Big Star - Legacy and Influence

Legacy and Influence

Although Big Star's first era came to an end in 1974, the band acquired a cult following in the 1980s when new acts began to acknowledge the early material's significance. R.E.M.'s Peter Buck admitted, "We've sort of flirted with greatness, but we've yet to make a record as good as Revolver or Highway 61 Revisited or Exile on Main Street or Big Star's Third. I don't know what it'll take to push us on to that level, but I think we've got it in us." Chilton, however, told an interviewer in 1992, "I'm constantly surprised that people fall for Big Star the way they do... People say Big Star made some of the best rock 'n roll albums ever. And I say they're wrong."

Today, critics cite Big Star's first three albums as a profound influence on subsequent musicians. Rolling Stone notes that Big Star "created a seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations of rockers, from the power-pop revivalists of the late 1970s to alternative rockers at the end of the century to the indie rock nation in the new millennium". Jason Ankeny, music critic for Allmusic, identifies Big Star as "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll", whose "impact on subsequent generations of indie bands on both sides of the Atlantic is surpassed only by that of the Velvet Underground". Ankeny describes Big Star's second album, Radio City, as "their masterpiece—ragged and raw guitar-pop infused with remarkable intensity and spontaneity".

In 1992, Rykodisc generated further interest in the band when it reissued Third/Sister Lovers and released a posthumous compilation of Bell's solo material, I Am The Cosmos. In his 2007 book Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide, John Borack ranks the #1 Record/Radio City double album at No. 2 in his chart "The 200 Greatest Power Pop Albums". Rolling Stone includes #1 Record, Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers in The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and "September Gurls" and "Thirteen" in The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In addition to R.E.M., artists including Teenage Fanclub, The Replacements, Primal Scream, the Posies, and Bill Lloyd and the dB's cite Big Star as an inspiration, and the band's influence on Game Theory, Matthew Sweet and Velvet Crush is also acknowledged.

Big Star's "I'm In Love With A Girl" from Radio City features in the soundtrack of the 2009 film "Adventureland". The 2006 tribute album Big Star, Small World includes Big Star covers by The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, Gin Blossoms, Wilco, Afghan Whigs, Whiskeytown and others. The 1987 tribute song "Alex Chilton", co-written by three members of The Replacements, was released as a single from the album Pleased to Meet Me and contains the lyric "I never travel far without a little Big Star". In 1998, an ad hoc, shortened version of #1 Record's "In the Street" (recorded by Todd Griffin) was used as the theme song for the sitcom That '70s Show, and in 1999, a new version titled "That '70s Song (In the Street)" was recorded by Cheap Trick also specifically for the show. "That '70s Song" and Big Star's own "September Gurls" are included on the 1999 album That '70s Album (Rockin') released by the television program's producers. "September Gurls", Borack says, "was and is the sine qua non of power pop, a glorious, glittering jewel with every facet cut and shined to absolute perfection. a peerless, aching distillation of love and longing. 'September Gurls' may not actually be the greatest song ever recorded, but for the duration of its 2:47 running time, you can be forgiven for believing it is."