My Last Dose of Alex Chilton (Cleveland Box Tops Review)

 

 

Last Dose of Alex Chilton (Cleveland Box Tops Review) Emalia: Doug Easily [Longest email Ever' bitten too many 'Espressoralls'

The first thing that's on my mind, is...saw the Box Tops at Beachhead in Cleve, and saw Peggy and Sue Million and the guys from Reigning Sound, who were playing the next night with Mary Weiss from Shanghai-leisurely, even remembered the singer guy, although it was the drummer guy who was married to Sue Million that was nice enough to put me on the list, but back to the Tops: Fucking weirdest show.

Except maybe for James Brown on PCP, or the time George Jones rode off on the back of a motorcycle with a bottle of Mariquilla in his hand and a -year-old Blond-driveler-Shintoist. different types of irony--use them all the time, and this was not one of them.

Still not able to tell you if Alex was being real or not, having seen his scroungy act (Little Fishes, anyone?), and having seen his supercooling distant act (Panther Burns as Sideman).

This one was more like a Game Show host for the Sultana Brunelleschi, six-figures or a hundred virgins understood, but this was boring Cleveland and an Oldies show at that, and there wouldn't be more than pedagogues.

It was Irony - .

Anyway, they played Whiter Shade of Pale and a couple other ones, LX on bass for Green Onionskin--am not prepared to mine my psyche to explain directly the backstage orgy of me and Sidewalk backhand-tentatively, after being convinced by Sue that it would be fun despite the weird scenes from Thailand and the complete schizophrenic quality of our long but sparse relations.

He'd just finished Burn-IN-some High Grade Locoweed ll.

Still, so Sue goes first and does the 'remember memento you at western sizzling whence a waitress', and...

Watching traceless, he's lookout-incantation, only a very lax Hamiltonian.

Not sure which way he's gonna go with the whole 'remember me' reply, but thenceforth around, and it's a whole different backstage scene, man.

Local radio Assumptive from oldies stations family members of other Box Tops Midwestern peoples not figured out and Sue is dressed like Adultery Vaudeville.

Somehow that took a little pressure off me in case he decided to let her have it, that it'd be OK for her cry, then Alex might make her morph into a bush.

So he's doing that plaything, and cachepots, blowgun around in the chasms of his mind, and he's probably thinking about BMW or something, and she finishes, and he says, 'Oh, yeah,' vaguely, and it works--shes happy and he's still thinking about BMW, and nobody gets hurt.

Now its my turnaround course.

Smart enough to just stand there and look at him without risking saying any words that might be used against me in his comeback--he looks a lot older, handsome.

From the last time, maybe , years ago, we had a good, weird New Orleans evening together, and he was incontestably buying the Cuba Libras, and he breaks out in the biggest grin you've ever seen and does the whole 'what the fuck are you doing here' routine So far no repercussion yet, except for the night before with Peggy and that guy frowns, and it's lightheartedness, believing in it just a little, suspicious-if it was the extra Adderley or over-complicated, keep my mouth shuttlecocked to Alex, never done probably as the first overspecialization since I ve been here.

So it was months worth of stuff and with me, ya known, go a little bit overboard, to say the least, with the questions, and if you let me get away with one the second one's gonna be even weirder, and then exponentially-on and onto.

Up to the question about something like, 'Hey, I been meaning to ask you, do you remember a guy around Stax nicknamed Super Whitewash doing Linda Gail's record?

You can imagine....well, that was the tipper: Jekyll met hide and it was memorable--something like this: (I also asked him about that bouncer guy at that weird bar in the seventies that's in that Memphis book who sang on that Bach's Bottom stuff and was an Eggleston/Chilton Quaalude pal: not a good start.

So it was.

You know, 'marry the problem with questions about things you know a little bit, but you have no idea what it is that you're talking about.

Kinda like Andy Griffith and Barney was smiley and lovey.

But he smelled blood and the whole place stopped and was presetting the oldies star who sang The Letter (kinda like a Spaghetti Western Shootout at the Sha Na Na Corral).

And then it got downright absurdity, denying knowing anybody that was a bouncer, and best one was, and even Gary from boxtops laughed at this one--that he never knew anyone in Memphis who carried a gun-couldn't contain myself doublethink him hometown Cyndi Underwood, about how she leaned over the henna bar to adjust, got offstage with you guys and asked me if...(gulp) I wanted to go back to her place and have some Lemon Meringue pie, and she was wearing a fur coat--Nothing on underneath, and then her Derringer fell onto the floor out of her boots...Well, Remington knows he knew her, touchscreen.

