Alex Chilton R.I.P.

Thought some of you would find this interesting. Here are the reviews in Billboard magazine of the first two Big Star albums, plus a review a couple of shows that Big Star played in NYC between the two albums. Of particular note in that review is the fact that the second show was sparsely attended...

 

Here's a lovely tribute from a Canadian poet:

http://maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2010/apr/2/alex-chilton-1950-2010/

 

Bruce Eaton on Bob Lefsetz's Chilton comments:
http://bigstarbook.blogspot.com/2010/03/salon-piece-done-and-i-need-breather.html

Some folks didn't know Alex at all, and it's obvious. Thanks to Bruce for setting the record straight.

 

"Thirteen" was the song that always got me. Here is a really good version from the reunited Big Star....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAiB6VSSORc&feature=related

 

Oxford American has posted a fairly extensive tribute to Alex Chilton on their website:
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2010/apr/07/big-star-tribute/

 

I haven't read this whole article (it looks interesting), but this part was called out elsewhere, and it's very sad:

 

Do not read too much into this, many heart attacks hit with no warning and it does not matter if you have health insurance or not, I know because it happened to me. I had a heart attack with NO warning signs before hand and I have great health insurance. I was lucky and survived, I had two friends who worked at the same place I do (same insurance) and they died when the same thing happened to them. The grim reaper does not care about health insurance.

My wife's father died of a heart attack when she was a teenager. He knew he had heart problems and was on his way to his doctor for a check up when the attack hit. Heart attacks are mean and unpredictable killers.

In all the places I know of if you show up at an emergency room with signs of heart problems they treat you insurance or not. It is sad that Alex is gone, I feel sorry for his wife, his family and his fans (I am one of them), but you cannot try to second guess heart attacks. Let it go.

 

Yes but for many heart attacks there ARE warning signs that go unheeded. It is important to see a doctor if you have those signs. Yes, heart attacks can strike without warning, but some are very predictable. 20 years ago my mom was having similar symptoms as Alex and I encouraged her to check it out. She was told she was just weeks away from a heart attack and an angioplasty was scheduled immediately. 20 years later she is still around and enjoying life at 73.

This week I have had similar concerns and knowing my family history I was worried so I went to my doctor to get things checked out just in case (so far in my case it looks like it is just stress but I am still going to have a few more tests.) I am glad I was able to see a doctor though.

Who knows if insurance was the reason why Alex didn't get it checked out (and lack of insurance was only listed as a PARTIAL reason.) Still people should be encouraged to get these things checked out. This part of Alex's story shouldn't be dismissed because it feeds into an argument for or against a current political controversy. It is significant. No need to "let it go".

 

I agree with all that, but... what makes me sad about that story is AC telling her to run a red light. He knew he was in trouble; he didn't make it. THAT makes me sad.

 

Yeah, I was actually thinking about that gloomy detail too. Those might have been his last words before he went out ...

 

What makes me sad is why he did not call 911 (unles New Orleans does not have it)? When I had my heart attack I was at home with my wife, when she saw the pain I was in she called 911. I am not saying that an ambulance will save your life, but at least the ambulance and the EMS folks do everything for you that can be done.

I also learned after my heart attack that even with no prior sympthoms I had been doing something really dumb when it comes to older men and heart attacks. I popped out of bed and went straight to my Noridic Track and worked out. After a 20 to 30 minute work out I went downstairs to make breakfast and had me heart attack seconds after downing my OJ. It has been shown that men over 50 who exert themselves right away after waking are at much higher risk of having a heart attack than if they wait an hour before starting heavy exercise. Sadly, this fact accounts for many of the heart attacks that men have every winter shoveling the snow first thing in the morning.

 

My father's best work friend died that way. I let kids shovel my snow this winter, there was so much of it.

 

Here's a Myvinylreview Special Feature: Remembering Alex Chilton. Great thanks to forum members, Bruce Eaton and Bobby Sutliff for their contributions. I hope you enjoy it: http://myvinylreview.blogspot.com/2010/04/special-feature-remembering-alex.html

 

Excellent! Thanks for that. The Beach Boys "Love You" anecdote is priceless.

 

Great stuff. Thanks.

 

Bump for those who may have missed this on a Sunday.

 

A year ago today? Nice article in Stereogum today about Alex, with tributes from musicians influenced by him, young and old:

Stereogum - Alex Chilton - 2011

 

A year already? Well I still miss him terribly...

 

Resurrecting this thread. Wish we could do the same for the people we love.

You know, I was really so wracked about Alex's death, and then Andy's right after it, that I haven't been able to think straight about any of it until recently. I too was (and am still) one of those Alex fans people complain about. My brother and another close friend used to kid me (ok, mock me) in the late 80's because of my Alex/Big Star fixation, then in full flowering because I'd seen Alex eight or nine times in that decade. He played Charlottesville at least three or four times while I was in grad school at UVA. I saw him in Roanoke once and put my wife up to asking him about "I Am The Cosmos," which I'd just heard courtesy of a friend at Back Alley Disc in C'ville. I figured Alex might open up a little more to a beautiful woman than to me at that point, and he did--he told her he thought it was a really great song, and told her the story of how he first met Chris back when he'd go hear him play in the Jynx back in Memphis.

