"I guess my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I'll ever have." - Alex Chilton
Terry Flamm over at Broken Hearted Toy did a majestic three-part review of "A Man Called Destruction," a biography of Alex Chilton. I just got my copy of the book. I've moved on from The Smiths & Morrissey, and am now immersed in the amazing and confounding r&r journey of Alex Chilton.
There is some kind of odd continuum. The Smiths were always in the spotlight, whereas Alex's career was birthed in a blaze, and then he seemed to spend the rest of his life on the margins, in the shadows.
I've just started the journey and it's a totally captivating read. I'm in the middle of the early years in Memphis and the wild ride of "The Letter." At 16, a young Alex Chilton & the Box Tops topped the charts with "The Letter." An almost "accidental" hit. I remember listening to the song on my little transistor radio. I knew it was a hit, but had no clue how massive (over 4 million copies sold) it really was at the time.
And here's maybe the best definition of real "alternative" rock:
"Somewhere along the line I figured out that if you only press up a hundred copies of a record, then eventually it will find its way to the hundred people in the world who want it the most." - Alex Chilton