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Thursday, March 18, 2010

R.I.P. Alex Chilton



I feel like I just got punched in the gut: Alex Chilton dies at 59.

3 comments:

arthur2sheds said...

Awful news. He truly was one of the greats. Time to break out Keep an Eye on the Sky.

Maximum Jack said...

Yup, I've listened to discs 1 and 2 already.

Jim H. said...

hen there was that clean, shimmering guitar and emphasis on pop songwriting craft that had gotten lost in all the glitz and prog-rock messsiness. It spoke to those of us who could find it; #1 Record was an obscure gem, and that made us want it more. Radio City even more so.

Chilton's death washes over me as a warm breath of nostalgia for a certain time and a certain place—not necessarily a time or a place I'd want to go back to, but nevertheless a time and a place that I had to pass through to become who I am today. I would not want to be that Big Star-loving kid again, but I do have a certain fondness for who he was and the struggles he faced and, eventually, conquered ("at my side is God!"). And every time I listen to those first two Big Star records, in particular, I think of that kid.

And yet it's not all about the nostalgia, many of those songs endure. There's never been a time in my life—since '73, I think—that I haven't I had one or more Big Star records in my collection. And there's never been a time that I've shined one of their songs on when it's cycled through my iPod.

RIP, man.

Best,
Jim H.