Andy Hummel's Thunderbird

[Pekka]

The former Big Star bassist Andy Hummel sadly died two days ago. Apparently he was a Thunderbird player also, or at least on Big Star's January 1973 show at Lafayette's Music Room, Mephis, Tennessee. The photo is from the "Keep An Eye On The Sky" boxset.



R.I.P. Andy.

[Basvarken]

Never heard of him

[uwe]

You're forgiven, they are a cult band (and I don't mean that negatively):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Star



Mojo magazine had an article on them a few years back where they were lauded as one of the Great White Hopes of American rock in the dark days of stadium rock that out of sheer misfortune never made it as big as it should have. Heralded as inventors of power pop (and frequently name-checked by people such as Paul Westerberg or Michael Stipe) - that form of music that never really had an audience in Europe where we prefer either pure pop or pure rock. I've seen Cheap Trick flounder twice on German open air rock concerts where they were - squeezed in between the likes of Thunder, Status Quo and Deep Purple - perceived by large parts of the audience as simply odd. People didn't know what to make of them and only "I want you to want me" (never their best song and a banal tune in my ears) elicited any audience reaction. When they played a Beatles number, audience reaction was outright hostile, like "don't you dare do that!".



They are one of the blank spaces in my CD collection, I will now order the box set that came out in 2009.

[Freuds_Cat]

A small irony is that here in Adelaide they are reasonably well known. If for no other reason than a small privately owned chain of CD/LP stores have the same name. This companys stock consists of albums by most of the bands mentioned on this forum (including the band Big Star) rather than the big name/top40 hitster albums carried by the big corporate chain stores.

Sad to hear of his death.

[Highlander]

Yep, heard of them over here, too... RIP

[Dave W]

Never saw Big Star but I was fortunate enough to see Alex solo about 15 years ago.

[uwe]

I heard the first two CDs of the four CD box this morning, never having heard anything of them before.

The music is good to very good, but did anybody whisper "Beatles - circa White Album!"?  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9KFn4FS8CY&feature=related

The influence on REM is also obvious, but at a time when bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Foghat, Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd ruled supreme, I am not surprised that this type of sophisticated pop rock didn't stand a chance. As Gene Simmons once said "200 million Americans want to be hit over the head and no pussyfootin' - that is what we do."

Not exactly foot stompin' music, but then not everything has to be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZj1uElADZw&feature=related

For the avoidance of doubt: I like Grand Funk and - now that I know them - Big Star.