Comments on: The Over/Under: Big Star

By: Christain

Christain — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:54:35 +0000

I’m all for a little rock crit every now and then, but Magnet, drop the snark and stop trying so hard to tweak your readers. Get on with it.

By: Trey S.

Trey S. — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:39:50 +0000

I’ll have to agree with the poster above me especially after hearing the Holocaust demo on the new box set. It is a revelation. Who hired this guy?

By: GIANTPANDAPETER-HOLE

GIANTPANDAPETER-HOLE — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:52:49 +0000

WTF!?!
You’re telling me the fuckin’ sillyassed, dork-orch, “chump”-ber-pop of “India (duh!!) Song” and the *WAY* overly earnest “Way Out West” didn’t make the overrated squad, yet . . . “Holocaust” did?!!

Fucking “Holocaust” ? ? ?

Only after your stuck-up, live-in cunt evaporates and yer Magnet dreams have been all but flushed down a lowly shittier, to a spot where they’d no-doubt thrive in numbers, will you grasp something akin to the oxygen-purging, powerless, desperation that Chilton once expressed, that you so thoughtlessly deemed, for the sake of Rock-Crit posturing, as fucking “navel-gazing” for fucking hipsters. Go rub one out on yer Klausterman-archives, you Pitchfork-lite pussy.

Fuck you, sincerely.

By: Ex Norwegian Roger

Ex Norwegian Roger — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:30:18 +0000

I agree with the list! Will play “Lady Sweet” “O, Dana” and “Life Is White” over the so-called overrated tracks…but the bottom line is everything is great!

By: Scott Strong

Scott Strong — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:11:57 +0000

O.K. so I exggerate. I mean(t) catchiness minus the schmaltz factor, as in, say Fountains Of Wayne or Big Star. I just don’t see how one can extol the virtues of Morpha Too and denigrate September Gurls. To me it would be like praising Polythene Pam while slamming Strawberry Fields Forever. I would never deny that people who post comments on sites like this tend to have a screw loose. it is, after all, only pop music…..

By: Doug Van Gundy

Doug Van Gundy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:15:22 +0000

Lord have mercy! Such venom over that rarest breed of rock writing: actual criticism involving actual critical thought. Agree or disagree, Mr. Wagonner’s comments are reasoned, supported, and presented in an entertaining and informative fashion. However, the fact that 25% of the respondents before me have wished DEATH upon Mr. Wagonner for his opinions suggests that critical thinking might not be valued in this day and age, which likely accounts for the popularity of Sarah Palin. It’s just music, people–music that was released 30-some years ago, if you love it, who cares what anyone else thinks? If you don’t like the opinions expressed in Magnet, read another magazine/website/blog. Or better still, start your own.

For the record, I love Big Star, but even I cringe when I hear “The India Song”. Dated and cheesy. Where’s that fall on your list, Mr. Waggoner?

By: Cheap Star

Cheap Star — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:33:24 +0000

There are some dumb things written here….but putting Jon Auer “lady sweet” on the top 5 underrated songs makes my day…

My band, Cheap Star (well, done with 2 Big Star member, a thing I’m proud of!)will try to carry the torch as long as we can!

Remi

By: Eric Waggoner

Eric Waggoner — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:51:10 +0000

Geno: Endless thanks for your cogent riposte (with words all spelled out completely and punctuation right where it’s supposed to be and everything). If we ever run into each other down the pub, _I_ owe _you_ the pint, and we can back-slap and happily agree and disagree into the wee hours, just like reasonable folks.

Tim: You mean “ersatz,” not “erstwhile.” You called it, however: I _am_ utterly tone deaf. It makes my boisterous yowling along with the radio a harrowing ordeal for my passenger-side, let me tell you.

Firing squad, indeed. Hrmph.

By: Geno Tortellino

Geno Tortellino — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:43:46 +0000

Man, what’s with everybody getting their balls in a bunch over a little Big Star? I’m just stoked to see someone bringing this band back into focus again (soon-to-be-released box set or not) and reminding me that I don’t listen to my Big Star albums often enough – kinda like when I first tracked down everything I could by these guys after Rykodisc reissued the “Third/Sister Lovers” and “Live” discs back in the early ’90s. Even if there’s only a handful of kids out there who read this and discover this band who otherwise never would have, then I say job well done on this column – and an important one at that. And why such vitriol for Mr. Waggoner? If you ran into some anonymous joker down the pub and you found out that he loved Big Star, but then you realized after a while that you and he had some different ideas about what their best and worst songs were, would you tell him to fuck off or go drive his car into a tree? Nah. You’d be thrilled you could talk about Big Star with some asshole in a bar and slap him on the back and buy him a pint or two.
And since when does being knowledgeable about music and music references make you some kind of wannabe hipster? Because a hipster often doesn’t really know that much about the rock history but wants you to think they do. By and large, the Magnet writers, based on a dozen or so years of this subscriber’s observation, have always come across as quite “un-hipstery” – probably just like a lot of their readers who are all about the rock and roll and couldn’t give fuck-all about what will make you seem cool or some ridiculous hipster cred.
Oh yeah: To the guy who believes that catchiness should be a criterion for a good pop song: We’ll just wait here while you defend the virtues of the respective song catalogs of Paul Anka, Frankie Valli, and Neil Sedaka. And…….go.

By: spaced

spaced — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:29:56 +0000

Ok, so In The Street is overrated because it was covered for a stupid TV show and was built on “a straightforward riff and uncomplicated lyrics” including a line about (the most mundane of 70s pop lyric subjects) sharing a joint; Kangaroo because of the arrangement/recording process combined with lack of recognition for the producer; September Gurls because of an astrology tie-in; and Holocaust because it gives you an excuse to out-hipster those annoying hipsters by referencing a more obscure song by Yoko Ono.

Thanks for clearing that up.