Children by the millions…er, dozens. at mrshl

Children by the millions…er, dozens.

October 7th, 2007 by mrshl

Because I followed a strange arc in my musical education, I had never heard of Alex Chilton or Big Star when I first became acquainted with the equally unfamous Replacements. The words to the ‘Mat’s “Alex Chilton” therefore made very little sense to me when I first heard them.

If he was from Venus, would he feed us with a spoon?
If he was from mars, wouldn’t that be cool?
Standing right on campus, would he stamp us in a file?
Hangin down in Memphis all the while.

chorus:
Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes round
They sing I’m in love. what’s that song?
I’m in love with that song.

Cerebral rape and pillage in a village of his choice.
Invisible man who can sing in a visible voice.
Feeling like a hundred bucks, exchanging good lucks face to face.
Checkin’ his stash by the trash at St. Mark’s place.

(chorus)

I never travel far, without a little big star
Runnin’ round the house, Mickey mouse and the tarot cards.
Falling asleep with a flop pop video on.
If he was from Venus, would he meet us on the moon?
If he died in Memphis, then that’d be cool, babe.

The truth is they don’t make much sense now, either. If you had to do a blind Pepsi challenge, you might guess Frank Black wrote these lyrics, what with their references to Mars/Venus, Memphis, & raping/pillaging. To understand the verses, I’d probably have to read a biography of the man, and I haven’t done that.

The chorus is another matter. I know enough about Chilton to understand the central irony of his career as the lead singer of the Box Tops and later as the co-founder of Big Star, a band nearly as unfortunate and influential as the Velvet Underground. Chilton enjoyed early success at age 16 with a HUGE hit: “The Letter.”

The Box Tops had a handful of other hits, too. Children by the millions really dug the hell out of Chilton. He was a bona fide teen idol. But his hits were mostly written by studio pros.

By the time Chilton began his second career as half of the songwriting duo behind Big Star, he had full creative control. But the listeners were gone. Big Star’s twin masterpieces #1 Record and Radio City (available as a single CD) are part of the alt rock canon now, but they were pretty much ignored when they were released in the early ’70s.

Today, the band is most often heard indirectly, through the opening credits of That 70s Show. For the show, the Big Star song “In The Street” is covered by Cheap Trick. Here’s the Halloween version (complete with theremin).