Who was ‘Alex Chilton’ from The Replacements song?
With the possible exception of R.E.M., The Replacements bridged the gap between the new wave scene that immediately followed punk’s explosion arrival in music and the alt-rock of the late 1980s and early 1990s. And none of their songs built this bridge better than ‘Alex Chilton’, with its contradictory palette of sounds and sentiments.
There’s a dissonant yet honeyed guitar sound with a spiky, fuzz-toned riff, echoing drum slaps with plenty of space on either side of them, Paul Westerberg barked, growling vocal and doo-wop backing harmonies in the chorus. And then there are the “children by the million” singing for the titular Mr Chilton, in between his escapades raping and pillaging and stamping us in a file.
Perhaps the paradoxes of this song are meant to be precisely that. Since only profound contradictions could do justice to the complex character they’re about. This is a man who was singing on national television in the US at the age of 16, with the appearance of someone in his early 30s and the gravelly baritone voice of a middle-aged blues singer. A man who wrote possibly the most tender teen love song in pop history yet later released an album called Loose Shoes and Tight Pussy.
And a man who was seen as a leading light of the industry-polished blue-eyed soul in the late 1960s but frequented New York’s CBGBs and Max’s Kansas City the following decade. That’s how he came across The Replacements and offered to produce some of their demos.
So, how did Alex Chilton make his name?
Alex Chilton had made it as a child star while Michael Jackson was barely out of kindergarten, fronting soul group The Box Tops from the age of 16. He was recruited by the band via a talent competition in his home city of Memphis. In the second half of 1967, their debut song, ‘The Letter’, hit it big by tapping into the psych-soul sound that was garnering bands like The Turtles and the late-era Monkees a lot of attention. Chilton’s raw, rasping pipes, reminiscent of Jim Morrison, were a big part of the song’s appeal, too.
In 1972, after a string of hits with the group, Chilton returned to Memphis and formed Big Star with like-minded local musician Chris Bell. While the band didn’t sell many records in their time, they became hugely influential for a range of artists from Michael Stipe to Elliott Smith over the following decades. Their track ‘Thirteen’ and ‘September Gurls’, both written by Chilton, will be remembered for all time as some of the greatest power pop songs ever recorded.
Aside from Big Star reunions following Bell’s tragic death in 1977, Chilton spent most of his last four decades on solo works and released a distinctly mixed bag of nine studio albums. He also produced other artists, including albums for punk bands The Cramps and The Gories, aside from his brief work with The Replacements.
He spiralled in and out of drunken self-destruction, too. Fans witnessed him eating mushrooms on stage, and record labels had to contend with him deliberately drowning out his own songs with excessive guitar feedback. That was until 2010, when he suddenly died after having a heart attack in his car. It was two days before the biggest Big Star reunion of the band’s career.
And no, it wasn’t in Memphis. Though, would that really have been as cool as The Replacements singing it? Or would it be cooler if Chilton were still with us, still only in his mid-70s?
Looking back over his hero’s life, even Replacements singer Westerberg was left to ponder whether Alex was some brilliant chameleon or just a guy who lost it real quick. Still, thanks to his band, more children by the million than ever are now discovering Chilton. And a fair few of them could well be heard exclaiming, “I’m in love with that song!”
