A song by the band Big Star. This song was on Radio City and released in 1974…their second album and follow-up to their debut…Big Star #1 Record. Although Chris Bell had quit the band after the release of #1 Record.
After the failure of their first album, singer/songwriter guitar player Chris Bell quit Big Star. Alex Chilton didn’t know if Big Star was going to make another album. He continued making demos because he could always do a solo album. The two other members, drummer Jody Stephens and bass player Andy Hummel weren’t sure either what was going to happen. They had talked about ending the band.
Their record company Ardent was under the Stax umbrella. They sent out invitations to all of the major rock journalists of the day in 1973. They invited them to Memphis to see Ardent’s roster of bands but most of all Big Star. The rock writers loved Big Star. Many legendary writers were there including Lester Bangs. They played at Lafayette’s Music Room.
Radio City is not as polished as their debut album but it’s just as good and many say better. Chilton remained the constant variable that made the band’s music soar. His September Gurls is among the band’s finest songs and one of the prototypical power pop songs.
This song was the B side to one of their most famous songs, September Gurls. They released 3 studio albums in the seventies. All three are in Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. For a band that never charted a record that isn’t too bad. When their albums were finally discovered by later bands, they influenced many artists such as The Replacements, REM, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Sloan, Matthew Sweet, KISS, Wilco, Gin Blossoms, and many more. They influenced alternative rock of the 80s and 90s and continue to this day.
Big Star did returned in 1993 with a new lineup when guitarist Jon Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow joined Chilton and Stephens. Auer and Stringfellow remained members of the Posies. In 2005 the reformed band released their last album called In Space.
Whenever I write about this band, I always have to stop myself from gushing about them. Was it the mystique of them? Was it the coolness factor of liking a band that not many people know? No, and no. It’s about the music. Mystique and coolness wear off and all you are left with is the music…We are fortunate to have 3 albums by the original Big Star to enjoy.
Drummer Jody Stephens: “All of a sudden I’m playing with these guys that can write songs that are as engaging to me as the people I’d grown up listening to, so I felt incredibly lucky.”
Alex Chilton: “I really loved the mid-’60s British pop music, all two and a half minutes long, really appealing songs. So I’ve always aspired to that same format, that’s what I like.”
Mod Lang
I can’t be satisfied
What you want me to do?
And so I moan
Had to leave my home
Love my girl, oh yeah
She got to save my soul
I want a witness, I want to testify
How long can this go on?
How long can this go on?
All night long I was howling
I was a barking dog
A-how, a-how
I can’t be satisfied
What you want me to do?
I want a witness, I want to testify
How long can this go on?
How long can this go on?
All night long I was howling
I was a barking dog
I want a witness, I want to testify
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
Have not heard anything of these guys for some years. Chilton had such a great soulful voice, I loved The Boxtops stuff.
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It’s hard to believe at times that Chilton was the singer in both bands…he was an R&B singer in the Box Tops and more Beatlesque in Big Star.
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This sounds like it could have been a Rolling Stones song.
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A new one to me, though of course I really had only heard of Big Star by reputation and mentions in interviews with Peter Buck or Mike Mills before you wrote about them. This one sounds decent, might quite grow on me if I hear it a few more times.
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Yea the Replacements always talked about them as well…and they ended up close but a little more well known than Big Star because of college radio…that saved them from the Big Star fate.
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Good stuff!
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Not hard for me to like. Just spent time with BS 3rd. Something about bands likes this that do it for me. Like you said, it comes down to the music. Something loose and real about it. I guess that’s where the garage thing came into things. It would be cool to go back and hear some of the covers they were putting their stamp on.
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Oh that 3rd album is different and Alex took control of it and you can tell. Yea they sounded really good live back then…there is a live album of them around this time.
Him and Ray Davies were neighbors in New Orleans and they would play some. That would have been interesting to hear.
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I knew him and Ray were buddies. As you know there’s a Kinks cover on 3rd
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Thats right…Till the End of the Day…they did that also later on together. I think Jim Dickinson produced that one.
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Yep -no pun- but at the end of the day, once time strips away the buzz, the coolness factor, do you WANT to listen to the music? If so, you’ll listen to it. If not, you wont. Big Star remain well worth it.
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Great pick! I dig the rock vibe of this tune and agree with Newepicauthor it sounds a bit Stones-y. Perhaps not as memorable as Septembers Gurls – that song is just awesome. I also love the cover by the Bangles!
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Yea I’m glad The Bangles covered it to make it more well known…”In The Street” from That Seventies Show is another people know.
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As we’ve discussed before, I think Radio City towers over #1 Record. It just hits a great point between rawness, great songwriting, and some instrumental virtuosity. Chilton’s guitar sounds great on this record.
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The three albums are different from each other… I do like Radio City also….I do miss Bell’s songs though.
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