Wings For Wheels

My autographed CD booklet of Bach's Bottom

“There ain’t no one gonna turn me around.” – Alex Chilton, “The Ballad Of El Goodo,” 1972

“Children by the million scream for Alex Chilton to come around” – Paul Westerberg, “Alex Chilton,” 1987

Celebrity deaths don’t often affect me. Usually, it’s just an “Oh, that’s too bad.” If I really liked the artist I’ll put up a post here with a few words and some video clips. But it’s rare that I feel a sense of loss when someone famous dies. After all, they’re someone I’ve known, or at least partly known, only through their work and I can’t grieve as I would for someone I personally knew.

The last one to really get me was Danny Federici of the E Street Band. He had just been on stage with the band a few weeks earlier, so many of us Springsteen fans thought he would have a full recovery. But that night in Indianapolis turned out to be a farewell. Not even Michael Jackson’s death moved me too much. The Michael Jackson I loved had ostensibly died in the early-1990s, replaced by The King Of Pop, bearing no resemblance – literally – to the person behind “I Want You Back,” “Rock With You,” or “Billie Jean.”

But hearing the news that Alex Chilton died hit me pretty hard tonight, almost as much as Danny’s did. Coincidentally, I was in the same bar that I was in the night Jackson died. Back in June, it seemed like every other song played was “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” the lone Jackson song on the jukebox. Tonight, I gave the news to the one person there I thought would know who he was. But I had to remind her, “You know, the guy from Big Star? The Replacements did a song about him?” before she recognized the name.

Even though it was St. Patrick’s Day, I wasn’t planning on staying out late anyway. But I finished my drink, settled up, and made my way back home. As I reached for my iPod, I knew there was only one album I wanted to play, Radio City by Big Star. I think #1 Record is a better album, but that’s as much due to Chris Bell’s involvement. Third/Sister Lovers cemented his status as a tortured genius, but parts of it are too fragmented, too bleak, to truly enjoy. Radio City, which was made after Bell’s departure (though he co-wrote a few songs) and also has the rawness of Third/Sister Lovers, was Chilton’s masterpiece.

Listening to it again tonight, it struck me that, at his best, Chilton was three members of the Beatles condensed into one person. He could be as lyrically introspective as Lennon, as melodic as McCartney, and his Strat tone on Radio City sounded like Harrison on “Nowhere Man,” all in the same song, most evidently on “September Gurls.”

Chilton’s story and influence have reached far beyond what his records sold, even the hits he had with the Box Tops, so I’m not going to repeat it here. Still, his work with Big Star defined the sound we know as power pop. Some groups were too powerful, others too poppy. But those first two records are the ultimate blend of guitar crunch and blissful harmonies. It also helped that, as Memphis boys, they also understood soul music. You can listen to my good friends Keith and Mike and I talk about Big Star as part of Episode 28 of Wings For Wheels.

Well, I went out and bought four of the remasters today: A Hard Day’s Night, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, and Abbey Road. I put them in the CD player chronologically and, before I could even get to the couch, was blown away by the KERRANG of the opening chord of A Hard Day’s Night.

For the record, I don’t give a crap about the Beatles Rock Band Game. I prefer to play an actual guitar, not a plastic guitar-shaped controller. So I’ll leave it up to Vrabel to give the ultimate line on that.

But right now I’m about midway through MMT (I Am The Walrus just ended as of this sentence) and it’s pretty obvious that The Beatles deserve all the praise for the job they’ve done with this. There is a greater sense of warmth and space than on the original CD issues, and every once in a while, you do hear something you never heard. During Got To Get You Into My Life, for instance, I was bemoaning what I thought was a de-emphasis on Ringo, then all of a sudden I heard a drum fill in the fade-out I had never noticed in 33 years of being a Beatles fan.

Little surprises like that alone are the reasons why the catalog is worth buying again. Even now, I’m up to Baby, You’re A Rich Man, and it’s offering up some shockers, like the lead guitar on the left channel, and the odd bass note with which Paul starts off “Keep all your money in a big, brown bag” (is he playing the third?) are revelatory. I’m almost tempted to go out and but the other 10 CDs as soon as Her Majesty finishes. Thankfully, I’m lazy.

So for today, Popdose has album-by-album reviews and a listing of their greatest songs. Matt at Addicted To Vinyl has his favorite Beatles cover versions. I’ve decided to celebrate today here at WFW by listing the Beatles songs I think have gone comparatively unnoticed throughout the years. These are songs that would have been highlights for any other band, but when placed against so many other great moments, comes across as filler. These are listed chronologically, not in any order of preference.

1. Anna (Go To Him): An Arthur Alexander cover, but Lennon’s soulful vocal hints at his ability to lay his emotions bare on record.
2. Tell Me Why: Can’t Buy Me Love was the hit but this one, cut from similar cloth, is better. The Beatles are timeless because they took ideas in pre-rock pop songwriting and applied them to rock, and that began to take flight on A Hard Day’s Night. Everything about Tell Me Why – the harmonies, the chord structure, the shuffle – harkens back to the swing era, and that line sung in falsetto is gratuitously giddy.
3. Any Time At All: This may be the first time John used a chromatic chord progression that would soon become a trademark of his (Isolation, Starting Over).
4. I’ll Follow The Sun: For years, I had played the bridge as “And now the (F) time has come and (Fm) so, my love I must go.” A few months ago I was playing along with it and realized that the F was actually a D minor. McCartney’s preference for relative minors instead of majors gave added weight to his melodies. For those of you who have never studied basic songwriting, this is why And I Love Her is so haunting. Those are all minor chords.
5. I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party: Much was justifiably made of the lyrics You’ve Got To Hide Your Live Away, but its precedents are here and on I’m A Loser. The countrified shuffle and Paul’s harmonies on the bridge send it over the top.
6. You’re Gonna Lose That Girl: More Andrews Sisters’ harmonies, this time on a bridge that jumps up to G from the E of the verse and chorus, giving extra urgency to the lyrics. It slips back down so gracefully that it sounds like it jumps up again.
7. Yes It Is: Do you like the close harmonies on This Boy? Wanna hear them done even better?
8. I’m Down: Widely considered to be their greatest pure rock song, which makes the fact that it was buried as the B-side of Help that much sadder. What’s even less known is that it was recorded on the same day as both Yesterday and I’ve Just Seen A Face, showing how McCartney was becoming increasingly versatile as a singer and songwriter.
9. I’m Looking Through You: Paul shows he’s not always Mr. Nice Guy. I prefer Steve Earle’s version, which is particularly bitchy, but even on the original it’s hard not to feel the sting when Paul sings, “The only difference is you’re down there/I’m looking through you, and you’re nowhere.” Love the chord progression on this one. I once played it for 45 minutes without stopping.
10. Rain: Another B-side. Anybody who thinks Ringo sucks needs to listen to his fills on this, then realize that the song was slowed down a half-step.
11. For No One: I wrote about this in one of my earliest posts. Now I think the use of the third person isn’t so much about deflecting autobiographical information as it is about making the song more unflinchingly honest.
12. And Your Bird Can Sing: It’s the guitars, stupid.
13. Lovely Rita: Often derided as McCartney fluff, but that’s precisely why I love it. He’s on the top of his game here, effortlessly milking the Circle Of Fourths with such confidence that he doesn’t seem to care that he gets cockblocked by Rita’s sisters.
14. I’m So Tired: The juxtaposition of the sleepiness of the verse and the erotic torture in the middle is vintage Lennon as both singer and songwriter.
15. Hey Bulldog: That awesome riff and, as with I Am The Walrus, Lennon’s ability to give meaning to absurdist, gibberish lyrics with his vocals.
16. Polythene Pam: For the Scouse accents, not just John but Paul shouting “Yeah, great!” just before George’s solo.

Sorry again for the delay on this one. I got bogged down in actual work and was too tired at night to deal with it until this weekend. But it was great to have Keith and Mike on again. I only wish we could have done it in person like the last time.

Here’s the book I was talking about, Temples Of Sound by William Clark and Jim Cogan.

MUSIC

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols by The Sex Pistols (Anarchy In The U.K., Pretty Vacant, E.M.I.)

Recovering The Satellites by Counting Crows (Angels Of The Silences, A Long December, Have You Seen Me Lately)

Whatever by Aimee Mann (I Should Have Known, Could’ve Been Anyone, Mr. Harris)

Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet (Take Five, Blue Rondo Alla Turk, Strange Meadow Lark)

Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock (Maiden Voyage, Eye Of The Hurricane, Dolphin Dance)

Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, Satisfaction, Respect)

Meet The Beatles by The Beatles (I Wanna Hold Your Hand, It Won’t Be Long, I Wanna Be Your Man)

The Royal Scam by Steely Dan (Kid Charlemage, Haitian Divorce, Don’t Take Me Alive)

Beggars Banquet by The Rolling Stones (Sympathy For The Devil, Salt Of The Earth, Street Fighting Man)

All music available at the WFW Amazon Store

Closing Song: Headache by Splitsville courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network

As always, you can download the episode (1:44:34, 95.7 MB) by right-clicking here and selecting “Save Target As…” or by subscribing using the buttons on the right.