Badfinger and Big Star: Brothers from Different Countries [View all]

[Taverner]

Since the final ep of Breaking Bad featured, perfectly, the 70's band Badfinger's "Baby Blue," many have been revisiting this band. In keeping with this, I thought I'd share about them, and their "brother band," Big Star, who around the same time was also creating melancholy melody-driven rock with inspiration from the Beatles.

Both bands were trying for the "Beatles sound," which is a hard thing to nail down, but you "know it when you hear it." But it wasn't the post-Sgt Pepper sound they were after, but the Revolver sound for Badfinger, and Rubber Soul for Big Star.

Big Star was a Southern band made up of Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. They incorporated a lot of 12-string guitar into their material. If you've never heard of them, that's OK. You might recognize the song "In The Street" from 'That 70s Show' - albeit sung by Cheap Trick, another band inspired by the Beatles.

If you listen to any of their albums, you get that same melancholy vibe that Badfinger has. It is even more pronounced on Third/Sister Lovers, their final album. Their music got rave reviews, but never caught on until well after they disbanded. Sadly, there will be no reunion because Alex Chilton, the mastermind behind Big Star, died of a heart attack in 2008. He had no health insurance ( ) and felt chest pains. He blew them off and died the next day.

Badfinger was no stranger to tragedy - their music was caught up in legal battles and the once promising band, handpicked by Macca himself, fell into obscurity. Pete Ham committed suicide in 1975. Bandmate Tom Evens committed suicide in 1983.

So here's a few songs from these haunting bands.

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