Big Star

> He was drinking, doing drugs and grieving when he was 13.

Damn. Never thought of Chilton as a proto-Mark Kozelek.

Alex didn’t like it (wtf).

FWIW, he was dismissive of pretty much all of the classic Big Star stuff.

Hey 13, that's Alex Chilton

otm

always interpreted that paint it black lyric to mean the same thing as

Your sister says that I'm no good
I'd reassure her if I could

from Bell's "You and Your Sister" which seems like a continuation or almost a sequel to 13, just learned Chilton sang backup on that

FWIW, he was dismissive of pretty much all of the classic Big Star stuff.

It literally drove Chris Bell crazy that the press gave Chilton ALL the credit (per the Big Star doc) and to have Chilton dismiss that work altogether is like the biggest f*** you to his memory.

ouch, did not know that

To be fair, he did the songs, and he reformed the band. I know he could've used the income, but deep down I doubt he was really dismissive and just being his usual cantankerous, difficult self.

that scans, yeah

Alex? Cantankerous?

we went to see a reformed box tops at the hoboken arts fest. afterward my wife wanted to get alex to sign the set list she'd taken from the stage floor. i cautioned her that he might not take kindly to that, but he seemed to have been in a good mood for the whole show so she approached him and he smiled and signed it and was very gracious. a nice final memory of alex chilton.

Must have had a very good soundman at that show.

but deep down I doubt he was really dismissive and just being his usual cantankerous, difficult self.

I’m sure there was more than a little “fuck you, where were you when we couldn’t get arrested?” frustration on Alex’s part whenever Big Star was gushed over in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And “Where were you when Chris Bell was alive?” was probably part of that frustration.

This is probably somewhat true, but didn’t the rock press like Big Star, wasn’t there some press party in Memphis that encouraged them to keep going?

No doubt held at TGIF.

The Rock Writers Convention. May 25 and 26, 1973.

Guess there was some myth that they had broken up after Chris and only got back together for this convention. But it did give them a shot in the arm and motivate them.

Feel like I say this every few years or so, but I just think of Alex and Lou Reed as two peas in a pod filled with shpilkes, compelled to bait the press and audience incessantly in order to scratch some itch or relive and temporarily relieve some trauma.

Highly recommend Bruce Eaton’s 33&1/3 book on Big Star’s Radio City.

Okay maybe they hadn’t formally broken up before that but were kind of drifting a bit.

Chilton and Reed shared that bitterness of, “Oh, you like us now, and it’s hip to know our music? Because we went through hell for years trying to find an audience and thinking everyone hated us.” For Reed that bitterness extended to the point where the planned 1993 Velvets US tour wouldn’t hit NYC. It was one of the few things he and Cale agreed on during the reunion: “NYC didn’t support us then, so why should they be able to see us now?” (though it was a moot point since they split up.)

Now I’m hearing “Style It Takes” in my head.

What you say is of course true but I think there are some elements. I recall something Doug Yule saying something about Lou’s “imperfect instrument.” Both of these guys were huge talents but they lacked some facility which seems to have frustrated them. In the book I keep referring to, Alex totally dismisses his own songwriting, in particular his lyrics, on Radio City. Neither was a particularly natural musician in the traditional way, which I assume bugged them, although Alex managed to turn himself into his own kind of troubadour, slowly but surely building up his guitar chops from what he learned in those first lessons from Dennis Wilson on a Box Tops/Beach Boys tour.

Something something something

I wish I had right now a member the press in my presence upon which head to heap vitriol for my annoyance at my own neverending string of typos.

Member of

To be fair, he did the songs

?

I love thinking of 13 and You and Your Sister as a pair

You And Your Sister (Songs)

To be fair, he did the songs
?

He performed (many of them) live, he didn't shun the entire repertoire.

ah

At this point it’s kind of pointless to try to get inside his head and figure out what he was thinking. At any point really

I was just reading in my new/old favorite book about how he hated all his songs on Radio City, at least the lyrics, then that he hated the ones Chris wrote too, saying they were “written by committee” and then that he didn’t feel like he figured out how to write a good song at least lyric-wise, until 1977!

I’m trying to think of an Alex equivalent to I am the Cosmos

Maybe Holocaust

"Big Black Car"?

I think he disliked a lot of the Big Star songs for the turmoil they reflect and describe; his later songs are "snappier" and reflect more classical virtues of wit and emotional control.