September girls do so much
I was your Butch, and you were touched
I loved you, well, never mind
I’ve been crying all the time
December boy’s got it bad
— Alex Chilton, “September Gurls”
“Back then, you would tag things with ‘city,’” recalled Big Star drummer Jody Stephens on the naming of the band’s now-classic Radio City album. “If you’re in a rock ’n’ roll band, it’s ‘rock city.’ If something bad happened, it was ‘drag city.’ We all thought this was a radio-friendly album, so — Radio City.”
With its iconic “Red Ceiling” album photo shot by the legendary Memphis-based photographer William Eggleston, Big Star’s Radio City LP was released in February 1974 via Ardent/Stax Records, 49 years ago this month.
Even with waves of majestic pop filling both sides of the record, like #1 Record (the band’s 1972 debut), the Radio City tracklist snubbed pop trends of the era. On the rock end of the spectrum, KISS had just released its debut LP, and Rush followed soon after with its debut. Within weeks, both The Ramones and Van Halen played their first gigs. On the adult-contemporary plane, the top hits of ’74 were Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and Terry Jacks’ “Seasons in the Sun.” Big Star didn’t mesh with any of it. It was left-of-center pop that, decades later, would be praised after bands like R.E.M., Elliot Smith, Beck, and The Replacements ushered them in front of their fanbases.
Released and produced via Ardent Records, the Memphis label and studio that supported and cultivated the band throughout the 1970s with countless free hours of recording time, Radio City is now a beloved cult classic. But at the time of its release, it was instantly obscure, hard to find in record stores and not making any mainstream waves. In a May 1974 interview with Circus Magazine, Big Star bassist Andy Hummel offered up some prophetic foresight: “Even if we don’t connect with the population,” he said, “at least we’ll go down in history.”
Along with Hummel, Radio City was of course led by Alex Chilton (guitar/vocals) and drummer Jody Stephens. One missing piece from the original lineup was Chris Bell, who left the band the year before following a confluence of circumstances — though he did co-write a few of the songs before his heated departure, albeit uncredited. In celebration of the record, below are a few quotes mined from There Was A Light: The Cosmic History of Chris Bell & the Rise of Big Star.”
Alex Chilton — guitar, vocals: Ardent Records was saying, “Look, we’re getting a lot of good response from (the first) album. We just didn’t sell any, but you got to do another one. Just look at all those critics, they love you.” We had a bunch of material (for Radio City). A lot of it was written with Chris (Bell).
John Fry — Big Star producer, Ardent Studios owner: From some of the demo tapes that we turned up when we went looking for recordings for the [2009 Rhino Records] box set, you can pretty well conclude that Chris had a major hand in writing “Back of a Car” and “O My Soul,” though he’s uncredited on those. Those songs were on Big Star’s four-song demo that was recorded not long before Chris left the band. The other two songs on the demo were “There Was a Light” and “I Got Kinda Lost.”
Big Star producer John Fry mixing at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee
Alex Chilton: On Radio City, [Chris] wrote parts of “O My Soul.” Most of the lyrics after the first bit are his, but I don’t care for those words. I mean, “You’re really a nice girl...” Fuck! I would never say that. I would be more inclined to say, “You’re really a rotten person, but I like you anyway.” I guess I was just too lazy to write some new lyrics for it when we recorded it. “Back of a Car” is another song Chris had a hand in writing. The words were mostly Andy’s and my chord changes. Chris kind of came up with the opening bit of melody, but the rest of it is mine.
Andy Hummel — bass: [“Back of a Car”] has Chris written all over it. I think the concept of the song, the verse, chord changes, and the initial words were something he came up with. But we collaborated in turning it into a song.
Alex Chilton: The doing of Radio City—we did it in a month, two months, three months. All in all, from start to finish, this record was done in a disciplined way like normal recordings are done. Not like the first record—done over a year, three nights a week at off hours.
Alex may have been in creative control of Big Star, but his private life had started to unravel in a few directions.
Alex Chilton: The music business is a funny place to be. You can start out with certain intentions and quickly get bogged down in quicksand, and I’ve seen my share. But there were a number of reasons why I was drinking. I had grown up where both parents were drunk a lot, so my role models were alcoholics. I also had troubles in my career and in love. All those things combined sent me off on a journey into escapism. Radio City was definitely the time of my uncertainty and tension.
Steve Rhea— Ardent Records promotions: Alex was probably the deepest one of the lot. He was always talking about his theory of life or how he had a firm conviction that every great rock ’n’ roll talent was born under the sign of Capricorn. (The song) “You Get What You Deserve” was an outflow of things he used to talk to me about, that life is inevitable—a destiny thing, and you get what you deserve. So many of the things we talked about worked their way into songs. His infatuation with (then-Ardent employee) Diane Wall became “September Gurls.”
Bob Mehr — Grammy-winning journalist, Replacements biographer: Even though Chris isn’t credited on Radio City, he’s kind of the ghost in the machine.
A 1972 Big Star promo photo
David Bell — Chris Bell’s brother: There were some bad feelings there, but I do know Chris felt Radio City was a terrific album. He had only good things to say about it.
Alex Chilton, a classic “his own worst critic,” was much harder on the album over the years.
Alex Chilton: We kept up the tradition that had been set on the first record for the second record as much as we could, but I had no clue about what songwriting [style] I wanted to do. I knew what musical structures I wanted to play but putting lyrics with it was not my strong suit in those days. I tried, but I don’t think I ever succeeded with the Radio City album. I don’t think there’s one good song of mine on that record. To me, the only good song on the album is Andy’s [“Way Out West”]. I definitely prefer #1 Record. There are four or five tunes on that record I think are really good.
Andy Hummel: If there were ever a Big Star song that had major potential as a hit, [“September Gurls”] would be it … I wasn’t so stupid that I didn’t like our music. We were good. There are some cool songs on there. It’s surprising nobody listened to it at the time.
Some of the lack of sales can be attributed to distribution problems. Ardent Records had partnered with Stax Records, which was experiencing various internal and financial issues that led to its ultimate closure the following year. In short, the Big Star records were lost in the shuffle — casualties of the mess at Stax.
Alex Chilton: I’m not sure what was all going on, but corruption was rampant at Stax at that time.
Al Bell — Stax Records: By the time we got the Big Star records out, my attention was focused on saving my life and defending myself against multiple business and personal assaults.
Alex Chilton: I know that CBS, at the exact time our record came out, put a complete clamp on distributing any Stax records and would not move one Stax record from the time our record came out.
Jody Stephens: We got more press but sold zilch. Radio City sold 4,000 copies, and the first one 2,000. Nobody could buy them. There were no records in stores even though we got a lot of airplay … We got no money from the records, so we had to work. Andy had been going to school, I worked in a bar, and Alex was living off his Box Tops money.
While Big Star would knock out one last ’70s-era album, the Third/Sister Lovers LP, Radio City marked the end of its original incarnation. Like Chris Bell before him, Andy Hummel left the group after Radio City fizzled out. Like many artists who can no longer starve, the bassist tucked his bass away and started a career and a family. Hummel likely made the right decision at the time, the sonic art he made in his youth will live on forever. Like his bandmates, Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens and Chris Bell, Big Star’s remarkable discography continues to inspire bands from across the board. In 2018, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs covered the band’s timeless ballad “Thirteen.” Just a couple of months back, The Lemon Twigs were covering their songs alongside Mike Mills at a packed theater in Los Angeles at a celebration of Big Star’s #1 Record. The influence lives on and continues to inspire new music. “Art creates art,” as they say. And luckily artists keep finding this body of nearly-forgotten work.