Birch Lane: Big Star

Showing posts with label Big Star. Show all posts

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Alex Chilton R.I.P. (1950-2010)

I am resigned to the fact that all of my musical heroes will die one day. In fact some are already gone; too soon, too early. However, most celebrity deaths don't hit me very hard it's more of a "Oh, that's too bad" type response. But this one hits pretty close to home...Alex Chilton.

Push the dagger in the gut and twist - damn that hurts!

When Hurricane Katrina hit back in 2005, Chilton, then living in New Orleans, was missing for a few days and friends were worried about him. He later emerged safe and sound, but I was worried then. This time I'm reeling from the shock.

Memphis is only about 250 miles down river from St. Louis. The musical roots in that town run deep. You only have to speak of people's first names or initials - B.B., Elvis, Johnny, Carl, Jerry Lee, Booker T., Al, or even studios/labels - Sun, Stax, Ardent. Chilton began his career as the 16 year old lead singer of a Memphis based group called The Box Tops who had major hits in 1967 with songs like "The Letter" (#1), "Cry Like A Baby" (#2) [Listen] and 1969's top 20 hit "Soul Deep." Thus began Chilton's music industry education that fostered his distain of the spotlight in later years. One of my favorite quotes about the Box Tops comes from rock critic turned director, Cameron Crowe. There's a moment early on in "Untitled", Cameron Crowe's 'Bootleg' Director's Cut of "Almost Famous", where rock critic Lester Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), in mid-rant, claims that the Box Tops' "The Letter" says more in less than two minutes than Jethro Tull can say in hours. Exactly. It's Rock 'N Roll people - there's no need to make it complicated.

My music education began in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I grew up on a steady diet of hit radio and Rock radio. By the late 1980's I was listening to a lot of 1950's and 1960's mixed with Classic Rock and Alternative anchored by two very influential bands: The Beatles and R.E.M. As much as I love the Beatles my favorite band became R.E.M. First and foremost, they were still an active band. Second, I found out that Michael Stipe graduated from my high school the bond became stronger. I was shocked that somebody that had been here in the same place had actually made it?!?

As I got deeper into the history and myth of R.E.M., I began to read about their influences which made me want to seek out those musicians to see how they shaped the sound of my favorite band. I tracked down albums by The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith and eventually came to an obscure 1970's band from Memphis called Big Star.

Of the bands that shaped the sound of R.E.M., Big Star reminded me most of what I was hearing from my favorite quartet from Athens, GA. They shared the sound of the ringing guitars with a strong sense of melody, and a dose of the backbeats that hooked you and reeled you in and kept you listening. I fell in love with the music of Big Star. Songs like "The Ballad Of El Goodo," "In The Street," "Thirteen," "When My Baby's Beside Me", "O My Soul," "Way Out West," "Back Of A Car," and "September Gurls" were on constant rotation. In the late 1980's and early 1990's the fact that the songs from #1 Record and Radio City were being recorded between 1971-1973 floored me because it sounded like the antithesis of most of the Classic Rock sound produced in that period. The music seemed so current to me, not 20 years old. Now another 20 years later it's easy to look back and see that the music Big Star was making was influencing most of my favorite artists from 1980 to present.

About this time I also found another musician who was enamored with Big Star in the form of Paul Westerberg. I got into The Replacements just as they were breaking up and Westerberg was moving into his solo career. I was excited to learn that Westerberg had written a song called "Alex Chilton" for The Replacements 1987 release Pleased To Meet Me. He even included the line "I never travel far without a little Big Star." A statement I could completely relate to!

During this same period I also found this sound echoed in the music of other bands of power pop musical craftsmen like The dB's and Teenage Fanclub; themselves unabashed admirers of Big Star.

In the fall of 1992 I was enrolled at the University of Missouri - Columbia and deeply immersed in music even volunteering and getting air time at the student run radio station KCOU. Most of the airstaff loved, no adored, Big Star and I felt right at home. However, I left in December disliking the experience that I had in Columibia after stupidly getting myself into a fraternity and wanting out badly. I came back to St. Louis.

If I had only known what was on the horizon. In April 1993, Big Star (Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow from The Posies filling the parts of Chris Bell and Andy Hummel respectfully) played their first show in roughly 20 years in Columbia, MO with the help of KCOU. I could have seen these new found heroes live right in front of me! The show was released on CD as Columbia: Live at University Of Missouri 4/25/93, but it was still not the same. I was not there. What felt like a one off reunion evenutally turned into some touring and much later an album of new material. Nevertheless, I felt like I belonged to this little group of Big Star fans. My love for their sound led me to continue to spread the gospel among friends - mix tapes had to have a Big Star song included.

At this same time that Big Star was getting more recognitiion Rykodisc started to re-release albums and release live material from the band. The band's third album, a moody song cycle called Third/Sister Lovers, orignally released in 1978 three full years after the band broke up, was re-released plus an album called Live that documented a Big Star show simulcast on a New York radio station in 1973. Other releases continued to surface: Nobody Can Dance, rehearsals plus a show from Memphis in 1974; The Big Star Story, a compilation; the releases finally culminated in the expansive Rhino box set from 2009, Keep An Eye On The Sky. When a band is short lived like Big Star even live and different versions of studio tracks are like little golden nuggets. I even found a vinyl copy of their single "Kizza Me" from their Third/Sister Lovers album that was released on posthumuously. I also started to check out Alex Chilton's solo material from after he left Big Star. While the quality of his solo material was up and down at times, I enjoyed the fact that he was making music for himself. Chilton mixed originals with covers (known and obscure) and pushed the critics and even the fans out of his line of sight and pushed forward. He was not looking for the limelight or major stardom. I admired the fact that he seemingly wanted to create and play music whichever way he saw fit.

Fortunately, I caught a show that Chilton played at the old location of Cicero's (capacity 120 or so people) in St. Louis in the mid-1990's. Although he seemed shy and not talkitive from the stage he played a strong set of his solo material including many from his then recent release and even ended the night with a version of the Big Star song "In The Street." Chilton eventually reunited with his Box Tops bandmates too and played live shows on the Casino circuit in the past decade.

When That 70's Show debuted in 1998 I was stunned to hear "In The Street" used as the theme song. However, this hooked me onto the show early on because of the choice of the theme song. Furthermore, the choice for Cheap Trick to cover the song for the second season of the show was perfect. This same event made me realize how much of a resurgence that Big Star's music. Not a sellout per se, but more of a acknowedgement that the band had gained much more recognition in the last decade than I thought. In a Rolling Stone magazine article in 2000, Chilton thought it was ironic that he is paid $70 in royalties each time the show is aired.

I have never stopped loving the music of The Box Tops, Big Star or Alex Chilton and seemingly never get tired of listening to his songs. That's a testament to the writing process and the classic feel of music that never gets tired or old. The music of Alex Chilton in his various incarnations will continue to move me for years to come. However, I still never got to see Big Star play live and now I know that I will never have that chance again and that depresses me. But we'll still have the music. Thanks for the music Alex...I'm going to miss you...