Yesterday, music legend Alex Chilton died from heart failure in New Orleans at the age of 59. Chilton started his career in the commercial limelight as the lead singer of the fruity Memphis band The Box Tops. After the boys split in 1970, Chilton took what some might call the reverse route from commercial to indie with his new band Big Star. I was first introduced to Big Star during my first year of high school when a dreamy older boy made me a mixtape (wow, I feel old) with the songs “September Gurls” on side A and “Bankok” on side B. I remember listening to “September Gurls” on my Walkman and feeling suddenly weak in the knees, I’m not sure if it was Alex Chilton’s earnest lyrics and twangy guitar or because my mixtape man had remembered I was born in September, either way, I was sold and would be a Big Star fan for the rest of my life.
Big Star always had a sound all their own, but many critics have compared them to groups like The Kinks, The Byrds, and Television. “Ballad of El Goodo” and “The India Song,” both off the 1972 album #1 are similar to tracks off The Byrd’s 1969 album Ballad of an Easy Rider, but songs like “Back of a Car” and “September Gurls” foreshadow the style of the 80s alt-rock bands to come like The Dead Milkmen, R.E.M, Camper Van Beethoven, and The Violent Femmes.
I haven’t felt this sad from the death of a musician since Elliott Smith, who died a month after I saw him in concert in Philadelphia. Honestly, news of his death did not surprise me much after his tragic, drug-addled, couldn’t-remember-his-song-lyrics performance. It was more like a Townes Van Zandt concert than an Elliott Smith one. Chilton died unexpectedly. Though Big Star was never a commercial success like The Box Tops, the band’s influence is undeniable when we listen to R.E.M, The Replacements (most obviously their song “Alex Chilton”), The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, and The dbs. Big Star was actually scheduled to play show on Saturday night at Antone’s during SXSW week. So RIP Alex Chilton. You will be missed by the rock community and most of all your fans.
