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Big Star: The Short Life, Painful Death, and Unexpected Resurrection of the Kings of Power Pop
The formation, music, and break-up of Big Star, a band that for many was the embodiment of the 1970s, is detailed in this definitive history. Even though Big Star was together for less than four years and had limited commercial success, the legacy of their three groundbreaking albums has influenced artists as diverse as R.E.M., the Bangles, Wilco, Jeff Buckley, and Garbage culminating in their song, "In the Street," as rerecorded by Cheap Trick, becoming the theme song for That '70s Show. The band's music and romance made Big Star a holy grail for the post-punk generation. This book recounts how band leader Alex Chilton put his heart and soul into the music and believed that he would become a big star—and how when he didn't, he engaged in a fascinating sort of musical self-sabotage. Also described is the tragic story of his coleader on their first record, Chris Bell, who after leaving the band recorded "I Am the Cosmos," a devastating adolescent love song, and then died in a car crash just months later. Featuring new interviews with the band, family members, friends, and the major players at Ardent Studios in Memphis, this book offers the complete story of this incredibly influential band.
- GenresMusicBiographyNonfiction
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2004
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296 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 29, 2013
In one word to describe the band Big Star: Iconic. Like the Velvet Underground, Ziggy Stardust, and the early to mid Kinks, the work is faultless. Big Star is part of that grouping due that they made music at a specific time in a special city that's Memphis. To make such perfect noise in the Memphis landscape is quite remarkable. Does that genius come through the Memphis tap water? Sun Records, Stax, and then Big Star.
Rob Jovanovic did a great job with respect to research and capturing what makes Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and Jody Stephens' music so special. The one sour note, and it is not the author's fault, that he didn't get to speak directly to Chilton, who without a doubt, is probably one of the most interesting figures in contemporary pop music. Bruce Eaton's book on Big Star's "Radio City" (part of the 33 1/3 series) is a much better book, due that he had actually had a relationship with Chilton, and Alex was willing to talk to him. Through that book one finds out he was devoted to Civil War history,and was quite knowledgeable about Memphis and New Orleans history. Plus he was totally devoted to the world of Zodiac signs - and had a long interesting relationship with the great photographer William Eggleston.
But by no means does that mean one should ignore Jovanovic's book. Its a very good (and detailed book, especially the early years of The Box Tops) bio on a band that is endlessly fascinating. So do get this beautifully produced edition (by the great Jaw Bone), as well as Eaton's book on "Radio City" and the masterpiece by Robert Gordon "It Came From Memphis." The beauty of the Alex Chilton narrative is one gets a bigger picture of Memphis as well as American music.
Rob Jovanovic did a great job with respect to research and capturing what makes Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and Jody Stephens' music so special. The one sour note, and it is not the author's fault, that he didn't get to speak directly to Chilton, who without a doubt, is probably one of the most interesting figures in contemporary pop music. Bruce Eaton's book on Big Star's "Radio City" (part of the 33 1/3 series) is a much better book, due that he had actually had a relationship with Chilton, and Alex was willing to talk to him. Through that book one finds out he was devoted to Civil War history,and was quite knowledgeable about Memphis and New Orleans history. Plus he was totally devoted to the world of Zodiac signs - and had a long interesting relationship with the great photographer William Eggleston.
But by no means does that mean one should ignore Jovanovic's book. Its a very good (and detailed book, especially the early years of The Box Tops) bio on a band that is endlessly fascinating. So do get this beautifully produced edition (by the great Jaw Bone), as well as Eaton's book on "Radio City" and the masterpiece by Robert Gordon "It Came From Memphis." The beauty of the Alex Chilton narrative is one gets a bigger picture of Memphis as well as American music.
October 12, 2012
Shockingly bleak bio of a band that it is at least superficially considered a little happy-go-lucky. Bell and Chilton do not come out unscathed- they both seem like total nuts, while Hummel and Stephens seem to be the epitome of normal guys. After reading the book, Chilton's post-Flies (which is a great record, I don't care what ya think.) music makes more sense. The philosophy of that 80-2000's music was: cynical about big meanings, appreciative of very small, simple things. Those ideas might not make a great song, but they're a pretty good recipe for a happy life, which is what I think what Chilton got when he rescinded the Faustian bargain. He got his real soul back, but lost most of his musical one somewhere around the time of "Lost My Job". Essential reading for anybody who loves I am the Cosmos and/or 3rd.
