Falling asleep with a flop pop video on.
If he was from Venus, would he meet us on the moon?
If he died in Memphis, then that'd be cool, babe.
- "Alex Chilton" - The Replacements
These cryptic words in a gleefully upbeat song sadly proved prophetic as Alex Chilton died in Memphis last week. I'm not going to pretend that I browbeated people into listening to Big Star. I've had #1 Record/Radio City in my collection for well over a decade, but I'm positive I have listened to the entire album less than five times. It just seemed like an album that every music lover should have in their collection.
It's not that the album and songs didn't grab me. Far from it. I just kept putting the album off as more albums came up. It used to be claiming to love The Replacements and the Pixies was part of some unspoken "indie cred," but that love always had a second layer - and that layer was Big Star. People have lamented how few albums The Replacements sold during their span. But Big Star sold even fewer.
That will no doubt change, sadly as people are starting to take notice after scores of tributes that pored on via Twitter, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and even South by Southwest. Better late than never, but it's a cautionary tale that I would be a hypocrite to say that I didn't fall into it more often than not. Don't take your heroes for granted. And don't wait until they pass on to appreciate them.
For those unfamiliar with Big Star, there's probably no better spot to start than "Thirteen."
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