Tag: Elliot Smth

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