Big Star's Blog
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Article: Why Andy Hummel Was Cool
Great article on Andy
http://www.chartattack.com/news/2010/jul/20/ten-reasons-big-stars-andy-hummel-was-cool
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Channeling Chilton - A Night of Alex Chilton's Music
Members of The Box Tops, Big Star & Special Guest will pay tribute to the music of Alex Chilton on 7/28/10 at City Winery in New York. A portion of the proceeds will benefit www.healthygulf.org. For ticket information, visit City Winery's website
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Newly-Posted Songs
Posted a few Big Star-related rarities: Jeepster -A T. Rex cover, this song is the hidden track at the end of the iTunes version of the Columbia live album.Another Time, Another Place & You - #1 Record-era song by Chris Bell. This song has circulated via bootleg for years but has yet to see an official release.Little Girl - This Van Morrison cover features a 14 year old Chris Bell with his first band, The Jynx. This song was originally issued (by Norton Records in 2000) on a 10" vinyl EP along with the three other Jynx songs known to exist ("Just Like Me," "And My Baby's Gone" and "I'll Go Crazy"). That collection is now out of print but "Little Girl" remains readily available on volume two of Sundazed's fantastic Garage Beat compilation series. If anyone out there knows where the other three songs can be found..........Untitled Instrumental - Pulled from the What's Goin' Ahn bootleg which documents Big Star mostly during the #1 Record sessions (though some later songs are featured, as well). A majority of the songs from this bootleg can be heard on the box set, but this country-tinged instrumental did not make the cut. -
Paul Westerberg on Alex Chilton
.. HOW does one react to the death of one’s mentor? My mind instantly slammed down the inner trouble-door that guards against all thought, emotion, sadness. Survival mode. Rock guitar players are all dead men walking. It’s only a matter of time, I tell myself as I finger my calluses. Those who fail to click with the world and society at large find safe haven in music — to sing, write songs, create, perform. Each an active art in itself that offers no promise of success, let alone happiness.Yet success shone early on Alex Chilton, as the 16-year-old soulful singer of the hit-making Box Tops. Possessing more talent than necessary, he tired as a very young man of playing the game — touring, performing at state fairs, etc. So he returned home to Memphis. Focusing on his pop writing and his rock guitar skills, he formed the group Big Star with Chris Bell. Now he had creative control, and his versatility shone bright. Beautiful melodies, heart-wrenching lyrics: “I’m in Love with a Girl,” “September Gurls.”On Big Star’s masterpiece third album, Alex sang my favorite song of his, “Nighttime” — a haunting and gorgeous ballad that I will forever associate with my floor-sleeping days in New York. Strangely, the desperation in the line “I hate it here, get me out of here” made me, of all things, happy. He went on to produce more artistic, challenging records. One equipped with the take-it-or-leave-it — no, excuse me, with the take-it-like-I-make-it — title “Like Flies on Sherbert.” The man had a sense of humor, believe me.It was some years back, the last time I saw Alex Chilton. We miraculously bumped into each other one autumn evening in New York, he in a Memphis Minnie T-shirt, with take-out Thai, en route to his hotel. He invited me along to watch the World Series on TV, and I immediately discarded whatever flimsy obligation I may have had. We watched baseball, talked and laughed, especially about his current residence — he was living in, get this, a tent in Tennessee.Because we were musicians, our talk inevitably turned toward women, and Al, ever the Southern gentleman, was having a hard time between bites communicating to me the difficulty in ... you see, the difficulty in (me taking my last swig that didn’t end up on the wall, as I boldly supplied the punch line) “... in asking a young lady if she’d like to come back to your tent?” We both darn near died there in a fit of laughter.Yeah, December boys got it bad, as “September Gurls” notes. The great Alex Chilton is gone — folk troubadour, blues shouter, master singer, songwriter and guitarist. Someone should write a tune about him. Then again, nah, that would be impossible. Or just plain stupid.....