For The Sake Of The Song: Big Star “September Gurls”

It was the early nineties and I had one of those momentous moments in my musical listening when I heard the fabulous ”Bandwagonesque” by AUK favourites Teenage Fanclub. At the time I was absolutely knocked out- it sounded so fresh, original and different, and it is still one of my favourite albums ever.

I had read that Teenage Fanclub were influenced by the American band Big Star (as well as The Beatles and the British band Badfinger). On listening to Big Star’s superb first two albums “#Record 1” and “Radio City”, I was really taken aback by how much Teenage Fanclub sounded like them. Not to detract from its greatness but “Bandwagonesque” was perhaps not as original as I had thought and, like all rock, was influenced by previous work. 

Big Star was formed in Memphis in 1971 and consisted of Alex Chilton (vocals, guitar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). Chilton had been the singer for the soul group The Box Tops, who produced the hit ‘The Letter’ when he was just 16. The group members were influenced by British bands such as The Who, The Kinks and particularly The Beatles, but also by American bands such as The Byrds and sixties soul. The two main songwriters, Chilton and Bell, fancied themselves as something like Lennon and McCartney.

Big Star’s first two albums, mentioned above, are brilliant power-pop, whereas the third “Third/Sister Lovers” is less easy on the ear and has darker lyrical themes. It is still a great record that is worth listening to and all three albums got huge critical, if not commercial, success.

‘September Gurls’, from “Radio City”, is one of their most famous tracks and just has a brilliant singalong melody. You may have heard The Bangles’ version. The song was a tribute to ‘California Girls’ by The Beach Boys and is about three of the many women in Chilton’s life at the time, including his ex-wife, all of whom had September birthdays. He has said that while he was fine with its music, he was not as happy with the words and it is true that they are nothing special. The track was rated #180 by Rolling Stone in the magazine’s top 500 songs of all time.

There is a lot of turmoil and tragedy in the Big Star story. Bell was someone who used drugs heavily and suffered at times from severe depression. He had a lot of conflict with Hummel, including violence, and both left the group in 1972 before the third album. Bell died in a car crash aged 27 and both Hummel and Chilton died relatively young.

You may be thinking “But are Big Star americana?” Their music isn’t like the folk or country-influenced material usually covered on AUK. I would argue that their huge influence on many American bands such as REM and The Replacements and the fact that they have been covered by americana bands such as Wilco, Whiskeytown and Lucero means that they just about squeeze in.

And if any more evidence is needed, Katie Perry’s ‘California Gurls’ is spelled that way as a tribute to Big Star. Beat that.