Tonight I sit in a cabin on a mountain in the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. It's completely quiet, and the big windows reflect lights from inside, and all the hazy lights on the hills, hazy from the constant fog, creeping down from higher elevations and from its source, the forest breath. The forest breath will keep on breathing I hope, for long after we are gone - the human race... and reading just moments ago, someone very dear to me has spent his last breath - and that's what I'd like to talk about today. Alex Chilton has died today at the age of 59. He had a heart attack just days before playing a show in Austin, TX. Alex, in my own opinion wrote some of the best, if not THE best beatles inspired pop/rock songs this side of the Atlantic, and to me - his songs mean more to me than any beatles album ever has. They were rockin', real, painfully hopeful and nostalgic of the best things in life. Songs about girls, riding around in cars, being completely in love, the desire to cut class and get high in a graveyard, he had the ability to make you want to smash a bottle in the street, and then stay up writing love letters and looking at the moon, wishing you were far away somewhere with that girl you've been wanting to talk to for the longest time. I guess I should tell you that Alex Chilton was the lead singer/songwriter for the group Big Star - who deserved to be far more known than say someone like, Aerosmith. Big Star was Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stevens, and Andy Hummel - I think there were other members, but im not gonna research that right now. They were a Memphis band, and released three incredible albums - #1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers. All three have very special places in my heart, and all three would be on my top 50 albums of all time list (if I had one). These records hold some of the sweetest melodies, rippling with beautiful acoustic guitars, then moments later, showed some of the catchiest electric guitar hooks and organ grooves around. Third/Sister Lovers was a very personal venture, featuring some of the most depressing songs I have ever heard, with very little glimmer of hope. compare the songs, say.... O My Soul, with Holocaust, and you'll see the wide range of feeling they had as a group.
Well, I don't even know why I'm writing about this.. It will be all over the news tomorrow, and nobody reads this anyway... but I feel like. I mean, I was thinking about Alex Chilton just days ago when we had the option to go to Memphis - and I was thinking - what if I looked for Alex Chilton? Another time I felt that was in Iowa City in 1999, when I stopped by for a late night burrito or something, I noticed that he had just played a show there - I thought maybe I could find him at a hotel or something. Don't know why I have that kinda desire to see him.. I don't with anyone else.... So I'm in Tennessee Alex, I wish I could have met you. Your songs and style made me feel things that no other music has, and you deserved so much more. My thoughts are with your family - and I hope you are travelling through the universe in peace.
