Thursday, March 25, 2010

children by the million sing for alex chilton

Sad news about Alex Chilton, who died last week aged 59 - one of the great unrecognised rock'n'roll mavericks. Chilton's death means that both of the key songwriters who made up Big Star are now dead, Chris Bell having been killed in a car accident in 1978.

As I said in my previous post, the CD you want is the one containing their first two albums #1 Record and Radio City, though some are very attached to their ragged and chaotic third album as well.

Here's a live version of Big Star's classic Thirteen from 2008, here's a cover version by Garbage featuring the lovely Shirley Manson, here's Paul Westerberg doing his old band The Replacements' tribute song (titled, strangely, Alex Chilton) in 1996 and finally here's (audio only) Chilton and Big Star fans Teenage Fanclub doing a gig together in Glasgow, also in 1996.

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