Alex Chilton S&D

unsurprisingly much worse than the version on Lei'd in Hawai'i

maybe for fans only i can never tell but really really enjoying ocean club 77

yeah i think it's great -- maybe the best set from this period? speaking of which, a lot of good info on chilton's nyc years in the numero group Ork Records set that came out a few weeks ago.

Indeedio---currently listening to Ork box on the free version of a certain streaming service: Mr. C. (and Prix trax which may or may not incl. him) sounding mighty fine so far.

Just noticed it a couple days ago but it looks like Raven records have put out the three Box Top albums on a 2 CD set earlier this year.

There's actually four Box Tops LPs, which are indeed in that Raven set alongside some but not all of their stray Chilton-era* singles.

*I have a Chilton-less Box Tops single from '71-2 on Stax in my 45 collects!

I thought that might be the first time those Lps were brought out on CD. I know for a long time the Box Tops only had a greatest hits package available.

Sundazed had them out on CD with bonus tracks (stray singles, mono 45 mixes, unreleased stuff) back in 2000, but they've been OOP for awhile.

interesting little chilton/dickinson deal -- https://summerstepsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/brown-sugar-call-me-7 -- "possibly under the influence of hog tranquilizers"!

Summersteps is proud to announce this special limited edition single featuring two vintage sides from Amy Gassner. Amy is best known as the bassist for Memphis’ first all-girl punk band The KLiTZ.

The A-Side features a very relaxed reading of The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” recorded in the haze of 1979 and possibly under the influence of hog tranquilizers. Personnel includes legendary producer Jim Dickinson (Big Star, Replacements, etc) on bass along with her fellow KLiTZ providing backup. While the flip side, features a groovy rendition of Tony Hatch’s “Call Me.” Committed to tape a few years later in ‘82 at Easley Studios with the accompaniment of both Doug and Ron Easley along with legendary sometime Panther Burn and Alex Chilton drummer, Ross Johnson.

Highly recommended for those who dig the artfully damaged sounds of Alex Chilton's Like Flies on Sherbert, Tav Falco's Panther Burns and of course, The KLiTZ.

The Grifters should be mentioned as well, I think?

did anyone get that live in '77 album that came out a year or two ago??

the ocean club one? i have it -- it's a very good time. similar to the bootlegs that have floated around from that period but (slightly) better sound, some rare covers.

Feeling kind of sad about how many of the people in the Chilton story, some of whom I got to meet, like Jim Dickinson, and write about (I did a Dickinson piece in 2007 for which I got to talk to him), are gone: Alex, Andy Hummel, John Hampton, Lee Baker, Tommy Hoehn, Dickinson, Sid Selvidge (got to see him play once in Nashville, where he shared a bill with folk-jazz singer Caroline Peyton), Richard Rosebrough, John Fry. And Chris Bell. And Chips Moman, who passed this year, and with whom I got one of the last 2 interviews he gave, far as I can determine. I guess I feel lucky to have known or interviewed or met some of these folks--I also got to interview Alex back in 1981 and got an interview that I think is one of the better ones he gave, and he treated me and my friends really nice and wasn't remotely difficult that day. A few months later in Nashville, I caught a Panther Burns set and went back to the dressing room between sets and sat at Alex' feet like a little puppy dog; he was also nice to me then.
I wrote this back when he died, and I wish I could have written more about him; it's kind of hard to read it now because it was so long ago, and though I think I did a good job of interviewing him, what I know now. what I knew in 2010, versus what I thought I knew then...damn. I don't know if I ever posted this anywhere here, see what you think. And here's my Jim Dickinson piece, which covers some Alex stuff pretty well (I would've made it a bit more down-to-the-bone, I think, but it was done for No Depression and they had their way of doing stuff.

And, here's my 2012 Chips Moman interview. Chips was like Alex--he didn't give a lot away, unless he wanted to: http://www.nashvillescene.com/music/article/13044490/chips-moman-the-cream-interview.

Good stuff, thanks. Wonder if there's any more Chilton-Dickinson out there. Moman worked with the Box Tops *after* Dan Penn? Thought Penn kept his hand in for the duration. How were their records different with Moman?

