at a glance...

Hometown: Memphis, TN
Formed: 1971

Members:
Alex Chilton -vocals, guitars
Jody Stephens -drums
Jim Dickinson -bass, drums, mellotron
Steve Cropper -guitar
Lee Baker -guitar
(...and a cast of extras)

Bands in the family:
The Box Tops, Teenage Fanclub, Alex Chilton

Notes:
Over three albums in the early '70s Big Star put their own spin on classic pop, winning scads of ecstatic reviews and very few record sales. Their optimistically-titled debut #1 Record helped set the blueprint for power pop, and the follow-up Radio City added crunch and their best-known song, "September Gurls." Disastrous distribution deals sabotaged both albums, though, and by the time they recorded "Third" or Sister Lovers, as it came to be known, Big Star (now basically Chilton and Stephens) were more than a little frayed. The album was never released and the band split, destined to be a footnote until a new generation of bands including R.E.M., The Posies, Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub championed them as one of rock's greatest bands.

For all the shiny, happy, jangly bands who revere Big Star, Sister Lovers, their lost masterpiece, sure is one nasty record. Recorded by a sloppy, ramshackle band with the vocals drenched in echo, even superficially upbeat tracks like "Thank You Friends" and "Jesus Christ" possess a wicked, sarcastic edge. "We're gonna get born," Chilton quips during the latter's gospel break, but you can almost hear his career dying on a cross of drugs and frustration.

At other times the desperation is more explicit: "Big Black Car" is forsaken heroin soup, and "Holocaust" is the kind of cutting personal indictment you wouldn't wish on an A&R rep. Only "Stroke It Noel," with its "Do you wanna dance?" lyric rewritten to match Jim Dickinson's uplifting violin arrangement, shows much sign of hope. Maybe Chilton did want to dance, but after 10 bitter years in rock 'n' roll, his legs were just too tired.

To the credit of the songs, and Dickinson's maverick production, Sister Lovers hangs together in the face of Chilton and band's best efforts to tear the whole operation apart at the seams. So instead of an angry, frustrated mess that deserved to be left on the cutting room floor, we've been left with an angry, frustrating mess that makes great theater - and deserves its status as a lost classic.

If you like Big Star, check out:
The Rolling Stones Exile On Main St.
Alex Chilton Set
Alexander "Skip" Spence Oar
R.E.M. Automatic for the People
Teenage Fanclub Bandwagonesque