Jody Stephens Looks Back On Big Star, Celebrates Legacy Of Ardent As Craft Recordings Preps Reissue Of #1 Record And Radio City Albums

Big Star’s story is one often defined by irony.   

Over the course of its first two albums in 1972 and ‘74, the group became critical darlings… but label distribution issues largely kept the acclaimed albums from reaching store shelves, rendering #1 Record anything but and Radio City less than an FM staple.

But a funny thing happened in the decades since, as artists like R.E.M., The Replacements, Evan Dando and The Posies began citing Big Star as an influence, lending the group a cult following long after its 1975 breakup.

“Maybe it was Robyn Hitchcock that said, ‘Knowing about Big Star was like the secret handshake,’” said original drummer and lone surviving Big Star member Jody Stephens, referencing the group’s legacy as a favorite amongst musicians and music aficionados, one similar to that of the Velvet Underground. “When the internet hit, obviously you can share things faster. So it certainly makes it easier to spread.”

While many musicians lament changes to the music industry following the rise of the internet, Big Star is one band that might be able to claim it as a positive. Label issues may have kept the group’s music out of fans’ hands initially but, today, all of it’s readily available online, easier to find than ever before.

On January 24, 2020, Craft Recordings (Concord Music) will reissue the first two Big Star albums. The songs, originally recorded in Memphis at Ardent Studios, feature all-analog mastering by Jeff Powell at Memphis’s Take Out Vinyl and were cut to 180 gram vinyl locally at Memphis Record Pressing. 

It was a carefully curated process and, to Stephens, these songs sound about as good as they ever have.

“I went over to Jeff Powell’s room where he’s cutting them and he played me some tracks off of them and they sound awesome. You can tell that it’s a labor of love for him because of the care and time he put into it,” said the drummer. “And having them pressed here in Memphis is a plus too. Because I know those guys over at Memphis Pressing Plant.”

Big Star fans can be a picky crowd. And, for Stephens, the level of care and attention that went into these reissues, and the presence of familiar faces, has been reassuring. 

“I’m grateful Concord is taking the time and the care for this - as people tend to do with Big Star things. They take a lot of care with them. And it takes the possibly worrisome aspect out of it,” he said. “It’s important that these things are presented in the proper way visually but certainly it’s more important sonically. I love the fact that Jeff was doing it. Because it was personal for him - much like it was personal for John Fry when he cut the original masters. It’s John Fry’s legacy for me.”

John Fry founded Ardent Studios in his family’s garage. He moved the operation to a larger facility in 1966 and again five years later to the Memphis location on Madison Avenue that still exists today.

Fry, who passed away in 2014, was at the helm of the first three Big Star albums and Stephens learned the craft of engineering from him, enrolling in one of his engineering courses at Ardent circa 1970, working closely with him later during the Big Star sessions. 

Today, Stephens - pausing during our conversation to answer calls on the studio’s landline - is in his thirty-third year as Studio Manager at Ardent. His relationship with the studio and Fry now encompasses fifty years and carrying forth Fry’s legacy at Ardent is just as important to him as waving the flag for Big Star.

“John started Ardent when he was 14 at his parents’ house. Then he rented a space six years later when he was 20 on National Street - and that’s where Terry Manning mixed Led Zeppelin III and Isaac Hayes tracked Hot Buttered Soul. Then Stax Records was growing so John thought he could use two studios. So he built where we are from scratch,” Stephens recalled of Ardent’s history. “So I’m still walking these halls. And it’s always a tribute to John. John Fry was the father of my professional life. So it’s that important to carry it on in the light and with the grace that John would have done.” 

As is evident in their music, all of the members of Big Star were influenced greatly by the British Invasion and the sounds of artists like The Beatles, Kinks and Rolling Stones. But Memphis soul hit home too.

Satellite Records became Stax in 1961 and would go on to put artists like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave and Booker T. & the M.G.’s in the national spotlight. Stephens and his brother Jimmy formed bands covering both the U.K. exports and local soul.

