Alex Chilton, 1950 – 2010
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Alex Chilton, 1950 - 2010
The first time I ever heard a Big Star song, I was 17 years old. I had gone through one of those nasty high school break-ups a few months before, and it was spring, and I was ready to start crushing on everyone again. I was sitting in the auditorium for the annual spring talent show when a kid named Rory got onstage with his guitar.
I was all nervous that it was going to be one of those awful few minutes of a teen-aged boy struggling through a classic rock song that wasn’t quite ready for prime time. Instead, Rory started softly singing “Won’t you let me walk you home from school?, Won’t you let me meet you at the pool?”
The song was completely new to me, but I was immediately hooked. It was sweet, tender, a little funny in places, really, it was the perfect pop song. It was Big Star’s “Thirteen”. Memphian Alex Chilton wrote “Thirteen” with bandmate Chris Bell.
The song would become a staple of almost every “I Like You” and “I Like You, But…” mixtape I made.
I grew up in Memphis, but I went to college in Indiana. When I got homesick, I would bust out my copy of “#1 Record / Radio City” and make home fries for all of the girls in my dorm.
One afternoon, I was reading the paper at the coffee shop. I started talking to a cute bearded guy who was sitting near me. He asked where I was from (it was clear I wasn’t from Indiana). When I told him I was from Memphis, his immediate response was “Like Big Star!” That cemented our friendship.
Five years later, I married that bearded guy. Our wedding rings are stamped with Alex Chilton’s words. I owe him a lot.
Big Star was scheduled to play South By Southwest on Saturday night, and the Levitt Shell in May.
12:12 pm
The part about your wedding rings, so touching! Very sweet words.
12:35 pm
When Kerry was talking to me about how to write this post, she blurted out the line “I owe Alex Chilton a lot.” That’s the six-word memoir for our entire relationship.
Big Star was my gateway drug to Memphis.
4:20 pm
i was so excited about the levitt shell show. so sad.
11:56 am
Awesome story. So many people from Memphis have a Big Star/Alex story in their life. It would be great to see many of them compiled somewhere.
8:22 pm
Hi Kerry. I’m a little behind on my blog reading, so I’m just now seeing this post, but I just wanted to mention that Rory’s cover was my first Big Star experience as well. I was in high school and living in Mississippi at the time, but a friend of mine from Memphis sent me an mp3 of Rory’s performance from that night, and I’ve been hooked ever since.