#Namecheck - The Replacements - Alex Chilton (1987)

Songs waarin bij wijze van eerbetoon, grap, vanwege de interessante klank of wat dan ook andere artiesten of bands vernoemd worden. Ze bestaan en wij brengen hen deze week onder de aandacht.

Uiteraard mag deze hier niet ontbreken: "I never travel far / Without a little Big Star." Maar wij reizen ook zelden ver zonder een ferme streep Replacements, de groep die de laatste helft van onze jaren tachtig zwaar bijkleurde. Ze waren rauw en melodieus tegelijk en altijd met de gitaar in de juiste positie.

De hulde aan Alex Chilton, de uitvinder van de powerpop, is hartverwarmend en tegelijkertijd legt het de focus op diens relatieve obscuurheid en zijn immense betekenis in het refrein: "Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton / When he comes 'round / They sing, 'I'm in love' / What's that song? / Yeah, I'm in love, with that song." 

Chilton speelde zelf mee op die andere killertrack van 'Pleased To Meet Me', Can't hardly Wait, maar veel herinnert Paul Westerberg zich daar niet meer van: "He was there. I mean, uh...well, s--t did he play on it... I don't know if we had actually played with him earlier or not but I don't think we had the Alex Chilton song when we did that Can't Hardly Wait, that early thing."

Verder nog over Alex Chilton, de song: "It's one of those where melody and chord changes were there and the lyrics changed over the course of six months or so. By the time we were down in Memphis we had already met Alex and I steered it toward him. Of course it was as the legend goes: George From Outer Space was the first working title, but that just didn't grab it quite as well. I just thought it would be fun to write a song about a living person and we've been through this, Al and I, and I sort of regret the albatross that it came with... I was certainly trying to like, I guess, hip the outside world on who this guy might be publicly, but he didn't need that. It would kind of hurt if he was always known as Alex Chilton of that song."

Alex Chilton reageerde zelf op het feit dat er een song over hem was geschreven: "Uh well, I didn't feel any way about it. I mean I'm so used to having these kind of fawning, imbecilic fans you know. To have it take on some coherence is refreshing."

Machtige song over een machtig muzikant en één van de meest geslaagde namechecks ooit.