May 31, 2010
The story of one of my favorite obscure bands. Lots of great info, interviews, tidbits, etc., but poorly written and organized.
April 24, 2008
An OK bio, not that informative, but when there's next to nothing out there about a band you like, you gotta take what you can get.
October 9, 2017
Jovanovic does a really good job in his research on this relatively great, but hard luck band. Very similar in ways to Badfinger. I really liked how the chapters gave start and end years so it was easy for me to go back and find a certain time in the band's career to check something on.
I would have liked to have seen some more pictures of the band and solo throughout the book rather than just the intro pages, but the book is fairly detailed and you can tell a ton of research was done on the author's part.
Highly recommended to fans of the music!
I would have liked to have seen some more pictures of the band and solo throughout the book rather than just the intro pages, but the book is fairly detailed and you can tell a ton of research was done on the author's part.
Highly recommended to fans of the music!
Want to read
February 10, 2008i will read anything that has to do with the greatest band that ever existed.
August 27, 2019
If you've never heard of Big Star, you're not alone (and welcome to the cult). I grew up in the 1970s but only came to learn about them in my 40s. Obscure as they may be, Big Star has a bigger following today than they did when they first recorded and toured in the 1970s. It seems that most people who hear their music love it (then & now) -- but for a variety of reasons (including record company distribution problems beyond their control), they never found an audience -- at least, not at the time their records were originally released. Maybe they jinxed themselves -- after all, they had the audacity to call themselves "Big Star" (although they did lift the name & logo from a local supermarket chain) and their first album "#1 Record."
Over the years, Big Star's legacy has continued to grow as new generations (and those of us who missed out the first time around) continue to (re)discover their music, sometimes when it's recorded by other bands & musicians. For example, the 1990s sitcom "That 70s Show" used "In the Street" as its theme song, and the all-female band The Bangles recorded the Big Star song "September Gurls" in the 1980s.
Singer & guitarist Alex Chilton died of a heart attack in 2010 at the far too young age of 59, just before a reconstituted version of Big Star was supposed to play at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. Not long afterward, original bass player Andy Hummel also passed away (from cancer), and I remember reading both obituaries in the newspapers at the time. (Drummer Jody Stephens is the lone remaining member of the original lineup.)
"Big Star: The Story of Rock's Forgotten Band" by Rob Jovanovic, first published in 2004, was recently updated & re-released. There's aren't many books out there on the band -- so if you are into Big Star or want to learn more about them, this would be essential reading. It's a good primer and well researched -- although I must confess I found the writing slightly flat. I did enjoy learning more in its pages about group founder Chris Bell, who tragically joined the "27 Club" in 1978 when he crashed his car into a lamppost, and whose huge contribution to the group has been overshadowed by Alex Chilton's.
For more on Big Star and Alex Chilton specifically, try "A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton" by Holly George-Warren. There's also a good documentary about Big Star, "Nothing Can Hurt Me," which was released in 2012 to critical acclaim.
Over the years, Big Star's legacy has continued to grow as new generations (and those of us who missed out the first time around) continue to (re)discover their music, sometimes when it's recorded by other bands & musicians. For example, the 1990s sitcom "That 70s Show" used "In the Street" as its theme song, and the all-female band The Bangles recorded the Big Star song "September Gurls" in the 1980s.
Singer & guitarist Alex Chilton died of a heart attack in 2010 at the far too young age of 59, just before a reconstituted version of Big Star was supposed to play at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. Not long afterward, original bass player Andy Hummel also passed away (from cancer), and I remember reading both obituaries in the newspapers at the time. (Drummer Jody Stephens is the lone remaining member of the original lineup.)
"Big Star: The Story of Rock's Forgotten Band" by Rob Jovanovic, first published in 2004, was recently updated & re-released. There's aren't many books out there on the band -- so if you are into Big Star or want to learn more about them, this would be essential reading. It's a good primer and well researched -- although I must confess I found the writing slightly flat. I did enjoy learning more in its pages about group founder Chris Bell, who tragically joined the "27 Club" in 1978 when he crashed his car into a lamppost, and whose huge contribution to the group has been overshadowed by Alex Chilton's.
