Alex Chilton had his biggest hit when he was 16 years old, singing "The Letter" in the voice of a fifty year old man. He wrote great songs, but his versions were never hits. He lived for years from the royalties from two, the Bangles version of "September Gurls" from the 1980's and Cheap Trick's version of "In the Street" that was used as the theme for "That '70's Show".
Alex Chilton's Other Songs
There's " Nightime ", with the line "I hate it here, get me out of here", from Third/ Sister Lovers. There's "Kangaroo", with the first lines are "When I first saw you, you had on blue jeans, your eyes couldn't hide, anything". The Replacements put it to poetry in their 1987 song "Alex Chilton", "Children by the million, sing for Alex Chilton.....what's that song, I'm in love with that song".
His Hard Luck
Alex Chilton's lyrics were so on the money because he lived on the edge, day to day, never the rock star. When you saw him live you got the impression he'd bicycled to the gig. "The Letter" and a couple other songs were hits and semi hits when he was in his teens.In the early 1970's he met Jody Stevens, Chris Bell and Andy Hummel in Memphis and they formed Big Star.
The first piece of bad luck happened when they were signed by Stax Records, a powerhouse in the soul and rhythm and blues market. Stax had the money but didn't have the connections for distributing or marketing Big Star.
So their first two albums stiffed, despite uniformly good reviews from the music press. Note to the reader, if you don't have #1 Record or Radio City, go buy them. Buy them now.
Third/ Sister Lovers has a more tragic story, in 1974 CBS/ Columbia bought Stax and had no idea what to do with the album. Bell and Hummel left, Chilton and Stevens recorded a third album which didn't come out until 1978. It's a look of desperation and dissipated life everyone can identify with.
By this time Chilton was dependent on drugs and booze, he knew he had to find a different answer. Chilton worked in New Orleans as a dishwasher, while he detoxed. He recorded sporadically, and his songs are collected on albums such as Flies on Sherbert.
He began touring again in the late 1980's, and beginning in 1993 was performing with Stephens and two members of the Posies as Big Star. There's a live album mand a studio album of new songs chronicling this partnership.
Alex Chilton's Legacy
His history is being examined right now in a variety of publications, all the music magazines have published or will publish short analyses of his work and obituaries. But Alex Chilton's real legacy is that his work always came from his heart. A lot of musicians write great songs, but as they become successful they have to go more and more back to distant memory to touch the lives of the people who listen to them.
But Alex Chilton lived like all of us. He had success, then he was batted down. Sometimes he was batted down by circumstance, sometimes he was batted down by his own demons. But he always lived like us, and he always spoke to us. "What's that song, I'm in love with that song".
Donald Marchand - Currently, I am a teacher. I teach Social Studues at a small school in southern Maryland. But I think I've been a lot more in my life. ...
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