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children by the millions
Mar. 17th, 2010 11:26 pmMan, Alex Chilton died. He was only 59.
http://tinyurl.com/ygv6ev8
I know a lot of you are saying "who?" but he was the guy who wrote the song they used for the theme of "That 70s Show" - it's called "In The Street", and the version you hear is by Cheap Trick, but Alex Chilton wrote that song with Chris Bell, his partner in the band Big Star.
He was the guy who sung "The Letter" (you know, "gimme a ticket for an airplane") back before you were born, when he was only 16 in a band called The Box Tops. They had a few hits but Chilton wasn't cut out to be a bubblegum puppet, and when he and Bell started Big Star they wrote some of the most perfect songs ever; little four and five minute gems that start out like pop songs but get sidetracked, beautifully sidetracked. They say Big Star was a 'power pop' band but that label is a bit too glib. Naturally they sank like a stone, most power pop bands did - they just sank ahead of the curve.
I wore the grooves out on the song named after Alex on Replacements' LP PLEASED TO MEET ME (well, the whole record, really) before I even knew who he was. I got a cassette out of the freebie bin at WU0G, a Rykodisc promo tape of Big Star's third LP and live cuts. I knew of Big Star, record store clerks drop the name to sound hip and with-it, but had I actually heard any of their songs? Not yet, but the live version of "September Gurls" was a great introduction When "#1 Record" and "Big Star" came out on a double CD I got to hear the studio cut; equally stunning. Punchy, complex, thoughtful yet hook-laden - pretty much exactly what people didn't want to hear in the mid 1970s. But the LPs were there, got played over and over again, got college-radio'd and music-writered up for years until they couldn't be ignored.
Big Star was always there, namechecked by big stars, their songs covered by top 40 acts (thanks to the Raleigh college station DJ playing the Bangles' version of "September Gurls" sometime 15 years ago), always good to make a long car trip more pleasurable, especially driving back from the only Otakon I ever attended with Gordon Waters, watching the country shoot fireworks at us the whole way down. I always hoped Alex Chilton would get the recognition he deserved. He got accolades from the industry and the secret college of musical knowledge, but he deserved more, if only for making the world a better place four minutes at a time.
http://tinyurl.com/ygv6ev8
I know a lot of you are saying "who?" but he was the guy who wrote the song they used for the theme of "That 70s Show" - it's called "In The Street", and the version you hear is by Cheap Trick, but Alex Chilton wrote that song with Chris Bell, his partner in the band Big Star.
He was the guy who sung "The Letter" (you know, "gimme a ticket for an airplane") back before you were born, when he was only 16 in a band called The Box Tops. They had a few hits but Chilton wasn't cut out to be a bubblegum puppet, and when he and Bell started Big Star they wrote some of the most perfect songs ever; little four and five minute gems that start out like pop songs but get sidetracked, beautifully sidetracked. They say Big Star was a 'power pop' band but that label is a bit too glib. Naturally they sank like a stone, most power pop bands did - they just sank ahead of the curve.
I wore the grooves out on the song named after Alex on Replacements' LP PLEASED TO MEET ME (well, the whole record, really) before I even knew who he was. I got a cassette out of the freebie bin at WU0G, a Rykodisc promo tape of Big Star's third LP and live cuts. I knew of Big Star, record store clerks drop the name to sound hip and with-it, but had I actually heard any of their songs? Not yet, but the live version of "September Gurls" was a great introduction When "#1 Record" and "Big Star" came out on a double CD I got to hear the studio cut; equally stunning. Punchy, complex, thoughtful yet hook-laden - pretty much exactly what people didn't want to hear in the mid 1970s. But the LPs were there, got played over and over again, got college-radio'd and music-writered up for years until they couldn't be ignored.
Big Star was always there, namechecked by big stars, their songs covered by top 40 acts (thanks to the Raleigh college station DJ playing the Bangles' version of "September Gurls" sometime 15 years ago), always good to make a long car trip more pleasurable, especially driving back from the only Otakon I ever attended with Gordon Waters, watching the country shoot fireworks at us the whole way down. I always hoped Alex Chilton would get the recognition he deserved. He got accolades from the industry and the secret college of musical knowledge, but he deserved more, if only for making the world a better place four minutes at a time.
