Chiltonism III:
In Touch With All The Chicks.


>> Alex Chilton – Shakin’ the World <<

Writing about Alex Chilton’s early solo work, it is easy – TOO easy – to end up portraying it as a punkoid rejection of the flawless power-pop he helped create on the first two Big Star records.

That’s the version that’ll go down in legend, but just like any other generalisation you might try to nail to this man’s supremely weird career, it ain’t quite so.

Chilton didn’t abandon the power-pop calling after the SisterLovers holocaust – indeed, recordings like “Shakin' The World” (also found on “Dusted in Memphis”) make me think he understood it better than anyone.

Y’see, what killed power-pop as a viable creative force stone-dead almost immediately after it’s ’79-’80 christening at the font of Greg Shaw & Bomp! Magazine wasn’t its inherent conservatism (just look at the parallel garage revival – thirty years young and still a ton o’ fun), but rather the curse of effort.

All those fucking skinny tie Rickenbacker guys – they’re workin’ too hard, as Paul Collins conveniently put it in one of The Nerves best tunes. Sweating blood over their perfect three minute ditty, mortgaging their house for studio time til they’ve produced the fucking thing to within an inch of its life, until we feel their exhaustion, their dedication to the cause seeping through each note; until it becomes a bloody chore to listen to, in short.

I ask you, is that what the magic of pop songs and loud guitars boil down to? Did The Who spend 36 straight hours thrashing out the best possible arrangement for “The Kids Are Alright” before they laid it down?

God love ‘em, but it’s a lost cause.

Chilton knew this, years before such try-hards became an active hazard. That’s why he took “Shakin’ The World”, an anthemic pop killer to rival anything from #1 Record, fitted it out with an obtuse set of lyrics gently parodying Madison Avenue advertising men and knocked it off in one take, then apparently chucked it in the vault and forgot about it before going off to hang out with Tav Falco or whatever, knowing instinctively that we’d all hear it and love it sooner or later.

And lord, was he ever right to keep it quiet. Just IMAGINE what the sub-Tom Petty brigade would have done to this one, in ‘praise’ of their imagined Big Star mentor. They’d have bludgeoned the life out of it. All those uncertain pauses ands sneaky almost-collapses – bulldozed. All those hilarious, deadpan lines (“we’re practicin’ bending spoons..”) – gurned up with comedy signposts til they wouldn’t raise a grin from a chimp.

As it is, Chilton’s “Shakin' The World” is a lithe, creeping, wonderful star-gazing thing, and I’d contest there’s more pure power-pop essence to be found in the bit where he slurs “we’re in touch with all the chicks, all the chicks on Lex..” than in the whole back catalogue of, say, The Plimsouls or whoever.

(I shouldn't say that - I quite like The Plimsouls...)

Labels: Alex Chilton, power pop