“The Beatles hit us hard and kind of took us off guard and then soul music was a little more primal but hit us hard as well, especially lyrically and melodically in the way that those guys delivered the lines,” Stephens said of a lyrical influence that would come out later in Big Star’s music. “There’s a little intro to [Otis Redding’s] ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ that Al Jackson does. And at some point in the intro, his snare hits go to quarter notes and it just picks up the pace and sets the tone. He could go from half notes to quarter notes. In the beginning of ‘My Life is Right,’ that’s what I do,” continued the drummer, noting the #1 Record cut. “I got that from Al Jackson, the drummer for Booker T. & The M.G.’s. And I’m sure there’s lots of other things we all derived from them. How could you not be influenced?”

By 1972, co-founding guitarist Chris Bell was largely out of the picture as work on the group’s second album Radio City began.

While singer and guitarist Alex Chilton took on a bigger role following Bell’s departure, writing and recording as a 3-piece group emphasized each member’s role in the band, resulting in Stephenson’s first Big Star writing credit on the song “Daisy Glaze.”

“I think it was more in working out the band track of that then really anything else. I think we just sat down and Alex had one approach to it. Then the three of us got together and started playing through it a few times and I think it just evolved a little more. Alex was always generous about giving credit where it was due,” said Stephens of working with Chilton and bassist Andy Hummel on the track. “I was really excited about Radio City. Because, sonically, it came at you a bit differently. And certainly the three of us had a bit more - certainly Alex always had a spotlight on him singing lead and his guitar leads and stuff - but just being a 3-piece band, our individual roles became a little more important. So that was cool.”

As difficult as Big Star’s road seemed over the course of the first two albums, making the next one would prove even tougher. Hummel left the group following Radio City, leaving Chilton and Stephens to work on the group’s third album. 

Questions arose regarding Chilton’s mental state and an album that actually made it as far as test pressings eventually wound up shelved. While the experimental Third went onto further critical acclaim when it was finally released in 1978, the band had already broken up. Bell died in a car accident several months later. 

Despite everything surrounding the third Big Star album, at a time when the band was largely falling apart, Stephens still approached the final record of the group’s first era in characteristically optimistic fashion.

“I still thought Alex was brilliant. And when I would hear songs like ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Nighttime’ and the beauty of those? I was excited about getting into the third album!” Stephens said. “I didn’t understand a lot of things that were going on. Because, you know, I wasn’t Alex. It was hard to put myself in his shoes and what was going on. There were dark things about that time. But there were certainly moments of beauty and just fascinating creativity on his part.”

Today, Stephens continues to perform in tribute to his former band as part of Big Star’s Third Live, alongside Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Chris Stamey (the dB’s) and producer Mitch Easter. He also writes, records and performs with Luther Russell as Those Pretty Wrongs. 

“Luther’s a massively talented guy. So he makes it easy. My contribution is primarily lyrics and melody lines,” said Stephens of the collaboration with Russell, which has now resulted in two Those Pretty Wrongs albums. “This is how we communicated initially: I would call his phone and he wouldn’t answer it. So it would go to voicemail and I would just sing the song. And then he would put music to it. And that’s how it started evolving. We just started throwing out ideas,” he continued, noting the duo’s process on Zed For Zulu, the latest Those Pretty Wrongs album (one on which two of Chris Bell’s guitars were used). 

As Those Pretty Wrongs gear up for a run of June dates on the west coast alongside The Jayhawks, Stephens is thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the legacies of both Big Star and John Fry.

“Just listening to Alex and Chris deliver vocal lines and how their voices connect. The guitar lines that come out of those guys - #1 Record and then Alex and Radio City. And then Andy and those basslines and his keyboard playing - just how talented those guys are. That’s the magic I always expect to hear,” said Stephens of the new reissues, looking back. “Believe me, before there was any sort of fan base for Big Star, and we would walk out of the studio and those sessions, I’d be a happy guy - just from being part of those sessions and the creative process. All of that is important in my life because of what it allows me to do and the joy I get from it.”

*** The first two Big Star albums will be reissued on 180 gram vinyl on January 24, 2020 via Craft Recordings. To pre-order #1 Record, click HERE. To pre-order Radio City, click HERE.

*** To stream or purchase the latest Those Pretty Wrongs album Zed For Zulu on cassette or digital album, click HERE.