How do you go from a #1 hit and being one of the most successful so-called blue-eyed soul artists and considered the progenitor of power pop by ecstatic critics, to never really making a success story out of it, to a patchy solo career and odd-jobs, then back to being a producer and musical encyclopedia of rock and roll, to almost fully rehabilitating your career by the end? Well, you would have to ask Alex Chilton, the man from Memphis who went through all of that - that is, if he were still with us.
To celebrate Big Star's '#1 Record' turning 50, Jody Stephens is playing it in full on a short tour with an all-star band.
How do you explain power pop, a music genre that has ‘simple’ as its middle name? Well, you give it a simple explanation to boot - “Power pop is The Beatles meets The Who. That’s literally all there is to it.”
Big Star’s 'Radio City' is considered one of rock's seminal albums, and now it's the subject of a 50th anniversary tour this Fall.