Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me Page #9

starting to feel okay #

# You're on the phone

# I never wanna be alone

I remember being at Shoe,

a few hours

after Cosmos was mixed,

and I thought "Oh, my God,

that's where Big Star went. "

This just picked up where

what I loved in "Radio City,"

and this just went... here.

It was somewhat overwhelming

to me, you know.

It was really beautiful,

but I was so distracted

by the musical aspect of it.

I didn't really get the lyrics

until probably

the second or third time

that I listened to it.

"I Am the Cosmos," that is

a brilliant song for you.

Somebody

who's just so full of ego

and so full of himself,

he just thinks

he can control the universe,

but nothing he can do

can get this one thing

that he's lost back to him.

# Want you too much

to say no, no #

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

I put it out on my label,

and sent out review copies,

and I always felt like

the world changed a little bit,

maybe it's 'cause the song

is called "I Am The Cosmos"

but never sold many copies.

But it made Chris Bell

very happy, apparently.

I never heard "I Am the Cosmos"

while he was alive.

So, you know, but I can

just speculate on that.

Go ahead.

Well, I mean, I can...

I don't really have much

I can say about that.

I mean,

I can, I can sense his pain.

That's song's painful for me

to listen to.

# I'd really

like to see you again #

# I really wanna

see you again #

# I'd really like to see

you again #

# I really wanna

see you again #

Records I like have

a lot of Ying and a lot of Yang.

You know,

I like for things to be,

you know, kind of,

the way batteries work.

I like the idea

that Cosmos would be

on one side and Sister

would be on the other.

# They say my love

for you ain't real #

# But you don't know

how real it feels #

Chris's voice,

he's pushing

against his limitations.

And sometimes he sounds like

he is one breath away

from evaporating

in front of my ears, you know.

# Your sister says

that I am no good #

# I'd reassure her if I could

Alex's genius happened

because he could so carelessly

throw things away.

And I can tell

that Alex is probably

just tossing his lines off,

but there's something

about the way

that the two of them

sing together on that take.

Half the time I listen to it,

I'm reduced to tears.

# Plans fail every day

# I would

want to hear you say #

# Your love won't be leaving

# Your eyes ain't deceiving

# Fears will soon fade away

# Smile now, don't be afraid

# All I want to do is to

spend some time with you #

# So I can hold you,

hold you #

I used to have this terrible

premonition that Chris

would never grow old,

because he had nowhere to go,

you know.

He had no way out

and I just couldn't project him

into growing to the age

I am now

because he had just no way

to survive into the future.

It was like a shooting star.

It was just something that was...

It had its time

and it was gonna... out.

But sure as hell didn't

make it any easier

when it happened.

# spend some time with you

# So I can hold you

We would just talk.

And it was usually me saying

"Now don't worry about this"

or "Why don't you go

in this direction

and do something,"

like I said, "more normal. "

Just because I just saw him

frustrated and unhappy,

I felt like.

And we'd have some conversations

about religion.

And I know y'all did too.

I mean, Christopher

was a very spiritual person

and talking to me

about going to heaven.

And saying

"By the grace of God,

that's the only way

you go to heaven. "

The night that Chris died,

I was in bed.

All of a sudden,

I just sat bolt

upright in the bed.

I had this overwhelming feeling

that somebody was in the room.

You know,

I expected to encounter

a burglar or something.

And there was nobody

in there at all.

And, you know,

I looked over at the clock

and as I recall it was about

1:
30 or 1:35

which was

the exact time of Chris's crash.

And I've never had anything

like that happen

in my life before or since.

I feel almost guilty

sometimes talking about

the music part of it,

because it wasn't my thing.

I can't help it.

I kind of resent it,

'cause it makes me sad.

I mean,

I'm happy for him, but I...

You rather have him

instead of having

the music out there,

I know, sure.

I had heard

one night on the radio,

somebody

talking about all of these

different Rock and Roll people,

who had died at the age of 27.

And, you know,

there was Hendrix I believe,

there was Joplin.

You know, just a long string

of people that died at 27

and they included

Chris Bell of Big Star.

You know, it's like he just

kind of walked into a template

for a Rock and Roll

legend in a lot of ways.

If you look at what happened

with the Big Star records

in 1976,

I would have told you

nothing will ever happen

further about it.

The first rumblings

that we heard

that something was up

and that there was this

cult following building,

were not coming

from the United States.

They were coming

from the UK and Europe.

# We did last week

# Not a thing to do

# But talk to you

I spent some time

in London in 1978,

I'd pick up a Melody Maker,

or a New Musical Express,

and there would invariably be

something about Big Star...

whether it was just

a mention of Alex,

or whether it was a band

in an album review

and they compared them

to Big Star,

or whether it was

somebody back in the kind of,

classifieds looking

for someplace

to buy a Big Star album.

Then I had somebody

call me up and say

"Did you know

that EMI had leased

"#1 Record" and "Radio City"

and that they had

put it out in England

as a double date for one.

Particularly in Scotland,

it's like a nuclear bomb hit.

And, you know,

it was such an influential band.

I was sort of hanging out

with the guys

from Primal Scream

and Alan McGhee

and people

from the Glasgow Scene.

They were all fans

of the Big Star albums.

I think kind of

in the '90s, it's like,

it was established

that Big Star were great.

There'd be most kind of bands

like some would say,

"You never heard of Big Star?"

And by then,

you've heard like 20 records

that are actually

influenced by Big Star.

Uh, this next song is by

mutual favorite band

of ours, Big Star.

It's cult here

and all around the world,

you know, some people have

never heard of Cheap Trick.

They don't even know it's us.

They just know

it's a great song.

When we do play

"In the Streets,"

it's a crowd pleaser.

Yeah, I'm not sure about

when I felt like there was

a Big Star resurgence,

but it might have

just been like

when maybe the REM guys

like talked about them.

It seems like

maybe Pete Buck

was listening to them

or something.

I mean,

he was a real record guy.

You know,

and then it seems like

you started hearing

Paul Westerberg talk about them.

Alex was opening

for the Replacements

and I went over to Alex,

I said, "Look, Paul loves you. "

I said "Please go back

and introduce yourself to him. "

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