> I mean, I want to love them, but so far I just can't.  Ya know, it seems
> there have been words written about the artists that I DO love, that
> encapsulate what it is I love about them.  Certainly the best thing to do 
> is
> just LISTEN to the music, but sometimes reading a good write-up on the 
> music
> can help illuminate, help get me to listen to an artist in a different 
> light
> and develop a deeper appreciation.  Can anyone out there tell me what it 
> is
> about Big Star that makes you think they are/were one of the best?  Or 
> point
> me to something that's already been written about them, that might lead me
> to the light?

Infidel! Heretic! Burn him at the stake ...
Actually, don't worry about it. There's no orthodoxy here that you have to 
subscribe to. Personally, the Raspberries have always bored the crap out of 
me. And that's a sin as least as heretical as admitting that you don't "get" 
Big Star. Sometimes, it seems, we reflexively revere stuff just because it's 
part of the accepted canon of works.
Read Jim DeRogatis' excellent "Kill Your Idols" which came out last year. In 
it, a bunch of rock writers take on the so-called Sacred Cows of rock and 
simply eviscerate them. For me, it was tremendously liberating to know that 
there was someone else out there who found "Sgt. Pepper' just as big a piece 
of self-indulgent twaddle as I do. But I'd been heretofore afraid to admit 
it, fearing that my "rock snob" membership card would be revoked.
Heck, I'll take "Rubber Soul" any old time.

But to your post -- Listen to "Thirteen." Listen to it closely. Listen to it 
repeatedly. And then, when you're done, listen to it again.
Pound-for-pound, it's probably the most beautiful and well-wrought 
expression of the inarticulateness of teenaged love that I have ever heard. 
Bar none.
Every time I hear, "If it's so, let me know. If it's no, well I can go," 
just resonates utterly with anyone who's ever had something for a girl and 
just wants to know where he stands.
I've lost track of the number of times I've heard the song,  but it never 
fails to move me. For me, it's Chilton's shining moment and he's never come 
that close to perfection again.

john micek
(awaiting my excommunication)