Alex Chilton fronted
the Box Tops but he never led them. He was a hired hand, picked for his preternaturally soulful voice but, like any red-blooded American teen, he soon bristled against the constraints on his freedom.
Chips Moman and
Dan Penn masterminded
the Box Tops, rarely letting
Chilton record his own material, so he did what any rebellious adolescent would do: he sneaked around, cutting material at the fledging Ardent Studios without the knowledge of American Studios, who owned the rights to
Chilton's recordings. These contractual issues meant that the recordings
Alex made at
Ardent in 1969 with
Terry Manning were still called "1970" when
Ardent released them on CD in 1996 -- it was the year
Chilton was released from his American contract -- but this tremendous 2012 reissue adds a more poetic title in
Free Again. It's a title that accurately reflects
Chilton's frame of mind: he was breaking free of the constraints of
the Box Tops, finding his voice as a songwriter and musician, leaving behind the strict blue-eyed soul of his first band without quite ditching soul. He hasn't left behind the light, Baroque psychedelia that marked some of the latter-day
Box Tops LPs, either -- there's a distinctly British undercurrent to the sweeter pop tunes here -- but there are also hints of country and loose-limbed, dirty rock & roll, particularly in a wildly inventive cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" that slows down the groove and turns
Keith Richards' riff inside out. In that sense, the music on
Free Again is just as much a bridge between
the Box Tops and
Big Star -- something that's quite clear on the more delicate moments here -- as it is an indication of what he would do after
Big Star. Much of this points the way toward the willful, ornery vibe of
Like Flies on Sherbert, or the casual R&B crooner of the '80s and beyond, but in 1969,
Alex has yet to prize contrariness over craft: he is still writing with passion and, with
Manning and the
Ardent renegades figuring out just what they could do in the studio, this crackles with invention and spirit. Sure, it's messy, but
Alex Chilton always was -- it's also some of his richest and best music, and it's never sounded better than it does on
Free Again: The 1970 Sessions. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine