Track of the Week: Big Star: September Gurls (1974)

That Big Star weren't huge is perhaps one of pop music's greatest injustices. Hampered by poor distribution, record company squabbling and the fact that Alex Chilton is probably a bit nuts, their music never reached the audience it should have. 'September Gurls' is a perfect example of what made the band so brilliant. Normally, the musical label 'power pop', the fact that the record came out in the early seventies and an inability to spell simple words might send you understandably running for the hills, but it shouldn't do in this case. Like most of their songs, the influences are plain to see: Beatles-esque melody, the chiming folk-rock of the Byrds, the muscular drive of the Who. But Big Star were always more than the sum of their influences. Songwriters Alex Chilton and Chris Bell had an excellent ear for stunning melodies. Chris Bell had, to all intents and purposes, been kicked out of the band by 1974, causing the band's slow and painful collapse. You can hear the signs of desperation taking hold in the slightly frenzied edge that the band had developed by this stage: despite its sugar-sweet melody, 'September Gurls' is raw and rough, sounding like it is only barely holding itself together, and Chilton sings as if his life depends on it, betraying the loss and bitterness at the heart of the song. The lyrics are touchingly simple, without an ounce of excess - lines like 'I loved you, well, never mind' don't really need explaining. A gorgeous, frayed solo follows, the band providing a powerful and competent backing to Chilton's slightly unhinged playing. Right down to the drum break, nothing feels out of place or excessive, a rare asset in that era. Perhaps it was just too good to last. Without Chris Bell, Chilton became increasingly frustrated at exploitative record companies and the band's general lack of success, going on to create Big Star's brilliantly deranged but utterly uncommercial third album as his band and career fell apart around him. And that was that. Although Big Star were finished, their influence grew in their absence. American acts such as R.E.M. drew on their marriage of inventive folk melodicism and rock power, and Teenage Fanclub based their entire career on rewriting 'September Gurls', not to mention the hoards of 80s indie bands in thrall to Big Star's charms. Like the Velvets, Big Star's influence far outweighs their actual record sales. But their real legacy lies in their music - three albums worth of inventive melodic pop music that ranks up there with the best of the genre.