Alex
Chilton
Chilton was a high-school teenager from Memphis in late sixties when Chips
Moman and Dan Penn hired his band to make The Letter. Chips and Dan
thought it would be cool to have a white band, with Steve Winwood vocals that
has a Motown sound and sure enough, The Box Tops were exactly what they needed.
Basically, Chilton provided vocals, and the rest of the band were just poster
boys. Studio musicians were hired for every song Box Tops ever recorded, and
young Chilton was told how to sing by Dan Penn. However, The Box Tops were
not just the Spice Boys of the sixities. Soon, Moman would let Chilton to
contribute as a songwriter to the band, although Penn wasn't too happy about
it. Some of the Chilton's tunes, like (The) Happy Song are the loveliest
Box Tops tunes 'till today.
Box Tops were extremly popular, but young Chilton wasn't ready for such an
exposure. He found his way out through drugs and alcohol. One day he just
walked out from the stage where the Box Tops were perforing and bailed for
New York City. He had many songs and many new ideas, but he lacked consistency.
Some of that material came out recently as 1970 album.
One of the Chilton's ideas was to invite his old buddy from school, Chris
Bell to NYC to form a Simon & Garfunkel type of duet. Bell said he can't.
He had a band in Memphis who played anlgophilic sounds and that was his idea
of a rock band he wanted to participate. Alex heard the band and next thing
you know, the band changes name into Big Star and the rock'n'roll history
is being rewritten again.
Many stories were told about Big Star, and all you know about them is true.
But, let's make a quick recapitulation. This band had a short, but very exctining
and productive life. Chiltons prevoous credtis assured them a deal with Stax
company. But it was really hard to sell a white, anglophilic band like The
Big Star on a soul label like Stax. Moreover, when the first album
by the Big Star came out, Stax had finantial troubles, and only a thousand
copies of that wonderful record were printed. Although the band got a worldwide
critical acclamation, nobody could buy their records because there were not
any around! Tensions in the band rised, and Bell bailed. Second album was
recorded, but it had a similar destiny like the forst one. Both records are
available today after rediscovery of the band thanks to the punk and post-punk
bands who talked about them all the time. The third album was supposed to
be a double album and it was supposed to come out on a new label. However,
Alex simply couldn't pull it together and the record was never finished. Parts
of the record came out as a bootleg in several different forms throughout
the years, and nowadays the complete sessions in Jim Dickinson's productions
are available today as 3rd/Sister Lovers.
By the end of the seventies Alex was a mess. He was totally dissapointed in
his artistic abilities and there was more alcohol than ever in his bloodstream.
He attemted to make some albums in that period, but never pulled it together,
even though friends wanted to help.
Many different legends are spread about this guy during his lost years. Steve
Wynn says he went to see him in Memphis to tell him how much he likes his
music and show appretiation. After he found him, Chilton was very rude to
Wynn, yelled at him and Wynn went back to Los Angeles completely dissapiointed
in his old hero.
Another story well known sotry is about Chilton's and Paul Westerberg's meeting
in New Orleans. Westerberg found him under some table in a bar drunk as a
skunk. Both of them drunk some more and then went to a strip bar. After that
Westerberg came home and made the Replacement's hit Alex Chilton.
However, one of the things that helped Chilton a lot was being a producer
for The Cramps. He produced their several first albums and that showed him
that he's capable to pull it together and make something concrete and complete
again.
In 1984 he joined his friend's Tav Falco's band Panther Burns and touring
and recording with them was his road to salvation. In 1987 he came back with
High Priest and a set of very powerful covers and originals. This showed
a new face of Chilton, somewhere half way between Big Star and Box Tops and
with a lot of twists and hooks. Then in the begining of the nineties Big Star
were finally rediscovered and Chilton probably gained a lot of strength from
that second coming and a succesful tour and reunion album in 1993. He moved
to New Orleans and today plays regularily in Howlin' Wolf club with
his bar band. He looks and sounds great.
On a concert I was on September 15 2001 he played mostly songs that appeared
on his last album entitled Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy everywhere in
the world except in this country (Set). He returned to some classics
from the High Priest era and also to Big Star in couple of songs. One
of them was In The Street which is actually Chris Bell's sonng and
it is used today in a hit sit-com That Seventies Show. The gig was
a big fun, atmosphere was very relaxed and people knew all the songs very
well, even though most of them were very obscure covers from the fifties and
sixties.