A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man

by Holly George-Warren

The first biography of the artist who “essentially invented indie and alternative rock” (Spin)A brilliant and influential songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist, the charismatic Alex Chilton was more than a rock star—he was a true cult icon. Awardwinning music writer Holly George-Warren’s A Man Called Destruction is the first biography of this enigmatic artist, who died in 2010. Covering Chilton’s life from his early work with the charttopping Box Tops and the seminal power-pop band Big Star to his experiments with punk and roots music and his sprawling solo career, A Man Called Destruction is the story of a musical icon and a richly detailed chronicle of pop music’s evolution, from the mid-1960s through today’s indie rock.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Rock N Roll, Pop Culture, History

372 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 20, 2014

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not previously met a person who didn't like something by Alex Chilton. He's a cult artist by definition, but he is without a doubt a major work who made priceless pieces of treasure throughout his long career in music making. Why he didn't play the Greek Theater or the Olympia or Albert Hall on a regular basis is not his fault, but it was the 'general' audience that was asleep at the wheel, or using their extra funds foolishly by buying 'that' other record. At this point and time, everyone 'now' knows that Big Star are essential recordings as well as his long and complicated solo career. And of course, The Box Tops, you can't forget that!

The story of Alex is really the story of the South, and the southern aesthetic in how it played to the rest of the world, as well as the influences that touched the region that Chilton came from. In other words, it's a Cecil DeMille production, but in reality it was directed by Sam Fuller. Chilton and Big Star are blessed with some exceptional books. Rob Jovanovic's biography on Big Star and Bruce Eaton's focus on Big Star's Radio City are excellent titles. So is this biography by Holly George-Warren, which is well-researched and well-rounded view of this unique figure. "A Man Called Destruction" (a catchy title, but I feel there is nothing tragic or destructive about Alex, compared to.... Chet Baker or ....etc.) covers all the bases and she, like the other writers, has a feel on Alex, his music, and his world. The thing is Alex is just one character in this fascinating story - the whole creative and boho culture of Memphis is also part of this story.

I always felt that Alex's genius lies in not only in his music, but in his culture as well. What you get is black American culture, Elvis culture, and William Eggleston culture as well. It's an insane world, but one that is totally manageable, but it does have its tragic side as well. I got the feeling from reading this book and the others that he really felt the death of his parents, Chris Bell, and his brothers - he didn't talk about it, but the silence is pretty loud. Excellent biography.

[George Bradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I never trust a person who hasn't burned their life completely to the ground at least twice," says Jon Dee Graham. "Otherwise, I don't believe they're sincere."

By this standard, Alex Chilton stands as one of the most sincere musicians in the history of rock and roll.

And that is certainly the portrait emerging from Holly George-Warren's "A Man Called Destruction". Alex Chilton was many things. But above all else he was an artist committed to his own individual path. It's a path littered with success, failures, disappointments and heart break. And it's a path with one hell of a brilliant soundtrack.

Fans of The Box Tops, Big Star and Alex Chilton are likely familiar the story's plot line. In 1967 Memphis teenager Alex Chilton sings "The Letter" with The Box Tops. The single sells 4 million copies. Alex Chilton has made it. And two albums of solid material later it's clear he's no "one hit wonder". The Box Tops are one of top drawing bands in America. But restless Alex Chilton quits The Box Tops for an uncertain future.

In 1971 Alex Chilton joins Chris Bell, Andy Hummel and Jody Stephens to start a new Memphis band. While recording their original material at Ardent Studio the group decides to call themselves "Big Star". And in 1972 Big Star crafts one of the greatest albums ever recorded. (Every detail of how that album was recorded is detailed here.)

Then the trouble begins in earnest. And it doesn't let up for about twenty years.

Life deals Alex Chilton one cruel misfortune after another. (Many are self inflicted.) Yet Big Star manages to produce two more masterpiece albums. Alex builds a third Memphis sonic juggernaut called Panther Burns. He produces recordings for The Cramps and other bands. He relentlessly writes and records new original music that defies categorization. Alex Chilton proves to be one of the most revolutionary and productive musicians in the insanely rich history of Memphis (the home of rock and roll).

