The life and times of the legendary band.
Posts tagged Box Tops.
Alex Chilton: 1975-1981
In early 1979, Alex Chilton formed the Panther Burns with Tav Falco. Chilton was nearly a decade removed from his stint as lead singer in the Top 40 band the Box Tops and almost five years from his last recordings with Big Star, the pop band whose work had sparked a legion of dedicated followers. Over those five years, Chilton had begun his definitive move away from everything he’d done before. He made two solo records that had grown deliberately more simple and primal, crossing rockabilly with outrage, and he’d then moved himself behind the scenes to produce the first singles of the band the Cramps, rockabilly revolutionaries of an even more primitive sort. With his next project, the Panther Burns, Chilton found his least refined band to date and again pushed himself seemingly out of the spotlight, this time in the role of the guitar sideman. Yet he appeared to still have a great hand in the band’s direction. The Panther Burns had started almost as an art project, but a year later they had evolved into a rock ‘n’ roll dance band. They were like no other dance band around…
A slow beautiful sound for the cover of Jumpin’ Jack Flash. By alex Chilton from Chilton’s Free Agian: The “1970” sessions. Recorded while he was constrained to the Box Tops and before he joined Big Star.
The Replacements (with Alex Chilton) - Can’t Get Enough (Bad Company cover)
[Uptown Bar, Minneapolis - 1/19/85]
Alex Chilton - Lost My Job
Just in case you had forgotten that Alex Chilton did some things other than produce songs by The Cramps, co-found Big Star and sing for The Box Tops.
From the album, Feudalist Tarts (Big Time)
Great tune!
My mum told me this was the first single she ever bought.
When Paul Collins played in Melbourne, I asked him if he would play this for my mum who was in the audience. He did and ended up telling my mum his story about this song and why he chose to cover it on his King Of Power Pop album. My mum was very happy. She loved it and had a great time. She normally wouldn’t go to many shows with me but she was over from Adelaide visiting me and I already had a ticket to his show so she decided to come along anyway. Seeing my mum walk up to Paul after the show and thank him personally for singing the song for her made me so happy. My mum is awesome and grew up with an amazing record collection (which is where I got the beginnings of my rock n roll knowledge, I guess). This was a great day and forever a good memory.
