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A Man Called Destruction: The Life And Music Of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops To Big Star To Backdoor Man (2014)

by Holly George-Warren(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0670025631 (ISBN13: 9780670025633)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: Alex Chilton and Big Star are huge names in indie rock. Seriously, god-like in the reverence some hold them. And since I've never spent time hunting up obscure recordings, I knew the names, but was unfamiliar with what they meant, in much the same way that I've encountered the names of Hindu gods without any stories to put them into context.Here's the context: Alex Chilton comes from an upper-class white family in Memphis, TN, an educated, artsy family, his father a pianist, his mother ran an art gallery. As a high school student he got an audition for a band, became their front man, pretty much immediately recorded a song someone else wrote, "The Letter", which became one of the biggest pop hits of all time. Out he goes on tour, cruising the country before he can drive, s... moreinging this song to millions of adoring fans.Eventually he learns how to play guitar, joins a band, writes some songs and learns a great deal about audio technology and engineering. His twenties and thirties are an endless series of obscure recordings that never make it big, no money, uneven performances, admiration from people who are really into music, sex drugs, etc. George-Warren goes into tremendous detail about the recording sessions, the live shows, who writes the liner notes and who takes the publicity shots. If you've any interest in the music business as such, this is really informative stuff. [I've been married to an audio engineer for twenty years and am only now really grokking this stuff, to his chagrin]. Not surprisingly this unsettled life is unsettling. Romantic relationships burn up and out, people quit music to pursue real jobs, some stay on the fringe, etc. In actual page count this goes on for eternity. I knew that he died youngish, and I was pretty worried about him. Made it hard to keep going, honestly. Then, abruptly, the last two chapters cover Chilton's last twenty years, which are pretty damn good. Zoom, it's over. He finally gets some money to go with the recognition, he gets a house of his own, decent tours, a loving wife. So, that's all right then. Rushed account of two decades, but it's a pretty good life in the long run, which is all any of us can ask.Library copy.
review 2: Alex Chilton’s discography is over 5 pages long; it starts in 1967 with the Box Tops and continues through the rest of his life to his sudden and unfortunate death in 2010. Most people have certainly heard him sing but were unaware of him. This book tries to remedy this injustice as we finally get an account of the life and music of Alex Chilton. The author does an admirable job of tracing the roots of Alex Chilton and following him through his childhood into rock & roll superstardom at age 16 as the singer of the smash hit “The Letter”. At a time when most kids are in high school, Alex Chilton was touring the country with the Box Tops, performing on the same bill as the Beach Boys and the Doors and getting burned out by the music business by the time he was 19.Chilton then went on to form the legendary (and almost unheard) Big Star and then embarked on a career that veered from brilliance to self-destruction. The book details his tours, recordings, girlfriends and missed opportunities in great detail. He seemed to be going down the familiar path toward self-destruction, but managed to change his habits and start on the road toward a sort of underground stardom. His influence as both a musician and a producer began to grow and his career began an upward climb as bands like the Replacements, REM and the Bangles recorded and popularized his music. His early work with the Box Tops and Big Star actually resulted in a reunion of both these bands and his unfortunate early death only showed what an iconic figure he had become.Reading this book also prompted me to go back and listen to as much of Alex Chilton’s music as possible. That is perhaps one of the best things that can happen from the reading the book. It’s amazing to just see how Chilton’s music veered from pop to punk to folk to alternative (before there was alternative) and back and forth again.The book itself is very well-done; most of the people in his life appear here (with the exception of his wife Laura) and sources and notes are very detailed. The author knew him personally and she does an excellent job in bringing such a complex person to life. I do have some quibbles – the book seems to rush through the last 10 years or so of Chilton’s life in the last chapter. However, a book on Alex Chilton is a book on American musical history and deserves to be read by anybody who cares about music. less

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