I don't mean to do this every Sunday, because it's not a good or fun trend in music to talk about deaths but I felt like I needed to say something about legendary indie hero Alex Chilton, who died on Thursday at the age of 59 from a heart attack. I first heard of the lead singer of Big Star (and The Box Tops as a teenager) from The Replacements song with his name, as I imagine most alternative '80s kids like me did, but I don't think I ever sought out his songs until much later. The Big Star songs were maybe not as great to me as they were to my '80s idols (both The Replacements and R.E.M. cited Chilton as a big influence) but they are certainly wonderful in their own right. Vic Chestnutt. Jay Reatard. Mark Linkous. And now Alex Chilton. 2010 is not getting off to a wonderful start.
Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song? I'm in love with that song."
And on a personal note, yesterday was the birthday of my friend Dan,
who died about a year ago, so while I'm saying rest in peace to strangers, I'd like to add this personal note for him. Miss you Dan. The world has been worse without you.
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