like flies on sherbert - classic or dud?

I just don't get why it isn't talked about much, much more often/broadly. People act as though 'Third' were the great last hurrah; it is the sound of a man falling apart. 'Like Flies' is the sound of that same man having lived through oblivion to the point where he *is* oblivion, and can almost perversely enjoy it.

The fact that he went on to create fairly neutered and safe bar rock. . . sad.

Ned--can't you do something about that piece of shit, if it's *not* a joke? And if it is--it's probably leading a lot of people astray. Hell, even I could write something better.

On the strength of his Big Star releases from the early 1970s and a host of live performances he gave during the latter half of the 1970s, Alex Chilton had rightly become a rock connoisseur's darling and an inspiration to independent-label bands throughout the United States. Despite all this favorable attention, he would not return to the studio until 1980. Sadly, this release is a dreadful disappointment. Production values are among the worst this reviewer has ever heard: sound quality is terrible, instrumental balances are careless and haphazard, and some selections even begin with recording start-up sound. Chilton's false-start vocal on "Boogie Shoes" is simply left in without correction. Many of the songs here stop dead or fall apart rather than ending properly. Instrumental playing is universally slipshod and boorish, and vocals are sloppy and lackluster. A cover of the Lonnie Mack hit "I've Had It" contains vocals that, without exaggeration, sound like a group of tavern inebriates trying to sing. An attempt to burlesque Elvis Presley's vocal excesses in "Girl after Girl" misfires badly. A few of Chilton's songs here, such as "My Rival" and "Hook or Crook," aren't bad in their own right and would have been listenable had they been performed and produced better. Regrettably, this album cannot be recomended under any circumstances.

I mean, seriously--what the fuck? Does this person even *like* music?

I've never understood why people otherwise into "psychobilly" and all that, or blues for that matter, don't like this record. I've had it since the day it came out, and I've never quit listening to it. Nothing else sounds like it, and no one has ever played quite like those guys did. It's kind of like Dickinson's "Dixie Fried" with a certain glamour--dead glamour...

wow this record

maybe even better is the chilton/vega/vaughn collaboration "cubist blues" from about ten years ago. a jam which turned into a record or something like that. night time garage music, relaxed & visceral at the same time.

wtf are some of the sounds on this record?! bizarro-synth on the title track. I am loving this, took me forever to finally find a copy.

maybe even better is the chilton/vega/vaughn collaboration "cubist blues" from about ten years ago

Better than "Like Flies On Sherbert"???!?!

I only have to hear so much as one nanosecond of "I've Had It" and it's stuck in my head for the rest of the day

Not really, but sure its good.
First track alone is an absolutely essential Suicide/Cramps rockabilly stomp with the dodgiest drum machine ever.

"Like Flies" is a masterpiece, though: "I've had it", "Hook or Crook", "My rival" and especially "Hey little child" are all classic Chilton.

i love love love this record. Bach's Bottom is totally awesome, too.

It should be listened back to back with Tav Falco's Behind the Magnolia Curtain - same casts of misfits (Chilton, Dickinson etc).

"my rival, I'm gonna stab him on arrival"

lolz

cast, maybe.

wow this Beale Street Green bootleg is also amazing (thx retroactively gygax!)

what I find great about it (and what I would guess a lot of people here like about it) is that, unlike many other records, it seems honest. It's a totally authentic snapshot where stuff isn't re-recorded hundreds of times to get it just perfect. All the errors and fuckups are left there intact. It's like listening to a boombox recording of the band rehearsing. You don't hear something like that very often, especially when it's artists you actually like.

there's that thing, maybe in the sister lovers line up notes, about how no-one had ever abused their talent so recklessly etc etc etc, and how alex's voice 'never broke at just the right places', or never perfectly took the form of the take. it's so nicely sloppy, a sweet thing that you hear in panther burns stuff of the same period or archival cramps recordings

man, i don't know, i think saying that "no one had ever abused his talent so recklessly" is like an INSANELY lame thing for a writer to say

condescending, to be sure

of course - i think it's something some disgruntled rod stewart fan said once that the writer coopts to depict a position. obviously sister lovers is great, but i think alex's career path out of 'the letter' and two tidy pop records could be seen as crazy - not capitalising on opportunities and singing kanga-roo.

lolz that Rod Stewart line is from Greil Marcus, right...? Googling "Rod Stewart squandered talent" shows just how far that meme has travelled - sheesh.

OH ROD STEWART WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN YOUR TALENT :'(

Parts of it remind me a bit of early Royal Trux (who I like, so that's not a bad thing). Esp. "Take Me Home..."