Moman just did the last album...the main difference was he let the actual band appear on stuff alongside the session guys. Aside from a jammy cover of "Rock Me Baby" at the end, it doesn't really come off that different from the earlier stuff.

Right, Chips just did the "Soul Deep"-era Box Tops, and maybe there was just a bit less schlock on that single than the previous, not that the schlock wasn't beautiful on Penn's "Neon Rainbow" and "I Met Her in Church" and the great "Fields of Clover," perhaps the toughest track the Box Tops ever did. I always heard that Chips admired Chilton and wanted to work with him again. Definitely would've been interesting, but Chilton always looked down his nose at Chips and Penn for being out of touch with contemporary music. Dan Penn told me that Alex showed up after a show in New Orleans and carried Dan's guitar for him, a sign of respect I guess, and Penn never thought much of Alex' songwriting.
I think there are some tracks that Dickinson cut with folks like wrestler Jerry Lawler that are out there somewhere. They apparently aren't on the same tracks, but Dickinson and Chilton had something to do with this interesting single by a former member of Memphis punk band the Kltiz.

new thing coming out -- not sure if these have ever showed up on bootlegs?

Just announced for release by Munster Records on June 16: an LP of previously unreleased rehearsals and alternate takes from Alex Chilton's 1975 recording sessions for the Singer Not The Song EP and Bach's Bottom album, with notes by Alex Chilton, written in 1992, and 2017 notes by original producer Jon Tiven.

Take Me Home And Make Me Like It is a raw document of one of the pivotal moments in Alex Chilton's career, telling the story of a troubled recording process that nevertheless produced intensely unique music. From Jon Tiven's liner notes: "He wanted to repudiate his Big Star work and make a sinister record that threatened people. . . . so I'm happy to present these tracks with no apologies."

More info here:
http://munster-records.com/en/label/munster/product/take-me-home-and-make-me-like-it

Alex Chilton Take Me Home And Make Me Like It

Munster
Alex Chilton
Take Me Home And Make Me Like It

1
Take Me Home
2
Every Time I Close My Eyes (Alt version)
3
All Of The Time (Alt version)
4
I'm So Tired (Full version)
5
Free Again (Alt version)
6
Jesus Christ (Take 1)
7
Jesus Christ (Take 2)
8
Singer Not The Song (Alt version)
9
Summertime Blues (Full version)
10
Take Me Home (Rehearsal)
11
Free Again (Rehearsal)
12
Every Time I Close My Eyes (A capella)

feels a little barrel-scraping-y, but what the hell, i'll check it out.
i finally got that chilton-vega-vaughn live record and it is amazing.

I hope they include a tacky badge.

The weirdo version of Take Me Home is m6 favorite song of his, so I'm mildly intrigued.

Before scraping the barrel, check out Prix

i listened to a promo of this, it's great



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2017

ALEX CHILTON’S 1995 RETURN TO ROCK,
A MAN CALLED DESTRUCTION,
REISSUED AND EXPANDED WITH
SEVEN BONUS TRACKS ON OMNIVORE, AUGUST 25th

Critically acclaimed album to be released on two-LP vinyl for the first time,
and features new liner notes from Bob Mehr.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As lead singer of The Box Tops and co-founder of Big Star, Alex Chilton already had a place in rock history. But he was never one to rest on his laurels. An enormous music fan himself, he consistently reinvented his own sound throughout his career, until his death in 2010.

Chilton returned to Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios and a reconstituted Ardent label to record Destruction, a classic mix of originals and covers, this time with a full-horn section. Featuring an eclectic mixture of garage rock, jazz and R&B, A Man Called Destruction, released in 1995, was well received by fans and critics, and even landed him a spot on Late Night With Conan O’Brien performing the album’s “Lies.”

