This is a piece by Alex Chilton called Kangaroo. Alex died yesterday. He was 59 and had a career in pop music that spanned over 40 years, starting with the 60's hit, The Letter. He was a 18 year old kid who managed to cross over as a white soul artist.
He never had the big success of The Box Tops again, but he was a true American Independant artist and inspired generations with his power pop band of the 70's, Big Star and his work throught the 80's and the 90's. Check out Paul Westerberg's song entitled Alex Chilton from his great band, The Replacements, which they recorded in the early 80's. Earlier in this decade, he reformed Big Star and kept playing until last year.
Keep On Rocking, Alex!
2 comments:
Micro, Thanks for that.
I really wish I had more romm to write about Alex Chilton. I have to correct a mistake, The Boxtops Hit, The Letter was recorded when Chilton was 16.
On of the great white soul voices, right up there with Scott Morgan, Mitch Ryder and Stevie Winwood.
Uhh, I forgot to mention, Joe Cocker, who scored a big hit by covering The Letter in the 1980's.
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