a definite body to some excellent ideas (even if there are outstanding exceptions including the evergreen “September Gurls” or the successful “You Get What You Deserve”).
This leaves me with a bitter taste; I bought this CD and held it in my hands like it was an invaluable treasure. But is it???
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Feel (03:33)
Woman, what are you doing
You're driving me to ruin
The love that you've been stealing
Has given me a feeling
I feel like I'm dying
I'm never gonna live again
You just ain't been trying
It's getting very near the end
I feel like I'm dying
I feel like I'm dying
02 The Ballad of El Goodo (04:21)
Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh
And I've been trying hard against unbelievable odds
It gets so hard in times like now to hold on
But guns they wait to be stuck by, at my side is God
And there ain't no one goin' to turn me 'round
Ain't no one goin' to turn me 'round
There's people around who tell you that they know
And places where they send you, and it's easy to go
They'll zip you up and dress you down and stand you in a row
But you know you don't have to, you can just say "no"
I've been built up and trusted, broke down and busted
But they'll get theirs and we'll get ours if you can
Just-a hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Years ago my heart was set to live, oh
But I've been trying hard against strong odds
It gets so hard at times like now to hold on
Well, I'll fall if I don't fight, and at my side is God
03 In the Street (02:55)
Hanging out, down the street
The same old thing we did last week
Not a thing to do, but talk to you
Steal your car, and bring it down
Pick me up, we'll drive around
Wish we had a joint so bad
Bust a street light
Out past midnight
04 Thirteen (02:34)
Won't you let me walk you home from school?
Won't you let me meet you at the pool?
Maybe Friday I can
Get tickets for the dance
And I'll take you, ooh ooh
Won't you tell your dad to get off my back?
Tell him what we said about Paint It Black
Rock and roll is here to stay
Come inside where it's okay
And I'll shake you, ooh ooh
Won't you tell me what you're thinking of?
Would you be an outlaw for my love?
If it's over let me know
If it's nowhere I can go
I won't make you, ooh ooh
06 The India Song (02:20)
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
Read a few books
Far from what saddens my heart
Try to live away from it
Find a new girl
Who says she feels the same
Get to know her after the trip
Bathe in a forest pool
Her life a part of mine
And let no one know until I'm gone
10 Try Again (03:31)
Lord I've been trying to be what I should
Lord I've been trying to do what I could
But each time it gets a little harder
I feel the pain
But I'll try again
Lord I've been trying to be understood
And Lord I've been trying to do as you would
But each time it gets a little harder
I feel the pain
But I'll try again
11 Watch the Sunrise (03:45)
I can feel it, now it's time
Open your eyes
Fears be gone, it won't be long
There's a light in the sky
It's okay to look outside
The day it will abide
And watch the sunrise
Sun, it shines on all of us
We are one in it's hand
Come inside and light my room
like the heart of every man
It's okay to look outside
The day it will abide
And watch the sunrise
I can feel it, now it's time
Open your eyes
Fears be gone, it won't be long
There's a light in the sky
It's okay to look outside
Your love it will abide
And watch the sunrise
13 O My Soul (05:40)
O my soul mama
I lose control
go ahead and shake if you wanna
and I'll never know
wull come on
you know it's alright
we've got all night
you're driving me mad
and you shouldn't do that
we're going to get on up
and drink till we drop.
You're really a nice girl
and I think you're the most
and when we're together
I feel like a boss
CHORUS Trying to see you
I'd knock off your doors
dying to see you
I'm down on the floor.
14 Life Is White (03:19)
Don't like to see your face
don't like to hear you talk at all
I could be with Ann
but I'd just get bored
CHORUS Can't even bring myself to call
15 Way Out West (02:49)
She's a schemer and she makes me bad
but I love her a lot those lonely nights
I was in a big room playing my things
oh I wish she were here she can be so kind
when she's not trying to hide
she tries not to love me but she knows
she can
CHORUS And why don't you come on back from
17 You Get What You Deserve (03:08)
Try to understand what I'm going through
and don't blame me for what folks will do
for some of us it's not a good time
but you're going to get used to
and you'd better resign yourself.
CHORUS You get what you deserve
you ought to find out what it's worth
and you've gotta have a lotta nerve.
You just do what pleases you
and go on and sign out every move
you're going to get place in the scene
all God's orphans get face in the dream.
Too bad such a drag ow !
so much pain down the drain
and a lot of us ain't got many friends.
Try to understand what I'm going through
and don't blame me for what folks will do
for some of us it's not a good time
but you're going to get used to
and you'd better resign yourself.
CHORUS
18 Mod Lang (02:45)
I can't be satisfied
what you want me to do
and so I moan
had to leave my home.
Love my gull oooh yeh
she got to save my soul
I want a witness I want to testify.
CHORUS How long can this go on ?
All night long I was howling
I was a barking dog
aahow aahow.
20 Daisy Glaze (03:49)
I'm driving alone
sad about you
not going home
what's to do
you better not leave me here
better not leave me here
ooh I want you here
how can you leave me here.
I lie in a stream
and floating fine
receiving things
in my beautiful mind
sometimes oh sometimes
sometimes oh sometimes
lover yes I am
Lover you know I am.
Now I'm in a bar
that's got to be where they are
going to dance in the bar
they're going to fight on the floor
faster than I can see.
Now I gonna score
make for the door
Who is this whore ?
soon be beggin drags.
And I'm thinking Christ
nullify my life.
You're going to die
you gonna decease.
22 September Gurls (02:48)
September gurls do so much
I was your butch and you were touched
I loved you, well, never mind
I've been crying all the time
December boys got it bad
December boys got it bad
September gurls, I don't know why
How can I deny what's inside
Even though I'll keep away
They will love all our days
December boys got it bad
December boys got it bad
When I get to bed late at night
That's the time she makes things right
Ooh, when she makes love to me
September gurls do so much
I was your butch and you were touched
I loved you, well, never mind
I've been crying all the time
December boys got it bad
December boys got it bad
December boys got it bad, ooh
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Other reviews
By Lewis Tollani
An astonishing sequence of genuine pop gems unfolds through the grooves of this vinyl.
These are the characteristics through which Bell and Chilton chase the dream of writing perfect pop songs.
