The Untimely Death of Alex Chilton: A Sad Way to Start SXSW 2010

The first notes of the first official shows of this year’s installment of the world’s best music festival had barely been played when the word started spreading through the

crowd, from iPhone to iPhone, via Facebook status update and shocking Tweets: Alex Chilton, the often reclusive godfather of jangly pop was dead. Felled by a heart

attack in New Orleans at the age of 59.The 16-year-old boy who led the Box Tops to the top of the charts with 1967’s “The Letter” (”Give me a ticket for an aeroplane, ain’t got time to take a fast train”) and grew into the founder of the incomparably influential Big Star was no more. It hit especially hard in Austin where the reformed Big Star was to play the final set of the final night of South By Southwest 2010.But even if he hadn’t been on a lot of music lovers’ schedules this week, the news would have hit just as hard. Big Star was the band often atop lists of “Greatest Bands You Never Heard Of,” even though virtually every rock musician was aware of the contributions of the Memphis quartet. It was often said of the Velvet Underground, “Almost nobody saw them, but everyone who did formed a band.” And what VU did in inspiring punk and new wave, Big Star did for guitar-based pop.The band put out its first record in 1972 and almost immediately started to dissolve, with main songwriters Alex Chilton and Chris Bell parting ways (and Bell dying not long after). But the music lived on, particularly with groups like R.E.M, the Replacements and Teen-age Fanclub. (The Replacements even recorded a song titled, “Alex Chilton.”) The jangly guitars and shimmering harmonies became part of the rock vocabulary and songs like “September Gurls” and “Thirteen” were covered by a long list of artists.When Big Star ceased to be, Chilton stepped back from the spotlight, recording a series of solo albums over the years that never quite reached the heights Big Star had reached, and only occasionally touring. He re-formed big Star in 1993, bringing back original drummer Jody Stephens and adding Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies (another band inspired by Big Star). But the one new album the band released paled compared to the three the original band produced in its short life.But they were still fun to see, and the knowledgable Austin music audience was abuzz with excitement at the chance to sing along to every great Big Star song again.On this chilly night, it hit like a hammer: We wouldn’t see them this week or ever again. The festival goes on, but with a hole in the hearts of all of us.