Big Star are the cult band to beat out all cult bands (not named the Velvet Underground) and when Alex Chilton died of a heart attack at the age of 60, proceeded by producer Jim Dickinson and bassist Andy Hummel, the grief in the rock and roll world was palpable. Including Chris Stamey, a huge Big Star band who played with Alex back in ’77 and took his love for quirky angular pop songs with him when Chris helped form the db’s.
The dB’s recorded “Black and White” for their producer Alan Betrock’s label “Shake. “Shake” also released Marshall Crenshaw’s first single “Something’s Gonna Happen” and it was through Betrock Crenshaw became friends with Stamey.
32 years later and Stamey, the musical director of the City Park’s Foundations Summerstage orchestrated performance of Big Star’s album Third in Central Park , invited Marshall to cover three songs in the guiding lights of alt rock all star show Sunday night. And that is why I am speaking to Marshall… no, that isn’t quite true. I am speaking to Marshall because he is a great guy and agreed to my request for an interview. And we had a wide ranging conversation (I am about as big a Crenshaw fan as it is possible to be, interviewed him for Creem back in 1982, and have written about him constantly on this website over the years) most of much I will leave for a post I will probably complete by Sunday or Monday.
For now, we are discussing the decision to play the difficult Third album, as opposed to some of Big Star’s more popular first two: “I’m wondering if Big Star fans don’t just love everything, including the artsy quirky Third album. and the other thing is I am really late to the whole Big Star thing, I don’t really have a super in depth relationship with their music. I only just checked it out for real after Alex died. So for me it is all just one thing, one body of work. I’m guessing that most fans feel that way, I’m not sure though because I’m not an expert.
“I’m gonna do ‘Oh Dana’ from Third, ‘In The Street’ from the first album (# 1 Record) and then I’m gonna sing “The Letter” at the end. That’s the only one that I didn’t have to learn, I already know it. The other two, I know of ‘Oh Dana’ from around five years ago so I had that song in my mind for awhile ‘In The Street’ I really like a lot though it’s new to me.
“Chris Stamey assigned me these songs and I am really happy with what I’ve been assigned. I didn’t choose them. You mentioned Alan Betrock and all that, when I got to know those people that was the first time I’d heard of Big Star. Although I used to read the old Creem magazine cover to cover so I must have seen something about Big Star but they never got on my radar until I got to know all the guys from the dB’s. ”
I will not be at the performance, I am not a big Big Star fan myself (I preferred the Box Tops to be perfectly honest) but fortunately Robert Ross will be covering the concert for us. Ross is a power popper himself as well as a real fan of Big Star and the line up includes every one from Sharon Von Etten to Mike Mills. The place will fill up and Summerstage does stop admitting people if it gets too crowded so really get there early.
In the meantime, the rest of the conversation with Marshall Crenshaw is fascinating and you should be able to read it here very soon!