I hate the way that magazines like Mojo write eulogies about recently deceased “stars”. One of thie phrases is “they also served” – how crappy does that sound? That you never really made it to tier 1 celebrity status, so that in death we write about your career as a footnote to the big star that died last month? It is done in a fawning and obsequious manner, suggesting that (insert star here) couldn’t have possibly risen to the levels he did without the help of (poor hapless 2nd rate muso). Really, in the language of transatlantica, it sucks. Possibly as much as being dead…

Take this month’s issue of Mojo’s “Real Gone” page – Lena Horne. Now I’m fine with having her in the obituary pages of a serious paper – as a singer, she was the first black superstar, as the headline notes. But really, it isn’t for the pages of Mojo. Ronnie James Dio, Steve New, and Stuart Cable all bought the farm this month. Steve New did some brilliant and often overlooked work with the Rich Kids (the first “punk/New Wave” supergroup?). My opinion is that he was probably more deserving and relevant recipient of the full page with the ‘headline’.
This brings me to my point, and the title of this entry – the untimely death of Alex Chilton in March. Very few people in the UK really understood or had ever heard of Big Star – I’d have never sought them out if I hadn’t spent valuable homework time listening to Radio Caroline in my youth – and in the UK, the most recognisable piece of work he ever did was arguably “In the streets”, the theme tune to “That 70’s show”. Yet, in the mid 70’s Alex and Big Star produced a body of work in their three/four albums that still brim over with ideas and creativity that makes them sound apart from their contemporaries and, (cliche alert) ahead of their time.
I was upset when I heard he had died, as he was down on my list of people to see before I died. My friend Ed sent me a soundboard recording of a live gig from the late 80’s which I listened to by way of a tribute, but all it did was crystallise the “what a waste” feeling I had into something approaching real loss. I don’t often get that from a dead “rock star” (sorry Ronnie James Dio, but I’m not about to track down your finest work, even in death), and I feel like I do when I know that a favourite author is no longer producing work – for example, I have three unread John Steinbeck works to read that I have been saving because once I’ve read them, I’ll never be able to enjoy the delight of discovering another “Doc” or “Jeb”.
Thank you Alex, for the music you created that was thoughtful, tuneful, and inspiring. I can’t admit that you featured on every mixtape I ever put together, but songs like “September Gurls” or “Thirteen” will always remind me of a time past – and I don’t think I can think of a higher accolade than that.
I think Robyn Hitchcock (another Alex Chilton afficionado) put it quite well, when he said “Myriad musical roads met in Alex, and he diverted their course to his own artistic purposes with much grace and few illusions.”