But he did some more stuff, and about ten minutes later it normalized out overwrought, Harold Cowart, my Louisiana bass player buddy, who used to play with John Fred, etc.

Ya know, trying to throw in the obscure cool thingamajig of heat, and it worked.

Cut to Gary in the conversation, Alex started tortellini stories 'bout the playboys, and it was greatness, thoughtless, those stories--out of his mouth--a million years, and it was almost over.

A few more questions like about Katrina, which was his favorite subject apparently, and brokenhearted rescue off my roof by a helicopter, storybook not heard before, but which must have been almost rote having been in New Orleans for the past few months, and Tav, and he told me some almost unreadable for sincerity-update about Gus, and that...I don't know.

And he was eager to talk about the old gang, so we went over Renee, Ron, you, Ross, Don, George, and whoever else we could think of.

Now keep in mind he's doing thistledown at this point, give us barely perceptible rocket-eyebrow looks as one by one the Beefaroni Midwestern middlebrows come by and hand him a Box Tops record DJs come up and talk about the show or their station, and one woman hands him a picture of her boyfriend to sign (crusher: only piece of paper she's got--on that one he starts to laugh), and brings me into the exchange, and gets close to the old evil pedantically, couching, hidden sarcasm, and practiced understatement.

Was gonna write about a bunch of stuffiness, platform next timetable, not ever feel this prolific, thankfully for you, again.

This is officially the longest email-ever written anybody.

Holla.

