I bought the Big Star twofer or a French equivalent, some 2 or 3 decades ago, after reading an article praising the band in exhuberant terms. I was disappointed and I think I sold it back. A friend I trust praised them again last year. I gave them another try, but in bad conditions (car). I'll give them a 3rd chance some day. I did the same for Prince and ended up liking 1 album, so maybe it's worth it.
ok, back to the Ray fast strumming thing that I can’t do let me bring you back to Lola off OFTR, and go to right around two minutes and 2:30 and that should give you an idea what I was nattering on about.
Love Ron Sexsmith. He lived around the corner from me for many years. My kid trick or treated at his house a bunch of times. We’ve both since moved out of that hood so I don’t get Ron sightings anymore.
Killer’s Eyes: This track is my least favorite on the record. I like it enough that if I was playing the record, I wouldn’t skip it, but I don’t really play record straight through at this stage of my life (unless it’s something new). Others on here have touched on my issues with this song. First, the riff starts out like it is going to grow into something with some teeth, but then it never goes anywhere. Second, Ray’s lyrics seem like they should be leading to something important, but (again as others have already noted), the pay off of “it’s not nice to kill” doesn’t close the loop for me. Finally, the plodding pace isn’t bad, if it was broken up with something else, but it just plods from beginning to end. I think it was Fortuleo that called this demo-like, and I agree. It’s a good topic and not a bad riff in need of better lyrics and a change in pace on the music to shake it up a little. This song would not make my playlist.
Give the People was practically the last Kinks album I bought when it was released. Except for "Better Things," I didn't like it, and some of it infuriated me. "Art Lover" seemed creepy, "Destroyer" desperate in its winking, the title song a lot of hollering about nothing, etc. etc. I think I played the whole album seven or eight times, and not for twenty years. I remember it well, though--everything but "Killer's Eyes." As God is my witness, I swear I've never heard this song.
Killer's Eyes Every time I hear the beginning of this one, I think it sounds like "Right Here Right Now" by Jesus Jones. anyone else? From what I remember, this song was written about the would-be assassin of the Pope. Not sure if that's a confirmed fact. Anyway, here's a serious song and I think it works. It's a contemplation on evil. How can someone get to the point of wanting to murder someone. Of course there are no satisfactory answers, but it something we all tend to contemplate when there is a tragedy, big or small. What drove someone to do THAT? My favorite lyric: We all go through hell in some kind of way, Can you tell me what it's like to be there every day?
I didn’t know her then but I have some Francoise Hardy LPs now. Very Marianne Faithfull (version sixties) in voice and beauty.
I understand what you’re talking about now, that fast 16th downstroke upstroke strumming. I’m not a guitarist by any definition of the term, but I can play basic rhythm guitar: i.e., chords, basic single string riffs, basic picking. But no, I never learned how to do this fast strumming here or like Pinball Wizard. Nor can I play lead guitar. Never have been able to solo and certainly cannot improvise.
A-ha! another person who heard what I heard. I hadn't read this before posting, but great minds think alike??
I became aware of Alex Chilton through the Replacements song "Alex Chilton"...which was my favorite 'Mats song for a long time. It's funny that it never made me explore Big Star though. Huh
Thanks for posting that! Never saw that before! I graduated from UMass Amherst myself...and a big Pixies fan(by coincidence). Do you mean the Rat in Boston? Legendary place (if so). Even my husband played there a few times.
On Big Star, IMO their best song is September Gurls (power pop perfection), their most beautiful song is Thirteen (young love encapsulated) and their best album is Third (it just is). It’s possible but I doubt Ray borrowed from Big Star’s Feel because it’s unlikely Ray would have even heard Big Star’s first album. It sold just 10,000 copies and had big distribution problems. From wiki: “Stax Records proved unable to either promote or distribute the record with any degree of success, and even when the band's own efforts to get airplay generated interest, fans were unable to buy it as Stax could not make it available in many stores.[15] Stax, in an effort to improve its catalog's availability, signed a deal with Columbia Records, already successful distributors in the U.S., making Columbia responsible for the entire Stax catalog. But Columbia had no interest in dealing with the independent distributors previously used by Stax and removed even the existing copies of #1 Record from the stores.”
For many of us, The Replacements doing the song "Alex Chilton" and working with him kicked the door open to Big Star. If you were a Big Star fan in the 70s? More power to you, but I suspect that number was in the low thousands, if it reached four-digit figures. The first album apparently kicked up a fuss with critics (I wasn't of age so don't recall reading about them), and from what I gather, their label, Stax, had bad distribution going for a white/pop act like this and essentially buried the second album just after release. Of course, both are brilliant, and the third is other worldly. It was a real pleasure to buy that two-fer in the 80s (followed much later by that incredible box set). In real time? I became a big Raspberries fan, thanks to hearing "Go All the Way" and "Overnight Sensation" on the radio. Eric Carmen becoming a huge solo star with "All by Myself" seemed to somehow detract from the band's legacy? All I know is I hold The Raspberries in the same regard as Big Star and was glad at least one of them broke through. I saw Alex Chilton play a few times at The Knitting Factory in NYC, and those were real adventures! P.S. Ray's book has a cool passage regarding his brief friendship with Alex while both were living in New Orleans.
There is an Ardent Records 2 CD comp that has some pre-song chatter right before the master take of September Gurls from Radio City where Chilton says "Here I go" and BAM launches right into that intro which is pure magic. Doesn't sound edited on. Honestly, I'd be shocked if Ray knew of them prior to the 80s and maybe not even then, they were that obscure.
Thanks. I have to chase that up. Rhino only used the straight album version on the Keep an Eye on the Sky 4cd box set. Big Star are like the Kinks on steroids when it comes to being criminally overlooked at their peak - which was the entirety of their short career.
FWIW, the first Frenchman every participate in this thread should think of is Jacques Dutronc, the man who in the 60's was occasionally referenced as the French Ray Davies. I'm sure The Late Man or Fortuleo could enlighten us even more. I love "Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S'Eveille" and "Les Playboys." Anyway...I had a lot to say about yesterdays song and today's, yet unexpected heavy work load popped up. It's late now and I'm considering playing catch up...but, like I said, it's late. Maybe a summary over the weekend.
Look what y’all have done to me…okay, have listened to all of #1, ‘September Gurls’ and‘Holocaust.’ #1 has a number of good songs (‘When My Baby’s Beside Me’, ‘Thirteen’, ‘Try Again’) with ‘Thirteen’ the standout. ‘September Gurls’…I wouldn’t be elevating them in stature based on this. ‘Holocaust’: the original is good but Son Volt’s cover is better. And I’ll bolt from the rabbit hole before Mark’s cane comes out! What’s tomorrow? ‘Predictable.’