It was the early nineties and I had one of these significant Moments in my music listening when I heard the fabulous “Following the crowd” by AUK favourites Teenage Fanclub. I was blown away by it at the time – it sounded so fresh, original and different, and it’s still one of my favourite albums ever.
I had read that Teenage Fanclub were influenced by the American band Big Star (as well as the Beatles and the British band Badfinger). Listening to Big Star’s excellent first two albums “#Recording 1” And “Radio City”I was really surprised how much Teenage Fanclub sounded like them. Not to take away from its greatness, but “Following the crowd” was perhaps not as original as I had thought and was, like all rock, influenced by earlier works.
Big Star was formed in Memphis in 1971 and consisted of Alex Chilton (vocals, guitar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums) and Andy Hummel (bass). Chilton was the singer of the soul group The Box Tops, which produced the hit ‘The letter’ when he was just 16. The members of the group were influenced by British bands such as The Who, The Kinks and especially the Beatles, but also through American bands like The Byrds and Sixties Soul. The two main songwriters, Chilton and Bell, saw themselves as a kind of Lennon and McCartney.
Big Star’s first two albums mentioned above are brilliant power pop, while the third “Third/Sister Lover” is less pleasing to the ear and has darker lyrical themes. It is still a great record That means worth listening to and all three albums were a huge success with critics, although not commercially.
“September Girl”out of “Radio City”is one of their most famous tracks and Only has a brilliant sing-along melody. Maybe you’ve heard the version by The Bangles. The song was a tribute to “California Girls” – The most beautiful girls in the world by the Beach Boys and is about three of the many women in Chilton’s life at the time, including his ex-wife, all of whom had birthdays in September. He has said that while he was happy with the music, he was not so happy with the lyrics and that they are actually nothing special. The track was written by Rolling Stone in the magazine’s top 500 songs any times.
The history of Big Star is full of turmoil and tragedy. Bell was a drug addict and suffered from severe depression at times. He had many conflicts with Hummel, including violence, and both left the group in 1972 before the third album. Bell died in a car accident at the age of 27 and both Hummel and Chilton died relatively young.
You may be thinking, “But are Big Star Americana?” Their music is not like the folk or country influenced material usually heard on AUK. I would argue that their big influence is on many American bands like REM and The Replacements and the fact that they have been covered by Americana bands such as Wilco, Whiskeytown and Lucero means that they Only about squeezing in.
And if further proof is needed: Katie Perry’s ‘California Girls’ is written like this as a tribute to Big Star. That’s even better.
