Alex Chilton S&D

Doesn't dig Songs From Robin Hood Lane as much as the others here, but I didn't expect him to (although it seems he did like Cliches, but indicates these aren't from the same sessions after all, or not all of 'em?).
https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/59x94k/robert-christgau-on-alex-chiltons-fragile-love-songs

Some of the Robin Hood Lane stuff is apparently from the sessions for Medium Cool, a record I used to own. I never liked Cliches all that much. All the stuff on Memphis to New Orleans has been reissued before. I always felt a lot of that stuff was tentative or just underpowered, though "Thank You John" is one of his best interpretations and the No Sex and Black List EPs are mostly good. I'm working on a piece on the Klitz, the Memphis punk band who worked w/ Alex and Dickinson (and, amusingly, Sam the Sham). I met and interviewed Lesa Aldridge the other day; she's lived in Nashville for years, was once married to Chilton wannabe Tommy Hoehn. They're playing a show up here this month. They're still aiming for their shot, all these years later. The crazies thing I learned is that they did a version of "Brown Sugar" in 1979 at a south Memphis studio whose owners had bought the old Stax equipment at auction when Stax folded. It's the best thing they ever did.

Long read:

https://www.theringer.com/music/2019/2/11/18219958/alex-chilton-big-star-box-tops-the-letter-career-legacy

Rene Coman, Johnny J and Doug Garrison on LX:

https://troubledmenpodcast.podiant.co/e/36edf6c9c83680/?fbclid=IwAR2ZZ3ByiqhdN6Km1kMSVtVXXKtMz-qxxvLypS0Y_0I70QQz0F2voHdj6ko

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alex-chilton-doc/alex-chilton-why-should-i-care?ref=thanks-share

Kickstarter for Chilton movie doc by filmmaker David Julian Leonard who lived in Memphis

A friend gave me a CD of the The 1970 Sessions. I'm a fan of the first Big Star album, not well acquainted with Chilton's own work--I have Like Flies on Sherbert. Anyway, I didn't get much out of it, although I like "Smile" a lot. I was struck by how much it sounds like early Todd Rundgren, but if that was done in 1970, same year as Runt, I doubt Chilton would have ever heard Rundgren on his own. Is it simply a case of two guys, both coming out of late-'60s quasi-Nuggets bands, arriving at the same sound simultaneously?

The reformed Big Star did go on to cover 'Slut' with Alex on lead vocals

Actually
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPRgIfa7Vv8

Chilton might have been aware of the Nazz at the time of those sessions, which were in 1969 & sorta concurrent to the last Box Tops recordings, both preceding the release of Rundgren's solo stuff.

That Chilton album is quite fascinating w/all the directions the material goes. I can hear strands of CCR, Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Bros./Byrds, Sir Doug, Flamin' Groovies and more. What a different world it would have been had he been able to get that stuff released at the time. For one thing, Big Star probably wouldn't have happened exactly the way they did, or at all.

several live Big Star sets incl. cover of Rundgren's "Slut" (on at least one occasion, AC reportedly dedicated it to Jody Stephens's wife), and, as I noted to self on Twitter and the main Big Star thread:
radio interview on @BigStarBand's Live at Lafayette's Music Room, AC worries that forthcoming #1 Record is too much like Rundgren, reminding me not to overemph Beatles influences; also T.Rex v. favorably mentioned; both covered here, as on several other live recordings Way to sell the album, perverse AC, confiding your misgivings about it on the radio.

Alex Chilton "96 Tears" recently unearthed late '70s home video footage, Memphis. pic.twitter.com/VnpJywjVAp

— Nikki Kreuzer (@NikkiKreuzer) May 26, 2020

wow! I don't think I've ever seen *any* video of him from several years on either side of this

would take abt ten minutes to clean that sound up

Damn, 10 years gone. I guess he didn't leave that much in the vaults? Surely there's some better quality live recordings out there across his entire career.

wow! I don't think I've ever seen *any* video of him from several years on either side of this

would take abt ten minutes to clean that sound up

― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, May 27, 2020 11:28 AM (three minutes ago)

Welllll... there's some Axel Chitlins footage from approx around this time if I were to guess:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-k32L0KCc

and it looks like Tav is playing the same guitar in the 96 Tears clip.

I forgot about that!

also this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-eVsH49_2U

William Eggleston^

Love that 96 Tears

Tav is in the replies saying that the 96 Tears was filmed at his house in Memphis (perhaps filmed by Tav himself?)

