Misunderstood underrated iconoclast? Jerk? Average to mediocre musician? Gifted tunesmith? What's your take?

#1 record and Radio City are top notch records. Kinda invented an American aesthetic of power pop.
3rd is a broken and damaged masterpiece
Flies and live in London are fantastic.
The rest is spotty but mostly worthwhile. He liked Rock and Roll. A lot.

Booze tends to be no artists real friend.

There was a period of my life in the late 90's when my now wife and I were living in different states, trading mixtapes and letters through the snail mail.....
There were a lot of records that kinda remind me of that time, and Big Stars 3rd was a huge part of the soundtrack of that 4 months. It was a weird time where I was kind transient and didn't have a home while and that record takes me back to that time immediately.

I saw him a couple times in the 1990s, but never performing as Big Star. He did “In the Street” at both shows and maybe one or two other Big Star songs. Otherwise, it was covers of “Volare” and Italian rock-and-roll songs and his sleazy solo stuff. It was kinda great, but he was pretty clearly someone you wouldn’t want to hang with.

Love the Big Star records.

Read the bio many years later. Abusive piece of shit as a human being. He used to beat up his girlfriends, believing they were cheating on him. And like all pricks, he was—of course—the one cheating.

I like #1 Record and Radio City, but the superlative praise of them - is loving these records a requirement to being a rock critic? - makes me roll my eyes.

I live in Columbia, where they did that live show in '93. I had just started high school. A classmate with cooler musical taste than myself at the time wore a new-looking shirt with the Big Star logo on it one day. I asked what his shirt was about, he said they were a band.

First 2 Big Star records are great. Very high quality.

Call me uncouth - unsophisticated, brutish, even - but I've always considered 3rd to be a self-indulgent, whinging slog. Didn't like it as a sensitive young man (though I pretended otherwise), but now I think it's a real dud.

Solo stuff is meh to bad.

C.

M.H wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 9:44 am but I've always considered 3rd to be a self-indulgent, whinging slog.

Right after Cropper dies you spout this nonsense too.

Frankie99 wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 9:59 am

M.H wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 9:44 am but I've always considered 3rd to be a self-indulgent, whinging slog.

Right after Cropper dies you spout this nonsense too.

I have been the target audience for 3rd at many points in my life and can tolerate maudlin to very intense degrees; but I just don't think many of the songs are good. I simply can't pretend otherwise anymore. It's a dud. Fuck This Mortal Coil also. Fuck Scott Walker too.

Good but not a patch on The Raspberries at their best:

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5SLyj ... jEXF4L-MYU

He recorded The Cramps.

Is there a version of Third/Sister Lovers that is, if not definitive, then recommended? I’ve tried a couple times (I have the 1992 Rykodisc pressing) and it just doesn’t hit me where I live like #1 Record or Radio City.