Premier Rock Forum

I saw Chilton once with the Box Tops opening for The Raspberries in Waukesha at a fair or something circa 2005. It was a beautiful day, but not that many people were there. Chilton was all smiles and just having a blast meandering around the stage singing all the Box Tops hits (a shame he wasn't playing guitar, would've loved to see that). After a great set, my buddy Bob (a gigantic Chilton fan) and I were sitting around, waiting for The Raspberries. We'd seen Chilton earlier talking to some people up by the stage. He must have been looking for them again, because all of a sudden he walks right up to us, stops, shrugs and asks "Where did my people go?". And then ambled off. Alex Chilton asking two huge star-struck fanboys "Where did my people go?". It was so brilliantly absurd. I haven't listened to his stuff in a long, long time, but just this past weekend I heavily dug into all the Big Star and Chris Bell stuff, along with other Ardent music like Rock City and Cargoe. Damn.

Man, this thread should be stickied for a year. I don't want to see it leave the front page.

GRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The opening strumming, slamming into the first verse and chorus of "Feel" forever changed me instantly the first time I heard it many many moons ago, like a thunderburst of rain to a desert plant that didn't know it was thirsty.I am absolutely disgusted that I never saw this man/band perform live.Perfect, flawed, perfectly bent and flawed, perfect music.

I'm pretty crushed by this. Not sure what to say about it. I'd only started listening to his solo stuff over the past few years, though I've loved Third for a really long time.I've been blasting Like Flies on Sherbert all morning.I was looking forward to seeing Big Star at the Overton Park shell in a couple of months.Requiescat in pace, Mr. Chilton.

ERawk wrote:Does anyone feel that as they get older, the world becomes more foreign as the people that made it more bearable die?Yes. I couldn't have said it better.

rocker654 wrote:ERawk wrote:Does anyone feel that as they get older, the world becomes more foreign as the people that made it more bearable die?Yes. I couldn't have said it better.Absolutely. It's weird, in your late teens and early 20's, I think that there's still this aura around you that things are gonna last forever, that they'll stay the same forever. Obviously it won't, but i'm not sure if I was quite ready for it. It's weird when people you grew up with slowly die; someone different every few years, sometimes each year. It's even weirder when the touchstones of what one considers to be their era, when their mentors or idols and heroes start passing away. Slowly, I recognize the world less, so yeah, I relate to the foreign thing.RIP Alex. The worst part is that he'd sort of disowned alot of Big Star's stuff, saying that he only liked a few songs--which really perplexes me because all three of those records are different and genius in their own right. After he'd put his best foot forward and was broke and had trouble finding labels and financial backers, I can understand that he felt that he may as well sabotage the music and the art. Bach's Bottom is still a really cool album and all, but in retrospect, it really feels like the first legitimate indie rock album (either that or Third/ Sister Lovers).....you know the guy has tons of talent, but he's purposely not putting in his best effort, maybe it's not in tune, maybe it's not fully on key. There were producers on those albums, but you know that Alex had his way. I think that's what really puzzled alot of people too--here you had someone purposely wrecking the music, but in the sense that it wasn't experimental music, it was still discernibly rock n' roll music. The story about John Fry thinking that Kangaroo had pop potential, where Chilton purposely wrecked it by using a basketball for percussion sorta sums that up. It would have been nice to see him having enjoyed some bigger successes back then so that maybe he felt that he'd had a fighting chance of where his genius at full capacity was appreciated or in much of demand, whatsoever. There's no denying the crafted, multidimensional approach that #1 Record took. But often I feel that he later took an approach that when he had the spotlight, he'd self destruct in almost some sort of reverse self protection. You can't fire me, I fucking quit type of thing. Disconnect yourself before they think that you're not good enough for them.Chilton on Big Star back then (it since has changed since the legacy allowed some higher profile tours):I never made a dime off Big Star.That's what really makes me sad. Chris Bell died, but not before he'd almost quit music entirely while working in his father's restaurant. He'd had trouble finding labels and financiers on the road--usually hoping to play to small pockets of whatever remained of whatever legacy that Big Star had (or had left). How I Am The Cosmos got overlooked by everything but a very small label is absolute craziness....the other tracks that were eventually released on Ryko were great, as well. But neither Bell nor Chilton were quite the same without one another. May they both rest in peace.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:Nothing can hurt him.Nothing can touch him.Why should I care?Driving's a gasIt ain't gonna last.

Damian wrote:So sorry for his friends and family. I never really investigated his music in detail, although i will now. I like the few songs i heard after Teenage Fanclub name-dropped him early on in their career. Damn shame. RIP Alex Chilton#1 Record is great.But Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers are incredible.If you start there, you might get stuck there, but that won't be so bad. If you don't get stuck there:Dusted in Memphis bootlegLike Flies on SherbertLive in LondonThe live Big Star album on RykoNo SexBach's BottomFeudalist TartsCliches (just to listen to him sing some of that stuff)In more or less that order. The other stuff is intermittently entertaining but not anything you want to get unless you have everything else.Also, I just want to say: If you aspire to a long life, get used to being bummed out on a semi-regular basis. People will keep dying. Loads of 'em!

This news shook me up more than such deaths usually do. RIP, Mr. Chilton.I saw him twice in the 90s. I can't remember the chronology, but I believe both shows were before he revived Big Star with Ken and Jon from the Posies. He played one or two Big Star songs in his set, which otherwise consisted of rock songs in Italian, "Volare," Jan and Dean covers, and all other sorts of oddities. At the start of his show in Iowa City, he informed the crowd that the show really wasn't going to rock, except for his cover of "Il Rebelio" (some Italian rock song). Once he finished that song, he reminded us that nothing else that night would rock as much. It was a great set, and he played a couple of Big Star songs, but he wasn't lying: it was mostly pretty mellow.