The Ballad Of El Goodo by Big Star

2026-05-06T09:10:51Z

Went to see The Big Star Quintet this week, and what a lovely experience it was. First of all, Big Star drummer Jody Stephens was one of five, and I had never appreciated how great he is on all of those Big Star songs. I love drummers, and Jody is my favourite type, drumming to the songwriting, like Ringo or Pete Thomas. The rest of the band was Mike Mills (from REM), Jon Auer (Posies), Chris Stamey (the dB’s), and Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), and they did the catalogue justice. Funnily I saw the reformed version of Big Star in Dublin in 2001, and the line up was Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. Was The Big Star Quintet better? Yeah, probably. I recall at the 2001 gig they closed with a cover of Todd Rundgren's Slut, which seemed odd, to say the least. Last week, the quintet closed with September Gurls, which is really how it should be.