Alex Chilton RIP

wow. sad and unexpected
an inspiration to so many.
he'll be missed

marty

Arguably the most influential rock musician that never became a household name.

Sad news.

Tfk: Of his era maybe, but only because of something that's always struck me as kind of ironic, since Chilton did gain a degree of early fame as singer of the Box Tops' big hits, before doing the more obscure work with Big Star that wound up having a much greater lasting influence. And to this day those Box Tops numbers still don't even sound like him singing -- he sounded more a like teenager in his later career than he did on the deep-voiced material with which he made his name as a 17 year old phenom. His path was kind of reversed in those aspects.

I'd also like to mention Alex's credit as producer of The Cramps debut EP and LP in the late 70's, which not only remain that seminal underground group's most enduring body of work, but were -- never mind the revisionists and deniers who probably all love Big Star and claim to love punk -- equally infuential as anything else Alex did. Lux and Ivy implicitly championed him on the nascent IRS label before REM, the Bangles and the Replacements later came along.

I saw him in the late 80s and he tore it up. He started the show with Pinball Wizard at about 2X normal speed and continued to impress.

RIP and thanks for the memory Alex...

really excellent post, zaikesman--i'd forgotten about the cramps. truthfully, i never thought much of his post bs work, most of which sounded half-baked or acid-fried, and the boxtops weren't much more than a studio concoction with three or so great songs. but those three big star albums effectively invented a whole genre--without them, it's inconceivable that some of the greatest song bands of our generations (posiesteenagefanclubgametheoryrem) would exist.

so while we're eulogizing, let me extol the virtues of chilton's late great bs partner, chris bell, whose "i am the cosmos" is every bit as noteworthy as the big star records. this would be a good occassion for the unitiated to rush out and buy it.