This is wayyyyyy more about Alex Chilton than I wanted to know, almost a day-by-day telling of his life from a very early age, early enough that I wondered how this information was being acquired. I bogged down in the descriptions of teenage girlfriends, being honest. And finally I stopped reading because I worried that, like the biography of Warren Zevon by Crystal Zevon that I also stopped reading, I would like the music less after learning more about the person. ( )

A well-researched but unseemly book about one of the most underrated pop musicians of the 1960s—1990s era, George-Warren spent too much time on tangential people in Alex Chilton's life who could provide sordid details of his worst moments where she should have spent more pages detailing the music. Although the author does give Chilton his due as the putative godfather of indie rock and provides the musical trajectory of a spotty career encompassing the Box Tops, Big Star, and a DIY-ish one-man show, it comes at a high price. I found myself skimming relentlessly, and the book never seized my interest in the way that Chilton's music captured me in college. I was left wishing that Alex had written his own autobiography—something that was no doubt a very low priority of his—if only to preempt this trashy retelling of past glories. ( )

A solid piece of music journalism on a guy who was part-genius, part-asshole, and more than anything else, an ordinary guy susceptible to life's unpredictable swerves. Some sections were tough to get through (physical abuse of his partners, lack of support for his son, burned bridges, drug and alcohol abuse, etc.), but George-Warren doesn't sugarcoat Chilton's life, and because of her honest view, his deliberate changes and ultimate indie-rock celebration at the end of his life seem like a positive redemption of his earlier actions.

The author is particularly good in her description of the Memphis of Chilton's youth, his artistic and intriguing family life, and the kinds of musical magic that can happen when you give a bunch of Memphis dudes the keys to a studio to use for free after hours. And, while I've never been a fan of the kind of music writing that lists out versions of songs and talks about what music sounds like, I found the inner workings of the Memphis music industry to be fascinating, especially in this time between the old school music machine of the Box Tops and the wild experimentation that was to come.

Chilton is a guy who was never anything other than himself, musically and personally. I'm glad he was able to make and record as much as he did, and even though he got a little tired of playing the Big Star stuff, I'll never get tired of listening to it. ( )

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, singing 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. ( )

An honest, insightful and revealing biography of the late, great Alex Chilton, a seriously underrated iconoclastic genius of rock 'n' roll. ( )