Big Star
49 articles
Free articles
Big Star: The Best of Big Star
Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, January 2000
Fourteen cuts from troubled pop-rack demigods' first two LPs, remastered, at mid-price ...
Audio interviews
Jim Dickinson on Big Star (1999)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 1999
The legendary Memphis musician and producer looks back at the making of Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers. It's all here: the characters and the chaos, the fun and the frustrations. Great story-telling.
File format: mp3; file size: 56.3mb, interview length: 58' 38" sound quality: * (phoner)
List of articles in the library
Invisible Jukebox: Spiritualized
Interview by Mike Barnes, The Wire, July 1998
Every month we play a musician a series of records which they're asked to identify and comment on — with no prior knowledge of what ...
Holly George-Warren's Alex Chilton
Memoir by Binky Philips, Huffington Post, 11 April 2014
When I was running the East Village record store, St Mark's Sounds in the 1980s, Alex Chilton's LP Like Flies On Sherbert [sic] was a ...
Behind the Scenes of the Big Star Box Set
Report and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 15 September 2009
DURING HIS seven-year career at Ardent Studios, 34-year old engineer Adam Hill has worked with the White Stripes, Cat Power, George Thorogood, Montgomery Gentry and the Raconteurs. One ...
Chris Bell: Waltz Across Memphis
Retrospective by Mark Rozzo, Oxford American, Summer 2003
IN MAY OF 1978, the first Big Star pilgrimage took place. Driving out from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, via Interstate 40, three guys obsessed with ...
Big Star: Radio City (Ardent ADS-1501)
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 11 April 1974
BIG STAR proved themselves one of the leading new American bands working in the mid-Sixties pop and rock vein with the release of their debut ...
"It Isn't Even a Record": Big Star's 'Stroke It, Noel' and Sister Lovers
Retrospective and Interview by Mark Rozzo, Oxford American, 2006
ONE CHILL November evening several years ago, I found myself camped around a driftwood fire on the banks of the Mississippi River in Memphis, watching ...
Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, November 2009
A Beatles-obsessed quartet of '70s Memphis kids offering power-pop acid-drops for a soul label and a heavy rock public, Big Star were the ultimate misfit ...
Go All The Way: A Thing Called Power Pop
Overview by Dave Laing (Australia), I Like Your Old Stuff, 25 March 2017
"Pete Townshend coined the phrase [power pop] to define what the Who did. For some reason, it didn't stick to the Who, but it did ...
Big Star: No. 1 Record (Ardent 2803)
Review by Jon Tiven, Fusion, December 1972
THIS IS certainly one of the most novel and incredible albums released this year, possessing chameleon quality only hinted at by Raspberries. Believe me, brothers ...
Robert Gordon: It Came From Memphis (Secker & Warburg)
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, October 1995
"WE HAD poetic furor," says Memphis scenester Randall Lyon, a key figure in Robert Gordon's new book about the music of his home town. "I ...
Big Star: 'September Gurls' (Privilege 1002)
Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, November 1974
Alex Chilton & Big Star: Innocent, But Deadly ...
Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, January 1979
AT LAST, THE third chapter of the Big Star story comes to light. In fact, it comes in two editions, US and UK, but for ...
Report and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 10 September 2009
Big Star is celebrated with a lavish musical "scrapbook." ...
Retrospective by Bud Scoppa, Rock's Backpages, May 2009
Note: I was assigned this piece in the Spring of 2000 by Revolver, but the mag was recast as a metal monthly while I was ...
Retrospective and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 26 October 2006
The little recording studio on Madison has played a big part in Memphis music history. ...
Alex Chilton: Alex's Wild Years
Interview by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, 2 November 1985
If anybody can really claim to be a living legend, ALEX CHILTON is the guy. From the Box Tops to Big Star to the booze, ...
Big Star Third at London's Barbican
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 29 May 2012
I WENT TO LONDON'S BARBICAN last night, fully prepared to be underwhelmed and unsatisfied: so many of these album recreations are too ramshackle for their ...
Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, October 2005
WITNESSES TO BIG STAR'S comeback shows in 1993 would often find themselves shoulder-to-shoulder with sundry teary-eyed power poppers whose own bands owed a huge debt ...
Big Star: 'Whatever Was There, I Drank It Or Took It...'
Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 21 August 1993
...So says Alex Chilton, inspirational genius behind Seventies legends BIG STAR, whose brief but influential career embraced three classic albums and more drugs, booze and ...
Press Release by uncredited writer, Ardent Records, February 1974
IN SEPTEMBER, 1972 Ardent Records released Big Star's first album, Number One Record. The group consisted of Alex Chilton – guitar, keyboards, and vocals, Chris ...
Big Star: No Glam, Just Rock and Ram
Profile and Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus, May 1974
WITHOUT EVEN an ounce of glitter in their cosmetic kit, Big Star is a band that's making it without devices or gimmicks, unless you call ...
Review by Jon Tiven, Zoo World, 28 February 1974
ONLY JANUARY, and already the Album of the Year is upon us. Big Star's Radio City is most assuredly the finest American record since Bob ...