And he never hits the big time.

Actually, Alex Chilton rarely manages to break even.

So, why a 'serious' biography about Alex Chilton? (And make no mistake. This is a very serious biography. Meticulously researched and objectively written, Holly George-Warren delivers a book with the heft normally reserved for Presidents.) Why publish a biography of this nature about an individual who never 'achieved' widespread notoriety, fame or fortune? Why document the life of Alex Chilton?

Certainly his music merits serious attention. It's fueled a devout following now entering its fifth decade.

But this biography treats its subject far more seriously than an obscure cult figure or historical footnote. As it should. Alex Chilton's life and music challenge conventional notions of 'success' and 'achievement'. Examining the life of Alex Chilton requires the reader to question how greatness is defined and measured. And for the reader willing to wrestle with those ideas Alex Chilton emerges as a hero.

Perhaps sincerity cannot be quantified in this life. If not, then I agree with Jon Dee Graham. The individual who hasn't burned their life to the ground at least twice cannot be trusted. They are not sincere.

But Alex Chilton was.

Alex Chilton was one of the most sincere musicians in the history of rock and roll.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book poured through me in a couple of days. Over the years, I spoke with Alex a number of times. The first was on a teenage pilgrimage to meet him in Memphis in 1975 as part of a cross country relocation. I worked with him indirectly through an association with the early Panther Burns. We have mutual good friends in Memphis, one of my favorite cities because of these friendships. Although I recommend this book to any casual fan, I think that anyone that wants to know about the inner workings of the music biz of the 60's /70's should read this. So much of it is based on chance and luck. Holly had a strong connection with Alex, who asked her to write this book. He had a harder life than I realized and I've come out of this book with even more respect for the man.
I have to say that I found Holly's overview of the Box Tops musical output quite charming. She describes the recordings to be better than they really are, but her words inspired me to revisit them to hear Alex's versatility as a singer. Thanks Holy for writing this book.

[Holden Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

An encyclopedic, sustained wikipedia entry. No real essence here, no dimensionality.

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting at first but then it became very depressing and I sure don't need to be reading that.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two major nitpicks: a dangerously close to accidental parody opening chapter that traces Chilton's lineage back to 1066 (Chilton was a history nut obsessed with American history, Southern history, and his own genealogy, so this was probably a tip of the hat to him, but I would have axed it from the book and started with his parents), and the author's annoying tendency to point out when a person is black, even if it has no bearing on the anecdote at hand. Otherwise, this is a balanced, comprehensive biography of an enigmatically complex singer/songwriter/musician who was always years ahead of or years behind the times and a figure who I feel a strong aesthetic affinity for in his lower-c catholic taste, hatred of the music business, obsession with songs and sound, and wildly unpredictable artistic swerves from teenage pop star with the Box Tops to initially ignored eventual cult figure with Big Star (one of my favorite bands) to destructo-art fringe character with his early solo career and Tav Falco's Panther Burns to anonymous working stiff (cab driver, dishwasher, tree trimmer, janitor, tourist bar cover band guitarist) to jazz/blues/R&B roots rocker to cult hero who found an uneasy yet hard-earned equilibrium with his many pasts and his present. George-Warren avoids both show-offy flashiness and academic dryness, and she's not here to bury or canonize Chilton, just present him as a three-dimensional human being who did a lot of bad and good and had one of the most unique careers in music. I'm pretty sure this is the only biography whose subject hangs out with the Manson Family at Dennis Wilson's house in the late 1960s and ten years later is being driven around Memphis by one of my former office job coworkers to buy beer. Also contains my favorite rock and roll anecdote: Chilton and his brother Howard got into a fistfight over who had the most Christmas spirit.

[Mal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Firstly let me say, I am the biggest Big Star fan under 50, but this book was so boring. So boring that I couldn't even finish 100 pages of it. I tried, oh boy did I try, because of my love for the subject, Alex Chilton. It just read like a really detailed wikipedia, instead of engaging me into a person I really already loved. So many sentences about Alex's teenage acne, why???!! Maybe one day I'll pick this up again and try a little harder, but probably not.

