For those of you who weren't listening to NPR or some other neo-hipster radio station last week, Alex Chilton was the one time lead singer of two seminal groups from the 60's and 70's. As a teenager he was the snarling lead singer of the pop group the Box Tops who scored several hits including the seminal tune The Letter. (My personal Box Tops fave was Neon Rainbow, but that song barely cracked the Top 40 and is seldom heard today.)
Later he formed the "legendary" band Big Star. And that's where things start to get a little wonky in term of his obituaries.
You see, Big Star never really made it when they were a band. Their records tanked when they first came out and for many years you couldn't even buy a Big Star record because they were out of print. About the only way you could hear Big Star through much of the 70's and 80's was by listening to bootleg tape that one of your friends had.
But much has been made about all the bands who have cited Big Star as a seminal influence. But one of the band that most often cited for being huge fans isn't one of them.
To explain, here is a quote from Chilton's Wikipedia entry. "The group's recordings met little commercial success but established Chilton's reputation as a rock singer and songwriter; later alternative music bands like R.E.M. would praise the group as a major influence."
That's right kiddies. According to Wikipedia REM was strongly influenced by one Alex Chilton. And they're not the only ones. Almost every obituary brought up REM as one of the bands most influenced by Big Star.
The music editor for Slate Magazine even went so far as to mention Michael Stipe by name.
Which I found extremely amusing for one reason. Years ago, I made a film called Athens, GA/Inside-Out that featured a lot of bands from Athens, GA including REM. And for an ever so brief moment in time I actually palled around with Mr. Stipe a little bit while the band was recording Life's Rich Pageant here in LA.
It was during that time that Chilton's record label at the time, Big Time Records (the home of one of my favorite Athens, GA bands Love Tractor) talked to me about doing a music video for Alex Chilton.
To make a long story short I mentioned this small tidbit to Michael one night thinking he might be interested that I might be doing a video with one of his heroes and was surprised at his less than interested response. I mean young Michael reacted to my big news the same way he did when Bill Berry and I talked football after a weekend of NFL games.
i.e. Dude wasn't interested in the least.
So being very needy back then, and a bit of a drunk to boot, I decided to press Stipe about his response. "I thought you might be interested." I said.
"Why would I be interested?" He responded innocently.
"I thought you were a big fan."
"Why do people think that? I can't stand Alex Chilton." He said.
You see, in reality only half of the band liked Big Star. Mike Mills and Peter Buck. The other two, not so much.
So, while there might be a some Big Star in the REM, Alex Chilton was hardly a major influence. There's a lot more Pylon, Patti Smith, the Velvets and Method Actors in there than Big Star. Oh, and from what everyone in Athens told me they played a lot of Monkees covers when they first started.
The fact is Chilton was a bigger influence on his friends the Cramps. He helped produce their classic Songs The Lord Taught Us.
He was most very proud of his involvement with that seminal band and remained friends with them over the years. He was also proud of his work with another well known psychobilly band the Gories. We know this because his wife mentioned that in a letter that was read at South By Southwest last week.
Her letter read: "The one thing he was absolutely proud of was producing the Cramps records. He would play them at home and and just talk and talk about the experience. He was also quite proud of the Detroit garage band the Gories – both his work with them and the band itself. He was very excited for them now that they are playing shows again."
Yet, almost none of the obituaries I read last week even mentioned the Cramps. Nor his long friendship and numerous collaborations with Jim Dickinson. Another great but little known Memphis music figure.
I don't want to call out the people who were sincerely writing Chilton's obit last week and I am certainly glad he got wide mentions throughout the US and the world. I just thought it might be time to correct the urban legend of Alex Chilton and push back on the tide of misinformation spewed by many in the music press.
And that's the real story!
For more on the real Alex Chilton. Here's a link to the full text of Laura Chilton's letter regarding the death of her beloved husband.
http://www.offbeat.com/2010/03/24/laura-chilton-on-alexs-passing/
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