A band whose songs like 'Thirteen' and 'Back Of A Car' found their audience long after the records stopped selling.
If you want to hear what they were about, start with 'Thirteen' and 'Back Of A Car'. That spare, weary sound is the whole story.
Big Star's music didn't fit the radio formats of the early '70s, but its direct, unpolished feel has lasted. Songs like 'Thirteen' and 'Back Of A Car' have a clear, ringing guitar sound from those Ardent Studios sessions in Memphis. Over time, those tracks found listeners through word of mouth and covers by bands like The Replacements and R.E.M.
The band formed in Memphis in 1971 around Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. Their first two albums, '#1 Record' and 'Radio City', got lost in distribution problems and didn't sell much despite good reviews. After Bell left in 1974, Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens kept the band going intermittently, putting out a third album in 1978.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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