With Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, Big Star produced some of the most achingly beautiful music of the 1970's - in stark contrast to the baleful excesses of the time they focused on the craft that is songwriting - and what songs they were! The first album in particular demonstrates this - the only album to feature both Chilton and Bell - effortlessly marrying lyrical introspection with all out rock and roll assault. It is, and always will be, one of the great albums. After Bell left there were some who thought that Big Star would find it difficult to continue - however, 1974's 'Radio City' comprehensively dispelled this notion - with songs such as, 'September Gurls,' and 'Back of a Car,' reinventing power-pop and reinvigorating Chilton as a songwriter. 4 years passed before Third/Sister Lovers was released - ostensibly an Alex Chilton solo album, it is, unquestionably, one of the great underappreciated, unrequited works in modern popular music.
Chilton was more than just a member of one of the defining rock bands in history. He was, since his teenage years with The Boxtops, throughout his time with Big Star, and as a solo artist and producer, that genuinely rare thing - a gifted, troubled, generous artist.
Thanks Alex.
Paul Westerberg 'Alex Chilton'
Alex Chilton 'The Letter'
Big Star 'Kangaroo'
The Cramps 'Garbage Man'
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