{"id":28075,"date":"2024-09-05T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=28075"},"modified":"2024-08-28T09:04:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T13:04:44","slug":"the-music-of-big-star-gets-what-it-deserves-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/05\/the-music-of-big-star-gets-what-it-deserves-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Music of Big Star Gets What it Deserves (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Jody\u2019s instinct,\u201d says Sansone, \u201cfor the songs to be played by a band, in the spirit that the records were made.\u201d Sansone describes his participation in the Quintet as a dream come true: \u201cThe material continues to have a life,\u201d he says. \u201cIt continues to grab people by the ears and by the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Stamey says that the Quintet\u2019s goal is a bit different than the Third project. \u201cWe want to bring the same kind of focus to making the material shine,\u201d he says, \u201cbut in the spirit of the first two records, instead of taking our cue from the sprawling sonics of the Third<\/i> record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Big Star Quintet played a run of dates in Spain, a country long been receptive to both the power pop that Big Star helped create as well as underappreciated American bands in general. \u201cAll those dates were sold out,\u201d Stephens says, with pride. \u201cAnd they were fun<\/i>. So we thought we\u2019d keep this thing going.\u201d Auer agrees: \u201cWe put the priority on us enjoying ourselves.\u201d And the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of Radio City<\/i> taking place in 2024 provided an opportunity to focus on the music from that record.<\/p>\n

For listeners who\u2019ve discovered it, the music of Big Star connects on a deeply emotional level. Stephens says it\u2019s not at all uncommon to see audience members holding each other and sobbing during certain numbers. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing experience,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd you can imagine how we all feel on stage. I love the experience with the audiences, and that emotion that we all share.\u201d Auer concedes that a group like his can\u2019t please everyone. \u201cBut so far, it seems like we have come close to doing just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the songs on this Radio City<\/i> tour have never been played live by any previous Big Star or related configurations. \u201cThere are so many songs that Alex wasn\u2019t interested in doing,\u201d Stephens says, mentioning \u201cMorpha Too,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m in Love With a Girl\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s a Mover,\u201d all from the second LP. \u201cI used to play the \u2018Mod Lang\u2019 riff at soundchecks in the \u201890s, hoping that we would actually do it,\u201d Auer says with a chuckle. \u201cBut that never occurred. It\u2019s nice to finally include it now. Hearing the records, you think, \u2018It\u2019s just a fun little rocker.\u2019 Then you play it live, and you realize: This is what it was designed for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what they think Alex Chilton would have thought of the Big Star Quintet, each musician has his own answer. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d says Stephens. \u201cAlex was predictably unpredictable.\u201d Mills believes Chilton would have scoffed at the idea while secretly being pleased, suggesting that late-period Chilton \u201cmight have admitted that he liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike most creative folks,\u201d Stamey suggests, \u201cAlex would have been much more interested in whatever he was doing right now, this very second,\u201d than in looking back at his previous work. With a laugh, Auer opines that Chilton would have hated it. \u201cBut I think he would have hated Big Star\u2019s Third, too,\u201d he adds. \u201cHe\u2019d be like, \u2018Why?!<\/i>\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephens says that the Big Star Quintet \u201ctakes great pains\u201d to deliver the songs the way one hears them on the record. \u201cI went to see a show recently,\u201d he says, \u201cand the artist had reconfigured their songs; it was really disappointing to me. I just wanted to feel those feelings that I felt for those songs originally. And that\u2019s what a lot of people are looking for.\u201d Auer believes that the Quintet faithfully recreates the original sound without wheeling out musical carbon copies. \u201cWe\u2019re injecting a bit of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll energy with this five-piece,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re making it more high-octane by virtue of our enthusiasm and our love for the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Stamey notes that the Quintet takes some inspiration from the Wondermints, the California group that was absorbed into Brian Wilson\u2019s band to re-create classic and sophisticated Beach Boys songs for modern-day audiences. \u201cThey took a lot of care to put the notes in the right place for the audiences who mostly know exactly where the notes should go,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we do our best to do the same.\u201d
\nStephens emphasizes that ultimately it\u2019s the music that has connected with listeners. \u201cI think the five of us in the Quintet really capture that spirit well, because we’re all coming from the right place, and that’s the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Star is arguably the greatest example of the best music that you\u2019ve never heard of until much later than it was originally released,\u201d Auer says. Stamey adds that the music\u2019s quality augurs well for its long term durability. \u201cThat it just seems to work <\/i>in some mysterious and magical way for most everyone who hears it makes me think that this can continue to be true,\u201d he says. Mike Mills reflects succinctly upon Big Star\u2019s legacy. \u201cThey wrote incredible songs, got incredible sounds and made incredible records,\u201d he says. \u201cThat’s the legacy any band wants to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… \u201cIt was Jody\u2019s instinct,\u201d says Sansone, \u201cfor the songs to be played by a band, in the spirit that the records were made.\u201d Sansone describes his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,55,62],"tags":[307,529,2740,1205,2922,2705],"class_list":["post-28075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-powerpop","category-rawk","tag-big-star","tag-chris-stamey","tag-jody-stephens","tag-jon-auer","tag-mike-mills","tag-pat-sansone","cat-41-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28080,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28075\/revisions\/28080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}