A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren Read Free Book Online Page A

to WDIA at night and hearing songs like “Back Door Man” by Howlin’ Wolf, “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” by Muddy Waters, and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Farther Up the Road,” as well as tunes by big-voiced soul singers. Alex also got a kick out of the raunchy black comedienne Moms Mabley.
    When not with the more sheltered Louise, Alex hung out with Carole Ruleman, whose older sister or brother chauffeured her and Alex to teenagesoirees. “There was quite the extravagant little party circuit,” said Alex. “Every week there would be one, two, or three of these nice little pool parties or indoor parties. And they would hire a teenage band to play at these things.” At one gathering he met a couple of musicians, Christopher Bell, a guitarist and Beatles fan from a wealthy family in nearby Germantown, and Bill Cunningham, a bassist and keyboardist who’d attended Sherwood Elementary a grade ahead of Alex. Bill and Chris had been playing in bands and were putting together a new combo called the Jynx. Both boys would play an enormous role in Alex’s music career.
    Booze flowed freely at the teenage bacchanals, and Alex began indulging, chugging down bourbon, scotch, Southern Comfort, and beer. Carole remembered that, after one particularly rambunctious party, “my brother was driving us home in his jeep, and Alex started singing ‘Louie, Louie,’ doing the real words that were kinda X-rated. He was pretty drunk, and it was funny. Even my straitlaced brother was laughing.”
    Abundant revelry took place at the backhouse behind Paul Jobe’s Central Gardens home. “When you’re a young teenager, you can’t drive to the park and drink your beer and smoke cigarettes,” says Paul, “so my backhouse kind of sufficed for that. For some reason, my parents never came out there, so we could do what we wanted. I was getting visitors throughout the night—it was kinda crazy.” The teens found a neighborhood woman who worked as a domestic to buy them six-packs of Colt 45.
    Alex and Paul, occasionally joined by Calvin and Dale, started making the scene in Midtown teen clubs to check out live music, including the Tonga Club, a nitery on Madison, and the Roaring 60s, on Jackson Avenue, with a ten-foot-high stage. Former and current Messick and Central High School students played in bands like Flash and the Casuals and Tommy Burk and the Counts, which had begun adding British Invasion hits to their R&B-tinged repertoire. In addition to entertaining drunken teenagers at parties and teen clubs, bands performed at YMCAs and skating rinks. A few local acts even won bookings to support touring groups; Alex and Paul saw Randy and the Radiants and the Counts open for the Dave Clark Five at the Mid-South Coliseum in December ’64.
    Another favorite nightspot was the Bitter Lemon, a funky Midtown coffeehouse where keyboardist Jim Dickinson, singer-songwriter Sid Selvidge, songwriter-producer Don Nix, and many other future luminaries performed. “They had some really good music at the Bitter Lemon,” says Paul. “Blues,rock & roll, folk. Alex and I would hitchhike to the Bitter Lemon or ride our bikes there, then home at one in the morning.”
    It was during his thirteenth year, with all this musical stimulation surrounding him, that Alex decided he wanted to be in a band, too. He later told Cub Koda:
    It all seemed really complex to me, and I thought the only way I could participate in something like that was maybe on an instrument as simple as the bass, where I didn’t have to play six notes all at the same time. Just one at a time, that I could handle. I asked my dad to get me a bass for Christmas. They took that under their consideration, and when Christmas came around, I got an amp and a guitar, not a bass. My dad said, ‘Hey, most bass players start out on the guitar anyway.’ Well, I knew it wasn’t for me. But what could I do? It was this purple Hagstrom guitar with the Naugahyde on the back, the plastic on the front