#alexchilton — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #alexchilton, aggregated by home.social.
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Frack you #TedLasso How dare you on your first ep back? 🥹 I can’t wait for more
Bloody hell I love this show! Also a reference to a potential future character reminded me of a great song #AlexChilton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftTOEJfzdq0
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Big Star – Third / Sister Lovers (1992, US)
[As randomly chosen via Fedi survey,[1] our next spotlight is on number 897 on The List. This guest post was written by @arratoon, and the album was also submitted by @arratoon.]
This record does not exist. By that I mean it wasn’t ever supposed to be the third record by Memphis band Big Star; the master tapes have it as an Alex Chilton release. In 1974 he and drummer Jody Stephens, and a cast of Memphis musicians, went into the studio with producer Jim Dickinson to record some music. The results were released in 1978, and since then various releases have come out, with differing running orders and covers. Nobody is entirely sure which is the ‘correct’ version, if such a thing even exists.
The 1992 Rykodisc offering was aided by a renewed interest in the band, thanks in no small part to 1984’s It’ll End in Tears, the first album from Ivo Watts-Russell’s This Mortal Coil project, which featured covers of “Holocaust” and “Kanga Roo”. Teenage Fanclub’s 1991 album Bandwagonesque rings with chiming echoes of Big Star too. Interest in the band started to pick up.
But what of the music itself? It’s such a strange mix. At turns power pop, at others dark and haunted, then with covers of The Kinks’ “Til the End of the Day”, “Nature Boy”, and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”, and also their now Christmas standard “Jesus Christ”, it’s clearly a collection of songs rather than a coherent planned album.
But what incredible songs they are. Punchy Rykodisc opener “Kizza Me” is rousing. “Thank You Friends” rings with spiky guitars. “Stroke it Noel” is one of the tracks that is augmented by baroque strings, and is a gateway to the more melancholy standout pieces such as “Nightime” and “Blue Moon”, both achingly beautiful and sad love songs, two of the greatest Big Star ever released.
Then there’s “Holocaust”, with its icy “You’re a waste of space/You’re a dead-eyed lie” refrain, and “Kanga Roo”, a song that falls apart and pulls itself together all through its running time. “Take Care”, the final track on the album proper, before the bonus tracks on the Rykodisc edition, is a plaintive hug: “This sounds a bit like goodbye/In a way it is, I guess.”
Normally, compilations of outtakes and studio experiments are extremely offputting, with their worse versions, badly thought-out initial attempts, and plain bad songs, but for fans of the Rykodisc release, the Complete Third, an Ardent 69-track compilation of everything that went in to the making of the album, the album that never really was, is essential listening. You can hear songs come to life, ideas flourish, and beauty unfold.
It’s heartening that a record that even the artists who created it thought might just fade away and never be released to a wider public has been taken to the hearts of music lovers around the world. Give it a listen, you’ll understand why.
– Adrian Arratoon (@arratoon)
- The survey choices that led to this spotlight were: “Starfish and coffee”, “Maple syrup and jam”, “Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine”, and “And a side order of ham”. The first option was the winning selection, so the survey result was translated as picking an album in The List that contained a (part of a) word in the phrase – in this case, “star(fish)”. ↩︎
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RE: https://mas.to/@namhenderson/116429462304739548
+ since then have listened to #AlexChilton - https://archive.org/details/ajc01739_alexchilton_1987-10-07/23+chat.flac - #UncleTupelo https://archive.org/details/ajc01325_uncle-tupelo-1992-11-08/uncle+tupelo+1992-11-08+lounge+ax+v222+t26.flac - #SidiToure https://archive.org/details/ajc00327_siditoure2014-04-13/07+unknown.flac + the great #ArtEnsembleofChicago - https://archive.org/details/ajc02105_art-ensembleof-chicago-1985-08-13 all thanks to @internetarchive
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"The Letter" is a song written by #WayneCarson that was first recorded by the American #rock band #theBoxTops in 1967. It was the group's first and most successful single, reaching number one on the record charts in the United States and Canada. It was also an international success and placed in the top ten in several other countries. The Box Tops lead vocalist #AlexChilton sang "The Letter" in a gruff #blueeyedSoul style. The song launched Chilton's career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyq3PUTnpd0 -
Ballad of El Goodo
March 20, 2010 ~ Just a few days after the death of Alex Chilton, his band Big Star plays at SXSW with many paying their respects by filling in on lead for their friend. #alexchilton #bigstar #sxsw #elgoodo #johndoe #chuckprophet #music #musicsky #musiciansky #rockmusic
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On March 17th, 2010: #AlexChilton, American rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer (Box Tops - "The Letter"; Big Star - "Thirteen"), died of a heart attack at 59.
