If the Flatlanders were “more a legend than a band,” Rock City might rightly be described as more a rumor than a legend. Until now, Rock City has been vaguely mentioned as one of the aliases employed by nascent configurations of the Memphis musicians who went on to form the eminently influential (but commercially stillborn) power-pop combo Big Star.
So why should we care about Rock City, or Big Star for that matter? Despite the membership of ex-Box Top Alex Chilton and the doomed, underrated singer-guitarist Chris Bell, Big Star was largely ignored during its three-album career, gaining latter-day fame as Chilton’s notoriety swelled and Big Star became a de rigeur name-check among musicians, critics and cognoscenti.
Almost any musical document affiliated with Big Star has retrospectively drawn attention. While the cynical will suspect that the emergence of Rock City and the release of these long-lost sides signal the scraping of the barrel’s bottom, that isn’t quite the case. Bell and Big Star drummer Jody Stephens made the bulk of these recordings in 1969 and 1970 alongside keyboardist Terry Manning (who has since gone on to a storied career in record production) and bassist Thomas Dean Eubanks. Chilton was then off licking his wounds and attempting a solo career, and Bell was still finding his footing as a songwriter, but one can still detect in Rock City the blueprint for Big Star.
Most directly, the set includes three songs that would eventually surface on Big Star’s 1972 debut, #1 Record. “Try Again” is presented in an exquisite, countrified rendition, and “My Life Is Right” hews close to the Big Star arrangement, save for the enhanced presence of Manning’s piano. “Feel”, the kickoff track on #1 Record, is also presented here in shaky form as a 1969 recording by Icewater, yet another pre-Big Star configuration.
The bulk of Rock City’s songwriting fell to Eubanks. While Big Star fans will find merit in his light-hearted “Think It’s Time To Say Goodbye”, the earnest spiritual themes and melodramatic delivery of “Shine On Me”, “The Preacher” and “The Answer” indicate a road wisely not taken by Big Star.
In Eubanks’ favor, the disc also includes both sides of a solo single he recorded in 1974. “Oh Babe” is a jaunty amalgam of Badfinger and T. Rex with a drolly-delivered lyric (“Say that you are an actress?/Only act you do is on a mattress”), while the punchy “Try A Little Harder” could have comfortably nestled onto #1 Record.
For those not yet indoctrinated in the Big Star cult, Rock City is not the place to start; seek out #1 Record, Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers at once (as well as Chris Bell’s desperately sad and beautiful posthumous solo set I Am The Cosmos). For the scattered flock of Big Star zealots, though, Rock City provides a new testament.
