I like to stop by the Lakeside on my bike late in the afternoon. More often than not I find our Soundguy Alex
Feldesman there opening up and getting things in order for the looming happy hours. My partner the Hound
has staffed the place with great people for the last 15 years and most of ’em have pretty great taste in music.
Alex is no exception. All the staff iPod’s are packed with cool stuff. Alex’s rig usually has a particular slant.
He likes a lot of Richard Thompson, The Small Faces, a lot of outakes and live stuff. That one live Byrd’s record
that rocks so much harder than it supposed to in particular always fakes me out.
So I usually sit there and find out which bands I booked actually brought some folks to the gig, which ones ran
some people out. That kind of stuff. Invariably I end up asking about some song or other. “Who’s that”?
After all this time I suppose that I should know but usually the answer to my question was “Chilton”.
Just when you think you know about Alex Chilton is when you’ll find out that you just don’t know about
Alex Chilton. The range of his music was pretty darn wide and his musicianship was was wild also.
One time I saw him do a solo acoustic show at CBGB’s. His guitar strap broke. He would accept no help. He didn’t take
the other performer’s guitar (Dexter Romwebber) the way his fellow Memphian Elvis Presley had taken Scotty Moore’s guitar
at the ’68 Comeback Special. Nope, Alex Chilton finished the set standing on one leg like the Karate Kid with his
guitar on his knee. It was great.
But back to the Lakeside and Alex the Soundguy’s Happy Hour iPod. Here’s a song that I heard on one of those “who the hell” occasions that turned out to be the Alex Chilton.
As we lament Alex Chilton’s all too early death I hope you’ll enjoy this crazy romp through a very unexpected tune from our youth.