Big Star: Live; Third/Sister Lovers; Chris Bell: I Am The Cosmos (All Rykodisc)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 29 February 1992
SINCE THEY faded into obscurity in 1975, shortly after recording the sessions for the Third/Sister Lovers LP, Memphis pop/rock band Big Star have been lauded ...
From Memphis to Columbia: An Interview With Jody Stephens of Big Star
Interview by Robin Platts, DISCoveries, January 1996
WHEN BIG STAR released their first record in 1972, it might have seemed that they were behind the times. Like Badfinger and the Raspberries, they ...
Interview by Martin Aston, OOR, Fall 1992
BIG STAR, that most famous of cult guitar bands, named themselves after a chain of supermarkets renowned in their local Memphis; now, nearly 15 years ...
Big Star: Big Star Burns Real Slow
Overview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 6 August 1977
For almost ten years now, Alex Chilton has resolutely resisted successive attempts by the rock press to deify him. ...
Retrospective by Bud Scoppa, unpublished, 2000
NOTE: I was assigned this piece the spring of 2000 by Revolver, but the mag was recast as a metal monthly while I was working ...
Jody Stephens: "What A Thing To Do..."
Interview by Joss Hutton, Bucketfull of Brains, 1997
Joss Hutton talks to Big Star's sticks-master, the urbane Jody Stephens (with assistance from Nick West, vitamin C, caffeine and Nurofen). ...
Profile and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, November 2005
MEMPHIS, TENN., April 2004: Inside Ardent Studios a band assembles in the control room, where the engineer has just cued up a playback. It's a ...
Retrospective by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 July 1978
THE BIG STAR story seems to have taken up a considerable part of my writing life. This is the fourth time in three years that ...
Interview by Joss Hutton, Perfect Sound Forever, January 2002
THIS MAIN COURSE is a hearty southern dish, marinated in worldly wisdom and good humour, matured slowly in honky-tonks, recording studios and bars the world ...
The Glory and Grandeur That Is Defeat: The Music of Alex Chilton, Part 2
Retrospective by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, July 2004
IF THE FIRST ALBUM is soulful and unconscious, the second develops a narrator and player who find new voices, taking on consciousness, memory, and loss. ...
The Glory and Grandeur That Is Defeat: The Music of Alex Chilton
Special Feature by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, July 2004
I. Entrance: On the Slopes of Parnassus ...
Great Lig in the Sky: The 1973 Rock Writers Convention
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 2006
ON MEMORIAL DAY weekend in May 1973, over a hundred of the leading rock writers of the day flew into Memphis, Tennessee, for 72 hours ...
Sleeve notes by Robert Gordon, Rykodisc, February 1992
WINDING DOWN a recent set, Alex Chilton asked, "Anything else anyone needs done for them?" That menacing kindness goes a long way toward explaining the ...
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1979
GROWING UP IN Memphis back in '67, I used to get tired of hearing the Box Top's ‘The Letter’ (#1 hit in the world that ...
Live Review by Tom Hibbert, MOJO, November 1993
AT THE BACK OF the hall stood a tall and bulky figure, taking light refreshment and delivering his expert verdict on the performance of the ...
Big Star: Big Star Story (Rykodisc)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, November 2003
Mildly unsatisfactory smattering of tracks by genius Memphis quartet/trio – the acme of twisted '70s power pop. ...
Big Star: At Overton Square, Memphis
Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, July 1973
THIS REVIEW is primarily about Alex Chilton, formerly of the Box Tops and presently with Big Star. The occasions are few and far between that ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1974
I HAVEN'T HEARD many albums in the last two years that I like as much as Big Star's first, Number One Record. Responsible for the ...
Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Shakin' Street Gazette, 14 March 1974
OK, HERE'S THE STORY: Alex Chilton, fresh from his Memphis residence with the Boxtops ('The Letter', 'Cry Like A Baby', 'Sweet Cream Ladies') heads to ...
Big Star: Radio City Comes to NYC
Live Review by Jon Tiven, Fusion, March 1974
BIG STAR IS America's premier rock band, hands down – they'll no longer be forced into comparisons with Raspberries, Stories, Blue Ash, or any of ...
What Makes Great Rock 'N' Roll Great, Part Two
Comment by Michael Goldberg, Neumu, 16 March 2002
Sometimes great rock 'n' roll is simply pure pleasure. Like sex, only without the complications ...
Big Star, Posies, Arnold: Mean Fiddler, London
Live Review by Josh Rinkoff, Rock's Backpages, 25 August 2001
A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE told me about an amazing group called Big Star. He said I should go out and buy a copy of ...
The Man Who Preferred Not To: Alex Chilton
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Dig, The (Japan), November 1999
IF EVERYONE who heard the Velvet Underground in the ’60s formed a band – so the joke goes – then everyone who heard Big Star ...
Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 1 February 1973
In the late Sixties, a Memphis teenager named Alex Chilton won moderate fame and fortune as the lead singer for a sometimes inspired, sometimes insipid ...
Wayward Sons: The Ballad of Big Star
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, February 2000
THE SUN IS going down on Memphis, site of rock’n’roll’s immaculate conception and explosive birth. On a warm spring evening, the Mississippi’s purplish-brown waters are ...
see also Chris Bell
see also Alex Chilton
see also Jim Dickinson
back to LIBRARY
