| "O My Soul" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Big Star | ||||
| from the album Radio City | ||||
| B-side | "Morpha Too"/"I'm in Love with a Girl" | |||
| Released | 1974 | |||
| Recorded | 1973 | |||
| Genre | Power pop | |||
| Length | 2:47(single version) 5:40 (album version) | |||
| Label | Ardent | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Alex Chilton | |||
| Producer(s) | John Fry and Big Star | |||
| Big Star singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"O My Soul" is a song credited to Alex Chilton that was first released by Big Star on their 1974 album Radio City . Chris Bell contributed to the lyrics. The song was also released as a single.
"O My Soul" was one of the earliest songs written for Radio City. It was a song that Chilton and Bell worked on before Bell left the band. At the time, Chilton and Bell split up the songs that they had worked on together, and "O My Soul" was one of the songs that was assigned to Chilton. According to Chilton, Bell contributed to the lyrics but Chilton wrote all the music. After the song was released Bell asked to have his name added to the credits but the request was denied. [1] [2]
Chilton originally recorded "O My Soul" without Big Star, with Richard Rosebrough playing drums and Danny Jones playing bass guitar. [2] Big Star recorded two versions. [1] [2] The released version has Chilton playing both guitar and Mellotron. [1] [2] Big Star bassist Andy Hummel recalled that his bass parts were overdubbed. [1] Hummel also recalled that Jody Stephens was trying to get an unusual drum sound, saying "Jody's playing lots of sort of broken rolls and stuff, almost like an eclectic drum solo throughout the song or something." [1]
"O My Soul" is longer than any other song at over five minutes long whereas most Big Star songs are about 3 minutes or less. [1] It also has an unusual structure. It starts with an instrumental version of an entire verse before the vocal enters 45 seconds in. [1] Hummel recalled trying to make the song sound different than the traditional Big Star song, and that they made it sound more "sparse" than previous Big Star songs. [1] [2] Hummel said that it "starts off like it's going to be a traditional Big Star rock song, but then Alex started adding other parts different than the original line." [1] [2]
Bruce Eaton described the song as sounding like "the perfect set-opener for a killer live band", saying that "With its persistent stutter-stop skewed-soul guitar riff, garage rock Mellotron, explosive off-kilter drum fills, country-flavored guitar solo, and driving bass line, it serves loud notice that Radio City is not paint-by-numbers power pop." [1]
AllMusic critic Mark Deming called "O My Soul" "a gloriously messy hodgepodge of slashed-out R&B rhythms, psychedelic chord twists, and smart pop melodicism" with a melody that "swerves all over the place. [3] He also considered it "one of the most exciting (and most curiously funky)" of Big Star's songs. [3] Deming also commented on Chilton having "fun with the lyrics", particularly highlighting the line "I can't get a license/To drive in my car/But I won't really need one/If I'm a big star." [3] Music journalist John M. Borack described the song as "strange but hooky" and praised Chilton's guitar playing. [4] Rolling Stone critic Ken Barnes described the song as "a foreboding, sprawling funk affair." [5] The Sun critic Daniel Cotter described it as an "irresistible cut." [6] The Commercial Appeal critic Walter Dawson considered it one of the "better cuts" on the album and particularly praised Jody Stephens' drumming. [7] The Sacramento Bee critic Gene Sculatti said that it "reminds of Rick Derringer for its gritty funk." [8]
Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). The group broke up in late 1974, and reorganized with a new lineup 18 years later following a reunion concert at the University of Missouri. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Byrds. Big Star produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before they broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations", in the words of Rolling Stone, as the "quintessential American power pop band", and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". Three of Big Star's studio albums are included in Rolling Stone's list of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time.
Radio City is the second studio album by the American rock group Big Star. Released February 20, 1974, Radio City was recorded during 1973 at Memphis' Ardent Studios. Though not a commercial success at the time, it is now recognized as a milestone album in the history of power pop music. Critically acclaimed upon its release, the record sold poorly, partly due to a lack of promotion and the distribution problems of the band's struggling record label, Ardent Records. The album included "September Gurls" and "Back of a Car", which remain among the most famous Big Star songs; both the Searchers and the Bangles have covered "September Gurls".
