Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me Page #3

a very different person.

I remember we were

in the living room

of his mother's house

and he had on the wall

a framed gold record

for "Cry Like a Baby"

and the label had peeled off

of the 45 records

and was laying down

in the corner

of the frame like a dead bug.

Alex really liked that.

Chris and I came back

to Memphis

and we both had our fill

of going away to college,

no car, having to live

in a dorm room,

we can't play music,

no place to develop

your pictures.

You know, it was

really a drag.

So Chris and I started

working on Chris' back house.

We got what musical equipment

we had and moved it back there

and started playing

a little bit.

So we said, "Well,

we need a drummer. "

I said, "Oh, well, I know

this guy, Jody Stephens,

who I played with back

in the 9th grade. "

When I was a teenager,

I felt like an oddball.

Music was something

that made me feel

like part of a community.

Chris and Alex and Andy

and John Fry,

it's a society of oddballs.

And Alex had already

made enough money

that his parents had put

in some kind of a trust fund

and he went and bought

his own car

and drove it around

and he was kind

of surviving off

being or having been

a professional musician

which was a big mystery to me.

How can anybody do that?

Surely you don't

make money doing this.

We're just doing this

'cause it's cool, you know.

Alex's life was

so far off the chart,

no real pun intended,

while Chris was

having to clean out

the pool on Saturdays.

And I think he felt like

such a victim

because his father made him

clean out the pool.

We would stand out in front

of the old building

of our National.

Well, what do you want

to do now?

Well, you know...

Chris would say

get Alex in the band.

Chris was very...

I think he knew

what he wanted in terms

of band members

and he had this

pretty specific idea

about what this band

would sound like musically

and how all these pieces

would fit together.

Should I use this mic?

Mm-hmm.

I still don't hear

myself through the phones.

How about now?

Uh, yeah. Wah.

And which way should I be

standing in relation

to this mic?

In front of it.

We had sort of weaseled

our way into Ardent a little bit

and we actually were allowed

to go into the studio

late at night,

starting to put down,

no kidding, real tracks.

I even think we got

our very own private

full-blown reel of tape.

We'd just been using

scraps up till then.

Want to put on

some back-up

before it's late.

So we don't have

to do it at the end.

Got a light?

They're over there.

The bands I'd been in

prior to Big Star

didn't have access

to a studio

in that very beneficial time

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes