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Music: Alex Chilton dead

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      CommentAuthorinfomancer
    • CommentTimeMar 17th 2010
     (7898.1)
    Yep. Heart attack at 59. Here's a link to DeRogatis's blog post about it.

    • CommentAuthorelricj
    • CommentTimeMar 17th 2010
     (7898.2)
    son a ...

    the first 3 Big Stars + Chris Bell's LP are all long time favs. I was thrilled to get the Box Set material.

    another good one gone.
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      CommentAuthorvrbtm
    • CommentTimeMar 18th 2010
     (7898.3)
    Is there a song sadder than "Holocaust"? Or happier than "Watch the Sunrise"?

    Chilton always blew me away. By all rights he should have been another boring Memphis r&b/rock guy, but instead he went in wild directions. He made stuff that sounded like the contemprary British pop of the time, he did rootsy and religious stuff, he did noisy stuff, and he did boorish attitudinal stuff that predated punk. And whatever he did, he did it with craft in mind. Alex could shred on guitar, and his singing voice could croon without ever sounding overly sweet.

    If you were to plot a lineage of great American country/folk/pop/rock songwriters, all lines would go through Alex.

    Maybe something like:
    Guthrie
    Dylan
    Parsons
    Chilton
    Westerberg
    Tweedy

    Most of the world doesn't know who we just lost. (Good. Fuck 'em for not knowing better.)
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      CommentAuthorinfomancer
    • CommentTimeMar 18th 2010
     (7898.4)
    Yeah, he seems to be even more unknown than I thought. I though there'd be more comments in this thread, what with all the music lovers on WC. Could be they've just got nothing to say.

    Well, either way... Thanks Alex, RIP.



    I wonder how many 90's/grunge singers took their style from this song. I definitely hear some Layne Staley.
  5.  (7898.5)
    I can't even think of anything to say really.
    Although I had always heard songs by Big Star here and there, I never owned one of their albums until sometime around 1998 after I saw Son Volt do a simmering-slow-drawl-to-blazing version of Holocaust.

    Between suicides and natural causes, death has claimed a lot of musical talent the last few months.
    Vic Chesnutt
    Rowland S. Howard
    Mark Linkous

    "I never travel far, without a little Big Star" - P.Westerberg
  6.  (7898.6)
    Lot of NOLA folk, especially on the music side, on FB and Twitter were pretty heartbroken last night when the news was breaking. I am pretty sure a list of people they influenced would take up pages and pages.
  7.  (7898.7)
    I didn't know about Rowland S Howard. Hell. That's really sad as well...
  8.  (7898.8)
    I dug out a bootleg of him solo to listen to yesterday. Very sad news - one of those Velvet Underground - "but everyone who did listen to him formed a band" - kind of guys.
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      CommentAuthoroldhat
    • CommentTimeMar 18th 2010
     (7898.9)
    Heard about it when Warren mentioned it on twitter. Dug up more of my Big Star albums and gave them a listen. Damn.

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