Big Star -- "Back of a Car"
You can tell just how big a star Alex Chilton wants to be when you listen to this song. This is well before he must have just said to hell with it: after Big Star, he seems to be more content with off-beat obscurity. But on this track, he and the rest of the band are shooting for a kind of jangle-pop power that still has a lot of muscle to it, and a lot of ambition. It's the most archetypal of rock and roll narratives: loud music, fast driving, something about love. Guitar, bass, drum, and harmony. In an alternate universe, one that is much more sane and tasteful than our own, Big Star's also-ran shot at rock music glory must have won out, and the shape of popular music was forever changed.
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