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pseydtonneYou remember the last time you heard an album on someone's stereo, assumed it was some great track from a couple decades ago, only to learn it's a track from a brand new band that went so deep into retro that it was new again? You know how you felt unhip yet happily childlike for finding something you didn't know about but you could experience for yourself? I had this experience the first time I heard Jet. (I'm not hip, so it's okay for me to say Get Born is a great album and fuck you if you think it's Seventies rehash.)
Imagine the obverse situation resulting in the same sense of wonder. That happened to me today.
All these years I'd never heard more than one playing of a single Big Star song. I have some collector Alex Chilton stuff, but that's the lead singer's solo work. Chilton writes fun, poppy stuff that works better for a jaded brain. However, his voice ages in reverse: he sounded younger in 1987 than he did in 1970 doing the same song. Also, I've heard from a musician that worked on the same stage as Chilton that Chilton's a prima donna. Good thing you can't hear that in the music.
I worked in college radio for four years. Not winding up with at least a dub of a Big Star album is like buying a suburban house and not ending up with a packet from the Welcome Wagon -- how could it happen?
I was grabbing parts for a computer at Best Buy when my friend Ron dragged me to the SACD section. "Why go there? I already have Herbie Hancock's Headhunters." I've owned an SACD player for nearly two years (it's also a progressive-scan DVD player) and I still hadn't found more than three Super Audio discs worth purchasing. The O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack is amazing with the extra fidelity. It's like having a cheat code in your music system that makes the imaging much more palpable. However, there are so few titles to check out that I don't already have on vinyl. What's the point of a new audio format with licensing issues that prohibit new releases, anyway?
Stax has started coming out with some back catalog on SACD that hadn't even been available on CD for a while. I saw the result of this in the SACD rerelease of Big Star's two main albums on one disc (a disc that can also be played on a regular CD player).
You hear this album and about fifty other bands suddenly sound like tribute bands to it. Imperial Drag? Yup. Jet? Shit yeah. You can hear The Pursuit of Happiness in "O My Soul" just as you can hear some odd sense of Christie McVie. Hell, track 3 ("In The Street") was covered by somebody and made into the theme song for That 70's Show.
I feel like a giddy fifteen year old in the back of a friend's car on the way to an older kid's party when I hear "September Gurls". You get the sense Tom Petty heard this song and spent the rest of his life trying to redo it. You get the feeling you're sitting next to Liz Phair when she's in college and hearing her say, "fuck it, I could do this! I am this! Gimme an axe." I am very tempted to type out the lyrics to the song but it would betray the context I have as a listener as I fall instantly in love with the song. Oh sure, it's a bit like the bridge from "Nowhere Man" but it's proof that there is something archetypal in that chord progression. "I loved you, well... never mind."
I hope I don't sound like I'm bashing any of the bands I've mentioned. It's just that I finally found their Rosetta Stone. This one album ties so much together about the 30 years of music that came after it. It explains what so many sell-outs meant to do before their executive owners took them over. You can also hear why certain bands stayed obscure because they wanted to have only the magical moments like these without the deceit.
When the last track ("I'm in Love with a Girl") ends, it's abrupt. You expect one more verse but instead your heart stutters when the song stops. That's worth the entrance fee.
This collection works for everyone. Audiophiles can check out the extra chimes and tones all over the place. Folks that just want a catchy song to hum get a ton of 'em. Rock junkies get to rock out; psychedelia folks can swim their heads through the chord changes. All of these facets come with each track. Ahh.............
-December Boy's got it bad, Ps/d
Imagine the obverse situation resulting in the same sense of wonder. That happened to me today.
All these years I'd never heard more than one playing of a single Big Star song. I have some collector Alex Chilton stuff, but that's the lead singer's solo work. Chilton writes fun, poppy stuff that works better for a jaded brain. However, his voice ages in reverse: he sounded younger in 1987 than he did in 1970 doing the same song. Also, I've heard from a musician that worked on the same stage as Chilton that Chilton's a prima donna. Good thing you can't hear that in the music.
I worked in college radio for four years. Not winding up with at least a dub of a Big Star album is like buying a suburban house and not ending up with a packet from the Welcome Wagon -- how could it happen?
I was grabbing parts for a computer at Best Buy when my friend Ron dragged me to the SACD section. "Why go there? I already have Herbie Hancock's Headhunters." I've owned an SACD player for nearly two years (it's also a progressive-scan DVD player) and I still hadn't found more than three Super Audio discs worth purchasing. The O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack is amazing with the extra fidelity. It's like having a cheat code in your music system that makes the imaging much more palpable. However, there are so few titles to check out that I don't already have on vinyl. What's the point of a new audio format with licensing issues that prohibit new releases, anyway?
Stax has started coming out with some back catalog on SACD that hadn't even been available on CD for a while. I saw the result of this in the SACD rerelease of Big Star's two main albums on one disc (a disc that can also be played on a regular CD player).
You hear this album and about fifty other bands suddenly sound like tribute bands to it. Imperial Drag? Yup. Jet? Shit yeah. You can hear The Pursuit of Happiness in "O My Soul" just as you can hear some odd sense of Christie McVie. Hell, track 3 ("In The Street") was covered by somebody and made into the theme song for That 70's Show.
I feel like a giddy fifteen year old in the back of a friend's car on the way to an older kid's party when I hear "September Gurls". You get the sense Tom Petty heard this song and spent the rest of his life trying to redo it. You get the feeling you're sitting next to Liz Phair when she's in college and hearing her say, "fuck it, I could do this! I am this! Gimme an axe." I am very tempted to type out the lyrics to the song but it would betray the context I have as a listener as I fall instantly in love with the song. Oh sure, it's a bit like the bridge from "Nowhere Man" but it's proof that there is something archetypal in that chord progression. "I loved you, well... never mind."
I hope I don't sound like I'm bashing any of the bands I've mentioned. It's just that I finally found their Rosetta Stone. This one album ties so much together about the 30 years of music that came after it. It explains what so many sell-outs meant to do before their executive owners took them over. You can also hear why certain bands stayed obscure because they wanted to have only the magical moments like these without the deceit.
When the last track ("I'm in Love with a Girl") ends, it's abrupt. You expect one more verse but instead your heart stutters when the song stops. That's worth the entrance fee.
This collection works for everyone. Audiophiles can check out the extra chimes and tones all over the place. Folks that just want a catchy song to hum get a ton of 'em. Rock junkies get to rock out; psychedelia folks can swim their heads through the chord changes. All of these facets come with each track. Ahh.............
-December Boy's got it bad, Ps/d
