RIP Alex Chilton

[BuddhaRhubarb]

RIP to BIG STAR/Box Tops singer Alex Chilton.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/alex-chilton-musician-dies/

Almost like when Joe Strummer died....  for me   Really sucks.

I found Chilton's solo albums vis CBC 's late night radio in the 80's, as well as the odd Big Star song. Hunted Big Star Vinyl for a decade before lucking into the albums in a thrift shop in the 90's. Great quirky songwriter.

He and Chris Bell had that special magic.

If I believed in heaven, I'd imagine they are doing a reunion tour there now.

Alex Chilton, Rock Musician, Dies
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Alex Chilton of the rock band Big Star performed at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple last November. Chad Batka for The New York Times Alex Chilton of the rock band Big Star performed at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple last November.

Alex Chilton, the mercurial if influential rock musician, whose work spanned an eclectic gamut from the soul songs of the Box Tops to the multiple incarnations of his pop band Big Star, has died, The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported. He was 59. The cause of death is believed to have been a heart attack.

The Commercial Appeal said that Mr. Chilton, who lived in New Orleans, had recently been complaining of health problems, and was taken on Wednesday by paramedics to an emergency room in New Orleans where he was pronounced dead. His death was confirmed to the Commercial Appeal by Jody Stephens, his longtime band mate in Big Star. The group was scheduled to perform on Saturday at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin.

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. When that group broke up in 1970, Mr. Chilton formed Big Star with Mr. Stephens, a drummer, and the musicians Chris Bell and Andy Hummel. The band's first album, "#1 Record," in 1972, did not come close to fulfilling the commercial promise of its title, nor did the followup releases "Radio City" and "Third/Sister Lovers." But their music – gentle and introspective songs like "The Ballad of El Goodo" and "September Gurls," and exuberant anthems like "In the Street" – had a profound impact on generations of pop and indie acts that followed.

Perhaps the surest measure of the tug that Mr. Chilton exerted on subsequent artists can be found in the lyrics of the Replacements – another malleable rock act that moved more hearts than retail units – who sang in their 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.'"

[Capetan Mihali]

   Bummer.  So young, and he had been booze and drug free for so long.  Truly some of the best, and weirdest, pop-rock ever written came out of that man's mind.  RIP.   

[dps]

 

[Admiral Yi]

Joe Strummer is dead?

[BuddhaRhubarb]

Joe Strummer is dead?

a few years ago now.

[saskganesh]

Joe Strummer is dead?

heart defect on Christmas day. he had just got back from walking his dogs and settled into his armchair for a smoke. A few weeks before he and Mick Jones finally appeared on a stage together after a gap of 20 odd years.

RIP Chilton. I only know about him 'cause of Paul Westerberg:

If he was from Venus, would he feed us with a spoon?
If he was from Mars, wouldn't that be cool?
Standing right on campus, would he stamp us in a file?
Hangin' down in Memphis all the while.

(chorus:)

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."

Cerebral rape and pillage in a village of his choice.
Invisible man who can sing in a visible voice.
Feeling like a hundred bucks, exchanging good lucks face to face.
Checkin' his stash by the trash at St. Mark's place.

(chorus)

I never travel far, without a little Big Star

Runnin' 'round the house, Mickey Mouse and the Tarot cards.
Falling asleep with a flop pop video on.
If he was from Venus, would he meet us on the moon?
If he died in Memphis, then that'd be cool, babe.[/i]

OK, he died in Nawlins, which is just as cool. thanks man.