Alex Chilton's story is one of the off-beat tales of the Deep South. As a gravel-voiced teenager, he fronted the Box Tops, a blue-eyed soul group that hit with "The Letter", "Soul Deep" and "Cry Like A Baby". When the Box Tops broke up, Chilton formed Big Star with Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and Jody Stephens. And his voice, whether by nature or cunning design, lost its soulful, hoarse overtones.
As Big Star's story is often recounted, they were an oddity on the faltering Stax label by being a throwback to British Invasion pop harmonies and power chords. Except that, to my ears, tracks like "Feel" and "O My Soul" show a brazen, rebel assault whose accent is Southern on the fringes. Their local roots were more obvious on their their album, Sister Lovers, which is really an Alex Chilton solo project which featured the likes of Steve Cropper as guest musicians. Sister Lovers would later indirectly resusciate Alex Chilton's cachet (which he single-handedly destroyed with willful, ornery acts of self-loathing and destruction) when British New Wave super-group This Mortal Coil covered "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust". Although Big Star's best known song these days is "In The Street" from their first album, which served as the theme song for "That 70's Show".
Halfway in Chilton's erratic odessey comes this perfect pop song, from Big Star's second album, Radio City. The melodic hooks, chord changes and harmonies are all Beatles, "I Feel Fine" married with Abbey Road polish, though the instrumentation owes a lot of to early Kinks singles, albeit slowed to a jog rather than a sprint. But the crisp snap of the lead fills recalls Steve Cropper and his Memphis brethern while Jody Stephens' drumming sounds like Keith Moon auditioning for a session gig at Muscle Shoals Studios.
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