Those '60s super villain sunglasses...

otm

Always a good time to reshare this clip...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPl4_vQ9vZo

Was wondering when that was coming.

Oh sorry, I was thinking of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-k32L0KCc

Yeah, there are some decent live Chilton sets around some of them legit-released, as mentioned upthread--- otherwise, for instance somewhere I've got a good radio tape (an aircheck, like in jazz) of him on some Public Radio show (if it's Mountain Stage, might be in their online archives, if they still have those), performing originals, Memphis covers, also some of his favorite Italian pop ballads, adept guitar picking, geniality.
Legit-release/YouTube-wise, one of my fave raves is Live In London, with Morris Windsor and RIP Matthew Seligman of Soft Boys, Knox of the Vibrators---supposedly, somebody showed up at his place of dishwashing business, presented him with a round-trip ticket, and said, "You *are* going to do this." Oh ok go.

I still need to check this---from Xgau's site:
Ocean Club '77 [Norton, 2015]
Chilton's 1977 NYC residency fell apart before the year was over, but it began on a high--the young punk/alt godfather gigging amongst us, nowhere more mythically than at his February 21-22 engagement at Mickey Ruskin's short-lived, way-downtown successor to Max's Kansas City. I attended the first of these shows, and it was incandescent--jammed, noisy, charged with ambient adrenaline. Even a quality recording like this one can't capture such an up, but you can definitely hear a more raucous, confident, and engaged Chilton than was his quirky norm. The 16-song set leads with the brand new "All of the Time," includes five loud Big Star covers plus a rough-hewn reading of the Box Tops smash "The Letter," introduces Chilton's great nonhit "My Rival," and covers the Ventures, the Beach Boys, the Seeds, and Chuck Berry's "Memphis." Cult history is being made. Of course we were psyched. A-

I had that set on some late 90s bootleg, it's pretty great.

some version of it is on Spotify

More videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaOstl-eQ6I
@BigStarBand

@OmnivoreRecords

@rebel7449 or post even more of your favs here, of course.

I wonder if writer Robert Gordon's new updated version of his book "It Came from Memphis" has new details and stories on Alex Chilton?

Hm. Updated you say?

He would have been 70 yesterday.

from ilxor tylerw's crucial blog (yes still a few):

https://64.media.tumblr.com/84b6815f9035ec678ca1f8f5339b1855/7593e9061c0cd0a6-ea/s1280x1920/05ca7825489dfc281a943f45f09983e1a235fe14.jpg

Here’s something unusual — and uncirculated, perhaps — to get your day started. An audio verité document of the one and only Alex Chilton playing records late into the night at a pal’s loft back in ‘77.
https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/640752212251983872/alex-chilton-richard-freys-loft-246-bowery

@tywilc

Replying to
@williamtylertn
and
@jasonpwoodbury
let's just say that Alex REALLY liked The Beach Boys Love You.

It Csmr from Memphis Robert Gordon book reading event with Ann Powers tonight may touch on Chilton. Thursday Jan 21 6 pm central which I guess is 7 pm eastern, on Facebook

https://fb.me/e/1SC0LQXXA

Parnassus Books is doing the conversation

a wildly entertaining book

Newly updated, right?

published on jack white's vanity label!

Yes, newly updated

Alex Chilton and Hi Rhythm Section
Boogie Shoes: Live On Beale Street

Release date: May 7, 2021

Description
Unissued 1999 live set from Alex Chilton (The Box Tops/Big Star) and Hi Rhythm Section

“I never saw him have so much fun on stage. Without rehearsal, Alex called songs and the band locked in. The horn section consists of top Memphis session guys who huddled together when each song was called creating parts on the fly. The pure joy of playing this music so freely with such legendary musicians comes across in every groove of the record.”

—David Less, from his liner notes.

Memphis is a city with music in its blood. When Fred Ford, co-founder of the Beale Street Music Festival, was diagnosed with cancer, David Less organized Fredstock, a fund raiser to help with his medical bills. Less contacted Memphis legend Alex Chilton (The Box Tops, Big Star), who was living in New Orleans, to ask him to participate. Alex said he didn’t have any musicians to play with in Memphis, so Less suggested the Hi Rhythm Section (the band behind classics from artists including Ann Peebles, Ike & Tina Turner, O. V. Wright, Otis Clay, and Al Green). Alex replied, “That will work.”

