Alex Chilton and Brian

[summerinparadise.flac]

Brian and the Boys covered the Letter which was of course sung but not written by Alex Chilton. And Alex covered I wanna pick you up. IMO I think of Alex as kind of like the American John Lennon. Good songwriter who was just cool as heck as well. Anyways, does anyone know if Brian has said anything specific about Big Star or Alex? I think Brian would the like the first two Big Star albums.

[Runaways]

his cover of i wanna pick you up makes me wish i could hear that album with a usual band.

[SloopJohnB]

http://www.marinarecords.com/brian.htm

Interviewer: Alex Chilton has recorded "I Wanna Pick You Up" for this album. ("Caroline Now!")

Brian: Alex from The Box Tops! I was one of their biggest fans of all time!

[summerinparadise.flac]

his cover of i wanna pick you up makes me wish i could hear that album with a usual band.

You mean Love You?

[metal flake paint]

Apparently he also covered "Solar System" in his live sets saying, "I just think it's a beautiful song."

[hypehat]

He's also done Surfer Girl and Wouldn't It Be Nice live solo and with Big Star.

[Ian]

Don't forget-Alex and the Box Tops played a number of shows with the BBs in 67-69.  I have a photo of Alex with Dennis and Carl from Newfoundland August 1968.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

Chilton was a fascinating guy.  Was listening to my Box Tops Greatest CD over the weekend -- just unbelievable that voice came from a teenager!  Him and Little Stevie Winwood.  Then he does that about face into the greatness that was Big Star followed by one of the most inscrutable solo careers ever.  Anyway, obviously his musical taste ranged far and wide -- he is the only artist I know who covered my two favorite artists ever -- Brian Wilson and the greatest country artist you've probably never listened to -- Gary Stewart ("Single Again").  And he nails "I Wanna Pick You Up" -- definitive!

[Pearlfisher David]

Alex was a wonderful musician and a fascinating multi-faceted guy...I produced his version of I Wanna Pick You Up with my friend Duglas T Stewart for the Caroline Now! album. AC was very happy to be 'produced' - he was very old school in that way - but did bring one fabulous idea to the session which was to transcribe the synth lines from the BBLY version for 12 String Electric, in this case my old 1960s Baldwin. Standing round the microphone with Alex and Francis MacDonald to sing the 'She's Gone To Sleep' line is a very happy memory. Later I went on a short tour with Alex and learned so much from his brilliant musicianship and single minded dedication to the song. Before one show he said 'Hey we should do Wouldn't It Be Nice for an encore tonight' and showed me the chords. 'Such a great guitar part' says I. 'Yeah' he said, 'Carl showed me that'...I know that Alex was responsible for getting the Teenage Fanclub guys in to see the Brian Wilson tribute (where our man played I'm A Little Teapot) and he really really loved Brian.
RIP Alex.

[gsmile]

Alex was a wonderful musician and a fascinating multi-faceted guy...I produced his version of I Wanna Pick You Up with my friend Duglas T Stewart for the Caroline Now! album. AC was very happy to be 'produced' - he was very old school in that way - but did bring one fabulous idea to the session which was to transcribe the synth lines from the BBLY version for 12 String Electric, in this case my old 1960s Baldwin. Standing round the microphone with Alex and Francis MacDonald to sing the 'She's Gone To Sleep' line is a very happy memory. Later I went on a short tour with Alex and learned so much from his brilliant musicianship and single minded dedication to the song. Before one show he said 'Hey we should do Wouldn't It Be Nice for an encore tonight' and showed me the chords. 'Such a great guitar part' says I. 'Yeah' he said, 'Carl showed me that'...I know that Alex was responsible for getting the Teenage Fanclub guys in to see the Brian Wilson tribute (where our man played I'm A Little Teapot) and he really really loved Brian.
RIP Alex.

This post made my day.  Thanks David for the wonderful memories.  My head has still been reeling from Alex's passing earlier this year and all the wonderful personal stories I've heard of the man have helped ease the hurt a bit.

[Runaways]

his cover of i wanna pick you up makes me wish i could hear that album with a usual band.

You mean Love You?

um.  let me try this again.
hearing chilton's cover and then hearing love you makes me wanna hear love you with regular instruments.  ie not synths

[summerinparadise.flac]

his cover of i wanna pick you up makes me wish i could hear that album with a usual band.

