A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man (49 page)

“I’d visit”
:
HGW interview with Alexander.

Chapter 10: 1969

“It was a real volatile thing”
:
HGW interview with Gary Talley.

“not the husband or dad type”
:
HGW interview with Paul Jobe.

“I don’t remember the details”
:
HGW interview with Talley.

“The morale was lousy”
:
Cub Koda, “Alex Chilton: My Dinner with Alex,”
Goldmine
.

“There were personnel conflicts”
:
Colin Escott, “The Box Tops,” unpublished article accessed via Rocksbackpages.com.

“Alex was getting twice as much”
:
HGW interview with Talley.

“I don’t want to put Roy Mack”
:
HGW interview with Wayne Carson Thompson.

“Management totally mistreated the band”
:
Parke Puterbaugh interview with Thomas Boggs.

“Ardent was the only place”
:
Robert Gordon,
It Came from Memphis
.

“Fry had better equipment”
:
Jim Dickinson,
The Search for Blind Lemon
.

“We were incredible Anglophiles”
:
HGW interview with Terry Manning.

“I first met Alex”
:
HGW interview with John Fry.

“Alex and I became friends”
:
Daniel Coston interview with Terry Manning.

“in a less snobbish era”
:
Ellen Willis. “Rock, Etc.”
New Yorker
, August 9, 1969.

“There was little pre-production”
:
Coston interview with Manning.

“It was really just the three of us”
:
Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.

“Alex was on a learning curve”
:
ibid.

“I’d learned to do things very meticulously”
:
Dave Hoekstra, “The Star of Alex Chilton.”

“There were all these rules”
:
Mike Boehm, “Alex Chilton’s Following Is a Cult Above,”
Los Angeles Times.

“He was kind of subdued”
:
Hoskyns interview with Rosebrough.

“Alex was around a lot”
:
HGW interview with Fry.

“the highest kind of rock-and-roll”
:
Robert Christgau, “
Esquire
review as quoted in Box Tops press release, Bell Records.

“Those yokel hacks”
:
Lester Bangs, “The Box Tops:
Dimensions, Nonstop, Super Hits
,”
Rolling Stone
.

“We debated”
:
Gary Talley,“The Box Tops: Setting the Record Straight.”

“I remember hearing him say”
:
HGW e-mail interview with Swain Schaefer.

Chapter 11: Free Again

“I was trying to learn to write”
:
Bruce Eaton interview with AC.

“He had started ‘The EMI Song’
”
:
Coston interview with Terry Manning.

“a family thing”
:
HGW interview with Terry Manning.

“Alex and I’d get loaded”
:
HGW interview with Swain Schaeffer.

“teenybopper, bubblegum stuff”
:
Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.

“I really wanted to quit”
:
Gordon Alexander, “So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star,”
Dixie Flyer
.

“He spent a couple of days”
:
Michael O’Brien written remembrance of AC.

“There was no point”
:
HGW interview with Gary Talley.

“In 1970, when I left the group”
:
Eaton, interview with AC.

“a hell of a song”
:
HGW interview with Wayne Carson Thompson.

“I wanted to exploit”
:
HGW interview with Terry Manning.

“crazy rock & roll [pedal] steel guitar leads”
:
ibid.

“Parsons was a very expressive”
:
Martin Aston, “Alex’s Wild Years,” 1985.

“had so many meanings”
:
HGW interview with Terry Manning.

“Although it was largely recorded”
:
HGW interview with John Fry.

“Jerry offered a deal”
:
Bob Mehr,
Free Again: The 1970 Sessions
liner notes.

“They loved it”
:
ibid.

“As kids who went to this”
:
HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.

“I would spend a lot of time”
:
ibid.

“With a summer job”
:
O’Brien written remembrance of AC.

“Alex was really involved”
:
HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.

“He was always real nervous”
:
ibid.

“I seemed to hang around”
:
Eaton interview with AC.

“Todd Rundgren had made his first”
:
ibid.

“Alex and I started hanging out”
:
HGW interview with Keith Sykes.

“I was sick of bands”
:
Robert Gordon,
It Came from Memphis
.

“Alex had so many influences”
:
HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.

“struggling like all of us to develop our cultural voice”
:
Jefferson Siegel, “Stars Remember Karin Berg,”

“He looked like”
:
Barney Hoskyns interview with Bud Scoppa.

“Roger McGuinn called me”
:
ibid.

