RIP alex chilton

Congress? Health care? They know where the priorities lie.


I'd also like to add my own personal experience with Alex Chilton and one of my very favorite bands, Big Star.
I was living in Portland Oregon and I was so sick of my crap job at a photo shop that was a 50 minute bus ride to and from work everyday. It was a cold fall. I couldn't find a new job. Then finally, I got an interview for an entry level carpentry position. I had to take an hour and a half bus ride to the Columbia river for the interview at a boat repair shop at 7 a.m.. I couldn't have been any more out of place and the owner of the shop let me hear about it. It was frustrating and humiliating. I walked out of the shop with the dim prospect of having to go straight to my Fotomat job on the bus, this one a two hour ride. Big Star's 3rd/Sister Lovers was in my CD player and on my headphones. Although I was wearing long underwear and two pairs of pants, a shirt, sweatshirt and jacket, I was still freezing. So after I caught the bus, I settled into my seat, I stared out of the window and Nightime came on. My brain could hear the music but couldn't comprehend, just as my eyes reflected the bleak horizon without recognition. But through my malaise broke the words ". . . get me out of here, get me out of here. I hate it here, get me out of here." and that was it. Those were the only words I wanted to hear for the rest of the day. After rewinding the song a few times just to hear those words, I put the song on repeat. The bus coasted on toward oblivion while the chalk outlines of the morning landscapes smeared, smudged and dripped their way past the rainy windows that were my eyes.
That night, when I finally returned home, it was to a freezing cold house. My sister couldn't be reached by phone. My friends weren't immediately available. I wanted to tear the whole place apart. But all I could do was lay under the electric blanket, on my palette on the floor, to get warm. It was the last place I wanted to be.



So long friend.