Alex Chilton from power pop band Big Star died, while I know alot of folks on this board may not have been a fan or even aware of Big Star they wrote some great songs but never received any commerical success. Also Alex Chilton wrote the song 'The Letter' which was a hit with his first band the Box Tops and Joe Cocker covered a few years later.

The Replacements of course paid their own tribute to the man by writing the song 'Alex Chilton'. Thanks for the music and rest in peace, here is the official statement:

Alex Chilton, who made his name with Box Tops and Big Star, has died at the age of 59 from a suspected heart attack.
The singer first had success in the 1960s with soul rockers Box Tops. Their biggest hit was The Letter, which was a number one single in America in 1967, when Chilton was just 16. When the band split up in 1970, Chilton turned down the chance to join Blood, Sweat & Tears because they were too commercial. Instead he became a member of cult power pop band Big Star, who’ve become a significant influence on many bands, including R.E.M.
In recent years, Chilton (who lived in New Orleans) has been touring and recording, although he never achieved the levels of success his talent deserved.

The name sounds very familiar but everything he was associated with does not. Don't know how I recognize the name. R.I.P.

I forget to mention the theme song to ' The 70's Show' titled 'Down the Street' covered by Cheap Trick is a Alex Chilton song.

That's how I knew about him. RIP.

I just discovered Big Star last year. One of the best bands that you've never heard of. RIP

One of their best:

I owned a pair of Big Star albums back in the day, can't remember when I actually sold it off. RIP.

The guy was up there with Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson as America's greatest "Pop Architect", a pop subversive like no other. Creator of the "Dark Star" of Rock, Third/Sister Lovers (1978). A sprawling piece of euphoric melancholy unmatched by anyone, a tragic opus that contains some of the most stunning melodies ever. Depression never sounded so good............

Also the guys post Big Star career is crazily underrated. He produced the Cramps classic debut ep and albums. He formed Tav Falco's Panther Burns, an amazing band that deconstructed age old american roots musics and deserve to spoken of in the same breath as the Cramps and the Gun Club! His first solo record Like Flies On Sherbet (1978) is shambling drug addled "Exile" like mess, that's a compliment by the way. Not to mention the album he made with Alan Vega (Suicide), producing the Replacements, his many solo and soul inflicted EP's, inspiring all my favourite bands and artists from the Chamber Strings to Rowland S Howard, Cheap Trick to Epic Soundtracks etc etc etc. The guy is a full blown legend, why is it always the great ones that go away?

Thanks for the clips. I'm going to listen to both my Big Star albums tonight.

Excellent clips Rattpoison and you are right his solo career was completely overlooked and underrated. The third Big Star album is such a dark album expressing his hurt and disappointment at how the industry treated him, but like you said RP depression never sounded so good.

Like others have mentioned, I only knew of him through that Replacements song. I'm familair with the Box Tops and their hits, but I had no idea Alex was a part of that. A talented man for sure.

Quote:

why is it always the great ones that go away?

Not true. Fred Durst is alive & well.

I first heard Big Star when I borrowed it from a friend and had to know the inspiration for the Replacements song (one of my favorites). Needless to say because it wasn't the Replacements "Alex Chilton"-type stuff I wasn't that taken with it. I was young and not ready for the greatness I would find nearly ten years later when I found the first two Big Star records on CD in a used bin. I actually bought them for trade purposes. Listening to them on that ride home I was blown away. Ballad Of El Goodo may be as good as music gets for me.