Actual mid-70s video footage of Alex Chilton and Sid Selvidge playing "My Rival" from William Eggleson's film Stranded in Canton.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
..as I was saying
continuing the month of Alex, one month later, after a few weeks off the grid. On to the solo years.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Won't you let me walk you home from school
The last encore from the last show I saw Alex Chilton live (Fillmore, 10/20/2007)
I sail today for Singapore (and Malaysia, and Thailand), so I'll be mostly off the grid for the next few weeks, but should do some travel blogging, and trying to keep up with the month of Alex.
I sail today for Singapore (and Malaysia, and Thailand), so I'll be mostly off the grid for the next few weeks, but should do some travel blogging, and trying to keep up with the month of Alex.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Hanging out, down the street
The second song on #1 Record, performed on the Tonight Show in the early 90s. One of the few Big Star performance clips on youtube, even if it's not the real original Big Star.
This song was revived a few years later as the theme of "That 70's Show". I'm one of the few people in the world who likes Cheap Trick's version with the "we're all alright!" coda, but the song itself is very difficult to mess up.
This song was revived a few years later as the theme of "That 70's Show". I'm one of the few people in the world who likes Cheap Trick's version with the "we're all alright!" coda, but the song itself is very difficult to mess up.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Girlfriend, what are you doing?
According to the Internet, this is the first line of "Feel", the first song on Big Star's first album, #1 Record. Here's an early rough mix from the box set.
I wrote about #1 Record a few years back. Big Star formed in the early 70s when Alex joined forces with the band Ice Water (fronted by Chris Bell). Even though the songs were credited to "Bell/Chilton", most of them were written by either Chilton (most of side one) or Bell (side two).
Since Chilton was the bigger name, he got most of the credit in the reviews, which evidently caused friction between the pair and caused Chris Bell to leave the band right after the album came out. This combined with some distribution problems between Ardent and Stax to render #1 Record DOA. With better karma, "Feel" or "In The Street" could've been as big as "Go All The Way" or "Hello It's Me". Contrary to public revisionism, Big Star really wasn't that far out of the mainstream, they were just unlucky.
I wrote about #1 Record a few years back. Big Star formed in the early 70s when Alex joined forces with the band Ice Water (fronted by Chris Bell). Even though the songs were credited to "Bell/Chilton", most of them were written by either Chilton (most of side one) or Bell (side two).
Since Chilton was the bigger name, he got most of the credit in the reviews, which evidently caused friction between the pair and caused Chris Bell to leave the band right after the album came out. This combined with some distribution problems between Ardent and Stax to render #1 Record DOA. With better karma, "Feel" or "In The Street" could've been as big as "Go All The Way" or "Hello It's Me". Contrary to public revisionism, Big Star really wasn't that far out of the mainstream, they were just unlucky.
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