Bold self-reliance. That's what Alex Chilton was channeling when he penned The Ballad of El Goodo. It's one of those tunes that I try to include on any mixtape or CD that I ever make. Tonight, the melody emerged from the back of my mind as I was strumming my guitar. It moved me to find the chords and learn to play it. Striking the chords and whispering Alex Chilton's lyrics unleashed a powerful feeling inside -- like uttering some magical incantation. My spirits were immediately lifted. That's the power of rock & roll. True and simple.
Big Star was a huge influence on many of my favorite groups: The Replacements, Wilco, The Posies and R.E.M. The Ballad of El Goodo has been covered by countless artists. Here are two of my favorite covers;
Evan Dando's sublime version from the Empire Records Soundtrack (1995):
Matthew Sweet's version from Big Star Small World (Tribute to Big Star).
In the late 70s, as punk and post-punk bands spiraled towards their new wave destinies, prog dinosaurs stood paralyzed in the shadows. Bands like the Sex Pistols were meteors, igniting a global firestorm that would trigger prog's extinction. The British music press (Melody Maker, Sounds, NME, etc.), once proponents of prog darlings Genesis, Yes and ELP, now bashed any band releasing songs in odd time signatures and singing about aliens and whales. The punk revolution had turned the U.K. music industry and press on its head within a year (1976-1977). For me, this is one of the most interesting times in pop music. Although prog groups saw their audiences rapidly dwindle (Yes audiences had dropped from 20,000 to 3,000 by 1980's Drama tour), many record labels had built fortunes on the works of prog artists and were willing to foot the bill for some interesting transitional experiments. Yes' Drama , ELPs' Works , Genesis' . ..And Then There Were Three... were p...
I would contend that "Love, Reign O'er Me" is one of the most climactic and rewarding endings to an album in the history of rock & roll. It comes at the conclusion of a four-sided rock opera, begins with the sound of rain and ultimately ends with Keith Moon beating the shit out of his drums right after Roger Daltrey bellows "Looooooooooooove!" as if he is literally in the process of casting his life into the storming Atlantic Ocean while simultaneously absorbing every hardship, letdown and impossibility that he has ever faced. This is The Who at the peak of their powers. "Love, Reign O'er Me" was released in1973 as the second single from the band's sixth album and second rock opera, Quadrophenia . However, the deeper context of the song can only be truly experienced through listening to the entirety of Side 4 (Dr. Jimmy > The Rock > Love, Reign O'er Me). "The Rock," and six-minute instrumental, has a proggy, Celtic ...
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