So many memories of that decade, finally getting to meet and occasionally interact with someone whose music had been so important to me.

Sometimes Alex would be prickly, or would say things that made no sense to me at all. He seemed so casually dismissive of the best of his own work, and would spend so much energy on what seemed to me then like hipster piffle, songs like "Volare." That song still seems like hipster piffle to me, I have to say. But in that same show, at the 9:30 Club in D.C., he did a breathtaking electric version of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." How could someone go from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again so quickly and obsessively? I was deeply puzzled and in truth torn about it all. In my mid-20's, seeing this musical hero every few months it seemed, and trying to figure out my own artistic and professional story: I could feel broken-hearted, inspired, and deeply intrigued at every show he did. And of course mixed emotions are perfect fuel for any obsession....

Other memories: Going up to Alex the first time I saw him, at the C&O Club in C'ville, and getting him to sign his new album, "Feudalist Tarts" as well as "Radio City." My friend Robin McLeod, the fellow who'd introduced me to that Big Star record about ten years earlier, was standing next to me. Alex was slumped in a chair--he'd been battling the flu--but was very polite. When I praised the sound of "Radio City," he said "Well, that's because of John Fry; he's the reason the record sounds so good." When I told him how much the record had meant to me, he said, "Thanks--I want you to listen to some of the material in the second set tonight; there's some real melodic stuff in there." I remember Alex with his three piece (Doug Garrison, drums and Ron Easley, bass) playing "You Get What You Deserve" (also at the C&O club in C'ville)--only time I heard him play that. When he got to the bridge and the "oh, oh-oh, ohhhh" part, I was dancing madly and grinning like a fool. I remember Alex coming up to me out of the blue at the 9:30 Club to chat; we talked about record stores and radio stations in Memphis, and I told him I had made it to the short list for a job at what was then called Memphis State University. He said "Hey, that's cool, maybe you'll get it and move to Memphis and I'll see you around there." I tried to stay calm throughout the conversation, but it was tough. I gave Alex a cassette of some Son House after one of the shows, and he said he'd never heard any Son House before. I hope he liked it. I met Anna Lee Van Cleef, his girlfriend at the time and photographer for "High Priest," after another show, the one Chris Stamey opened for. Chris was showing folks his new Wurlitzer electric guitar (a beauty), and Alex was holding court across the room, sitting next to Anna Lee (also a beauty). Alex smoked a lot of pot those days, or so I was told, and it wasn't like we were going to have a real intense or focused conversation anyway, but still, every one of those short little fanboy encounters was very important to me, as well as deeply puzzling and strangely worrying.

There seemed to me to be something about the deep structure of the universe that the music of Big Star communicated, something sad and powerful and joyful and wry all at once. To me, Alex had been a channel for this communication, and I was trying to figure out how all that happened, trying to explain something to myself I suppose. Later, as I began to discover the role Chris had had in that vision, as well as the crucial roles Jody and Andy had played in the whole undertaking, I began to understand how complex that channeling really was. But I never really changed my mind about what was being channeled. I don't think I will ever change my mind about that.

The last time I saw Alex was in 1994 at the Fillmore in San Francisco, where my friend Robin was living at the time. The reformed Big Star was playing there at exactly the time my family and I were traveling back east to my new job in Virginia. Robin and I got to the Fillmore early so we could stand near the front. We heard the opening act (can't recall the name, alas), then heard Counting Crows (playing under a false name, for reasons I can't recall--probably contractual). Then we saw both bands helping to set up the equipment for Big Star. I thought at the time that this was their way of paying tribute to the band. It was a moving sight. Then Big Star came out. It was an amazing set, start to finish, and I was in truth more than a little shaken up to hear all those songs that had shaped my life, songs I never imagined I would hear live. But the moment that sticks in my mind the most is the moment the band came out on stage. For a second or two I made eye contact with Alex, and I thought perhaps he recognized me when he nodded slightly. Robin saw it too, and thought the same thing. I can hope it's true.

The box set got way under my skin, absolutely. The photos are truly magnificent. The bookended photos of Chris and Alex on the CD portfolio are especially poignant.

Two days ago, Alex would have been 61 years old. Almost two years later, I'm still saying goodbye.

 

How strange, or maybe not: writing the above sent me back to Bruce Eaton's blog, which I had not visited since just after Alex's death, and where I found a ton of great stuff, including fantastic interview material from Andy that didn't make it into the book, as well as a post with a link to a completely fantastic tribute to Alex.

Feeling a little less alone, now, after reading these words:

 

"A Sphinx without a riddle". That's a genius quote.


Gardo, thank you so mch for this long post.

 

Ditto mfp.

Thanks Gardo for such thoughtful and well written posts.

 

Wow, has it already been 2 years? I know I speak for many when I say we miss you in Memphis, Alex.

 

I still miss him everyday... He really truly was one of my heroes.

 

I actually just started getting into Big Star, and was listening to the "#1/Radio City" CD several times this week. What's the story behind the CD, "In Space"? Wasn't Alex gone by then, or not? Were these unfinished tapes that Ken Stringfellow and others finished-up, ala "Free as a Bird"/"Real Love"? I'd be interested in the details of the "In Space" CD if somebody has time to share its history.