#RIP 🕯 -
"The Letter" is a song written by #WayneCarson that was first recorded by the American #rock band #theBoxTops in 1967. It was the group's first and most successful single, reaching number one on the record charts in the United States and Canada. It was also an international success and placed in the top ten in several other countries. The Box Tops lead vocalist #AlexChilton sang "The Letter" in a gruff #blueeyedSoul style. The song launched Chilton's career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGzdppCHA0 -
HAPPY HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY TO ALEX CHILTON + SUNDAY MATINEE MUSIC VIDEO “Soul Deep” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0PeiKGpEsQ
#birthday #alexchilton #boxtops #souldeep #soul #bigstar #memphis #neworleans #letter #psychedelic #danpenn #spooneroldham #chipsmoman #bubblegum #flanneryoconnor #bangles #cheaptrick #beachboys #brianwilson #tavfalco #pantherburns #psychobilly #thecramps #garytalley #waynecarsonthompson #eddyarnold #garyusbonds #ginblossoms #robertflack #johnnyjblair #singeratlarge #singersongwriter
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Alex Chilton
“Children by the million scream for Alex Chilton … “ ~ Chris Mars, Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson Alex Chilton ~ b. December 28, 1950 #alexchilton #birthday #rock #powerpop #indierock #blueeyedsoul #boxtops #thereplacements #music #musicsky #musiciansky #rockmusic
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"Thirteen" is a song by the American rock band #BigStar. #RollingStone describes it "one of rock's most beautiful celebrations of adolescence", and rated it #396 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. It was written by #AlexChilton and #ChrisBell. #BillJanovitz of #BuffaloTom writes in his #AllMusic review of the song, "There are few songs that capture the aching innocence of adolescence as well" and calls it a "perfect melancholy ballad".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Oy3-qEE0U -
THE BOX TOPS
The Letter / Neon Rainbow
1967 Canada MONO pressingIt’s hard to believe that Alex Chilton was only 17 when this The Box Tops record came out.
And although this album is awesome, I don’t think anybody could have seen Big Star coming.
“The Letter” is one of the most perfect songs ever recorded. In one song, it takes The Box Tops less than two minutes to say what it took bands like The Grateful Dead 17 hours to NOT say.
This was the only record that Bill Cunningham and Danny Smythe were ever on, and their work is exemplary, particularly Cunningham’s bass and backing vocals.
The two of them were gone and replaced the very next year.A gem of an album, but it’s all about “The Letter”.
#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #art #music #vinylcommunity #retro #vintage #TheBoxTops #alexchilton #bigstar #powerpop #rock #rockandroll #1960s #60s #60smusic
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"The Letter" is a song written by #WayneCarson that was first recorded by the American #rock band #theBoxTops in 1967. It was the group's first and most successful single, reaching number one on the record charts in the United States and Canada. It was also an international success and placed in the top ten in several other countries. The Box Tops lead vocalist #AlexChilton sang "The Letter" in a gruff #blueeyedSoul style. The song launched Chilton's career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMtQQ1EfcPQ -
Ballad of El Goodo
March 20, 2010 ~ Just a few days after the death of Alex Chilton, his band Big Star plays at SXSW with many paying their respects by filling in on lead for their friend. #alexchilton #bigstar #sxsw #elgoodo #johndoe #chuckprophet #music #musicsky #musiciansky #rockmusic
https://robinbannks.wordpress.com/2025/03/20/ballad-of-el-goodo/
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#ListeningTo #AlexChilton – No More The Moon Shines On Lorena (on "Live In London") https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=BsDlVxkLlBU #Awooh! #AuraAUL723 #UK #1982 #Rock #Pop
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Wise men (and women) know to “Keep an Eye on the Sky.” https://songwhip.com/big-star
#BigStar #music #PowerPop #RockMusic #AlexChilton #JodyStephens #AndyHummel #ChrisBell #JonAuer #KenStringfellow #ThePosies #StaxRecords #ArdentRecords #ArdentStudios #Memphis #Christmas
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It took 44 years, but it's finally here!
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YouTube comment:
"Alex using his 16 yr old voice which sounded like his 50 yr old voice when it was recorded"
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#ListeningTo #AlexChilton – No More The Moon Shines On Lorena (on "Like Flies On Sherbert") https://inv.vern.cc/watch?v=s_z_x2o0wNY
#Huh! #PeabodyPS104 #USofA #1979 #Rock #Pop? -
Big Star ~ Stroke It Noel
(from Big Star Third Complete)
#NowPlaying #AlexChilton #BOTDhttps://youtu.be/0B0oWV6H6NI via @YouTube
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Big Star ~ Back of a Car
(Radio City, 1974)
#NowPlaying #AlexChilton #BOTD -
#Mood
Big Star ~ Nightime
(from Third (Sisters, Lovers)
#NowPlaying #AlexChilton #BOTDhttps://youtu.be/1QN2LHye1Ls via @YouTube
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Lots of people remembering Alex Chilton today.
Seems as good a day as any to post the letter he sent me back in the day.
What a guy. What an inspiration.
Happy birthday Alex ❤️
My very own
@lettersofnote