[Andrew Stewart]

It wouldn’t be accurate to say I read this book when by the second half I was just skimming for names. I liked Alex Chilton a lot. But you’d need to have really, really loved him to stay compelled with this level of minutia. If that is the case then this is the book for you, I’m not going to trash it for being thorough.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow I missed Alex Chilton during the 80s and 90s when I most likely would have come across him, and, like many others, I was tipped off to him by the song "Alex Chilton" on the Replacements Album "Pleased to Meet Me." After reading the Replacements book "Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements" I was really excited to read this biography. Unfortunately, I've come away from it with great ambivalence and feeling as though Alex Chilton's greatness is diminished in my mind.

Let's start with the good -- there was a LOT of detail about specific events in Chilton's life as well as recording sessions in the book. I had a really great time reading the book while simultaneously listening to many of the songs mentioned. Alex seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of music with eclectic tastes. I ended up finding a few gems that I never would have if I hadn't explored the book. Somehow I also missed Big Star, and I have to say I'm a huge fan of the band after listening to all three of their albums; I can now see their influence in a lot of the music that came later.

Now the not so good. The book was just extremely dry. I've heard so much about the legend of Alex Chilton by now that I expected to ingest copious stories full of drama and destruction and self-sabotage. I expected to get the story of a complex, conflicted man. The reality is there are lots of statements about how, at various times, Chilton was "at the nadir of his career" or was wasting his talent, but there's very little exploration of, or even conjecture on, his motivations and emotions. There were quotes from critics of his shows and music, but very few stories to demonstrate the trajectory of his life and career. Even the stories that are told are relayed matter-of-factly without color or context. In addition, the first 50 years of Chilton's life are explored almost tediously in depth, but then the final 10 years of his life just flit by with very little detail or depth. There's a statement of fact that Chilton achieved a sense of peace and balance later in his life -- perhaps somewhat related to his teetotaling -- but there's no exploration in any depth where this important change came from. Like much in this book, it's just drily stated and there is no exploration of the changes Chilton's character, just the changes in his actions. Maybe this is because, as the author recounts, she was originally talking to Chilton about writing his biography (to be titled "I Slept with Charles Manson") with him, but Chilton never had the time to get the project off the ground. Still, this feels like a cop out as other biographers put in the work to explore the depth of their subject and provide conjecture as to internal thoughts and motivations. As a result, "Destruction" reads like a biography written by someone who could never get close enough to the subject to truly know him.

"A Man Called Destruction" often states that Alex Chilton was brilliant, but reading the book didn't give me any real insight into that brilliance. The book talks about the self-destruction and self-sabotage, but didn't illustrate that behavior and how it affected him. The book talks about Chilton looking back on his life and finding satisfaction, but unfortunately "Destruction" left me unsatisfied and wanting more than just the skeleton of the man it sketched.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes ‘round/They sing “I’m in love. What’s that song?/ I’m in love with that song.”
—The Replacements, “Alex Chilton”

Somewhere a long the line I figured out that if you only press up a hundred copies of a record, then eventually it will find it’s way to the hundred people in the world who want it most.
—Alex Chilton in 1985

Though familiarity with the band Big Star remains the equivalent of rock and roll’s secret handshake, 40 years later there’s little doubt about the band’s lasting impact. Big Star was not a descriptive moniker. They released four albums in the early 1970s, produced no hits, and sold very few records. Alex Chilton, the musical genius who fronted the band, is perhaps best known for a song another band wrote about him. Yet, somehow Big Star’s modest influence grew out of oblivion until it practically invented two cherished genres that define today’s musical landscape—power pop and indie rock. These days, Big Star is a lot more than a musical footnote. Scratch the surface of a music geek and you’re likely to expose the underlying dermatitis of a full-blown Big Star obsession.

