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| From | ronald and karen sanchez <eldeluxe@mcn.net> |
| Subject | Re: Skipping Rosetta Stones from the Left Banke (was RE: Big Star and |
| Date | Fri, 22 Aug 2003 20:06:17 -0600 |
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Jaimie Vernon wrote:
>
>
> ...... I only knew Big Star by name because Alex
> Chilton had been a member of the band. To this day I cannot name one song by
> them.
>
> Two years ago my business partner played me "#1 Record" and I had to concede
> that Cheap Trick's schtick was a more polished version of Big Star's sloppy
> poppism....
I don't know about sloppy, I think that's the Memphis groove happening. As much
as I like CT, I think there records might lean to the over polished...No one
would ever accuse them of being funky. Don't forget the Beatles had a lot of
"funk" for lack of a better word. I don't mean James Brown funk, I just mean
the ability to move around the beat, and play some very complex patterns.
> And could Cheap
> Trick have existed without Big Star?
Well there was Blue Ash who might have been an influence too. Came from the
same midwest scene too.
>
>
> IMHO Cheap Trick used Big Star as an inspiration only while their overall
> influential palette was broader (The Beatles for example).
Slade was as big an influence on CT as were the Beatles...but then Slade were
heavily influenced by the Beatles. Martha My Dear on Ballzy and Look Wot You
Dun is the best Plastic Ono Band steal ever.
> Could the entire
> '70s have existed without the Beatles as an influence? Yes again, but it
> would have sounded a lot different.
Well there would have been a 70's but it would all have been that post bubble
gum stuff and Barbara Striesand would have been even a bigger deal than she
was.
If it hadn't been for the Beatles rock might never have come back from the
dreck of the early 60's. What good music there would have been would have been
just a small blip on the radar of my generation.
> And I believe this is where the
> intrinsic difference comes in...passing inspiration or outright influence?
> You be the judge.
Well everyone one has been influenced by the Beatles. Period. CT took that and
forged it with the hard rock of the early 70's. Have you ever heard the Fuse
album. What were those guys listening to? Deep Purple I suspect or worse,
Vanilla Fudge!
While on this topic.. despite being a huge Byrds, Who and Beatles fan, I didn't
really work out what Big Star were trying to do when I first heard them I had
read about them, got a cut out of Radio City soon after it came out. As late as
'75, I remember sitting in my pal's living room in
Putney SW15 listening to both albums, with a copy of Zig Zag in my hand, and
still not hearing it. A couple of years later it started to make some sense.
Funny 'cause I was really into the Groovies and Twilly and such...
The 3 Big Star albums are totally unique and do stand up a head a shoulders
above most everything else from the same time and beyond. I don't think there
are too many other bands that fit in this category. Maybe that's why they never
broke out, even now, from their cult status.
>
>
> Jaimie Vernon,
Keep taking the tablets
later
RS
>
>
-- Ronald Sanchez
Director Of A&R
Career Records
www.CareerRecords.com
The Donovan's Brain Web Site
www.Donovans-Brain.com
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