The Orlando Sentinel observed: “Plenty of bands attempt, however feebly, to reproduce Big Star's melancholic power-pop. But nobody else would dare try to approximate the brilliant, offhand weirdness and subtle irony of Chilton's later solo work. Teenage Fan Club might be able to imitate Big Star's guitar sound on ‘September Gurls,’ but they couldn't transmogrify 'Volare’ the way Chilton did on 1987's High Priest. Destruction is very much in the tradition of High Priest — a peculiar mélange of deliriously cheesy pop.” 

Destruction will re-appear via Omnivore Recordings on August 25, 2017, complete with seven previously unissued tracks from the original sessions and new liner notes from journalist and author Bob Mehr (Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements).

To make this reintroduction even more special, the title is making its vinyl debut. The first pressing will be a translucent blue double album, which includes all of the bonus tracks, a download card, and Mehr’s essay in the gatefold sleeve.

With the renewed interest and appreciation for his work in Big Star, it is the perfect time for Chilton’s solo work to get the same due. It is time for a reintroduction of A Man Called Destruction.

Track Listing:
1. Sick And Tired
2. Devil Girl
3. Lies
4. It’s Your Funeral
5. What’s Your Sign Girl
6. Il Ribelle
7. You Don’t Have To Go
8. Boplexity
9. New Girl In School

10. You’re Lookin’ Good
11. Don’t Know Anymore
12. Don’t Stop

Previously Unissued Bonus Tracks:
13. Devil Girl (Double-Track Vocal)
14. Don’t Know Anymore (Rough Mix)
15. Give It To Me Baby (Take 3)
16. You’re My Favorite
17. (I Don’t Know Why) But I Do
18. Please Pass Me My Walkin’ Shoes
19. Why Should I Care/It’s Your Funeral
# # #

Will also be available on CD and download.

Still haven't checked that, but now I'm listening to another Chilton-related Omnivore expansion, Carmaig De Forest's I Shall Be Re-Released, which starts with I Shall Be Released, produced and played on by Mr. A.C., some of whose peers still find it startling: Will Rigby, who played with De Forest at CBGB, is quoted in the booklet to the effect that it's a whole other side--"the punkiest"---to Chilton's picking and undocumented anywhere else; lstening again, early adopter Scott McCaughey now raves, "Chilton's production and playing is almost shockingly prescient and wholly brilliant---spiky and wild, yet way more disciplined than he allowed himself to be on his own records."
Well, I hope that's not entirely true of the Chilton recs I haven't heard yet (and we've mentioned several on here that are tight enough), but this certainly works as punky 80s folk-rock: comparisons were and are made to to early Modern Lovers and especially Violent Femmes---Gordan Gano also played that CBGB show w De Forest, who opened for the VFs several times, him and his solitary ukelele. Which is another thing that reminds of Loudon Wainwright III, with his spare, limber, plugged-in LPs and exuberant one-man shows, starting a decade earlier (back when Chilton was covering Wainwright's "Motel Blues" at Big Star gigd).
Also like early Wainwright (and young Jawnwathon Richman, though he's a heavier vocal presence than these other guys), De F.'s got a lot of compressed lyrics, confrontational dream-scenes from complicated relationships (comebacks he wishes he'd thought of at the time and/or will have the nerve for next round: exciting fantasies!), flying by like boomerangs. Plus some still-entertaining topical work-outs, like "Hey Judas" and "Crack's No Worse Than The Fascist Threat."
It's a lot to take in, but right away I hear why and how Chilton responded so well.

It's no masterpiece, but pretty refreshing so far, putting s sparky spin on (not too-)familiar elements.

From Alex Chilton RIP 2010----still gotta check this too!

Listened to Like Flies on Sherbert while stoned and it completely came alive to me. It made me realise he's a great story teller. He shapes the narrative with weird effects and volume inequalities, all the while acting out a scenario with his voice. The way everything is structured, and especially his guitar work, heightens the story.
It also rocks in a brutally southern, soulful way. Live in London is spectacular too. The version of Kanga Roo on that is massive.
I've Had it - who's singing this? It totally sounds like John Cale, but he's not credited right?

Bach's Bottom - I can't beleive I haven't heard this before. As a massive Big Star fan, this is the missing link between Big Star (particularly Third) and Like Flies on Sherbert. It's beautiful, and the throaway outtakes are fascinating.

