Memphis music legend Alex Chilton dies

Updated Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Pop hitmaker, cult hero, and Memphis rock iconoclast Alex Chilton has
died.
The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of '60s pop-soul act
the Box Tops and the '70s power-pop act Big Star, died today at a
hospital in New
Orleans. Chilton, 59, had been complaining about his health earlier
today. He was taken by paramedics to the emergency room where he was
pronounced
dead. The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack.
His Big Star bandmate Jody Stephens confirmed the news this evening.
"Alex passed away a couple of hours ago," Stephens said from Austin,
Texas, where the
band was to play Saturday at the annual South By Southwest Festival. "I
don't have a lot of particulars, but they kind of suspect that it was a
heart attack."
The Memphis-born Chilton rose to prominence at age 16, when his gruff
vocals powered Box Tops massive hit "The Letter." The band would score
several more
hits, including "Cry Like a Baby" and "Neon Rainbow."
After the Box Tops ended in 1970, Chilton had a brief solo run in New
York before returning to Memphis. He soon joined forces with a group of
Anglo-pop-obsessed
musicians, fellow songwriter/guitarist Chris Bell, bassist Andy Hummel
and drummer Jody Stephens, to form Big Star.
The group became the flagship act for the local Ardent Studios' new
Stax-distributed label. Big Star's 1972 debut album, #1 Record met with
critical acclaim
but poor sales. The group briefly disbanded, but reunited sans Bell to
record the album Radio City. Released in 1974, the album suffered a
similar fate,
plagued by Stax's distribution woes.
"I'm crushed. We're all just crushed," said Ardent founder John Fry,
who engineered most of the Big Star sessions. "This sudden death
experience is never
something that you're prepared for. And yet it occurs."
The group made one more album, Third/Sister Lovers, with just Chilton
and Stephens - and it too was a minor masterpiece. Darker and more
complex than the
band's previous pop-oriented material, it remained unreleased for
several years. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine would name all three Big
Star albums to
its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In the mid-'70s Chilton began what would be a polarizing solo career,
releasing several albums of material, like 1979's Like Flies on Sherbet
- a strange,
chaotically recorded album of originals and obscure covers that divided
fans and critics. Chilton also began performing with local roots-punk
deconstructionists
the Panther Burns.
In the early '80s, Chilton left Memphis for New Orleans, where he
worked a variety of jobs and stopped performing for several years. But
interest in his
music from a new generation of alternative bands, including R.E.M. and
the Replacements, brought him back to the stage in the mid-'80s.
He continued to record and tour as a solo act throughout the decade.
Finally, in the early '90s, the underground cult based around Big Star
had become so
huge that the group was enticed to reunite with a reconfigured lineup.
"It's obvious to anybody that listens to his live performances or his
body of recorded work, his tremendous talent as a vocalist and
songwriter and instrumentalist,"
Fry said.
"Beyond the musical talent, he was an interesting, articulate and
extremely intelligent person," Fry added. "I don't think you'd ever
have a conversation
with him of any length that you didn't learn something completely new."
The band, featuring original member Stephens plus Jon Auer and Ken
Stringfellow of the Posies, continued to perform regularly over the
next 16 years. Big
Star became the subject of various articles, books and CD reissue
campaigns, including the release of widely hailed box set, Keep an Eye
on the Sky, released
last year by Rhino Records.
"When some people pass, you say it was the end of an era. In this case,
it's really true," said Memphis singer-songwriter Van Duren, a Chilton
contemporary
in the Memphis rock scene of the '70s.
The band was scheduled to launch the spring 2010 season at the Levitt
Shell at Overton Park with a benefit concert on May 15.
Big Star had not played in Memphis since a 2003 Beale Street Music
Festival appearance.
Chilton is survived by his wife, Laura, and a son Timothy.