Happy Birthday Alex Chilton

photograph by Stephanie Chernikowski

"December boys got it bad"

NY Times article

photograph by Stephanie Chernikowski

Mike Smith,The Showbiz Kids

Happy Birthday Alex Chilton

photograph by Stephanie Chernikowski

"December boys got it bad"

NY Times article

photograph by Stephanie Chernikowski

Mike Smith,The Showbiz Kids

Big Star's offering for Christmas "Jesus Christ"

I just discovered that Alex Chilton's birthday is in a few days and four days after mine.  "September Gurls" lyric "December boys got it bad" has new meaning  to me even after all these years. 

By the way it isn't coincidental that Katie Perry's song "California Gurls" was spelled that way.  Apparently her manager is a fan of Big Star and asked Katie to spell Girls with a "u" in honor of Alex Chilton's recent passing. So she did...hot and cool is a good combination.

I thought I'd point out Big Star's relevant song to this time of year "Jesus Christ" off their 1974 recorded but 1978 released Third/Sister Lovers.  Take a listen below.  I wish there was better graphics to accompany the song.

Here is an earlier blog entry on Big Star if you want to pursue.

Mike Smith, The Showbiz Kids

Big Star's offering for Christmas "Jesus Christ"

I just discovered that Alex Chilton's birthday is in a few days and four days after mine.  "September Gurls" lyric "December boys got it bad" has new meaning  to me even after all these years. 

By the way it isn't coincidental that Katie Perry's song "California Gurls" was spelled that way.  Apparently her manager is a fan of Big Star and asked Katie to spell Girls with a "u" in honor of Alex Chilton's recent passing. So she did...hot and cool is a good combination.

I thought I'd point out Big Star's relevant song to this time of year "Jesus Christ" off their 1974 recorded but 1978 released Third/Sister Lovers.  Take a listen below.  I wish there was better graphics to accompany the song.

Here is an earlier blog entry on Big Star if you want to pursue.

Mike Smith, The Showbiz Kids

The one that got away...Big Star

Many of you may already know about Big Star.  Their huge potential,misfortune,and irony that their first record named #1 Record never got the radio play or attention it well deserved.  I won't do them justice in this entry,but my effort is to get you to dig in and enjoy this music you may have missed and learn something about their missed brass ring.

You'll read all the issues that unfortunately roadblocked them into only making three albums, but there has been a cult following ever since the 1970s on these guys.  Yeah, they formed back in 1971 in Memphis and were essentially done by 1974 and all 3 albums are in Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all-time.


"Big Star aren't rock's greatest cult band;they were arguably rock's first cult band."-Pitchfork


This link is a teaser on the documentary bigstarstory blog

This link goes back to the SXSW show that Big Star had planned to kick start them again in 2010 and tragically Alex Chilton died.  You'll see how R.E.M,The Replacements,Evan Dando and numerous others were influenced by Big Star Nothing Can Hurt Me- Big Star documentary trailer

Big_Star on wikipedia
Big Star on Facebook

Their 3 albums

Mike Smith,The Showbiz Kids

The one that got away...Big Star

Many of you may already know about Big Star.  Their huge potential,misfortune,and irony that their first record named #1 Record never got the radio play or attention it well deserved.  I won't do them justice in this entry,but my effort is to get you to dig in and enjoy this music you may have missed and learn something about their missed brass ring.

You'll read all the issues that unfortunately roadblocked them into only making three albums, but there has been a cult following ever since the 1970s on these guys.  Yeah, they formed back in 1971 in Memphis and were essentially done by 1974 and all 3 albums are in Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all-time.


"Big Star aren't rock's greatest cult band;they were arguably rock's first cult band."-Pitchfork


This link is a teaser on the documentary bigstarstory blog

This link goes back to the SXSW show that Big Star had planned to kick start them again in 2010 and tragically Alex Chilton died.  You'll see how R.E.M,The Replacements,Evan Dando and numerous others were influenced by Big Star Nothing Can Hurt Me- Big Star documentary trailer

Big_Star on wikipedia
Big Star on Facebook

Their 3 albums

Mike Smith,The Showbiz Kids