Tag Archives: #1 record

#1422: Big Star – Try Again

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So it appears that every time I’ve written about a Big Star or Big Star-adjacent number on the blog, Chris Bell has been at the forefront of all of them. When he and Alex Chilton were the songwriting duo behind the band’s #1 Record debut, released in 1972, it was the songs by the latter that seemed to get the most praise from critics. That, and the fact that hardly anyone knew the album existed because of extremely poor distribution, frustrated Bell, and he left the band not too long after. I got round to listening to #1 Record in early 2017, about February time, I remember it well, just in my room in the student house during my final year at university. It was dark outside, even though it was early evening, ’cause it was wintertime. I found it was the songs sung by Chris Bell that I gravitated towards. Chilton had a kind of wilting nature in his vocals, Bell had more of the attitude. Tracks like ‘Don’t Lie to Me’ and ‘Feel’? Oh, I was all over those from listen one.

But with ‘Try Again’, I think that one took a little more time. Thing with #1 Record is, after ‘My Life Is Right’, the songs take on a sadder, reflective, dominantly acoustic tone until the album’s end. ‘Try Again’ is Bell’s entry in this little section of the LP. I think it was during COVID-lockdown time when I heard the song again and just found it devastating to listen to. Sure I might have cried to it. So of course it was an instant add to the series. The song is plainly about perseverance. Trying to continue on even when it gets to that point where it feels easier to give up and end it all. The track’s made up of only two verses, both in which Bell earnestly talks to the Lord – he was an ardent Christian, this stuff is real – telling Him that he’s doing what he can to get through the day, though he has his difficulties. Despite this, he resolves his statements by simply saying he’ll try again, which is then followed by a weeping slide-guitar solo surrounded by ringing acoustic guitar chords. It’s sad, but he’s finding a solution at least.

I think it’s fair to say, Chris Bell was probably listening to a lot of George Harrison when writing this song. Particularly All Things Must Pass. Makes sense, as at the time, that would have been the big Harrison album available for purchase. Very sure the starting chords of ‘Try Again’ are the exact same as those that open ‘Isn’t It a Pity’. But not just that. Everything from the chord changes, to the slide-guitar playing, to the addresses to ‘Lord’ throughout, right out of the Harrison playbook. Bell and Chilton didn’t hide that they were massive Beatles fans anyway, so it’s not such a big deal. It is probably the most obvious Beatles nod on the album, though. Interesting to note too that ‘Try Again’ was a leftover from one of Chris Bell’s earlier bands Rock City. The band eventually morphed into Big Star, but were around during the late ’60s, which potentially places Bell at 18 or 19 when he wrote the song. I don’t know about you, but I did not have the emotional depth to write something like this at that age. No way. So damn, all credit to him. It’s beautiful stuff.

#890: Big Star – My Life Is Right

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This is the second post with Big Star that I’ve written in the entire history of this blog. Had I started the whole thing earlier, I would have a few more songs of theirs up. And if I did, you would have noticed that I prefer the band’s songs by Chris Bell compared to those of Alex Chilton. ‘Feel’ and ‘Don’t Lie to Me’ would have received my high praise in a few paragraphs made up of waffling sentences. And while ‘In the Street’ was a Chilton song, it’s Bell’s lead vocal on it that gives the track its grit. These three tracks are all from #1 Record, the only album of Big Star’s that Chris Bell featured on before leaving the group, and so is today’s.

‘My Life Is Right’ is another Bell-penned track, and an older song that he had performed with an previous band before joining Big Star. He was really into his Christianity. His love of the Lord was a message in quite a few of his compositions, and it’s clear in this one too. He sings about having no one to share his troubles with, until one day he was shown the way and now feels that he has purpose in life. He was lost and now he’s found. Though listening for the first time, you wouldn’t be wrong to assume that it was about a new love or a woman, something along those lines. But nope. It’s God. Or at the very least, Jesus.

And although it’s got a religious overtone to it, it’s nothing that’s preachy or overbearing. It’s a wonderful upbeat power pop tune with brilliant production and an uplifting tone. Things start off with this wandering piano with a double-tracked Bell singing the first few lines concerning loneliness and frustration, but then the bass guitar and acoustic guitars join in to mirror the change in mood with the lyrics where he then sings on how he’s been shown the way before the whole band kicks in for the huge chorus. For a track made in the early 70s, there’s a grandness and pristine sheen to every strike of the guitar and crash of the cymbals that make this track sound massive. It’s common throughout the whole album. Might just be one of my favourites of that decade.

#631: Big Star – In the Street

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‘In the Street’ is the third song on Big Star’s first album #1 Record from 1972. Now I thought I had talked about a Big Star song before. I haven’t. I have, however, written about two songs by Chris Bell, who coincidentally takes the lead vocal on this track. I can’t recall if I talked about Big Star in them, but to put you up to speed – they were a band in the seventies who made all this great music which didn’t get heard by anyone at the time because of a lack in distribution. As time went on people discovered their albums and realised what they were missing.

Although Bell sings this ‘In the Street’, it was actually written by fellow songwriter in the band Alex Chilton which allowed the tracklisting to alternate between the two singers. I feel that Bell’s shrill vocals are best suited for it compared to Chilton’s calmer tones. Compare Bell here with Chilton on…. ‘Thirteen’, for example. Anyway, the track is more or less about having nothing to do in the neighbourhood but chill out with friends or your partner and smoke a joint every once in a while. It’s a song for everyone, really. This is done so with in a tightly packed two and a half minutes with punchy drums, swaggering production and glorious vocal harmonies.

It took a while for me to get into this song because I was so used to Cheap Trick’s version at the start of That 70s Show. While those 30 seconds are almost always the best parts of those episodes, Big Star is the OG.