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| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Re: Big Star - In Space |
| Date | Mon, 03 Oct 2005 00:06:58 -0500 |
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> Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 20:58:44 -0700 (PDT)
> From: William Rabeneck <largro13@yahoo.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: Big Star - In Space
> Message-ID: <20051002035844.64812.qmail@web34208.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> I feel similarly. I bought this album at the same time that
> I got the new Paul McCartney, and the new Rolling Stones.
> And I think Big Star's "In Space" is way better than
> McCartney's "Chaos and Creation...." and the Rolling Stones'
> "Bigger Bang". It has some of the best work that I've ever
> heard Alex Chilton do since the original Big Star. My main
> problem with it is the name issue too because the sound of
> the music is so far out of the "expected Big Star realm". I
> think that Alex's contributions to this album would be a lot
> more believable as Box Top's music if he wanted to resurrect
> one of his former band names.
The Box Tops have already been resurrected. They're once again a working band, at least on the same sort of part-time basis as Big Star. Four of the original members of the band (LX, guitarist Gary Talley, bassist Bill Cunningham, and drummer Danny Smythe), along with another former member who no longer plays with them, reunited the Box Tops in '98 and recorded the album *Tear Off!*.
(I bought *Tear Off!* at a Box Tops gig at Chicago's House of Blues three or four years ago; it's serviceable old-school R&B and garage rock, nothing really special. It's mostly a covers collection, with one new original apiece by Talley and Cunningham and a new -- and completely unnecessary -- version of "The Letter". Chilton contributed no new songs to the album.)
In fact, the Box Tops are not only a working band again, they played a gig in Columbia, TN just last week. They've got another gig scheduled for next month at a casino in Arizona.
http://www.boxtops.com
They're an enjoyable live act, especially when Talley breaks out his electric sitar for "Cry Like A Baby". And LX (who only sings and doesn't play any guitar with this group, just like in the old days) looked a lot more animated and seemed to be having a lot more fun than he did on either of the Big Star reunion tours.
One of the songs on *In Space* ("Hung Up With Summer") has a co-writing credit for "Cunningham". I wonder if this is Bill Cunningham?
>
> I also think that there's a little too much contrast between
> Auer, Stringfellow, and Stephen's songs with Chilton's songs.
> Auer, Stringfellow, and Stephen's basically work within the
> "city limits" of Power-Pop on the songs that they sing the
> lead vocal on, while Chilton only really sings one song that
> falls within that zone; his other songs are more in the
> Stax-R&B, Rockabilly, and Glam Rock range. The album also
> sounds odd because it is a twelve track album with four lead
> vocalists, but by song number six, three of the lead
> vocalists are done taking turns at the mike, and one guy
> finishes the album out. This makes the album sound kind of
> unbalance. I think the album might have had better balance
> if the track listing was elevated to 14, and Auer and
> Stringfellow each got one more vocal, on what would have been
> side-two on cassette or vinyl album.
I had the same thoughts. This album was sequenced with a very odd running order, IMO.
Gregory Sager
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