Much to the delight of this sub rosa fandom, the first proper biography of Chilton, A Man Called Destruction by Holly George-Warren, landed on shelves last month. The book borrows its title from Chilton’s final solo record, and if you want to read that title as a literal summation of Chilton’s life, the book offers plenty of evidence for that interpretation. However, if there are any grand lessons to be learned from this definitive addition to the canon of rock lit, it’s really about some of the least rock and roll themes imaginable: What happens when you do—and don’t—take your job seriously.

Though Big Star is central to his musical legacy, Chilton’s legend doesn’t begin or end there. He was born to an accomplished pianist and exceedingly gifted Jazz musician in Memphis in 1950, about two years before Elvis Aaron Presley would make that city the most musically influential place on earth. While Chilton was still young, his much older brother had a seizure and drowned in the bathtub. His parents, unable to cope with the grief, chucked their staid suburban bridge club existence and bought a large townhouse in an iffy neighborhood in Memphis. His mother opened an art gallery on the first floor and his father spent all his nights in the house jamming with a never-ending parade of the region’s most talented jazz musicians, many of whom would stay at the Chilton residence for extended periods. For Chilton it was alternately a blessing and a curse that his parents were neglectful alcoholics. He had a great deal of independence at an early age and his hell-raising was abetted by his undeniable charm and appeal to the ladies.

[Read the rest of my review over at Acculturated.]

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Stefano Solventi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biografia dettagliata e appassionata su uno dei musicisti più geniali e controversi della storia del rock. La mia recensione qui:

https://sentireascoltare.com/recensio...

[wyclif · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Veronica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book would have been much better had it come from Alex instead of a biographer, which is disappointing since it sounds like that could have been a possibility. Overall, I was not drawn in, and I kept having to refrain from skimming ahead.

Alex Chilton is an indie music idol who rose quickly to fame in 1967 at the age of 15 with "The Letter" by the Box Tops. He then achieved critical success (albeit not commercial) with his second band, Big Star. From the sounds of it, Chilton really was self-destructive, and because they were friends, I think Holly George-Warren had a hard time keeping an unbiased approach. However, it was very well-researched, just not as great as I had hoped.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

So disappointing! A well-researched but dull biography that fails to address the key questions in Chilton's life - particularly the effect of the untimely death of his older brother whom he idolised and the origins of his difficult temperament (both possibly related).

The author works very hard at what she does but fails to show any actual talent for it. She opens this book with a countdown of the Chilton family history - hardly enticing the reader - as though she took literally someone's advice to begin at the beginning. Events are chronicled but no insights are offered, no answers even attempted to the big questions in his life. A pity. There is still plenty of room for the real story of Alex Chilton's extraordinary life.

[tana · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENCYCLOPEDIC ain't the word! Great (not as in positive, but as in detailed and enlightening) stories re: my fave indie icon and yours, some I knew, most I did not. thank you for the goodread giveaway.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An musician's biography to feast upon. The detailed and rigorous research never usurps the clear and compelling prose style. Big Star fans, Chiltonites and indy guitar music fans alike, this is the one.

[DameEmma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somehow managed to be encyclopedic, but free of substance. A snore and a shame.

[Aria · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a boring f'ing book. Oh, the tedium. Disappointing, to be sure. Dnf at what point, idk, b/c I stated skimming early on. Closed forever on p. 202. Left him in CBGB's staring at girls.

[Barry Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Chilton had a long career in music utterly unlike any other artist. Starting first with The Box Tops in the 1960's with their big hit "The Letter," then with Big Star in the 1970's and 80's, then with the punk band Panther Burns, and finally as a solo artist and with various re-formed combinations of the earlier bands he wrote cutting-edge songs that were often years ahead of their time. By the time his audience had caught up with one set of music, he was usually off into something else entirely and often reluctant to turn back. Fame and fortune never seemed to mean anything to him, only the next song and the next gig. He loved spontaneous performance and was reluctant to rehearse or even sound-check. His taste was wide-ranging from pop, to soul, to punk rock, to rockabilly and early rock and roll, to blues, country and jazz. He was worshipped by some and rejected by others but was always his own man doing the music he liked. This is the first book to explore the career and life of this unique performer and recording artist who left a long legacy of varied music. - BH.

