O My Soul: Alex Chilton RIP

This is somewhat belated even by my own lax standards.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard that Alex Chilton had died on March 17, 2010.

This didn't receive anything like the mainstream media coverage that say, Malcolm McLaren's death received. And most people (of the vast numbers of people that read this blog) will say "Who?" but I would also wager that most people have heard Alex Chilton singing "The Letter" by The Box Tops without knowing who the lead singer was. He sung that was when he was only 16.

I also only discovered Alex Chilton late, namely when his subsequent band, Big Star, had their first 2 albums, #1 Record and Radio City, re-released on a single CD. This was simply one of the best CD re-releases ever! Hearing this music for the first time was a revelation. There was something joyous and yet fragile about it at the same time. You also quickly realised that you belonged to a pretty exclusive (read "obscure") club. This was not music that you were about to be hearing on the radio anytime soon. And yet this was not because the music was "difficult" in any way. In fact, the artists influenced by Big Star had been all over the radio: REM and Cheap Trick to name but two of them.

The "obvious" song, if a track can be described as such for appearing as an album track on a Bangles album, was "September Gurls". It was also covered by a strangely hip-to-it, latter-day version of The Searchers.

There were plenty of other delights however, to be found on this CD. "O My Soul", "When My Baby's Beside Me" (a great driving song), "The Ballad of El Goodo", "Don't Lie To Me" and "You Get What You Deserve" were all great to name just a few but the real joy for me was "Thirteen". This beautiful melody over the simplest of arrangements with its innocent vulnerability stood out from the rest. It remains one of my favourite songs of all time. As in "ever, ever" to quote a mate of mine.

Their next work Third/Sister Lovers was also subsequently reissued and in many circles is regarded as their greatest work although much of it was not music that could be readily played live, "Too Wagnerian for my present band", Chilton once noted! To my mind though, Big Star and Alex Chilton as a solo artist never repeated the simple magic of those first 2 albums.

A couple of great articles can be found at Popmatters: a poignant obituary featuring moving first-hand testimony along with an equally heartfelt summary of his career and life.