Alex Chilton RIP

I cried a tear or two for when Alex Chilton died last week.  I think i may have been crying over the fact that I'd never be able to see the reconstituted Big Star live.  Chilton wasn't at all times a likeable fellow by most accounts, which fits well with his music - he was unpredictable, unapologetic and held little love for the music industry, his own records or his fans.  But incidentally, these are the things that make his late Big Star and early solo career so interesting.  If you don't already know about Big Star, you are missing a child.  Big Star lives up to that cliche "they could've been as big as the Beatles".   To learn more about Chilton's legacy, read this from the BBC.

Here's some highlights & personal faves from Chilton's Career. I'll keep it to twelve. 
DON'T WATCH THE VIDEOS. Ugh.
The Box Tops - The Letter



Although Big Star never met with fame and success, Chilton already had with Memphis blue-eyed soul group The Box Tops by the time he was sixteen.  Produced by Dan Penn at the famous American Sound Studios (also used by Elvis, Joe Tex, Dusty Springfield), it became an American chart topper in 1967.  I'm not a huge fan of this track, and it doesn't really sound much like Alex Chilton's later work, i thought i'd but this here for perspective.  I feel like a college lecturer, Jesus.

Big Star - Thirteen


I bet you've heard one somewhere - it's a bit like Big Star's "Yesterday".  Although this song is credited to Alex Chilton and Chris Bell on the release (the band was going for that Lennon/McCartney thing), it's Chilton's song.  Recorded at Memphis' Ardent Studios, this appeared on Big Star's Debut "No 1 Record", which never troubled the Charts.  Funny title, then.

Big Star - Ballad Of El Goodo


Another from "No 1 Record".  The vocal harmonies are beautiful. 

Big Star - O My Soul


The opener from the second Big Star record "Radio City"  A perfectly executed power-pop opera.  Chris Bell had left by this point, and went on to record the stupendous "I am The Cosmos" which i'll tackle some other day on the blog. 

Big Star - September Gurls



Also from Radio City - this is three minutes odd of classic pop that Teenage Fanclub wished they wrote (i gotta admit though, they got as good with Grand Prix - horrible cover art, mind).  I am without words.

Big Star - Third / Sisters Lovers

In 1974 - after the commercial failure of "Radio City", Big Star were slimmed down to a two piece(just Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens) and recorded the magnificent mess that is known as "Third / "Sister Lovers".  It wasn't released until 1978, and since then has been released with various different versions - as there was no name or tracklist ascribed to the project.  I've never been satisfied by any of these, but then again, it's like a puzzle, and perhaps it's best to work through a sequence for yourself - you get Velvet Underground covers, "Christian" Power-Pop, harrowing piano ballads, songs with baseballs as bass drums, and the odd ole' rocknroll standard to play with.  I could write (no, TRY to write) a book about this heartbreaking work of genius, but it would be a bore. You should just go and buy the thing now.   Here's four choice cuts(an almost impossible task on the best of days). 

Kanga Roo



Night Time



Take Care


Holocaust



SOLO CHILTON

Alex Chilton - Free Again



This is an old Chilton song that he recorded for first post-Big Star album, Bach's Bottom in 1975(unreleased until the 80s).  I love this song. But it is slightly unrepresentative of the album in the fact it is concise and coherent.  Songs start, fall apart and start up again.  The Big Star numbers (unreleased when this was recorded) are delivered without enthusiasm but their own kind of defiance.  At some point, Chilton decided he wasn't going to play anybody's game but his own -his gospel became that music was best caught when spectacularly raw, unrehearsed and on the verge of collapsing completely.  The fact that he was sick of the music industry and a little whacked out from substance abuse probably also played a part.  Here was a man was not content on being anybody's hero.  But doesn't that just make less people love you a bit more?

Alex Chilton - No More The Moon Shines On Lorena

(starts at 2.11 in the clip)


Chilton's new production ethic really "comes together" for his next album, Like Flies On Sherbert(1979).  You couldn't get more removed from the polished power-pop of the first two Big Star albums.  It is an epochal mess - the production is all over the place, instruments are sunk into the mix at random, Chilton sounds completely wasted and the band are a shambles.  It is also more than a little disturbing.  I love it.
"No More The Moon Shines On Lorena" is apparently a Carter Family number.  I bet A.P. would be spinning in his grave if he could hear this. 


Alex Chilton - No Sex



From The 1986 "No Sex" EP.  This sounds like Grease with AIDS.  Which i think was the idea.

As I look at this list, and I now ask myself, "Where is Bangkok? In The Street?". 

Rest in peace, Alex.
Rx