[George Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just a biography of Alex Chilton, but a fascinating and well-studied look at punk, pop, rock, glam and every other genre that was born of the 1960s and 1970s. Holly takes an icon and brings him to life through his work and his loves: music, friends and women, to provide a biography of a man that influenced countless musicians.

[Emilymcmc · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Kimmo Sinivuori · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sometimes you have to respect a guy for not trying". Holly George-Warren has written a great biography of Alex Chilton. Her writing is a pleasure to read and her portrait of Chilton is symphatetic but still comes with warts and all. The Big Star years, that have been covered pretty well before by many publications, do not offer anything new but what is really interesting in this book is the account of Chilton's "lost decade" after he had finished Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers. My information on this period in Chilton's life has so far mostly relied on the 1980's fanzines that gave a highly entertaining but extremely unreliable account of what Chilton was up to, washing dishes and all. I didn't know that Chilton was in the center of the CBGB's New York punk scene. If you read about those times in other books, Chilton is almost never mentioned even though he played a key role with Terry Ork and his Ork records. I didn't know that Chilton was friends with Richard Lloyd of Television and Richard Hell. Fast forward a bit, the times he spent with Gustavo Falco are legendary. I would have liked to read more about that. Maybe Gustavo was not in a mood to talk about it. "When Train Kept-a-rolling ended, to the relief of most everyone present, including the band..." There must be a million stories about Tav Falco and the Panther Burns that need to be told. Maybe a book on Tav next? I really enjoyed this book, it was not only highly entertaining but provided with a lot of interesting new facts and insights. If only she had mentioned Nomads' classic cover of Bangkok, which in 1985 provided me for the entry point to the world of Chilton and the Big Star, this book would have been perfect.

[Caryn Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Painstaking, enthralling, detailed, full of history. For me, who came to Alex through the 80s underground, but remember him being part of the NYC downtown scene too, it connected the dots for me in a way that was just fantastic. With the list of bands whom I love who adored AC, there's no wonder I fell in love with the first two records the instant I heard them. I felt like I was pretty solid on my Big Star and Alex Chilton history but it was good to patch up the holes.

Chilton wasn't the most sympathetic character and there are always multiple sides to every story, but I think that George-Warren did the biographer's thankless job of walking a solid middle ground: he wasn't an angel but he wasn't the devil incarnate either (except, of course, when he was). For music fans of A Certain Age, this is required reading; for the rest, at least it's down in one place so he won't be forgotten (not that those songs ever would). It's a quick read.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book for free in a Goodreads giveaway.


This biography of influential rock musician Alex Chilton never really got off the ground for me. Despite the importance of Chilton's work and dramatic highs and lows of his life, George-Warren's biography of him failed to sustain my interest. There was a lot of good information on Chilton's life and music, but it just wasn't compelling, and worst of all, did not fill me with a desire to listen to the music discussed. Maybe this book would work better for someone more into Chilton's work. but it fell pretty flat for me.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I have become fascinated by the music of Alex Chilton, the Box Tops and especially Big Star, this bio came across more as a fan's adulation than an in depth description of a complicated artist. Subjects which may have show Chilton in a compromising light, such as his belief in astrology and his alcoholism and drug use are mentioned, but never truly explored or shown how they directed his music. This left me wanting more and the final decade of his life seemed especially truncated. It seemed to me as if the author was rushing it's completion.

[David Holtzclaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book through the FirstReads giveaway on Goodreads,& truly liked it. Honestly, being a bit of a musicologist,I'm surprised that I didn't know hardly anything about Alex Chilton & Big Star. He had quite a cult following as well as a large discography, spanning a number of years. It's a well written bio,& Ms.George-Warren, paints an intriguing portrait of a very underrated rock icon.

[Elwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a very interesting and insightful read.

Very much, this book is a warts and all biography. However, some of the details are just not that interesting such as all the short-lived band line ups that Chilton leads after Big Star and never really achieves anything
What I appreciated the most was the stories behind the songs.

