One of Stax's original acts, Rufus Thomas ("Bear Cat," "Walkin' The Dog") was knocking down some really inventive funk stuff at the same time BS was performing their epic jackaround with "Third/Sister Lovers." But, on the whole, the great days had passed the label by.

What were they thinking? Perhaps that in Big Star, they had another Raspberries on their hands and that anything by Alex Chilton would sell itself. Certainly Stax's vaunted global distribution did little for the band. My private theory is that Stax thought nothing at all (default mode for any label) and Big Star music was simply too advanced for early 70s radio.

agreed and double ditto with all points made here.... i'm sure in my hurry to get back to my desk after lunch i was a bit too shorthanded and glib...

i can't really argue with what you've said here, though

i guess what i meant by his Box Tops days being"well behind him" was not that it didn't help him get signed by Stax, certainly they knew who he was, it HAD to help....

nonethless, he was washing dishes for a living at that point, and his charttoppers with the Box Tops wouldn't have helped him much in terms of the record buying public or even getting radio play necessarily

as to "never played this or that song without making a sale" there is only one other artist i had this experience with when working at a record store... and really it's a variation on the theme

it was elliott smith, when someone who hadn't heard him asked about an album, was hesitant about whether to buy it or not, i'd always say, "buy it, take it home, listen to it 5 times, if you don't absolutely love it, bring it back and I'll refund your money"

Not ONE of those albums ever got returned!

Since you brought it up, i gotta say, "the letter" is an absolutely devastating track...all like 1:59 of it...the last ten seconds are worth the price of admission alone.

hmmm....interesting. i only know of them because I love the Left banke...