Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me Page #7

There was

a sense of how do we get

to complete spontaneity.

The was

a little tendency to be

kind of sonically

deconstructive

and it was pretty clear to me

that he didn't have

much interest

in trying to tailor anything

to have commercial appeal

or to be radio-friendly.

I thought it had

become an Alex album.

I thought

it was an Alex album.

All of those records

from "#1 Record" through

"Radio City" to the "Third,"

Alex was the commonality.

He was the common point

of all of them.

And as they progressed

they became more Alex

records than Big Star records.

You know, it just...

it became such

a different scene at that point

in terms of where Alex

was going musically,

in his personality.

It got painful for John.

And he did reach the point

where he said

"Jim, I know

you're not finished,

but you've got to mix

what you've got,

because

I can't do this anymore. "

# Hey, child,

will you come on down #

The mix is half of the record

and Alex was excluded,

because he would

have ruined it.

# Morning says to idle on

# And stay clear off

the street #

# On the wing

and on the land #

I've worked with guys

who were supposed

to be the real guys

and none of them

were as good as John.

He would treat classical cello

and sheer distortion, equally.

You know, they were

both equally musical,

you know,

paint that he was pushing

around the canvas.

# Stroke it Noel

It really is this

amazing reflection

of where Alex was at that time

and that lifestyle.

But whether

I wanted to sustain

that kind of emotional

lifestyle is...

it wasn't for me.

What was the lifestyle?

Oh, it was

kind of self-absorption

and self-focus

and drugs and alcohol.

# Driving in my big black car

# Nothing can go wrong

You know,

everybody was kind of down

and depressed then.

You got to remember

our biggest studio customer,

STAX had just gone

out of business,

also leaving us

without a distributor

for our record label and,

you know, we were

kind of wondering

was Memphis music

now going to implode

and we're all going to be

unemployed.

The band had fallen apart.

Alex and Lesa were going

through this soap opera

that was their relationship.

The record was about

deteriorating relationships.

That's what the record

was about.

# Nothing can hurt me

# Nothing can touch me

# Why should I care?

# Driving is a gas

# It ain't gonna last

When I came over here

to start working,

John was showing me

around the place

and there was

a humongous loud noise

coming out of studio A

and I was prepared for...

I don't know

what I was prepared for,

but I opened the door

and it was just Chris

behind the console,

running the tape machine,

punching himself into record

and out of record and singing

and doing all of it by himself.

He was more concerned

about his solo stuff

and getting that right,

whatever definition of that is

and had worked on it forever.

The way that Big Star

was presented to me,

it was always

"Alex, Alex, Alex,"

and I didn't realize

until I heard Chris' solo stuff

how responsible he was

for the whole sound of the band.

Chris just lost interest

in bands,

period, and he just

wanted to hear

his songs not translated.

He was incredibly

frustrated

with the fact that he couldn't

find anybody at a record company

who would support his music.

I mean, he went

over to England to do

remixes with Geoff Emerick,

to get his music

in line with something

that someone would appreciate

and he wasn't achieving

that to the least.

# I'm off the street

# and don't know

Chris came to a very settled

faith in Jesus Christ

as Lord and Savior.

It made

a big difference in his life

and it made

a big difference in mine.

Music was still his great gift

and he knew it

and he wanted to do

whatever he could with it.

But nothing topped God.

For him to be

singing a song about

"You got to give

your life to Jesus,"

you know, it was like,

God, Chris, that's...

I never knew he had

that element, you know.

It wasn't just as easy

with Chris as to say

I've been born again

and to live that life,

to accept it completely,

you know.

I think there were things

that troubled him,

not about religion,

but about other aspects

of his life that didn't...

like the two didn't really

balance each other out

or complement each other.

# You should've given

your love to Jesus #

# It couldn't do you no harm

He once told me,

"You should do drugs.

It takes away

your sexual urges. "

I have a feeling that drugs

and then religion, obviously...

had a way of keeping

any of that at bay.

There was a part of Chris

that to me

seemed like

a highly combustible

blend of whatever substances

he was in-taking,

whatever was his baggage

concerning his sexuality

and born-again Christianity.

It was like all of this stuff

mashing around.

I heard about it.

I heard about

a lot of that stuff.

Thinking back on it,

I could see

that he was searching,

which could explain

the religion thing.

It could explain experimentation

of one kind or another.

It could explain drugs,

you know, travel,

whatever, you know,

you're searching, you know.

I was sent out on an assignment

for "The Village Voice"

and I met Alex the day

he had just moved

to New York from Memphis.

As I got to the place

Lesa was leaving

and he started

crying on my shoulder.

This is from the first session

we did.

He was living up

in Little India then.

He was very sweet,

very Southern.

He had a copy of "Radio City"

and "Here's some of my music,"

you know.

Despite claims to the contrary,

you know, he'd done something.

A guy named Terry Ork,

Ork Records said

"Well, we've got this project.

Alex Chilton might be

coming up. "

This may be my second week

in New York.

He called in and said,

"Do you want to play with Alex?

Could you put together a band?"

Nobody knew what would happen,

but they knew

that television had gotten

a real record deal

with a real label

and it seemed like,

you know, this is kind of crazy.

I've only been here

a couple of weeks.

# Here's a little thing

that's gonna please ya #

# Just a little town down

in Indonesia, Bangkok #

I asked him at one point,

"Why don't

you write more stuff

like you did with Big Star?"

And he just said, "I can't.

I can't write that way anymore. "

He realized he could write

a different kind of lyric.

He could write a lyric

like "Bangkok"

that was a witty Algonquin

Round Table kind of thing

and I don't think that that

unattainable muse mechanism

was the way he wrote songs

anymore after Lesa.

Punk gave him an outlet

where he could

get a lot of his anger out

from the debacle

of Big Star

being totally ignored.

And I mean,

that would create

a certain amount of bitterness

and anger

and I mean it was a nice place

for that to fit in.

You like Punk Rock?

Not in the least.

Well, never mind

the "Sex Pistols,"

then, Byron,

here come "The Cramps. "

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