Third is the third album by American rock band Big Star. The sessions started at Ardent Studios in September 1974. Though Ardent created promotional, white-label test pressings for the record in 1975, a combination of financial issues, the uncommercial sound of the record, and lack of interest from singer Alex Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens in continuing the project prevented the album from ever being properly finished or released at the time of its recording. It was eventually released in 1978 by PVC Records.
Christopher Branford Bell was an American musician and singer-songwriter. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star through its first album #1 Record (1972). He also pursued a solo career throughout the mid-1970s, resulting in the posthumous I Am the Cosmos LP.
#1 Record is the debut album by the American rock band Big Star. It was released on April 24, 1972, by Memphis-based Ardent Records.
Starting Over is the fourth and final studio album by the 1970s power pop band Raspberries. It peaked at #143 on the Billboard pop album chart in 1974. Rolling Stone named it its rock record album of the year for 1974. The LP generated the #18 Billboard pop single "Overnight Sensation ", while a second single, "Cruisin' Music", did not chart. This was the first album by the Raspberries to feature songs with profanity. Those songs were "Starting Over", which featured the word "fucking" once, and the song "Party’s Over", which featured the word "shit" twice.
"September Gurls" is a song written by Alex Chilton that was first released by Big Star on their second studio album Radio City in 1974. "September Gurls" was also released as a single.
Live, is a live album by American power pop group Big Star recorded in 1974 direct to two-track at Ultrasonic Studios, New York for WLIR and released in 1992.
Jody Stephens is an American drummer, who has played in Big Star and Golden Smog. After the deaths of Chris Bell in 1978, and both Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel in 2010, Stephens is the last surviving original member of Big Star.
John Andrew Hummel was an American bassist and singer-songwriter best known as the bass player of Big Star.
In Space is the fourth and final studio album by American rock group Big Star, released in 2005. It was the first new Big Star studio album since Third/Sister Lovers, recorded in 1974 and released in 1978.
Columbia: Live at Missouri University 4/25/93 is a reunion live album by the American power pop group Big Star, recorded and released in 1993 by the original Big Star members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens together with The Posies' members Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow. It was recorded at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.
Alex Chilton was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was never repeated in later years with Big Star and in his subsequent indie music solo career on small labels, but he drew an intense following among indie and alternative rock musicians. He is frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands, some of whose testimonials appeared in the 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.
"I Wanna Be with You" is a hit single by Raspberries, released in November 1972. It was written by band leader Eric Carmen, who also provided the lead vocals. It was their first single release from their second LP, Fresh. It became their second greatest US hit.
"Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" is a hit single by Raspberries, released in September 1974, on the Capitol label. It was written by band leader Eric Carmen, who also provided the lead vocals. It was the first single release from their fourth and final LP, Starting Over.
Third is the second studio album by Cait Brennan, released by Omnivore on April 21, 2017. The follow-up to 2016's critically lauded Debutante, Third was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, in the same studio and using many of the same instruments Big Star used during its Ardent heyday in the early 1970s.
"Whenever You're on My Mind" is a 1983 song by American rock musician Marshall Crenshaw. The song was released on his 1983 album Field Day. The song, notable for its booming production, originally was written during the making of Crenshaw's debut album but was saved for his second album release. Crenshaw felt the song was his best to date, and the song was released as Field Day's first single.
All Souls Hill is a 2022 studio album by British folk rock group The Waterboys, released by Cooking Vinyl. It has received positive reviews from critics.
"Back of a Car" is a song credited to Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel that was first released by Big Star on their 1974 album Radio City. According to Hummel, Chris Bell contributed to writing the song as well.
"I'm in Love with a Girl" is a song written by Alex Chilton that was first released by Big Star as the last song on their 1974 album Radio City. It was also released along with another short song, "Morpho Too", as the B-side of the lead single from Radio City, "O My Soul".