Alex Chilton, R.I.P.

Two days ago Alex Chilton passed away at age 59, much to the sadness of the pop and rock community at large. While I cannot claim to be any sort of Chilton expert, I recognize the huge loss this is to the music, and have much love for the first two Big Star records, #1 Record and Radio City. The fact that I haven't explored Sister Love/Third or his Box Tops material is I simply haven't been introduced to it or sought it out for myself, but I definitely have plans to do this at some point.

I was introduced to Big Star while studying abroad in Spain, and one of my American housemates at the apartment I was staying in introduced me. Upon seeing my immediate taking to Big Star as well as Felt's Forever Breathes the Lonely Word, he commented "Man, you like some poppy shit". And this is true, but his observation implied that not everybody has such an appreciation of well crafted pop music. Over time I've noticed that not very many other people my age, especially males, seem interested in Big Star. People didn't tend to take notice when I would play them. I've read that Big Star embodied early 70's rock music in a way that Bowie, T.Rex, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop didn't, without the glammy extreme theatrical edge, instead providing innocence and clean American songcraft not found often during the period. Rob Sheffield observed in his Chilton memorial for Rolling Stone: "Big Star invented a vision of bohemian rock & roll cool that had nothing to do with New York, Los Angeles or London, which made them completely out of style in the 1970s, but also made them an inspiration to generations of weird Southern kids. Especially girls — for hipster gals who couldn’t necessarily relate to the abrasive machismo of Lou Reed or Iggy Pop, Alex Chilton was a dude who let female fans hear themselves in his music". While this is a wonderful sentiment, its seems the negative inverse of this is that a lot of boys who are otherwise into the Stooges and VU, bands whose records also didn't sell at all upon initial release, don't give Big Star the time of day that such an awesome band deserves.

Yet Big Star were such an odd matching of sonic parts that it created the kind of band that makes you want to keep it to yourself, your own secret. It's Southern charm run through the kind of clean songcraft usually reserved for 60's British invasion bands. Of course Big Star is much loved by many, but I don't know many of those people. All I can do is guarantee that Big Star is amazing music, well worth the time. And I've heard Southern chicks dig it. Keep it poppy!