Thursday November 11, 2021 “Ballad of El Goodo” Big Star (Copy)
On the Empire Records soundtrack ”Ballad of El Goodo” is done by Evan Dando, who is a fine singer but I like the original version by Big Star so much more that’s the version we will use today.
Big Star was founded in 1972 by Alex Chilton, the 16 year old who provided the very distinctive vocals for the top ten 1960s band the Box Tops and Chris Bell who had been working in a number of Memphis based bands. Chilton amd Bell took the strongest elements of the British Invasion era, the melodic tunes of the Beatles, the power guitars of the Who, and the harmonies of the Byrds and crafted them into a rough but beautiful sound that recaptured the spirit of pop's past even as it pointed the way toward the music's future.
Internal band conflicts, record distribution problems and some critics who reacted negatively to a new band calling themselves ‘big star’ and their first recording Number One Record would all conspire to prevent this group from gaining the status they should have achieved.
We have heard from Big Star on song of the day before and you may recall that Chris Bell unfortunately became a member of the infamous ‘27 club.’ Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton left us in 2010 at age 59.
Stay safe and well...and with all the adversity that Big Star encountered they have been referred to as the group that inspired more future bands and artists than the number of records they sold.