― glumdalclitch, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 14:37 (yesterday) Permalink

Live in London is awesome. He has got an incredible presence. I saw him in Munich in the late 80s and he rocked hard.

― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 22:01 (yesterday) Permalink

I've Had it - who's singing this?

Jim Dickinson, I think?

― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 22:54

Robert Gordon, who wrote the thread-relevant It Came From Memphis/ put together a listening companion of the same name, has now coughed up the book x album yclept Memphis Rent Party: Chilton shows up on a couple tracks, Jim Dickinson sings "I Want To Be A Hippie," (oh yeah and some guy named Jerry Lee Lewis crashes the party)---tasty take here: https://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/freaky-roots-memphis-rent-party-reveals-hidden-charms/Content?oid=11838795

Saw that. Curious

Bless this guy; but he had some of the worst album titles of any artist —

Like Flies on Sherbert
Bach's Bottom
High Priest
Clichés
A Man Called Destruction
Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy

I like the title Like Flies on Sherbert

Am guessing Gordon's latest Memphis book (and companion record) are worth investigating too

Pretty sure he had nothing to do with the release, and naming, of "Bach's Bottom".

"High Priest" is apropos, as is "A Man Called Destruction". "Cliches" is what it says on the tin. The rest I'm with you.

Could Bach's Bottom be in part a ref to the olde association of bock beer with bottom of the barrel and/or stored in cellar? Apparently it is *not* from the bottom of the barrel/fermenter as I was told many years ago, around the time this platter was released. Was also told that "bock" means "billy goat" in German, dunno. But all associations that come to mind (incl. of course rude whimsical gotta-call-it-something ref to Classical Composer) seems ACpropriate.

also: "seem"

Surely a play on Box Tops, no? You mean in addition to that?

i've come around to the idea that the "dusted in memphis" bootleg really is chilton's best solo record. i'm in awe of his capacity for self-sabotage.

x-post
I didn't catch that... terrible pun! I guess intentionally so.

I didn't catch it either, thanks! All the best puns are terrible.

It’s a thin line

Came to say that the book called A Man Called Destruction is useful, but a book in which the actual man called Destruction features, Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolfby James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, is excellent.

I recently talked to Danny Graflund. He was Alex' bodyguard and was in the studio when the Tiven stuff was going down. He's the guy who says at the end of the Bach's BottomLP, "If you was Mott the Hoople, I'd go out there and pee all over you, but who gives a shit." Danny told me he didn't piss on the board, he pissed in the corner. I've also been in touch with a guy named David Leonard, who's putting together a Chilton documentary, and I sent him a cassette of the interview I and Mike Fink and David Duncan did with Alex in 1981. Which Holly George-Warren cites in her book, not realizing it was me, the last interview he did for a while until he resurfaced a few years later out of New Orleans. I looked thru the new Robert Gordon book. Robert says Alex liked him until Robert told Alex his astrological sign. The abacus clicked inside Alex' head, the calculations were completed, and Alex never treated Robert the same way again. He told Dickinson this, that Alex made him very uncomfortable. Dickinson said, don't worry, he makes everyone feel that way. Tiven is still angry about Alex supposedly messing up those 1975 sessions, to this day. I talked to Jon about it the other day. We hung out at a Donnie Fritts show here this week. From "Nightime" and "O Dana," sublime poetic music, to...seven thousand minutes of "Take Me Home and Make Me Like It," a song that exists in its perfect form only once, on the CBGB live thing found on One Day in New York.

Booked Alex for a show in 87. We were hanging out and a couple women friends joined us. Their conversation seem to put him off, and at one point he asked them when they were born (1966). He coolly told them that that was the year of the fire horse in Chinese astrology and that women born that year would bring destruction to all in their lives.

What did they say to that?

And did he grace them with the famous Chilton grimace?

They had been talking while he rolled one. Left them a little pretty stunned. They didn't stay much longer, needless to say. Definitely a wry grin as he stuck the knife in. Never meet your idols.

