Big Star – Thirteen

Big Star was the best band never heard. This song is an absolutely perfect song about adolescence. I played it to my then 14-year-old son and it made him a Big Star fan now 10 years later. This song is the most covered song by Big Star with 49 different covers. It’s almost a perfect acoustic song. The song is about an adolescent guy and his girlfriend who are rock fans being what 13-14-year-olds are…confused and lost.

There is not a bad song on the first album. The song was originally featured on the 1972 album #1 Record. It was released as a single by Big Star with “Watch The Sunrise” as the B-Side, on Ardent Records, but was mislabeled as “Don’t Lie To Me”. Chris Bell and Alex Chilton were the two main songwriters.

Bell and Chilton wanted to emulate the Lennon/McCartney formula as much as they could, so they shared credit on many of the songs on #1 Record even though there was, in fact, little writing collaboration between the two. “Thirteen,” was entirely Chilton’s creation.

This was ranked #396 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest songs. Artists who have covered this include Evan Dando, Garbage, Elliot Smith, Wilco, and Kathryn Williams.

Alex Chilton: “I don’t know where it came from but I made up this wild bit of guitar in 15 minutes. You don’t hear many 20-year-olds doing that.”

Thirteen

Won’t you let me walk you home from school
Won’t you let me meet you at the pool
Maybe Friday I can
Get tickets for the dance
And I’ll take you

Won’t you tell your dad, get off my back
Tell him what we said ’bout ‘Paint It Black’
Rock ‘n Roll is here to stay
Come inside where it’s okay
And I’ll shake you

Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of
Would you be an outlaw for my love
If it’s so, well, let me know
If it’s no, well, I can go
I won’t make you

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

32 thoughts on “Big Star – Thirteen”

  1. Kinda the opposite of the Jackson 5. The Jacksons featured a little kid singing about stuff way beyond his years. (Although he was older than I thought – I just read that he was ten when they released their first single. I thought he was about seven or eight.) Here is someone singing about stuff younger than his real age. Seems a bit less creepy to sing about your memories of puberty than singing about stuff beyond your years as a pre-teen.

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      2. I can’t believe he had that voice he had with the Box Tops that young…and then with Big Star…it was toned down. Yea…you are right…no beer and no voting.

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  3. I was going to comment what you just said below, that Chilton wrote and sang a true classic when he was about 15 in ‘The Letter’… he was talented beyond his years when he was getting going in the business. Here’s a question – among the many, many things that went wrong for them, do you think also their name worked against them? Do you think some record execs or radio managers thought ‘Big Star? Who the heck do they think they are? Too arrogant!’ … it seems trivial and crazy, but remember how much Bob Rock’s band The Payolas were seemingly shut out of the American market because of their name.

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    1. They wondered that also…also naming their first record #1 Record… but I blame it squarely and unequivocally on Stax Records not getting the records to record stores. Their music was getting played on the radio but no records! Now you could get by with it. If Clive Davis would not have been fired or forced out…it could have been different on their second album…Columbia had agreed to handle distribution.

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      1. yeah that really hurt them, I bet. If Davis had liked them and got them into the Columbia family, they would have really been marketed…. even things like prominent in the old Columbia House ads for example.

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      2. Yes…he did like them and the timing sucked because as soon as it was released…he got in trouble with Columbia and they got rid of him and every project he started was scrapped.

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  5. Every time you post on these guys my appreciation grows. I always had a great deal of respect for Chilton’s talent. I think songs of true introspection and of a certain time and place tend to resonant on a personal level that doesn’t always translate to record sales.

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    1. I’m happy to hear that…they are one of the reasons I started to blog…and I have at least one more coming up lol.
      I was shocked that this is their most covered song. I thought it would be September Gurls or Out In The Streets (That Seventies Show Theme)

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      1. Sometimes there’s no figuring out why certain songs get covered more that others. It just occurred to me now that as we can look at the stats, I imagine most covers come about in a bit of a vacuum.

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  6. I like the first one, with the kids going home from school at the beginning. I half expected the guy walking down the street at around 0:15 to walk into a convenience store, walk up to the counter and say “box of Marlboros, please.”

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    1. lol…yea that is I think the only film available of them at that time. I love these vintage film clips of real life.
      John sometimes I get on youtube and search for 1970s Home Movies… just to see different cities and sometimes I get Nashville back then and it takes me back.

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      2. I saw one on Nashville the other day of this guy in 1976 going to a mall in a Mercedes…I commented on how I loved the car…he posted a link and he still has that same car now. I just love those videos. I did see some restorations of late 1800’s and early 20th century.

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  7. This has that naive yet intense feeling of adolescence- when music truly matters, when your eyes have a razor but narrow focus and the torch you hold for your flame burns pure and bright and so damned intense it hurts.

    That sounds a bit overly wordy-but hey, you know what I mean, and obviously so did Bailey. Alex wrote this song simply and perfectly. I think it is stellar.

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  10. Another great song by a band I’m glad you brought on my radar screen, Max. While you were on hiatus, I featured “The Ballad of El Goodo” as part of my Wednesday song series. That pick was inspired by your final post prior to your break, in which you included a clip of that gem!

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    1. Oh geez! I’m sorry I missed it. Thank you for including them Christian! I really appreciate it. I have a post that I might do…”My top 5 Big Star Songs” although I doubt I will have 2 views lol but I don’t care.

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  11. Pingback: Big Star – Thirteen – MobsterTiger

  12. I absolutely love this song. I get a kick when I see someone live cover the song when they try to recreate Alex’s amazing guitar solo. No one ever gets close. I suggest that everyone who likes this song listen to Chris Bell’s “You and Your Sister.” It’s Chris and Alex playing together and that song so well fits with “Thirteen.”

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    1. I really like that Chris Bell song. Mike it still kind of shocks me that this one is their most covered. I think it’s worthy completely but I would have thought September Gurls or In The Street.

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