Alex Chilton RIP

zaikesman, you dare dis the posies? to me, the epitome of power popdom; unlike 98% of their peers, they weren't merely slavishly imitating their big star/beatles/hollies influences, but taking it somewhere different, with weird poetic lyrics, complex (for the genre) melodies and great harmony vox. i submit that "frosting on the beater" is one of the 3 or 4 best pop albums of the 80s; i actually listen to it more than "radio city". so there...

Loomisj: Ego can take many forms. His was not the kind that would prevent other band members from writing and singing songs that appeared on his records. But I do think he maintained a certain sense of ownership over his own songs that prevented his even considering that someone else might sing them in his band.

I agree that it's not easy for his songs to sound good in other people's voices. For example, Aimee Mann's cover of Inverness (on youtube) completely lacks Scott's passion, and fails for that reason. (I've seen her live and up close in a small venue, and it could be argued that all of her own songs ultimately fail for the same reason.)

But it's not too hard to imagine someone as neurotic and imaginative as Scott who nonetheless has a big beautiful voice. John Lennon would have done wonders with GT's songs. (Sometimes I think Scott wrote the songs with Lennon's voice in his mind.)

Of course, there was only one of him, but I don't think Scott ever thought of finding someone else with an equally strong personality to sing the songs. I bet the band would have had a very different outcome if he had.

"Power poop", as a certain embittered musician friend with an axe to grind calls it...(not speaking of the Posies in particular, just the concept generally, but I never did like the term either)...Listen, I'm sure all the hearts are in the all the right places, and my bro' (who also tried to sell me on Game Theory and the Loud Family) happened to know and jammed with Ken Stringfellow when he lived in Seattle, but I've endured the Posies live and was left chilly, even though like any of these bands they're not without talent. After AC died I began going through some of my latter-day PP disks and putting a lot of them into the 'get rid of' pile...Bill Lloyd, Baby Lemonade, dB's, Wondermints, Sloan, Paul Collins' Beat, Grip Weeds, Greenberry Woods, Jason Falkner, etc...some of the stuff is really good, at least on paper, but I'd probably never listen to it again...Posies, Fountains of Wayne, Smithereens etc. I never fell for in the first place although I've seen the majority of these bands live...Just had my fill of third-hand white-boy ingeniousness I suppose...Life is short and I prefer real genius and soul (and/or real fun) over clever but conservative craftsmanship. Or more to the point here, AC was simply a much better and more inspired singer and songwriter than all of the above -- that is to say, an actual, inevitable, uncontrollable *artist*

Zaikesman,

Go slow with that discard pile. It could be a phase. I've walked away from that genre for years at a time - for much the same reason that you cite - but, eventually, I do come back. These songs offer a different kind of reward.

Smithereens, Bill LLoyd (in particular!), and The dbs may feel too polished and cold to you today, but they are wonderful records on their own terms. (Probably what you found appealling about them in the first place.) And one day, you may again be willing to take them on those terms. If you do decide to lose 'em, find them a good home. There is a(n admittedly different) kind of treasure there.

Marty

i'm (obviously) with martykl on this one--at the end of the day, it's all about the songs; the fact that zman's discarded bands took their inspiration from the prophet shouldn't ipso facto damn them to oblivion. virtually everyone is influenced by someone else--lots of unquestionably great acts (e.g. radiohead, nirvana, badfinger, the jam, etc.) borrowed heavily, sometimes slavishly, from their predecessors, yet still left behind classic work. i honestly consider that the dbs, posies, tommy keene and and a very few others working the same genre to be worth mentioning in the same revered company. of course, one's musical taste is inherently subjective; vive le difference.