If there's any fairness in the universe the untimely death last week of Alex Chilton at the age of 59 will shine a much-deserved spotlight on possibly the most unheralded band of the 1970s: Big Star. Chilton certainly has more to hang his musical legacy on than Big Star, but Big Star is what he should be known for. It's power pop with great hooks and and slashing guitar (check out the link to "September Gurls" and see if you can go away not humming that!), and like many rock bands of the era they refused to take themselves too seriously. If the band's tongue-in-cheek name isn't enough of a hint that they knew they wouldn't "make it," they titled their first LP #1 Record to amplify the joke.
Plucked from high school at the age of 16, his world weary, worn out vocals on the Box Tops' "The Letter" propelled that single to Number One. But check out the link to that performance... how does that voice come out of someone who looks like him. He's not old enough to have experienced anything that could make him sound like that. Few people could believe it and Chilton developed an almost instantaneous cult following -- and that following tracked him the rest of his life, through solo records, rare concert performances, and even a Big Star semi-reunion in 1993 (captured on the In Space studio recording and on Live at Missouri University 4/25/93).
Big Star was the 1970s version of The Velvet Underground -- their impact was disproportionally huge relative to their commercial success. Upon reflecting on The Velvet Underground years after their breakup, one music critic noted that their first LP (known by most people as "the banana album" because of Andy Warhol's cover art) sold only 300 copies. "But," the critic said, "every one of those 300 people went out and started a band." That's the kind of influence Big Star had, and Chilton must have felt that too as Big Star eventually covered the Velvet's "Femme Fatale."
Co-founded by Chilton with Chris Bell in 1971, the band included drummer Jody Stephens and bassist/vocalist Andy Hummel. Bell and Chilton both played guitar and sang, and Chilton did the lion's share of the writing. Bell left after the first record but Stephens and Hummel stuck it out. And though they only released three records (#1 Record, Radio City, and Third) during their brief career (a fourth, Sister Lovers, surfaced later), Big Star influenced countless alt rock, pre-punk, slightly punk, and pop bands, hanging around the fringes of rock and sending subliminal messages to bands and their songwriters. R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe credits their influence, The Bangles covered them, and The Replacements recorded a song titled "Alex Chilton" on their 1987 Pleased to Meet Me record (and they even convinced Chilton to play on it).
Chilton never made it big, probably as he planned it. He released solo records, including Like Flies on Sherbert where he covers everyone from The First Family of Country Music, the Carters, to K.C. and the Sunshine Band, and he was hard-headed about recording, contracts, and performing live. But recently he did give his approval to a 4-CD box set, Keep An Eye on the Sky, which collects demos, alternate takes, and unused mixes for Big Star fans. It would be a fitting remembrance to Alex Chilton if that box ended up in everyone's music collection.
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