ALEX CHILTON, R.I.P.

Alex Chilton just passed away. This news reminded me of all the hours I spent years ago trying to absorb his music. Chilton is mostly known as a songwriter, which is fair enough; his guitar playing is rarely discussed, though, which amounts to criminal negligence. When I was younger and going to shows all the time, I saw tons of rock and roll guitar players. Chilton was as good as any of them, and better than most. He was also one of the most interesting players around-- his style combined elements of Beatles-esque pop with a trashy garage aesthetic. He was one of my big influences-- a guy who showed that you could be serious about learning the instrument without rejecting raunchy and primitive idioms. At times, he sounded like the Cramps' Ivy Rorschach with chops; other times he was more like Steve Cropper with more sophisticated chord changes. I even saw him play a Bach piece on a Telecaster while yammering D.C. hipsters stupidly talked through it. Pearls before swine.

The tracks here are from one of his stranger albums, "Like Flies on Sherbet." This album sounds like a bunch of drunken outtakes, but Chilton constantly surprises with interesting guitar ideas. Record collectors tend to obsess about his more mainstream stuff, like the first two Big Star albums. I like those records too, but the stuff I can't get enough of is more in this vein (like the third Big Star album, "Sister Lovers"). "Like Flies on Sherbet" is sort of a weird primitive rock and roll album, with a little pop mixed in. The third Big Star album is more or less the opposite-- a weird pop album with some primitive rock and roll mixed in. If there's an album that does a better job blending Phil Spector with the Velvet Underground, I don't know about it. (Not that this description really explains what this album's all about-- glib critical summations are often of little musicological value. I'm just pointing out that when I'm interested in mixing darker themes with catchy pop, this album is my frame of reference. It was definitely an album I ripped off [or tried to!] during the "Soul Parking" sessions.)