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Alex Chilton 1950-2010

6:07 PM GMT 18/03/2010

Alex Chilton 1950-2010

ALEXANDER CHILTON, FRONTMAN of soul-pop ingénues The Box Tops, co-founder of Anglophile Dixie guitar legends Big Star and latterday solo artist, unexpectedly passed away yesterday after suffering a heart attack in New Orleans, aged just 59.

The first time we met, in spring 1986, was in London's grimy Harlesden, a fair distance from his birthplace in Memphis, Tennessee. Born on December 28, 1950, the 36-year old Alex was aquiline, with darting, twinkly eyes and a mischievous grin, eating yoghurt, sipping water and fielding my unsophisticated questions. I was barely two years into writing about music, and Chilton was a stone-cold hero, responsible for epochal Big Star albums #1 Record, Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers, someone I'd expected to die young after living fast. But having perfected the art of falling apart, he had returned, addictions banished and health seemingly resuscitated.

Spiritually too, he'd come a ways from the hellraising era he labelled his "lost decade": the '70s. Big Star had been cursed by label/distribution shenanigans, fights, breakdowns, drug/drink abuse and co-founder Chris Bell's premature death in a car crash. Massively underappreciated, they'd been too late for Merseybeat and too early for the new wave. But punk (check the venomous energy of Don't Lie To Me off #1 Record) and goth (Third/Sister Lovers' morose, claustrophobic ballads) learned from Chilton, and later bands - from The Bangles to The Replacements to Teenage Fanclub - were quick to sing his praises. "People say they're arguably some of the best rock'n'roll albums ever," Alex told me. "I say they're wrong."

But by 1986, he'd been drug-free for eight years and drink-free for four. Having moved to New Orleans to start all over again, he was back gigging to support his first studio record in eight years: the R&B/country-brewed Feudalist Tarts. He'd play occasional Big Star tracks but his subsequent solo canon upheld the rootsy theme, his love of Ray Charles and Ernest Tubb.

"A certain mindlessness is essential," Chilton told me. "Rock'n'roll is meant to shoot from the hip. I once produced a Detroit band, The Gories, I Know You Fine But How You Doin' album [Chilton also produced the first Cramps album, 1980's Songs The Lord Taught Us]. There's this track, I Think I've Had It, which goes, "I put up with all that stuff for all your love / I really dig you but I just can't take it no more / I've had it, I'm headed for that door" - there's just something mindless and callous about it, which I love."

I interviewed Chilton twice again, the second time when Ryko officially launched the Big Star revival in 1992 via the full Third/Sisters Lovers collection, a live Big Star session and Bell's 'lost' solo recordings. At which point, Chilton - misfit, mystery, contrary sod - clammed up and barely mentioned the band again. Which is why Big Star's reformation a year later, with Chilton, loyal drummer Jody Stephens and Posies guitarist Jonathan Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow, was as shocking as it was delicious.

Chilton was a laconic presence at subsequent Big Star reunions, and you knew he was only in it for the money, but it introduced a new audience to a great band (even if Alex didn't agree). Now he joins Chris Bell and Third/Sister Lovers producer Jim Dickinson, who died last year at the Big Star recording session in the sky.

I know you won't like it, Alex, but those Big Star albums remain among my all-time favourites. Sorry I had to have the last word.

Martin Aston

Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:07 PM GMT 18/03/2010

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Alex Chilton , Big Star

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  • Enjoyed the article.... but it's Ernest Tubb, not TUBBS!!!

    Posted by Big Sandy at 12:30 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Enjoyed the article.... but it's Ernest Tubb, not TUBBS!!!

    Posted by Big Sandy at 12:32 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • a great loss, R.I.P. ...thanks for the quick response to the news..

    Posted by w.l.self at 1:24 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • It was Rykodisc who issued the 'corrected' version of Third/Sistr Lovers, the Big Star live disc and the Chris Bell solo recordings compilation in the early '90s, not Rhino (who did release the excellent Big Star box set last year).

    Posted by Johnny99 at 1:59 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Enjoyed the article.... but it's Ernest Tubb, not TUBBS!!!

    Posted by Big Sandy at 3:24 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Jesus Wept, all your record geeks get a life. Alex was an enormous influence not a footnote in your lousy little record collections, treat the man with some respect. A lot of us have great collections and taste in music but Alex Chilton created something that we all have had the good fortune to cherish and remember forever. Pay respect to the man, his family and his legacy.

    Butler, Toronto

    Posted by Butler at 3:36 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • How sad Alex has gone. I feel he spent a good deal of the latter part of his life quite bitter, and really didn't attempt to write anything close to the wonderful Radio City.
    Still get the shivers over September Gurls and Back of a Car, genius. God Bless Alex.
    Now perhaps the Posies will get back on the case...........

    Posted by Terence Ruffle terenceruffle.co.uk at 6:20 PM GMT 19/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • I'm pretty sure Like Flie on Sherbert is a Memphis album, not New York. And yes all those re-releases in early 90's were on Ryko.

    Posted by Anonymous at 10:51 PM GMT 21/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Corrections made. Thanks for your input. Played the Live album this morning – always loved the acoustic section in the middle. Ballad Of El Goodo now seems even more painfully autobiographical now. And Chilton’s versh of Motel Blues always breaks my heart.

    Posted by Danny Eccleston at 11:27 AM GMT 23/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Don't Lie To Me informed punk rock? Are you kidding? Yes, maybe it sounds pissed off, but it also boogies, which is not really a hallmark of punk rock. As enjoyable as it is, that song is about as forward-looking as something of the same vintage by UFO, Aerosmith or the Status Quo.

    Nice article, though, otherwise.

    Posted by Brad in Osaka at 5:17 AM GMT 24/03/2010 Report Abuse

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  • Silence,all of us,for now,Listen.

    Much love and respect,
    Larz,RochesterNy>

    Posted by Guitourist@yahoo.com at 7:06 PM GMT 07/04/2010 Report Abuse

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