The Box Tops -- c/d?

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I'd already heard The Letter, but I picked up a comp called "Soul Deep", and I'm really into it. The vocals sound great, then there's the horns, and that great propulsive Memphis drum sound. I love it that the songs Alex Chilton wrote as a kid (I See Only Sunshine/Together) hold up so well against the Dan Penn stuff, too. I'd appreciate any backstory on them too - who did Chilton fall out with, specifically? Was it Dan Penn? And why?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Also - any more recommendations for similar-sounding artists? How do they compare with The Raiders, say?

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Bump! - Hi, I want to talk Box Tops!

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you read Robt. Gordon's It Came From Memphis?

(sadly, that's all I have to say on the topic)

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

No. I guess I should. Don't you have an opinion of your own? :P

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Gotta get yerself some Animals, too. Nothing like a teenage white boy that sounds like a big black man.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

They're good, but Clarence Carter's cover of "Soul Deep" is even better! Chilton didn't really know what to do with his voice a lot of the time (I mean, he was like 17 or something) and the affectation becomes pretty bad on stuff like "I Met Her in Church." Crosspost! Eric Burdon sounds much the same to me; he's trying way too hard, and only intermittently hits the mark.

Dan Penn on the other hand is a genius.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Steve Winwood to thread...

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually revise that to say that I can't listen to Eric Burdon at all, except for "Don't Bring Me Down."

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

the affectation becomes pretty bad on stuff like "I Met Her in Church."

So true, Amateurist. I was just listening to it on the way home, and thinking just this.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I sorta skimmed through the book, and didn't read a lot of the Chilton stuff, cuz at the time I was looking to find out as much as I could about Spo-Dee O'Dee and Jim Dickinson.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know much about them - but i like 'em, too.

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 17:12 (twenty-two years ago)

As I understand it (through Gordon's most excellent book as well as some minor contact with some of the principles and others in a position to know), Alex was a proto-hipster (at least by Memphis standards) and the band was a bit more vanilla, but they nonetheless hooked up and became Penn's little soul-pop puppets. It is widely known that Alex's unnaturally deep and maaahn-ly vocal on "The Letter" is basically him doing a Penn impression at Penn's request, and apparently that kind of svengali activity went on a lot. Alex, a fairly moody guy on a good day, was soon over Penn and the whole Boxtops thing in general--though not so much that he wasn't pulling out "The Letter" on the state-fair oldies circuit for at least a few years.

― Lee G (Lee G), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Neon Rainbow and Cry Like A Baby are great too, and there's a superb cover of You Keep Me Hanging On. I really like some of Chilton's whacked out solo stuff too, like 'Bangkok', even though as a huge soul fan I sometimes think he went the 'wrong' way.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 17 April 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I understand Chilton actually still does occasional BoxTops reunion state fair shows...'twould be interesting to see one, now.

― pauls00, Thursday, 17 April 2003 20:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Tightening Up is so fucking magnificent.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 17 April 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

four years pass...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_EF5FT5fF0

― Stormy Davis, Saturday, 12 April 2008 04:28 (seventeen years ago)

I wonder why bands so rarely performed on those 60s shows (as opposed to lip-syncing); guess it was pretty hard to get good sound in the TV studios.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Saturday, 12 April 2008 06:38 (seventeen years ago)

Alex Chilton has never played a solo gig in his life where he didn't do "The Letter." I saw Dan Penn sing in Nashville recently, and he can still cut it. "I Met Her in Church" is great--it's supposed to be, like, not totally serious. As for Chilton going the "wrong way," I guess it was a choice between turning into B. J. Thomas or doing something more interesting, like the Big Star records or "Bangkok," which Dan Penn wouldn't have approved of.

― whisperineddhurt, Saturday, 12 April 2008 14:46 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

playing some freebie festival one afternoon in hoboken soon. i really wanna see chilton just play out some standards, cliches stuff, but can handle some pop meanwhile

― corps of discovery (schlump), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:23 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wifwxqq5ldae

^^gets a lot of play around my house. better-than-decent version of "i shall be released" and probably my current favorite box tops song - "sweet cream ladies"

anyway, C.

― nashville - spiritual home of the cougar (will), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:56 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

the affectation becomes pretty bad on stuff like "I Met Her in Church.

nah, i love how ott his voice is in this, very funny. also Sweet Cream Ladies is a howl.

also dig how much of a snotty little shit chilton seems to be while miming the hits on tv during this era.

― buzza, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 03:00 (fourteen years ago)

also dig how much of a snotty little shit chilton seems to be while miming the hits on tv during this era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z8RCfnWPOo

This has to be like one of the most bored audiences I've ever seen (IIRC, this was from French tv), and Alex can't get over the absurdity of this situation he's found himself in. No wonder he was so seemingly at ease playing to uninterested crowds w/Big Star--it was old hat by then.

― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 04:44 (fourteen years ago)

It it just me, or does the guy who sings "The Letter" and "Cry Like A River" sound nothing at all like the guy who sings "Thirteen" or "September Gurls"?

And more to the point, of the two, doesn't the Box Tops lead singer sound about 20 years older?

― Lee626, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 06:17 (fourteen years ago)

one month passes...

Any thoughts on the reunion album "Tear Off"? Is it basically another solo Chilton album with all covers?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 17 April 2011 15:31 (fourteen years ago)

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