For more on Big Star and Alex Chilton specifically, try "A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton" by Holly George-Warren. There's also a good documentary about Big Star, "Nothing Can Hurt Me," which was released in 2012 to critical acclaim.
August 24, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this very readable book about the legend of Big Star. I was one of those who bought the double album release of #1 Record/Radio City when it came out in the UK. Although I might be classed an early adopter much of the background was not known to me.
Looking back now, it seems astonishing that these guys have left such a huge imprint on music. It's still hard to really get into Alex Chilton's head but there is a feeling that he had so much more to give. Also, very pleased to have a fuller account of Chris Bell's life - I had thought his death was drug-related and was almost relieved to discover that was not the case.
If you haven't heard the albums, rectify that now. You'll want to read this book to find out how such sublime music came about.
Looking back now, it seems astonishing that these guys have left such a huge imprint on music. It's still hard to really get into Alex Chilton's head but there is a feeling that he had so much more to give. Also, very pleased to have a fuller account of Chris Bell's life - I had thought his death was drug-related and was almost relieved to discover that was not the case.
If you haven't heard the albums, rectify that now. You'll want to read this book to find out how such sublime music came about.
January 12, 2025
This was a really well written and researched book about Big Star and the band’s story after Third and up to 2013. I’m not sure I could ask for a better overview. My only complaint, usually something I shy away from lest I feel overly critical, but this was atrociously edited - so many spelling and basic grammar errors. Hence 4 instead of 4 stars.
November 24, 2017
A great book about an even greater band.
January 18, 2019
Informative, but dry.
April 28, 2019
The great should have been huge rock band that never quite made it.
July 14, 2020
Definitive History of Big Star
Well researched narrative of one of the most unheralded and underrated rock bands of the 70s. A must read for all rock and power pop aficionados.
Well researched narrative of one of the most unheralded and underrated rock bands of the 70s. A must read for all rock and power pop aficionados.
May 19, 2022
Really well researched history of the band and its members - pre and post Big Star. Excellent.
April 10, 2025
Had some great moments. Highlight: I was really moved by anything to do with Chris Bell. Low point: It really bothered me that he kept using the word “fitted” — is that even proper grammar??
September 15, 2010
Big Star has been such an influence to so many musicians since the 1970s, but the general population doesn't know who they were. The band's history was a lot of "wrong place, wrong time" and a lot of Murphy's Law. The band and its albums received critical acclaim, but that didn't make it to the rest of the people, due mostly to bad distribution of their albums. The rock press gushed about how great the music was, but when people went to buy the albums, they couldn't find them in stores. Jody Stephens partially credits the musician fans (e.g. Peter Buck, Matthew Sweet, etc.) who have liked Big Star and mentioned them in interviews for boosting Big Star's popularity as time goes on, calling it a "word-of-mouth, grass-roots movement" (263).
Rob Jovanovic says of the 1992 re-releases: "The original music had slowly seeped into the consciousness of a generation of musicians and writers and the brilliance of the original recordings was finally being properly recognized" (251).
Overall, the book wasn't bad. At times it felt schizophrenic, bouncing from band member to band member, year to year, but that could be because there were SO MANY different members to cover, especially given the revolving line-ups. And since Big Star was really only together a few years here, a year there, another year twenty years later, there were a lot of different eras to cover for each individual, rather than being able to say "From year xxxx to xxxx, all the band members were together doing __________". Also, the typos and missing words! Ugh! Oh, and the endnotes -- what's up with those? Rarely did they have anything to do with the text they were referenced from. They generally seemed more like information Jovanovic couldn't bring himself to edit out. But, overall, not a bad book.
Rob Jovanovic says of the 1992 re-releases: "The original music had slowly seeped into the consciousness of a generation of musicians and writers and the brilliance of the original recordings was finally being properly recognized" (251).
Overall, the book wasn't bad. At times it felt schizophrenic, bouncing from band member to band member, year to year, but that could be because there were SO MANY different members to cover, especially given the revolving line-ups. And since Big Star was really only together a few years here, a year there, another year twenty years later, there were a lot of different eras to cover for each individual, rather than being able to say "From year xxxx to xxxx, all the band members were together doing __________". Also, the typos and missing words! Ugh! Oh, and the endnotes -- what's up with those? Rarely did they have anything to do with the text they were referenced from. They generally seemed more like information Jovanovic couldn't bring himself to edit out. But, overall, not a bad book.
