Radio City (album)  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Radio City is the second album by the American rock group Big Star. Released in 1974, Radio City was recorded during 1973 at Memphis' Ardent Studios.

Though not a commercial success, it is now recognized as a milestone album in the history of power pop music. Although it was critically acclaimed upon its release, the record sold poorly, partly due to a lack of promotion and the distribution problems of the band's struggling record label, Ardent Records. The album included "September Gurls" and "Back of a Car", which remain among the most famous Big Star songs; both the Searchers and the Bangles have covered "September Gurls."

The original Ardent Records LP featured record-jacket photographs by noted photographer William Eggleston, including The Red Ceiling on the cover.

Radio City is notable for its unique, chewy guitar sound and live-sounding yet meticulous textures, and for its somewhat tortuous recording history. After founding member Chris Bell left the group in late 1972 following the release of the band's debut, #1 Record, Big Star broke up, to reform for a 1973 Memphis convention for rock-music writers given by Ardent Records. Alex Chilton, along with bassist Danny Jones and drummer Richard Rosebrough, recorded three tracks that would appear on the finished album: "What's Goin Ahn," "Mod Lang" and "She's a Mover." Though his presence is far less obvious than on the debut, Bell seems to have contributed music and lyrics to several songs, including "O My Soul", "Back of a Car," and the outtake "I Got Kinda Lost" and may have played on the album. The album shows the influence of British Invasion bands such as The Beatles and The Kinks.

Some of the outtakes from the album include "I Got Kinda Lost", "Gone with the Light", "Motel Blues" and "There Was a Life" (an early version of "There Was a Light" from Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos CD). The singles released from the album were "O My Soul" and "September Gurls".

Radio City's reputation has grown since its release, with many critics and listeners of the opinion that it is not only the definitive power-pop album but one of the finest rock-music albums. As writer Richard Meltzer told an interviewer, "Big Star...is the means through which most bands today who are influenced by the Beatles get their dose of the British Invasion."

Track listing

1. "O My Soul" - 5:40 (Chilton)
2. "Life Is White" - 3:19 (Chilton/Hummel)
3. "Way Out West" - 2:50 (Hummel)
4. "What's Goin Ahn" - 2:40 (Chilton/Hummel)
5. "You Get What You Deserve" - 3:08 (Chilton)
6. "Mod Lang" - 2:45 (Chilton/Rosebrough)
7. "Back of a Car" - 2:46 (Chilton/Hummel)
8. "Daisy Glaze" - 3:49 (Chilton/Hummel/Stephens)
9. "She's a Mover" - 3:12 (Chilton)
10. "September Gurls" - 2:49 (Chilton)
11. "Morpha Too" - 1:27 (Chilton)
12. "I'm in Love With a Girl" - 1:48 (Chilton)

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Big Star's Radio City (33 1/3)

Big Star's Radio City (33 1/3) () is a book in the 33 1/3 series on the album Radio City.

"As Chilton sees it, the Radio City story doesn’t begin with his joining Big Star or even meeting Chris Bell as a young teen. If you really want to understand Big Star from his perspective, you have to go to back the arrival of John Chilton of Canterbury, England on the shores of Virginia in 1660 – three hundred years before John Lennon met Paul McCartney and started sowing the seeds for the British Invasion that would ultimately lead to Big Star."--David Barker in a preview of Big Star's Radio City (33 1/3)

Product Description

This book examines the key ingredients of Radio City's lasting appeal. Virtually anyone who's ever picked up a guitar - whether wood or air - has fantasized about playing onstage alongside his musical hero. Bruce Eaton actually did it. This book is based on the improbable but true story of an ardent fan who got close enough to Alex Chilton, the prime architect of the best power pop album ever made outside of Abbey Road Studios, to see what was on the other side of genius, fame and expectations.Released when ELP and Elton John were plodding from one packed stadium to the next, Radio City was a radical album - influenced by records that were already deemed oldies and yet sounding like a lean electrical jolt from the future. In time, power pop would become an official rock genre and the influence of Radio City would be widely heard through artists like R.E.M., The Replacements, The Bangles and Teenage Fanclub. When they first appeared though, Big Star sounded quite like no other band (including the oft-compared Raspberries and Badfinger).This book examines the unique confluence of circumstances that channeled Alex Chilton's creative energies toward the possibility of commercial success for perhaps the last time. Special attention will be given to the production and sound of the record. Recorded at Ardent Studios on the heels of ZZ Top's mega-hit Tres Hombres, the visceral allure of Radio City has more in common with the Top (and other chart toppers) than many of its devotees would want to admit."33 1/3" is a series of short books about a wide variety of albums, by artists ranging from James Brown to the Beastie Boys. Launched in September 2003, the series now contains over 50 titles and is acclaimed and loved by fans, musicians and scholars alike.