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Alex Chilton

Alex Chilton

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Alex Chilton: 19 Years: A Collection of Alex Chilton (Rhino)

Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, April 1991

IF ANY ONE PERSON is emblematic of the musical malaise of rock's cutting edge during the 1980s, it would have to be cult factotum Alex ...

Audio interviews

Alex Chilton (1986)

Interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1986

From the Box Tops and Big Star to Feudalist Tarts, the Memphis legend tells all the tales: about Chris Bell, drink and "trashy" drugs, Like Flies on Sherbert, the Cramps, trashing Ardent studios, his doubts about his songwriting, cutting out booze and washing dishes in New Orleans.

File format: mp3; file size: 41.2mb, interview length: 42' 55" sound quality: ***

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Alex Chilton: CBGBs, New York NY

Live Review by Miles, New Musical Express, 2 April 1977

ALEX CHILTON is known for two things: 'The Letter', which he did when he was with The Box Tops, and his work with the legendary ...

Alex Chilton: The Big Star of New York's Underground

Report by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1977

CHAPTER THREE in the adventures of a bona-fide, under-acknowledged rock hero is currently in progress. At the moment, the story is mostly taking place in ...

Alex Chilton: Getting The Cramps Between The Box Tops And Big Stardom

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 31 December 1977

ANY SELF-RESPECTING cultural elitist should know who Alex Chilton is, as should all hopeless old bozos still lingering on from the 60s. To recap for ...

The Cramps' Big Break

Report and Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1979

"Give Me Memphis, Tennessee..." ...

Alex Chilton: Like Flies On Sherbert (Aura) ****

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 23 February 1980

ABSOLUTELY ONE of a kind, because, while archivists insist they wish that Jimbo was still here or that Syd would make another album, Alex Chilton ...

Feudalist Star: Alex Chilton

Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 20 June 1985

AFTER YEARS of maintaining a low musical profile, southern pop cult hero Alex Chilton's star may be on the rise again. ...

Alex Chilton: Mean Fiddler, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 October 1985

Back on top ...

Alex Chilton: London, Mean Fiddler

Live Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 26 October 1985

ALEX CHILTON – one-time Box Top, Big Star, Cramps producer, etc. – is possibly rock’s greatest cult hero. Like many, I’ve been aware of this ...

Alex Chilton: Alex's Wild Years

Interview by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, 2 November 1985

If anybody can really claim to be a living legend, ALEX CHILTON is the guy. From the Box Tops to Big Star to the booze, ...

Alex Chilton: Feudalist Tarts

Review by Martin Aston, Melody Maker, Summer 1985

LIFE has gone full circle for Alex Chilton. Seventeen years old in 1967, up to New York City from hometown Memphis where he fronted the ...

Alex Chilton (1986) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Martin Aston, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1986

This is a transcript of Martin's audio interview with Alex. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Alex Chilton, Scruffy the Cat: Variety Arts Center, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Gerrie Lim, L.A. Weekly, 6 November 1987

NO LONGER a Box Top or a Big Star, though after all these years maybe someday he'll be a big star, Alex Chilton showed his ...

Alex Chilton: High Priest (Big Time)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 December 1987

NO DOUBT about it, Alex Chilton is really hip right now, with bands like R.E.M., the Replacements and the Bangles citing his legendary early-Seventies group ...

Alex Chilton: Wildman On The Edge

Interview by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 9 January 1988

In spite of his reputation as a cult artist, ALEX CHILTON likes to see himself in terms of a hit singles factory. Here he discusses ...

Alex Chilton: London University

Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 10 March 1990

WHAT BECOMES a legend most? Taking drugs helps. Being renowned for a certain volatile temperament that involves smashing up studio consoles and putting your hands ...

Alex Chilton: Like Flies On Sherbert (Great Expectations/CD only)

Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 4 July 1992

WHEN BIG Star finally went under after their Sister Lovers (aka Third) LP failed to receive the attention it deserved at the time, a disgusted ...

Big Star: 'Whatever Was There, I Drank It Or Took It...'

Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 21 August 1993

...So says Alex Chilton, inspirational genius behind Seventies legends BIG STAR, whose brief but influential career embraced three classic albums and more drugs, booze and ...

Jim Dickinson: Earth Father

Retrospective and Interview by Robert Gordon, MOJO, October 1994

Backwoods, Mississippi. Home to Jim Dickinson, the revered producer and professional redneck whose work spans the story of Southern music from Sun Records to Big ...

Robert Gordon: It Came From Memphis (Secker & Warburg)

Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, October 1995

"WE HAD poetic furor," says Memphis scenester Randall Lyon, a key figure in Robert Gordon's new book about the music of his home town. "I ...

The Man Who Preferred Not To: Alex Chilton

Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, Dig, The (Japan), November 1999

IF EVERYONE who heard the Velvet Underground in the ’60s formed a band – so the joke goes – then everyone who heard Big Star ...

Wayward Sons: The Ballad of Big Star

Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, February 2000

THE SUN IS going down on Memphis, site of rock’n’roll’s immaculate conception and explosive birth. On a warm spring evening, the Mississippi’s purplish-brown waters are ...

The Glory and Grandeur That Is Defeat: The Music of Alex Chilton

Special Feature by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, July 2004

I. Entrance: On the Slopes of Parnassus ...

The Glory and Grandeur That Is Defeat: The Music of Alex Chilton, Part 2

Retrospective by Michael Baker, Perfect Sound Forever, July 2004

IF THE FIRST ALBUM is soulful and unconscious, the second develops a narrator and player who find new voices, taking on consciousness, memory, and loss. ...

According to Paul

Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 11 March 2005

Rocker Paul Westerberg talks about fame and his bad reputation. ...

The Rock Snob's Dictionary: An Introduction

Book Excerpt by David Kamp, Broadway Books, February 2006

2021 AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was written in 2005 and does not entirely hold up today. (But most of it does.) ...

40 Years of Ardent

Retrospective and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 26 October 2006

FOR MANY music afficionados, Memphis' Madison Avenue is the Southern equivalent of Abbey Road. Yet thousands cruise past the low-slung brick building at 2000 Madison ...

40 Years of Ardent

Retrospective and Interview by Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, 26 October 2006

The little recording studio on Madison has played a big part in Memphis music history. ...

Alex Chilton: Out Of Time

Retrospective and Interview by Martin Aston, MOJO, November 2009

A Beatles-obsessed quartet of '70s Memphis kids offering power-pop acid-drops for a soul label and a heavy rock public, Big Star were the ultimate misfit ...

South by Southwest: Where The Weird Get Going

Report by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 26 March 2010

The freaks were out in force in Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest festival. Stephen Dalton revels in the music ...

Show Your Working!: Alex Chilton: Free Again: The 1970 Sessions (Omnivore/Ace)

Review by Andy Gill, The Word, March 2012

Former teen idol Alex Chilton found his feet writing songs. The first efforts were strange, charming and totally schizophrenic. ...

Alex Chilton: O My Soul!

Retrospective by David Cavanagh, Uncut, May 2012

Evil spirits. "Trotsky. Machiavelli. Sports. Astrology." Sessions with the Cramps and Tav Falco. Periods without shoes. Dishwashing and tree-climbing. And a heroic last stand against ...

Flies on Shit: Alex Chilton Goes Back to Memphis

Book Excerpt by Holly George-Warren, Viking Books, March 2014

The former Big Star man sees the Sex Pistols in Memphis and limbers up for the shambolic Like Flies On Sherbert. An exclusive excerpt from ...

Holly George-Warren's Alex Chilton

Memoir by Binky Philips, Huffington Post, 11 April 2014

When I was running the East Village record store, St Mark's Sounds in the 1980s, Alex Chilton's LP Like Flies On Sherbert [sic] was a ...

Holly George-Warren: A Man Called Destruction – The Life and Music of Alex Chilton from Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man (Viking)

Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 2014

IF EVERYBODY WHO heard the Velvet Underground in the late 1960s went on to form a punk group, it could be argued that everybody who ...

see also Big Star

see also Box Tops, The

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