During the set, he was in classic LX hassling the sound guy mode, asking repeatedly for more high end. I was back at the mixing desk and our guy had things pretty much pegged. Fortunately, without a change, he found the sound improved and played on.

A friend with a small label around the time joked about putting out an EP of just Chilton complaining about sound.

Yeah, once we some him back in the day at Tramps on 21st Street after he had played at Maxwell’s a day or two earlier. He had actually been pleased with the audio at the Maxwell’s show so he hired that sound guy to work the Tramps show as well, which of course ended up being plagued with all sorts of problems.

A muso buddy of mine once mentioned to another friend that his band was going to open for Jeff Beck, and she made him agree to introduce them---he warned her of what a dick Beck could be, cited examples, but she was ready to take her chances, Yadda yadda, he and she joined Beck and a few others at an afterhours spot, all in a secluded corner booth, the stah treatment. She chose a lull in the conversation just briefly to say hi, I'm SoandSo, been into your music since the Sixties. He totally ignored her for the rest of the evening, until finally asking her to go get him a pack of cigarettes. She told him what a corny cliche rockstar asshole he was being---"like a rabid chihuahua," muso buddy told me. Beck looked shocked---and stunned---the road manager 'bout to died laughing.

follow-up to the take on xpost Carmaig De Forest, Chilton-produced (press release for this one is also upthread):

Chilton also juices the familiars on his own expanded Omnivore, A Man Called Destruction---tempted to say "of course," because the unexpected reliability of this set, incl. alt. takes and prev. unissued titles, breeds a little bit of complacency in the robust litter, alongside interest and excitement---I was already starting to think, re the chunky originals ending the original album, that things were getting a little generic, though its prob the more agreeable, reasonable side of the subgenre which solo entertainer AC staked a claim to: that droll, rolling, r&r&b&b Memphis-NOLA thing, with a tad of country (bonus ["I Don't Know Why] But I Do" reverie not at all bothered by electric horse thermometer bass and equally business-like drums) and Southern 50s-mid-60s AM radio fodder (Brian Wilson contribution to Jan and Dean "New Girl In School," and the diligently, consistently worked-out, silly come-on "What's Your Sign, Girl?", falsetto now reformed to an agreeable twang), all work at least OK, in there with Italian rockabilly and a rockin' dirge and jitterbug jazzabilly and slow dunk unstoppable Jimmy Reed shuffles and heavy power pop---Chilton's sharp-edged, witty, sometimes slightly migrainey, dust devil guitar leads the session, with his voice adding even more genial clarity and definition to the "dry," sufficiently vivid sonics---but like I said was already getting a bit complacently discontented re "generic"/ his kind of subgeneric (which also reminded me of the way NRBQ pulls these ingredients together when they're on it, not to mention some thoughts of Beatles) even before I got to the part of Bob Merlis's notes in which he goes from very detailed and relevant clarity of backstory to opining that Chilton's chunky originals herein are of the rootsy AC vein that "had emerged as his greatest form of self-expression---as opposed to the pristine pop of Big Star, which some fans were still hoping he would produce." It was not pristine, never generic, basically reliably-to-easily-reproducible power pop---well, occasionally too sealed-over in the self-regard, as in words to "Ballad of El Goodo,"---too "pristine" in that sense---but never without some sonic distinction----and here the AC lyrics that are least wet-leafy, most likely to spin the spark and vice-versa, are the ones that have a glint of Big Star:"You're Lookin' Good"'s "I dig your mind/I dig your clothes," and "I'm ravin' I'm your slave/You're my/French fries, " from "You're My Favorite." And yes I'm quibblin' I'm dribblin' all sorts of generous quality, for these are almost all as good as french and even freedom fries, if not quite as in-the-spirit-of- Big Star free-fryin' as I'd like. (Speaking of keeping thinking, was also flagging *several* tracks, all along, as additions to midsize folder of BS faves x solo titbits, from Feudalist Tarts etc.)
"In-the-spirit of Big Star" really means also in the spirit and tradition of pushing the older elements a little further, a little more seemingly off-handed for lagniappe.