Big Star: The Short Life, Painful Death, and Unexpected Resurrection of the Kings of Power Pop
By Rob Jovanovic
Chicago Review Press, 333 pp., $16.95 (paper)
It’s no picnic writing the definitive history of an underdocumented band when one of the principals is dead and the other won’t talk to you. Nevertheless, Jovanovic does a respectable – if not revelatory – job of culling the story of Big Star, the Memphis musical contrarians whose influence on pure pop music far exceeds their record sales. Anyone hoping for a exposé on Alex Chilton, who made news upon being rescued from post-Katrina New Orleans, will be disappointed, as his wild ride from teen superstar to cult iconoclast is patched together via past interviews and accounts from more cooperative sources. If Chilton’s reticence to speak has a silver lining, it’s Jovanovic’s accounting of the incestuous web of teen combos that gave rise to Big Star, as well as Chris Bell’s role in defining the band’s aesthetic. Although Bell left Big Star after the release of 1972’s #1 Record, he was clearly the instrumental force that brought the band together even if Chilton was the “bigger star.” Sadly, Bell was killed in a one-car accident in 1978. With a reconstituted Big Star, featuring Chilton and original drummer Jody Stephens, having just released In Space, their first album of new songs in more than 30 years, Jovanovic’s book is a timely, illuminating read for casual fans.
This article appears in October 7 • 2005.