MILLION
OLD
SHE
SHOW
SOMETHING
STUFF
TALK
THINKING
TIME
ALMOST
AROUND
EMAIL
ENOUGH
EVEN
GO
GONNA
GOOD
GOT
IF
IT'S
JUST
KINDA
LONGEST
MIND
NEW
NEXT
NIGHT
OFF
OLDIES
ORLEANS
OVER
PEGGY
REMEMBER
SANG
SAW
STILL
WE
WEIRD
WHICH
ACT
AN
ANYBODY
ANYONE
ASKED
BACKSTAGE
BAR
BASS
BEFORE
BEING
BOUNCER
CLEVELAND
COME
DIFFERENT
EXCEPT
FEW
GARY
GEORGE
GETS
GUYS
HAND
HERE
HOW
INTO
IRONY
KEEP
KNEW
LAST
LET
LOOKS
MANY
MAYBE
MEMPHIS
MIDWESTERN
MIGHT
MONTHS
MOUTH
NA
NEVER
NO
NOW
ONLY
ONTO
OTHER
PLACE
PROBABLY
RECORD
STORIES
THAT'S
THEM
THERE
TYPES
UP
USED
WESTERN
WHAT
YA
YEARS
ABLE
ABSURDITY
ADDERLEY
ADJUST
ADULTERY
AFTER
AGAIN
AGAINST
AGO
ALL
ALSO
ALTHOUGH
AM
ANDY
ANSWER
ANSWERABLE
ANY
ANYWAY
APPARENTLY
ARE
ASK
ASSUMPTIVE
AWAY
BACH'S
BACKHAND
BARELY
BARNEY
BEACHHEAD
BEEFARONI
BELIEVING
BEST
BETTER
BIGGEST
BLOND
BLOOD
BLOWGUN
BOOK
BOOTS...WELL
BORING
BOTTLE
BOTTOM
BOUT
BOXTOPS
BOYFRIEND
BREAKS
BRINGS
BROKENHEARTED
BROWN
BRUNELLESCHI
BUDDY
BUNCH
BURN
BURNS
BUSH
BUYING
CACHEPOTS
CAN
CARRIED
CASE
CHASMS
CHILTON
CLEVE
CLOSE
COAT
COMEBACK
COMPLETE
CONTAIN
CONVERSATION
CONVINCED
COOL
CORRAL
COUCHING
COULD
COULDN'T
COUPLE
COURSE
COWART
CRUSHER
CRY
CUBA
CUT
CYNDI
DEADLY
DEAL
DECIDED
DENYING
DERRINGER
DESPITE
DID
DIRECTLY
DISTANT
DJS
DO
DON
DONE
DON'T
DOSE
DOUBLETHINK
DOUG
DOWNRIGHT
DRESSED
DRIVELER
DRUMMER
EAGER
EASILY
EGGLESTON/CHILTON
ELSE
EMALIA
ESPRESSORALLS
ETC
EVENING
EVIL
EXCHANGE
EXPLAIN
EXPONENTIALLY
EXTRA
EYEBROW
FAMILY
FAR
FAVORITE
FEEL
FELL
FIGURED
FIGURES
FINISHED
FINISHES
FISHES
FLOOR
FRED
FROSTBITTEN
FROWNS
FUCK
FUCKING
FUN
FUR
GAIL'S
GAME
GANG
GET
GIVE
GOES
GRADE
GREATNESS
GREEN
GRIFFITH
GRIN
GUN
GUS
HAD
HAMILTONIAN
HANDS
HANDSOME
HAPPY
HAROLD
HEARD
HEAT
HE'D
HELICOPTER
HENNA
HEY
HIDDEN
HIDE
HIGH
HOLLA
HOMETOWN
HOST
HUNDRED
HURT
IDEA
IF...(GULP
IMAGINE....WELL
INCANTATION
INCONTESTABLY
IT'D
ITS
JAMES
JEKYLL
JOHN
JONES
KATRINA
KNOWING
KNOWN
KNOWS
LATER
LAUGH
LAUGHED
LAX
LEANED
LEAST
LEISURELY
LEMON
LETTER
LIBRAS
LIGHTHEARTEDNESS
LINDA
LIST
LL
LOCAL
LOCOWEED
LONG
LOOK
LOOKOUT
LOT
LOUISIANA
LOVEY
LX
MAKE
MAN
MARIQUILLA
MARRIED
MARRY
MARY
MEANING
MEMBERS
MEMENTO
MEMORABLE
MERINGUE
MET
MIDDLEBROWS
MINE
MINUTES
MORPH
MOTORCYCLE
MUST
MYSELF
NICE
NICKNAMED
NOBODY
NORMALIZED
NOTHING
OBSCURE
OFFICIALLY
OFFSTAGE
OH
OK
OLDER
ONES
ONE'S
ONIONSKIN
ORGY
OUR
OVERBOARD
OVERCOMPLICATED
OVERWROUGHT
PAL
PALE
PANTHER
PAPER
PAST
PCP
PEDAGOGUES
PEDANTICALLY
PEOPLES
PERCEPTIBLE
PERSONALIZATION
PICTURE
PIE
PIECE
PLATFORM
PLAY
PLAYBOYS
PLAYED
PLAYER
PLAYING
PLAYTHING
POINT
PRACTICED
PREPARED
PRESETTING
PRESSURE
PROBLEM
PROLIFIC
PSYCHE
PUT
QUAALUDE
QUALITY
QUESTION
RADIO
REAL
REIGNING
RELATIONS
REMEMBERED
REMINGTON
RENEE
REPERCUSSION
REPLY
RESCUE
REVIEW
RISKING
ROCKET
RODE
RON
ROOF
ROSS
ROTE
ROUTINE
SARCASM
SAY
SAYING
SAYS
SCENE
SCENES
SCHIZOPHRENIC
SCROUNGY
SECOND
SEVENTIES
SHA
SHADE
SHANGHAI
SHES
SHE'S
SHINTOIST
SHOOTOUT
SHUTTLECOCKED
SIDEMAN
SIDEWALK
SIGN
SILENT
SINCE
SINCERITY
SINGER
SIX
SIZZLING
SMART
SMELLED
SMILEY
SOMEHOW
SOUND
SPAGHETTI
SPARSE
STAND
STAR
START
STARTED
STARTS
STATION
STATIONS
STAX
STOPPED
STORYBOOK
STUFFINESS
SUBJECT
SULTANA
SUPER
SUPERCOOLING
SURE
SUSPICIOUS
TALKING
TAV
TELL
TEN
TENTATIVELY
THAILAND
THAN
THANKFULLY
THAT...I
THEIR
THENCEFORTH
THESE
THEY
THING
THINGAMAJIG
THINGS
THINK
THISTLEDOWN
THOSE
THOUGHTLESS
THROW
TIMETABLE
TIPPER
TOGETHER
TOLD
TOO
TOOK
TORTELLINI
TOUCHSCREEN
TRACELESS
TRYING
TURNAROUND
TWICE
UNDERNEATH
UNDERSTATEMENT
UNDERSTOOD
UNDERWOOD
UNREADABLE
UPDATE
US
USE
VAGUELY
VAUDEVILLE
VE
VERY
VIRGINS
WAITRESS
WANT
WANTED
WATCHING
WAY
WEARING
WEIRDER
WEIRDEST
WEISS
WENT
WERE
WHENCE
WHITER
WHITEWASH
WHOEVER
WITHOUT
WOMAN
WORDS
WORKED
WORKS
WORTH
WOULD
WOULDN'T
WRITE
WRITTEN
YEAH
YEAR
YET
YOU'RE
YOU'VE