You mean Love You?

um.  let me try this again.
hearing chilton's cover and then hearing love you makes me wanna hear love you with regular instruments.  ie not synths

That's what I figured.

Great post David.

[The Heartical Don]

Alex was a wonderful musician and a fascinating multi-faceted guy...I produced his version of I Wanna Pick You Up with my friend Duglas T Stewart for the Caroline Now! album. AC was very happy to be 'produced' - he was very old school in that way - but did bring one fabulous idea to the session which was to transcribe the synth lines from the BBLY version for 12 String Electric, in this case my old 1960s Baldwin. Standing round the microphone with Alex and Francis MacDonald to sing the 'She's Gone To Sleep' line is a very happy memory. Later I went on a short tour with Alex and learned so much from his brilliant musicianship and single minded dedication to the song. Before one show he said 'Hey we should do Wouldn't It Be Nice for an encore tonight' and showed me the chords. 'Such a great guitar part' says I. 'Yeah' he said, 'Carl showed me that'...I know that Alex was responsible for getting the Teenage Fanclub guys in to see the Brian Wilson tribute (where our man played I'm A Little Teapot) and he really really loved Brian.
RIP Alex.

Nice call, David. Lovely recollections. Chilton for me was, apart from being greatly gifted, also the personification of 'ramshackle' and 'shambolic', in the good sense. With him, almost everything tended to fall in place just at the right time, but only just...

[Aum Bop Diddit]

Yeah, great to read that post about the recording of "I Wanna Pick You Up".  That caused me to go back to my copy of "Caroline Now" to peruse the liner notes and I see you are all over that album, David!  Great job!  Speaking of "'Love You' without synths"  -  I see Mr. Scott also produced my other two favorite tracks -- Chip Taylor and Evie Sands on "Let's Put Our Hearts Together" and the Radio Sweethearts' " rollicking "Honkin' Down the Highway".  As I said about the AC track I consider these versions as definitive -- by which I mean I like them best!  I could go on but don't wish to be a major butt kisser -- BUTT -- good job on "Go Away Boy" which I had never heard before getting this amazing comp.

[Mike's Beard]

Are Big Star any good? I have never heard anything by them. They have been on my list of 'groups to try out' for months now.

[The Heartical Don]

Are Big Star any good? I have never heard anything by them. They have been on my list of 'groups to try out' for months now.

All three LPs are ace: #1 Record, Radio City, and 3rd/Sister Lovers. Perhaps the box set is the one to go for, it's not that expensive (here in Holland). I don't really need it, I have all three LPs on pristine vinyl (#1 even on white).

[gsmile]

Are Big Star any good? I have never heard anything by them. They have been on my list of 'groups to try out' for months now.

Yes.  Hearing the opening notes of "Feel" off #1 Record was a life-changing moment for me.

[Mike's Beard]

Cool, they have just moved up the queue in my 'what music to buy next' list. It's a big list.

[The Heartical Don]

Cool, they have just moved up the queue in my 'what music to buy next' list. It's a big list.

Did we push it from #5000 to #4879?

[gsmile]

Cool, they have just moved up the queue in my 'what music to buy next' list. It's a big list.

The first two albums can be easily purchased as a two-fer...make sure you get the 1990 issue, the sound is better than the compressed remaster from 2009.  Here's a link to the original release:

http://www.amazon.com/1-Record-Radio-City/dp/B000000XHA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286903167&sr=8-1

And then the band only has one more "official" album, and that's Big Star 3rd/Sister Lovers (Sister Lovers...sounds like a lost Brian Wilson album title circa Love You!):

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Sister-Lovers-Big-Star/dp/B0000009OB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286903268&sr=8-1

The first album is shiny pop goodness, the second album a bit more dirty...a psychedelic blues, almsot...and the third album is a frightening, yet beautiful descent into madness.  Even if you just stay a casual fan, those three LPs are essential.  But once yer hooked, you'll wanna check out Chris Bell's excellent solo album "I Am the Cosmos" and the various live albums and "footwears" floating about.  Hope this helps!

[The Heartical Don]

Cool, they have just moved up the queue in my 'what music to buy next' list. It's a big list.

