My Top 1000 Songs #921: Big Black Car

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Big Star's swan-song, Big Star's Third (a.k.a. Sister Lovers, completed in 1975 but not released until 1978) saw the early promise of the band--at this point largely just Alex Chilton, suffering sheer emotional collapse in the studio--reaching complete flame-out. And "Big Black Car" makes for a poetic bookend. If "In The Street" (from 1972's perfect #1 Record) saw the original quartet jubilantly cruising around town in stolen car, youthful abandon optimistically awaiting the world's embrace, this slow, somber dirge finds the car little more than the final shield against a crushing world outside.

It's agonizing and funereal, Chilton's plea--"Nothing can hurt me, nothing can touch me"--somewhat unconvincing. The damage has already been done. It would all be unbearably harrowing if the song weren't just stunning beautiful.

Live 1994:

Cover by Alluring Strange:

Dum Dum Boys cover: