Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me Page #2

And, where is Alex, you know?

# Give me a ticket

for an aeroplane #

# Ain't got time

to take a fast train #

He says he was 15.

I think he was 14.

The second time

he ever sang in a microphone,

he recorded "The Letter"

and as they say, you know,

the rest was history.

STAX had been

re-equipping their studio

which before 1966 had

had very primitive equipment

and we happened to buy

our mixing console

and our first

multi-track recorder

from the same company.

So almost immediately

we started to get

all of the overflow work

from STAX.

So instead of recording

high school bands,

we were recording

Booker T and the MGs

and Isaac Hayes sessions.

It was a little daunting.

You know, if you wanted more

staff or more engineers,

you had to train them yourself.

I actually set up sort of

a little recording school

at the studio

and when I walked

into my office,

there was somebody

sitting behind my desk

in my chair with their

boots up on my desk,

smoking a cigarette.

And I said,

"Who the heck is this?"

Chris and I were at MUS,

the best boys' private school

in Memphis.

What they wore

and the music they were into,

he very much

rebelled against it.

And I kind of

picked up on that.

We were interested in

how to get the textures

and the fuzz-tones

and how to sound like

Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page.

You know what, if somebody went

through the recording school

and we thought they were doing

some pretty good music,

we'd give them

the key to the studio

and say when it's not

being used

you can come in

and record your ideas.

Chris was not so much

an electronics guy,

he was a sonics guy.

"How do we get this

piece of equipment

to get this sound

that I've got locked

into my head?"

Jimmy Hendrix had happened

and the Yardbirds

were happening

and I remember

when Chris and those guys

played in the school cafeteria,

I was, like, wow!

I mean, here's

some of these guys

that are really actually out

trying to do this stuff. "

Chris and I just

really hit it off

because we were interested

in these same things.

We were pretty

inseparable in those days,

you know, because we actually

lived with each other

in college.

I was sort of an audiophile

and I had stereo equipment

that was better than

most people had.

So a lot of times people

would wind up in my room.

A really curious thing,

Chris always had a full-body,

purple aura every time

he would do an acid.

We all would say,

"Whoa, what is this all about?"

You know?

Andy and Chris

had sort of convinced people

that they were expert

drug tasters or whatever.

I think, you know, they were

pretty high most of the time.

He came back

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