Alex Chilton R.I.P.

No your not...he sounds like he did in Big Star...

 

How Big Star's music was met with such implacable indifference will always be a mystery to me.

Really enjoying listening to #1 Record this morning.....just beautiful.

 

An evolving voice

Yeah...in the 60s Chilton sang in an R&B style approximating Box Tops songwriter Dan Penn.
In the 70s he found his "true voice" which was impacted by his friends like Roger McGuinn and Dennis Wilson as well as some childhood influences like Chet Baker's cool jazz vocals.

 

Being signed to a subsidiary of a soul label with sketchy distribution certainly didn't help matters.

 

The "good ol' days" of the music business didn't work for them. The business dropped the ball with that band.

 

I know Rolling Stone is routinely slammed here, but someone has started a petition to get Alex on the cover, which I think would be a very moving gesture:
http://tinypetition.com/AlexChiltonRollStone

 

Ray and Alex

Ray Davies was friends with Alex. An old friend of mine who knows him sent Ray a text to offer condolences about Alex' passing. He called her back and this his is how Ray found out and he was shocked, of course. He was on his way to SXSW.

Ray mentioned to my friend that Alex came to visit him in the hospital in New Orleans after he had been shot. Both were living there at the time. He also mentioned that they had recently recorded a track for an upcoming collaboration project.

Alex probably never even told Ray that Big Star covered Kinks song. They probably had other things on their mind.

 

Abso-****ing-lutely

 

Like Flies On Sherbert is his most essential solo album IMO. It's chaotic in places, but it's got a great late night, one take feel to it. I think this was his first album after Sister Lovers. I also love the "Bangkok" single.

 

If you can, please catch today's "Fresh Air" on NPR. The show has a half hour segment featuring different interviews with Alex Chilton from 1991 and 2000.

 

This was posted today to a music list-serv I belong to:

"I actually met Alex Chilton when I was in High School, although I didn't who he was at the time -- only that he was one of the Boxtops. The Boxtops were hired to play a concert as part of the Mayfest Series in Bennington VT which was held in our brand new high school building in the spring of 1969(?) Our first choice had been the Byrds, but they were in the middle of one of their many break-ups, so they cancelled.

"Anyway we got the Boxtops and as President of the Thespian Society I was the MC for the "concert", so I got to meet and chat them up. All I remember from the conversation is that they were all upset that their electric sitar had just been stolen. As I recall they finessed the missing electric sitar for "The Letter" [sic; he probably means Cry Like a Baby] with a "prepared" electric guitar. I remember them being very friendly guys who were very generous to a nervous young high school rock and roller who got to introduce them. Oh yeah, and much to their delight, the mostly high school age audience moved all the moveable chairs out of the way and danced! I can also remember our main patron for the event, a very tall distinguished blue-blood who was a great fan of Sir Thomas Beecham, sitting there bravely listening with his fingers in his ears."

 

Yeah, that's cool.

 

Thanks for the tip! Will be very interested to hear this.

 

I'll be the guest of Rachel Lichtman on her show "The Crystal Telephone" tonight on
www.luxuriamusic.com for a tribute to the amazing, life changing music of Alex Chilton. We'll be playing lots of Big Star, Box Tops, and beyond including a live performance of Alex's unheard in some 16 years. We welcome all of Alex's friends and fans to tune in, and join the live chat on the site. Show begins at 7PM (pacific) and will run for at least two hours (maybe more).

It is free to listen to, no sign-up is involved. Just go to www.luxuriamusic.com find the tab for LISTEN and pick a stream.



Please spread the word to any other like minded fans or friends of Alex's music.



Very best,



Andrew Sandoval

 

Andrew, thanks for that. Is this live performance the Thanksgiving 1994 show at the Howlin' Wolf? If so, that was a truly great night. I taped it off WTUL, one of my favorite live shows ever. I saw Alex a number of times in that period here in New Orleans, and he was at the top of his game.

 

Thanks for the heads up, Andrew. I'll be sure to tune in.

 

Thank you for letting us know, Andrew--and for your amazing work on the Big Star box.

 

Unfortunately, it will be the middle of the night here when your show airs, Andrew. Will it be possible to listen to it tomorrow or is it live only?

BTW, thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and stories. It's silly but I feel better knowing we're a whole community of people who were deeply touched by Alex Chilton's music.

 

I absolutely adore Like Flies On Sherbert, as well as the other bits and pieces he recorded after Sisters Lovers (the aforementionned single Bangkok, but also the 1975 sessions later released as Bach's Bottom).

I've been playing Sisters Lovers non-stop today, I can't listen to anything else.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned already but this unfortunate event will likely make Big Star a shoe-in for the RRHOF next year.

 

"Free Again" and the Seeds "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" form The Singer Not The Song EP (they also appear on the Bachs Bottom cd) are also quite fine. Ditto on Like Flies On Sherbert, excellent, if crazed, album.

 

Rachel's shows are podcast - so it might work out

 

And here he is a great Box Tops' clip (mimed, I am sure, but great nonetheless):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD9mCp8SifM

Alex Chilton, the original slacker--at least, he appears so in this clip. You can see the humor in the clip--Alex's and the rest of the band. RIP.

 

I'm still reeling from this

does anyone know when Alex played his last concert?

(I know he was due to play with Big Star on the 20th in Austin)

 

RIP Alex.