Real Music Alternatives

On his 10th studio album, Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc), Chuck Prophet found his muse in the city he’s called home for 30 years. Exploring the local landmarks and myths with friend and poet klipschutz, Prophet winds his way through San Francisco, stretching tales even taller along the way. But this guided tour isn’t a detailed and prefabricated concept album, so much as it’s the product of spontaneous inspiration, and it’s not a document of the city’s past as much as it is of its present. Prophet will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Prophet: Live At The Star Club is a Jerry Lee Lewis fan’s holy grail of rock ‘n’ roll. An amphetamine-fueled ride through the heart of the Reeperbahn with the Killer. A classic Euro-only record by a Southern loon who was known to say into the microphone to his audience, “I hope you all have heart attacks.”

I have no way to know whether Jerry Lee meant those words, but listening to this record it sure sounds like he’s determined to take the audience (and the band) all the way to cardiac arrest.

This is Jerry Lee Lewis at the Wigwam, bowing to Hank Williams in his seminary get-up. This is the bullet-holes-in-ceiling-for-grins, mid-’60s Holy Grail. A knockout punch on vinyl.

And I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard this record: It was a party in Stockholm. Green On Red played a sweaty show earlier at The Ritz, and by the wee hours of the morning, we were raising hell somewhere up on the umpteenth floor of an apartment building god-knows-where in the Swedish capital. I was going with a girl named Sissy, and she was pals with Nick from the Nomads. We were all hanging out and drinking a certain kind of white wine that people drink that time of year in that part of the world.

The party was raging. And music was blaring out of a distorted hi-fi. Nick pulled a record out of its sleeve, turned to me, smiled and said, “This has to be the greatest party album of all time.”

He put it on and cranked it up. The night popped open like a pomegranate. I was like, “That ain’t no album; it’s a fucking crime scene!”

I woke up the next morning hung over and determined to find my own copy of record. I eventually found a copy in France. I still have it.

Video after the jump.

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On his 10th studio album, Temple Beautiful (Yep Roc), Chuck Prophet found his muse in the city he’s called home for 30 years. Exploring the local landmarks and myths with friend and poet klipschutz, Prophet winds his way through San Francisco, stretching tales even taller along the way. But this guided tour isn’t a detailed and prefabricated concept album, so much as it’s the product of spontaneous inspiration, and it’s not a document of the city’s past as much as it is of its present. Prophet will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Prophet: Last Christmas, my mother-in-law got me the new Big Star boxed set as a gift. I put it in the CD player in the car and headed over for some holiday partying. I totally spaced out, missed my exit and had to double back under the freeway (twice!), listening to an acoustic demo of “Jesus Christ.” Still geeking out on Alex Clinton and Big Star after all these years.

There are records I get smitten with. And then there are the few I return to again and again; my fingers seem to find them before my brain starts up. I don’t know how many copies of Big Star’s Third I’ve owned. It’s been reissued a bunch of times. I think I bought it each time. But the copy Jim Dickinson gave me is pictured below. More on that in a minute.

This is Alex’s abstract expressionist masterpiece. With Jody Stephens behind the kit, John Fry behind the board and Jim very much in his corner, Sister Lovers never lets me down. They say that by the time it came around, Alex was described as bitter. Hell, I don’t hear it (the bitterness). I hear beauty. The performances are loose. Effortless. Wild and free and off the cuff. But there’s nothing half-assed. It’s a mystery that stays a mystery.

When Alex sings, “I first saw you/You had on blue jeans,” that’s entertainment. Poetry, too. From the heart, from the soul. Compositionally, it’s actually quite sophisticated. And with Alex’s 3-a.m. first takes and the beautiful Carl Marsh strings, it’s really the perfect marriage of the street and the regal.

The story I got was that Ardent (the studio that put up the time and money) pressed up some of these white label LPs to try and get a deal for the record. They even sprang for a tailored suit (and a designer scarf) and sent Jim out to L.A. to play it for some A&R people. One famous response from Jerry Wexler that Jim seemed to take great pride in: “Jim, baby, this music you sent me is making me very uncomfortable.”

While Jim was producing my old band Green On Red, he showed up one day to a session wearing a colorful scarf, and I asked him about the scarf. And he was like, “That’s about all I have to show from Sister Lovers.”

On the acetate below, he wrote in his inimitably crude style with a felt pen: “Big Star Sister Lovers—produced by Jim Dickinson. Eng. John Fry. NOT 4 SALE.”

Much has been written about how ahead of its time Sister Lovers was. And that got me to thinking about one more thing I want to share. A few years ago, Green On Red played on a festival in Spain with Big Star. Alex introduced a new song and said, “This is off the new record. People hate it. The critics say it’s horrible. Don’t worry, in 30 years you’ll love it!”

Alex did his time on earth, but his time has never been up.

Photo after the jump.

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