Big Star Releases First Ever Lyric Video

A 1972 Classic

Big Star released the official lyric video to “The Ballad of El Goodo” – a song from their 1972 debut album “Number 1 Record.” It was a commercial flop upon its release but it received widespread acclaim. It even landed on the 434th spot in the Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 greatest albums of all time” list.

Drummer Jody Stephens told SongFacts in a 2013 interview that “The Ballad of El Goodo” was proof that bandmates Chris Bell and Alex Chilton (who wrote the track) were far from your average rockers. He said, “All of a sudden I’m playing with these guys that can write songs that are as engaging to me as the people I’d grown up listening to, so I felt incredibly lucky.” And so it comes as no surprise that it’s also one of his favorite Big Star tunes to perform.

Counting Crows covered it for their sixth studio album “Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation).” It was the closing track. And vocalist Adam Durizt said, “One of the last changes we made was putting ‘The Ballad of El Goodo’ at the end of the record. I find it hard to follow that song on a record. I really love that song… it’s speaking about survival.”

Check out the video below.