47
by Ryan Electrocution_Archive
rocker654 wrote:ERawk wrote:Does anyone feel that as they get older, the world becomes more foreign as the people that made it more bearable die?Yes. I couldn't have said it better.Absolutely. It's weird, in your late teens and early 20's, I think that there's still this aura around you that things are gonna last forever, that they'll stay the same forever. Obviously it won't, but i'm not sure if I was quite ready for it. It's weird when people you grew up with slowly die; someone different every few years, sometimes each year. It's even weirder when the touchstones of what one considers to be their era, when their mentors or idols and heroes start passing away. Slowly, I recognize the world less, so yeah, I relate to the foreign thing.RIP Alex. The worst part is that he'd sort of disowned alot of Big Star's stuff, saying that he only liked a few songs--which really perplexes me because all three of those records are different and genius in their own right. After he'd put his best foot forward and was broke and had trouble finding labels and financial backers, I can understand that he felt that he may as well sabotage the music and the art. Bach's Bottom is still a really cool album and all, but in retrospect, it really feels like the first legitimate indie rock album (either that or Third/ Sister Lovers).....you know the guy has tons of talent, but he's purposely not putting in his best effort, maybe it's not in tune, maybe it's not fully on key. There were producers on those albums, but you know that Alex had his way. I think that's what really puzzled alot of people too--here you had someone purposely wrecking the music, but in the sense that it wasn't experimental music, it was still discernibly rock n' roll music. The story about John Fry thinking that Kangaroo had pop potential, where Chilton purposely wrecked it by using a basketball for percussion sorta sums that up. It would have been nice to see him having enjoyed some bigger successes back then so that maybe he felt that he'd had a fighting chance of where his genius at full capacity was appreciated or in much of demand, whatsoever. There's no denying the crafted, multidimensional approach that #1 Record took. But often I feel that he later took an approach that when he had the spotlight, he'd self destruct in almost some sort of reverse self protection. You can't fire me, I fucking quit type of thing. Disconnect yourself before they think that you're not good enough for them.Chilton on Big Star back then (it since has changed since the legacy allowed some higher profile tours):I never made a dime off Big Star.That's what really makes me sad. Chris Bell died, but not before he'd almost quit music entirely while working in his father's restaurant. He'd had trouble finding labels and financiers on the road--usually hoping to play to small pockets of whatever remained of whatever legacy that Big Star had (or had left). How I Am The Cosmos got overlooked by everything but a very small label is absolute craziness....the other tracks that were eventually released on Ryko were great, as well. But neither Bell nor Chilton were quite the same without one another. May they both rest in peace.