This previously unissued live set contains versions of soul classics from The Supremes and Otis Clay, rock numbers from Chuck Berry and Little Richard, and even a cover of the KC & The Sunshine Band title track. Available on CD, Digital, and LP, Boogie Shoes: Live On Beale Street was recorded at the New Daisy Theater in Memphis in 1999, during Fredstock.

Packaging contains liner notes from Producer David Less, a friend of Chilton, and author of the acclaimed Memphis Mayhem: A Story Of The Music That Shook Up The World, and features a cover from rock & roll and folk art painter, Lamar Sorrento.

Get ready to discover this performance by Memphis icons—tearing it up on stage, making music, and having fun. You’ll want to put on y-y-y-y-your Boogie Shoes.

Alex Chilton - Boogie Shoes LP Bundle

Special LP Bundle Available:
We also have a limited-edition bundle that features the LP and a numbered lithographic print of the album cover. This special edition is limited to 100 copies and available only via the Omnivore webstore.

CD / LP / Digital Track List:

Boogie Shoes
Precious, Precious
634-5789
Kansas City
Lucille
Big Boss Man
Where Did Our Love Go
Maybelline
Hello Josephine
Trying To Live My Life Without You

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExWzYhgWgAoS_gj?format=jpg&name=900x900

more info:
http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/alex-chilton-and-hi-rhythm-section-boogie-shoes-live-on-beale-street/

A live session of Chilton w/ Hi rhythm section sounds promising for sure

First review of it I've seen:
https://michaelsmusiclog.blogspot.com/2021/04/alex-chilton-and-hi-rhythm-section.html

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EzXPzJEUUAQEoKd?format=jpg&name=small

Surely there's some better quality live recordings out there across his entire career.

I answered my own question:
Ocean Club '77 - solid but only a handful of unique tracks
Electricity By Candlelight NYC 2/13/97 - good selection of songs but terrible bootleg sound quality
Live In Anvers - ahhh, this one is great. A bunch of fun covers, his backing band is a bit loose but enjoyable, and he's in fine voice.

I'm looking forward to the new one based on that review!

I thought Live In London was pretty cool. esp. since he got drafted into a one-off (interrupting his dishwashing gig).
So far "Boogie Shoes" is the only Live on Beale Street track posted on Spotify and the 'Tube---as I expected, most of the interest is insturumental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-jX_OwPIkA
Also a tiny trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTW7Sqf1Blk

His voice seems more effective on these Chet Baker-associated tunes (first track is glitchy on my computer, but no prob w others). He plays some nice guitar too getting into it more on uptempo "There Will Be Another You" (reminds me, look for Sonnly Rollins's version of that, from the album of the same title, which he sued to have deleted, but later on an import., and prob posted somewhere)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2t1pgsrRzc

0:00​ There Will Never Be Another You [acoustic]
3:02​ That Old Feeling
5:07​ Let's Get Lost
7:11​ Look for the Silver Lining
9:33​ Time After Time
12:11​ Like Someone in Love
14:48​ There Will Never Be Another You [electric]

Band on "That Old Feeling", "Look for the Silver Lining" and "Like Someone in Love" : Ron Miller,acoustic bass and producer; Robert Arron on piano and tenor saxophone; Richard Dworkin on drums. From the album "Imagination" by Medium Cool, with Alex Chilton as guest vocalist on these three tracks only.

Band on "There Will Never Be Another You [electric]" : Ron Easley, electric bass, Richard Dworkin, drums. From the 1999 album "Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy" (New Rose Records) (a.k.a. "Set", Bar/None Records).

"There Will Never Be Another You [acoustic]", "Let's Get Lost", and "Time After Time" are solo performances from the album "Cliches" (1994, New Rose / Ardent)

Photos: Chet Baker, Times Square, New York City, 1958 (age 29; photo by Carole Reiff); Alex Chilton, The Bowery, New York City, 1977 (age 26; photo by David Godlis)

So this is streaming now but haven’t listened yet

It's fun if not as epic as I'd hoped. As always, his choice of covers is impeccable.

I kind of sometimes want to be contrarian about that, but hard to find fault really.

sequence from Sweet Soul Music thread:

Judging by "Boogie Shoes" on YouTube, most of the appeal of the Alex Chilton/Hi Rhythm live album might be insrumental, which reminds me: here they are with Terry Manning, better known as a producer and engineer at Ardent etc. but his rough-and-ready vocal approach works better with HRS live than Chilton's (comparing just one track to another):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lyZHzReSk