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really 2.5 stars. Honestly, I just got sick of it. You have to really, really love Alex Chilton to want this level of detail about every recording he ever made.

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sloppy fact-checking.

On page 90, the author states that Mike Douglas's host the week the Box Tops appeared on his show in 1969 was Carol Channing. This is false. I suppose one could make that mistake if they only casually glanced at edited clips of the performance. Douglas's host that week was actually Virginia Graham. Admittedly, Channing and Graham sorta share a resemblance. Sorta. But, you have to either not have a Google machine or be pretty lazy (or maybe both) to not find it simple to fact-check a detail like this. When I read that passage (and being familiar with the performance and pretty certain it wasn't Channing), I shut the book and was able to locate footage of and information about that performance here and here in a matter of minutes. How difficult was that?

I definitely think the book would have benefited from some tighter editing. Sloppy mistakes like this made me question the veracity of pretty much any further anecdote in this book. I met Carol Channing several times in the 90's and she was the sweetest person you could ever meet. I seriously doubt that she would ever have insulted someone she was interviewing as depicted in this book. The author made it sound like Channing (actually Graham) was trying to ridicule the Box Tops on national TV when, in fact, she was being very supportive of the group while bustin' their chops a little (in a not-as-funny-as-Don-Rickles way). "I actually think that you have talent and your music is marvelous," she tells them at one point. Hopefully, this Channing/Graham name mix-up will be cleared up for future printings of the book.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Sweet Inspirations sang with Chilton on "Cry Like a Baby" but, as an Elvis fan, I was taken aback (not really but kind of) that the author described them as "most famous for backing Aretha Franklin." I could be mistaken but I think they were most famous for backing another famous Memphis resident.

Also:
No mention is ever offered of Chilton's reaction to Joe Cocker's awesome 1970 cover of "The Letter". The book mentions every cover Chilton made himself as well as covers of Big Star songs that other bands recorded... but Cocker's cover — a classic and arguably itself an even bigger hit IMO — of Chilton's most popular song gets absolutely zero ink?!

Multiple chapters include many details about Chilton's first wife, Suzi — an inspiration to his early songwriting — but her suicide is given a casual (parenthetical) one-line, almost as an afterthought. Immediately following this, his son's incarceration is given the same sort of offhand aside. Nothing is mentioned at all about Chilton's reactions (if known) regarding either of these major events.

Likewise, towards the end of the book (pg. 307), a daughter — "the result of a brief liaison during his Box Tops days" — and granddaughter he finds out about later in his life is casually mentioned but all information stops there. Couldn't the author have located and interviewed the daughter for the book? The author mentions that there was some sporadic communication between father and daughter. The daughter's words might've possibly added a bit more texture and dimension to the man's story.

There is minutiae ad nauseum about recording sessions, set lists, performances, etc. As many have mentioned here, it's basically an encyclopedic, detailed recounting of Alex Chilton's musical career with insight about the man himself peppered in. I wanted to abandon it about 100 pages in but I powered through the remaining 218 pages, wanting to know more about Chilton, hoping the journal-like minutiae would eventually dissipate.

If you're a big fan of Big Star and know their songs, you'll enjoy the many, many, many well-researched details in this book. Sadly, that didn't apply to me. I was more interested in the kid who had the kick-ass voice of a seasoned soul singer at such a young age with the Box Tops. That part ends about a quarter of the way through the book. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't expecting the entire book to be about "The Letter" or "Soul Deep" but after a while the details about the recording sessions, setlists, etc. started to read like Charlie Brown's teacher in my head.

It's an incredibly well-researched book and it's not at all poorly written. In fact, it's very well done. Just not my cup of tea, I suppose. If it had been a bit more concisely edited — say, if about 50 pages of the recording studio play-by-play were excised — it could've been, at least for me, a more compelling read. Now, I know WAY more about Alex Chilton's recording sessions and performances than I ever wanted to know. I really wanted to like this book (and Chilton) a lot more. The author does present Chilton warts and all and, sadly, I can't say that the book made this troubled yet gifted musician more endearing to me.