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Alex Chilton (b. December 28, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer.
Chilton first came on the scene in 1967 as lead singer of The Box Tops, with the number one international chart hit "The Letter"; they went on to have several other major chart hits, including "Cry Like a Baby" (1968). Feeling increasingly powerless in the Box Tops, who were essentially the brainchild of producer-songwriters Dan Penn, he left the group in 1969 to begin performing as a solo artist.
After a period in New York City, during which he worked on his guitar technique and singing style, in 1971 he formed Big Star in Memphis, with his friend Chris Bell. Since that time he has performed both as a solo artist and in the reformed Big Star and Box Tops. He released an influential single, "Bangkok," backed with "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," in the mid-1970s while he was living again in New York and spending a lot of time at CBGB's during the era of punk rock.
His CBGB's period led him to make the acquaintance of bands with similar American roots interests like The Cramps, with whom he was so impressed, he offered to bring them to Memphis to record. They accepted, and in 1977, he produced a couple of singles for the group, later rereleased in 1979 on their Gravest Hits EP. In 1979 Chilton released a wild, roots-influenced solo album of his own, Like Flies on Sherbert, produced by Chilton with Jim Dickinson at Phillips Recording and Ardent Studios, which featured covers of songs by artists as disparate as the Carter Family, Jimmy C. Newman, Ernest Tubb, and K. C. and the Sunshine Band, along with several originals.
Also in 1979, he produced The Cramps' first seminal full length LP, Songs the Lord Taught Us. He also cofounded, played guitar with, and produced some albums for Tav Falco's Panther Burns, beginning in 1979. He toured regularly in the early 1980s with Panther Burns and occasionally as a solo artist, as documented in his 1982 solo release Live in London.
He moved to New Orleans in the early 1980s but continued to record much of his later solo work in Memphis. In 1985, he released a solo EP of songs entitled Feudalist Tarts, featuring his versions of songs by Carla Thomas, Slim Harpo, and Willie Tee, and another EP of three originals entitled No Sex in 1986. He produced albums by several different indie artists over the years beginning in the 1980s, including the Cramps-influenced Detroit group The Gories.
Touring and recording as a solo artist in the mid-1980s in an electric trio format with solid bassists (Ron Easley, Rene Coman) and drummers (Richard Dworkin, Doug Garrison) he knew from Memphis, New Orleans, and New York, he gained a reputation for his eclectic taste in cover versions, his guitar work, and a laconic stage presence. His solo albums include High Priest (1987), A Man Called Destruction (1995), and Live in Anvers (2004). He occasionally included the soulful horns of Memphis' Fred Ford, Jim Spake, and Nokie Taylor, among other area sessions players to round out his sound on recordings during this period.
Among Chilton's songs is "In the Street," which (in an altered and shortened version recorded by Cheap Trick) became the theme song for That '70s Show. His compositions have been recorded by many artists, including This Mortal Coil, Jeff Buckley, Yo La Tengo and His Name Is Alive.
The Replacements' song "Alex Chilton" imagines a world in which "children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round."
Solo discography
- One Day in New York - (Ork, 1977)
- Singer Not the Song (EP) - (Ork, 1977)
- Bangkok/Can't Seem to Make You Mine (single) - (Fun, 1978)
- Like Flies on Sherbert - (Peabody, 1979)
- Bach's Bottom - (Line, 1981)
- Live in London - (Aura, 1982)
- Feudalist Tarts (EP) - (New Rose/Big Time), 1985; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie)
- Lost Decade - (Fan Club, 1985)
- Document - (Aura, 1985)
- No Sex (EP) - (New Rose/Big Time, 1986; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie)
- Stuff - (New Rose, 1987)
- High Priest (New Rose/Big Time, 1987; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie)
- Black List (EP) - (New Rose, 1989; reissued 1994 on Razor & Tie)
- 19 Years: A Collection of Alex Chilton - (Rhino, 1991)
- Clichés - (Ardent, 1994)
- A Man Called Destruction - (Ardent, 1995)
- 1970 - (Ardent, 1996)
- Top 30 - (Last Call, 1997)
- Cubist Blues, with Ben Vaughan and Alan Vega - (Discovery, 1997)
- Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy - (Last Call, 1999) -- aka Set (Bar/None, 2000)
- Live in Anvers - (Last Call, 2004)
References
External link
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