Some housekeeping to start the week...By request, here's a larger version of one of the photos in the book of Big Star performing at the Rock Writers Convention.  The photos were taken from a contact sheet, quite small, and very dark so they were difficult to work with as you might imagine. 

 

Here's a link to more about the Big Star boxset:

http://blurt-online.com/news/view/2303/

I reread Bud Scoppa's article last night (link below) and it got me thinking a bit about why Big Star has been often imitated but never duplicated.  One main reason I think is that Big Star didn't confuse melodies with chord progressions.  A lot of power pop sounds to me like someone came up with a (jangly) chord progression and then kind of strung a (predictable) melody across it.  You can almost hum the melody as you're listening to a song for the very first time.  Big Star wrote melodies that stood on their own.  Listen to the instrumental track for any Big Star song and you'll be at a loss to imagine or predict the melody.  

Thanks again to everyone for your positive comments about the book so far.  As you might imagine, writing a book about something people feel very passionate about (and know a lot about ) is a bit daunting.  But after holding my breath for a while awaiting for public opinion, I'm exhaling and relaxing.  If you like the book, please consider leaving positive feedback at Amazon.com (link in the column to the right).  It definitely helps to get the word out.  And while you're at it, fill in your Big Star collection.  If you don't have all three discs, now's the time to stock up for summer and get ready for the box set.