I Never Travel Far, Without A Little Big Star

It shouldn't take such events to spark a bit of life into this blog, but it's testament to the man that it does.

Alex Chilton died yesterday, following the untimely deaths earlier this year of Vic Chestnutt & Mark Linkous. Chetsnutt & Linkous are worthy of a few words themselves, but short of a few songs and an album & EP respectively, I am criminally undereducated on both. There's just not enough time in the world to get my ears around everything, no matter how true my intentions.

Big Star though, have been a constant at my side since I cottoned on to the brilliance of #1 Record. I'd probably heard it numerous times as a kid, but it was probably only once I read of the likes of Wilco & Teenage Fanclub taking influence that I really paid attention, liberally relieving my dad's CD collection of it's presence (actually the #1 Record / Radio City combo) when the urge would grab me. To that end, I'd suggest I've probably been listening to Big Star for about 10 years or more. While I understand that pales in comparison to the likes of my dad and many others, it doesn't lessen the impact. Just as I hope one day my son will have the same reaction to Wilco's Summerteeth as I did when it first surfaced.

It's safe to say that were I to own #1 Record on cassette, it would be chewed up inside my walkman somewhere around this point...



Such a simple sentiment, so brilliantly executed. The words alone reflect a time & place that everyone has visited, then set to such a beautiful melody and sparse arrangement, take on even more resonance.

Similar beauty can be found in tracks like "The Ballad of El Goodo" & "Watch The Sunrise", as the power-pop of "Don't Lie To Me" & "When My Baby's Beside Me" set the tone for the folow up, Radio City which also sporned the classic "September Gurls". Both records are worthy of multiple repeats, so the idea of the afforementioned combo, was an inspired one to say the least.

Third (also known as Sister Lovers) was, to coin the cliché, a more difficult affair. Held back for four years before it was finally granted release, it's hard (today at least) to see what reservations were to be had - the cover of "Femme Fatale" alone justifies it's place for me alongside #1 Record & Radio City.

While recorded output of late had been limited, the importance of such a character and his impact over the years, from The Box Tops through to his solo & production work cannot be overstated. There's a lot more to the tale of Alex Chilton that I'm sure will be covered over the coming weeks - I'm simply taking the time to reflect on the impact he's had on me.

Lauded by so many, and lifted by a fair few, tributes have been raining down on Alex Chilton for years. I was pointed in the direction of this annecdote earlier, from the book Our Band Could Be Your Life, the scene is one of Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes & Paul Leary, probably somewhat inebriated, at eachother's throats at a Dutch fetsival...

Moments later a man entered the dressing room and asked if he could borrow a guitar. “BORROW A GUITAR??!!! WELL, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU???!!! Haynes screamed, eyes flashing in delerious anticpation of forthcoming violence. But the man was totally unfazed.

“I’m Alex Chilton,” the man answered calmly.

Haynes was flabbergasted. After a long pause, he methodically opened the remaining guitar cases one by one and guestured at them as if to say, “Take anything you want.”


Alex Chilton. RIP.