Chapter 12: Big Star Ascends

“an old married couple”
:
HGW interview with Vera Ellis Poag.

“Steve and me and Chris”
:
Daniel Coston interview with Terry Manning.

“He was real excited”
:
Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.

“I started hanging out”
:
ibid.

“song that later became ‘Feel’”
:
Bruce Eaton interview with AC.

“we played a few things”
:
HGW interview with Keith Sykes.

“About the summer of ’71”
:
Parke Puterbaugh interview with AC.

“Alex and I respected”
:
Max Bell, “The Big Star Story.”

“It was pretty close”
:
Puterbaugh interview with AC.

“we’d just show up”
:
HGW interview with Jody Stephens.

“were a good match”
:
Hoskyns interview with Rosebrough.

“Chris was a very driven”
:
Daniel Coston interview with Andy Hummel.

“Chris would show up”
:
Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1993.

“my knowledge of music theory”
:
Cub Koda, “My Dinner with Alex,”
Goldmine
.

“I went by the studio”
:
Hoskyns interview with Rosebrough.

“We were doing our own thing”
:
HGW interview with Poag.

“Big Star grocery store”
:
ibid.

“Chris and I were smoking a joint”
:
Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1993.

“feeling really uncomfortable”
:
HGW interview with Stephens.

“Chris was really into recording”
:
Ken Sharp and Doug Suply,
Power Pop! Conversations with the Power Pop Elite
.

“I can remember first working up”
:
HGW interview with Stephens; Sharp and Suply,
Power Pop!

“Chris and I did all the harmony vocals”
:
Koda, “My Dinner with Alex.”

“my almost-good songs”
:
Dawn Eden, “Mr. Postman,”
The Bob
.

“A lot of the time”
:
Martin Aston, “Alex’s Wild Years,”
Melody Maker
, 1985.

“represent the real Alex Chilton”
:
HGW interview with Terry Manning.

“We weren’t big stars”
:
Puterbaugh interview with AC.

“a mythical album number”
:
Max Bell, “The Big Star Story.”

“We were always threatening”
:
ibid.

“I was depressed”
:
Eaton interview with Andy Hummel.

“John Fry was a genius”
:
Sharp and Suply,
Power Pop!

“We had to really work”
:
Rob Jovanovic,
Big Star.

“improper language”
:
ibid.

“I knew everyone in the band”
:
Michael O’Brien written remembrance of AC.

“Looking back at
#1 Record
”
:
Puterbaugh interview with AC, 1993.

Chapter 13: #1 Record

“Vera was not in the background”
:
HGW interview with Robert Schiffer.

“They were so volatile”
:
Drew DeNicola interview with Diane Wall Smith.

“They were all kids”
:
Barney Hoskyns interview with Richard Rosebrough.

“Then when I came out”
:
ibid.

“Chris persuaded John”
:
film,
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
.

“That live recording”
:
Frank Gutch, “The Story of Cargoe,” http://www.rockandreprise.net/cargoer&r6.html.

“Chris was too high and mighty”
:
Eaton interview with AC.

“100 percent certainty”
:
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.

“Some of the larger independent labels”
:
HGW e-mail interview with Seymour Stein.

“All of a sudden”
:
HGW interview with Peter Jesperson.

“We were not a big company”
:
Frank Gutch and Wade Anderson, “The Ardent Records Story,”
Bomp
.

“I was disgusted”
:
Rob Jovanovic,
Big Star
.

“Chris was a very troubled person”
:
HGW interview with Robert Schiffer.

“Chris complained about them”
:
Jovanovic,
Big Star
.

“There were problems with friendships”
:
Hoskyns interview with Rosebrough.

“Alex Chilton’s voice”
:
Robert Christgau,
Rock Albums of the ‘70s: A Critical Guide
.

“Led Zeppelin and all those bands”
:
Parke Puterbaugh interview with AC.

“Depression can come on”
:
David Bell,
I Am the Cosmos
liner notes.

“He was taking some drugs”
:
Epic Soundtracks, “Alex Chilton,”
What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen.

“I remember Chris coming to me”
:
Bruce Eaton interview with AC.

“the emotional turmoil”
:
Jason Gross interview with Andy Hummel (Perfect Sound Forever).

“He and Fry”
:
Jonathan Valania interview with Dickinson.

“I got a call”
:
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
.

Chapter 14: You Get What You Deserve

“Chris Bell was somebody”
:
Martin Aston, “Alex’s Wild Years,”
Melody Maker
, 1985.