November 2, 2013
Here's how ephemeral Big Star is. (Was.) In a 273-page book, the band gets together on page 81 and is broken up by page 183, roughly. (The original line-up even before that.) But, much like the Velvet Underground, the impact of their three(ish) albums was immense. This band is very close to my heart, so it's kind of impossible for me to be objective about this book, but, really, it's a great read if you're at all a fan, or even if you've only heard the 70s Show theme song or the Jeff Buckley Kanga Roo cover and you're mildly curious. Keeping track of who's who in the beginning is a little tough - a lot of bandmates come and go and there's not much in the way of physical descriptions - but that's my only nitpick. Jovanovic has done a tremendously thorough investigation and chronicles all the pre- and post-Big Star bands of all four members, as well as the folks at Ardent. I'm particularly appreciative that he gave equal time to the underrated Chris Bell - yes, Alex Chilton's great, but when I was introduced to Big Star over a decade ago, the common perception seemed to be that Chilton was the resident genius and the rest of the guys were just there to facilitate his vision. Turns out, the "genius" of Big Star was all of these guys, Andy and Jody and Chris, plus Lesa Aldridge, plus John Fry at Ardent who allowed these kids to come in and record whatever whenever, plus Memphis, plus the planets aligned in the cosmos in such a way to bring these four boys together in this place at this time and allowed them to make these perfect pop albums. Read this, and then watch the documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me, and just try not to cry your eyes out. (In a good way.)
July 1, 2015
A pretty in depth look at Big Star, a group famous for not being famous. You know their songs, whether you are aware of it or not. Although it is easy to see the writer is a fan, he doesn’t gloss over the warts. Alex Chilton was apparently a very difficult man, which really isn’t surprising. I liked that the history of the Box Tops (famous for “The Letter,” Chilton’s big break at 16) was included. Although I wish there was a little more information on Icewater, Chris Bell’s other group. I also wish there was a little more about the band’s relationship with photographer William Eggleston. Hopefully in the future there will be another edition about Chilton’s disappearance during Katrina as well as his and Hummel’s recent deaths. Even with these omissions, the book is still very informative and interesting.
September 30, 2008
A very well documented look at the individual members of Big Star and how the band came to be, as well as lots of crazy shenanigans in Memphis in the early 70s. I'd always heard Alex Chilton was pretty arrogant and unfriendly, but the stories from this book make him seem 10 times worse! Interesting how such a character was so influential to musicians years later. I'm listening to their albums again with a new ear now having learned more about some of the subject matter.
April 7, 2008
Big Star - "a history of things pretty much working out." Though the book is more of a dry chronology with trivia thrown in than an engaging biography, there really isn't that much drama or intrigue in the Big Star story. A bunch of guys get together, make a few records to mild success, then disband amicably. Later, one of the guys dies. The end!
August 4, 2012
All of the musical roads of power pop and alternative lead back to Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and Jody Stephens. Jovanovic deftly reconstructs the history of Big Star and provides insights no other author ever could... or ever will... since three of the original members are now gone.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
July 24, 2010
The subject amtter of this book had alot of potential. I think Jovanovic could have gone deeper in describing the music scene and record producing scene around Memphis, TN during the rise and fall of Big Star during the late 1960s to mid 1970s. But I enjoyed reading it none the less.
December 21, 2011
Begins poorly, ends awkwardly, but in between tells an interesting story of some classic weird Memphians. Glad I stuck with it; it passed the general "good" test by motivating me to listen to its subject further.
May 4, 2015
After reading the Alex Chilton bio and pouring thru their catalog, this was a good read to fill in the holes - especially the later revival of interest in the band. Thorough but I can always use more pics.
July 22, 2010
Pretty freakin' comprehensive as I recall. Plan to re-visit the book this summer in light of the recent passings of Andy Hummel and Alex Chilton.
May 25, 2012
fulfilled my music nerd expectations!
December 8, 2015
I had already read Alex Chilton: A Man Called Destruction so this book on Big Star -- this was the perfect follow up! Fine detailed account of an under appreciated band
March 15, 2009
1) chris bell RIP was probably gay
2) alex chilton is an asshole
2) alex chilton is an asshole
December 21, 2010
Wonderfully written. Well researched. Wouldn't have minded had it been much, much longer.
September 28, 2013
Big Star... YES!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews