Alex Chilton R.I.P.

I'm currently listening to the great solo collection on Rhino called 19 YEARS, which is sadly out of print. I'm actually burning a copy for a friend who'd heard of Alex Chilton but had never heard his music, only The Replacements' song (!).

 

If they can find a pic of him dressed like Lady Gaga, he'll be there without the poll!

Bootlegger! Make your buddy promise to go out and buy the Big Star box if he likes your cd.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking Dyke and the Blazers and James Carr might have been huge if they had been on major labels...I loved the Alex "1970" album, issued decades after it was recorded. Sounds like his post-Big Star albums.

 

The "Sugar Sugar" cover cracks me up.

 

In know this was linked earlier in the thread, but in case you did not catch it, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, eulogized Alex Chilton on the floor of the House of Representatives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9LGwzGnx5w

 

I really enjoyed listening to this segment. Alex sounds fairly upbeat and seemed happy to answer Terry's questions. He brought his guitar for the 2000 interview and plays a bit of "In The Street."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/03/19/992627/an-anonymous-power-pop-icon-dies.html

Interesting article from a local music critic. Is that really Alex Chilton on the left in this picture?

 

Looks like him and he definitely played with Bruce Eaton's band. Bruce talks about it in his book and on this forum.

Nice article but the opening is strange:

"It’s sadly poetic that Alex Chilton passed away a mere few days after the Stooges were finally granted induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

 

Rhino Records has just issued a digital only release of Alex's music to radio stations. Nothing a fan doesn't already have but I had never seen the photo that came with it so, I thought I'd share it.

 

Uh, that's not a Cadillac...

 

Sad loss! Memphis Soul Music lost a legend. Those old Box Tops records and Big Star records still give pleasure to me even now. They put a smile on my face upon hearing them. A sadly missed legend!

 

Are you sure?

Doh! and thank you.

 

I just heard this as well, and I agree that Alex did seem to be happy to be talking to Terry. The highlight, however, was his in-studio version of "In the Street," which I really enjoyed.

 

Very sad news.

Alex Chilton, Influential Rock Singer, Dies at 59
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Published: March 19, 2010

Alex Chilton, a mercurial rock musician whose work ranged from the soul songs of the Box Tops to the multiple incarnations of his pop band Big Star, and who left a legacy more easily measured in artistic influence than in commercial impact, died on Wednesday in New Orleans, where he had been living since the 1980s. He was 59.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Laura. The cause was believed to be a heart attack, though autopsy results had not yet been released. Ms. Chilton said she drove her husband to Tulane Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon after he had complained of shortness of breath and chills. Mr. Chilton lost consciousness during the ride and was pronounced dead at the hospital, she said.

Mr. Chilton, who grew up in Memphis, was just 16 years old when the Box Tops, in which he sang and played guitar, had a No. 1 hit with “The Letter” in 1967. “Cry Like a Baby,” which also featured his precocious growl, peaked at No. 2 the next year.

After the Box Tops broke up in 1970, Mr. Chilton formed Big Star with the drummer Jody Stephens, the guitarist Chris Bell and the bassist Andy Hummel. The band’s first album, “#1 Record,” released in 1972, was full of Mr. Chilton’s gentle contemplations on youthful yearnings (“Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?/Would you be an outlaw for my love?” he sang in “Thirteen”), but in a year dominated by country-rock, prog-rock and glam-rock, it did not come close to fulfilling the commercial promise of its title.

Neither did a follow-up album, “Radio City,” released in 1974, which embraced the influences of bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys and added poignant pop tunes like “September Gurls” to Mr. Chilton’s catalog. Nor did a somber final album, “Third” (later reissued as “Sister Lovers”), on which Mr. Chilton and Mr. Stephens were the only founding band members to participate. Produced by Jim Dickinson, it was not properly released until 1978, four years after the band had split up.

The rapidly changing sound of Big Star across these three albums reflected the emotional evolution of its members, Mr. Stephens said in a telephone interview. “#1 Record” portrayed “a sort of innocence,” he said, “and with ‘Radio City,’ you have something that’s a little more emotionally on edge and not as naïve. With the third record you have something that is dark and melancholy, and a little bit cynical.”

What remained consistent, Mr. Stephens said, was the talent of Mr. Chilton, who was always “brilliant at relating that particular emotion of the moment.”

After the demise of Big Star, Mr. Chilton continued to release solo albums and produce records for grimy garage-rock bands like the Cramps and the Gories. But the music of Big Star found dutiful listeners via college and independent radio stations, and the songs’ introspection and modesty wove their way into the spare sounds of outside-the-mainstream artists from R.E.M. to Elliott Smith.

Perhaps the surest measure of the tug Mr. Chilton exerted on subsequent bands can be found in the lyrics of the Replacements — another malleable rock act that moved more hearts than retail units — who sang in the song “Alex Chilton”:

“Children by the million

Sing for Alex Chilton

When he comes ’round

They sing, ‘I’m in love

What’s that song?

I’m in love with that song.’ ”

In recent years Mr. Chilton resumed performing with the Box Tops, as well as with a reconstituted Big Star lineup. A reworked version of the Big Star song “In the Street,” recorded by the power-pop band Cheap Trick, reached millions of listeners as the theme song to the Fox sitcom “That ’70s Show.”

Still, Mr. Chilton was perplexed by fans’ devotion to Big Star.

“He was proud of his songs, he was proud of ‘Thirteen’ and ‘September Gurls,’ but he was always kind of frustrated,” Ms. Chilton said. “He wanted people to know of other things, other than Big Star.”

John Fry, the founder of Ardent Studios, where the Box Tops and Big Star both recorded, said, “He was, in a sense, always forward looking, and perhaps didn’t like or understand the attention that was focused on things in past.” He added: “But whatever regard people have for that music, it came organically. Nobody tried to cause that to happen; it just happened.”

In addition to his wife, Mr. Chilton is survived by a sister, Cecelia, and a son, Timothee, by a previous marriage.

Big Star is scheduled to perform on Saturday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Tex. In a statement, the festival’s creative director, Brent Grulke, said: “Alex Chilton was an artist of the very highest caliber. It’s too early to do much but cry about our loss right now, but he’ll be missed, and missed more as the ages pass and his myth continues to expand — that music isn’t going anywhere.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/arts/19chilton.html?ref=obituaries

 

Anyone not tuned in is missing some amazing Chilton/Big Star rarities on Luxuria Radio. Andrew's playing a completely different version "O My Soul" right now.

Also Alex doing Brian Wilson's "Solar System" live, just guitar. That was amazing.

 

I like The Box Tops, but have never heard any Big Star or any of Chilton's other productions. RIP

 

Just got back from seeing Cheap Trick where they paid tribute with Heaven Tonight and In The Street.

 

This is terribly sad news. We lost a true genius and one of the most underated songwriters _and_ vocalists - what a voice he had. Everyone likes to mention where they where when they first heard 'Sgt Pepper' but for me I'll never forget where I was the first time I heard 'September Gurls'. My jaw still drops to the floor every time I play it - I still rate it as the most perfect pop song ever written. I liken his songwriting to John Lennon: full of raw powerful emotion and an everpresent sense of confusion, doubt and self-destructiveness that makes much of Chilton's work compelling and addictive.

Recently I had picked up the 2 CD Ardent Records story and was blown away by several pre-Big Star tracks he recorded in '69-'70 (Free Again, Smile For Me, Every Day As We Grow Closer) and was amazed of his songwriting talent early on. Chilton never came close to achieving the credit and fame he deserved but he left behind an impressive body of work that, like the Velvet Underground, will serve as a benchmark for future artists to aspire to.

 

Alex covers Michael Jackson in Norway. I love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaycAs2Jr3A&feature=related

 

This has to be on a scale of one to ten an eleven on the eerie scale. I selected "Diggers" as a Netflix on-line stream film to watch Wednesday night. The film is set in 1976 Long Island, NY, and the majority of the soundtrack's music is from Big Star. I didn't know Alex Chilton had passed until reading Friday's local paper. As the paper quoted Paul Westerberg; "I never travel far without a little Big Star". Such a sad loss.

 

Those Terry Gross intereviews are horrible - she was never a good interviewer but she has no idea what to do with Chilton. He is interesting to listen to so there is some good content.

His brief solo version of "In the Street" is great.

 

great to see that old Tennessee plate-Shelby County (Memphis )
was 1 ,Davidson County (Nashville) was 2,etc.based on population,
i believe.not that this will mean much if you're not an older Tennessean,
but it reminds me we've lost one of us.

 

That was great. He was so brilliant. Love the "You people have great taste"
There were like 12 people there at the beginning but at least 16 by the end.

Thanks, Chris.

 

I didn't even know he was big in Norway!

 

Very sad news, RIP.