The first two albums can be easily purchased as a two-fer...make sure you get the 1990 issue, the sound is better than the compressed remaster from 2009.  Here's a link to the original release:

http://www.amazon.com/1-Record-Radio-City/dp/B000000XHA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286903167&sr=8-1

And then the band only has one more "official" album, and that's Big Star 3rd/Sister Lovers (Sister Lovers...sounds like a lost Brian Wilson album title circa Love You!):

http://www.amazon.com/Third-Sister-Lovers-Big-Star/dp/B0000009OB/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286903268&sr=8-1

The first album is shiny pop goodness, the second album a bit more dirty...a psychedelic blues, almsot...and the third album is a frightening, yet beautiful descent into madness.  Even if you just stay a casual fan, those three LPs are essential.  But once yer hooked, you'll wanna check out Chris Bell's excellent solo album "I Am the Cosmos" and the various live albums and "footwears" floating about.  Hope this helps!

Good call; I noticed meanwhile that the box is around € 42, whilst the twofer and Sister Lovers (Rykodisc, beautiful cover) add up to around € 30. They are all sublime and more than sufficient for starters. I must admit that Sister Lovers is my personal favourite: as you say, it's weird, delicate, decadent, sometimes a document of a man (or his beloved one?) in free fall ('Holocaust'), and then redemptive ('Jesus Christ'). Indeed, Brian fans will love it, I guess.

[gsmile]

Agreed that the Box Set is a worth investment, and there's a lot of amazing music and essential outtakes, but for your first listening, stick with the original albums and mixes.  One the box there's a few remixes and alternate takes while, interesting to hear for die-hards , disrupt the flow of the original albums.  And yeah, Sister/Lovers has a "vibe" doesn't it.  Wonderful 3am record.

[Vega-Table Man]

Have to add a "+1" to all the recommendations for all three Big Star albums. Essential one and all.

BTW, I collect Alex Chilton interviews and I just found this exchange (not sure when it's from):

Q: Are you into the Beach Boys?

A: We toured together a lot and I was always a big fan of their music and still am.

Q: What do you think about Brian Wilson's situation?

A: It’s hard to understand for me exactly what is going on there. It just seems like he needs a good kick in the butt or something, I dunno. He needs to go get a job and see what the world is like again, you know?

Q: Do you have that attitude in general towards mental illness?

A: In some cases yeah. Some people just think it’s cool to be crazy. It’s everywhere. You can be okay but if you behave in a way that’s not okay, before long you’re not going to be okay.

[Pearlfisher David]

Thanks for the nice comments on Caroline Now! I meant to post on one of the other threads that was talking about Rainbow Eyes. The girl who sang on that was called Kle (no second name that I know of although she surely has one) who, bizarrely enough was Alan McGee's PA at Creation. She's a great singer who I first heard singing on the BMX Bandits track I Wanna Fall In Love. The sonic reference point for our cut on Rainbow Eyes was the music of The Bangles. One of the things I love most about Brian Wilson is his mixture of humility and world-straddling confidence. In our little interview he told me that Rainbow Eyes was 'one of the most beautiful songs written by anybody' or words to that effect. I had to agree...

On Big Star - my tuppenceworth is that there is loads of wonderful music in there, particularly the famous cuts like Thirteen, Ballad Of El Goodo, In The Steets etc. It's all worth hearing imo...I also love Alex's solo recordings, particularly Like Flies On Sherbert, some of the lovely cuts on Cliches and the 1970 recordings of which Everyday As We Grow Closer is a real beauty. On the way to one show I was enthusing about that album and Alex was sitting in my passenger seat curling his lip and rolling his eyes in horror. After the show the DJ played EDAWGC and Alex came grooving across the floor proffering a wide grin and a large glass of red wine saying 'hey, you know I think you might be right, this is pretty good'.

For me the thing that Alex and Brian have most in common is this utter respect for the song and the songwriter - Alex showed it by spending most of his solo career cutting classics and relatively obscure soul sides - Brian recently with that wonderful sustained hymn to his great hero Gershwin...
I also agree with Runaways that it would be interesting to hear BBLY 'organic'...I hope Evie and Chip's version of Let's Put Our Hearts Together and the Sweethearts Honkin go some way towards that.

As I type Scotland have just come back from 2-0 down against the World and European champions Spain to level at 2-2. Bloody hell.

[Mike's Beard]

Cool, they have just moved up the queue in my 'what music to buy next' list. It's a big list.

Did we push it from #5000 to #4879?

  It's currently weighing in at a muscular #47 Don. I've just started a bit of a Frank Zappa fixation. He's got one or two albums out there...