Alex Chilton gets $70 every time they show “That 70’s Show”

In the Valley of the Harpeth, before the grocery wars and urban sprawl brought Albertsons and Publix to live beside Kroger, the competition came from smaller players, like Big Star.  In particular, Jumbo Little’s Big Star (real name) which was across Fourth Avenue from Grandpappy’s bookstore.  They had Green Stamps, which my grandmother collected, and I don’t ever remember going in there.  Elvis played baseball on the Big Star team and dated Jumbo Little’s step-daughter.  When I got old enough to drive a car, I’d often drive by even though the bookstore was closed, partly out of not having anywhere else to go but home.

The vehicle in which most of this ambling was conducted was a 1983 Chevrolet Chevette with a diesel engine and a bad clutch.  (You didn’t know they made them with a diesel engine, did you?)  This car had been through my 3 older siblings and served an aunt for a time.  A grandmother had backed into the driver door and pappy decided not to have it repaired.

As I drove this Magliozzi brothers wet dream down Fourth Avenue, there was very often a bootleg cassette of the New Orleans based band Dash Rip Rock blaring from the home stereo speakers that rested on the back seat.  In a seemingly improvised moment, they launched into an adoration of someone named Alex Chilton followed by a screaming denunciation of the claustrophobic nature of small town life.  It was the angst, as much as the performance, that spoke to a 17 year old bohemian stuck in the provincial environs of his hometown.

A few years later, sans ‘vette, I heard Big Star for the first time.  The bridge to “In The Street” was relatively easy to cross, and it was a pleasure to hear the song performed with less angst and more love.  The intricate puzzle of the songwriting in tunes like “The Ballad of El Goodo” give older Sanuk D a delightful challenge where young Sanuk D would have had no patience for the Rubik’s Cube.  So you can imagine my delight at opening today’s infernal Amazon email to find the that double album “#1 Record / Radio City” was available as a $5 download.  Now I know what I’ll be doing for the rest of the winter.