"Did you know that 'The Letter' by the Box Tops is a minute and fifty eight seconds long? It means nothing. But it takes them less than two minutes to accomplish what it takes Jethro Tull hours to not accomplish!" – Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs, “Almost Famous”
You have probably heard by now that Alex Chilton, legendary musician from the Box Tops and Big Star, passed away last week. “The Letter” remains one of my favorite pop songs ever, and it launched the incredible career of an artist who never seemed to slow down. Chilton embodied the idea of the “working musician,” the guy who would stop between tours long enough to record an album, or to appear on someone else’s.
He never became a rock star, at least not to most people, but he was much more than that: he was a presence. Through shifts in style, often within the space of an album, he played whatever influenced him, whatever moved him. He went from teen pop star to pioneering rocker to guest on the Replacements’ Alex Chilton to covering jazz standards on an acoustic guitar. He encompassed the music that came before him and five decades of shifting musical tastes in the second half of the 20th century.
Chilton was supposed to play at this year’s South by Southwest festival, a show that instead became a tribute featuring M. Ward, Mike Mills, and Sondre Lerche. Here are a few videos from that tribute, a fitting goodbye to such an influential artist.
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