Read Online A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren - Free Book Online
Authors: Holly George-Warren
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Smythe, members of a popular Memphis combo, the Devilles, who’d just lost their lead singer. The group had put out the word they were looking for a new vocalist, one who sounded black. When Jimmy heard Alex Chilton, he leaned over and said to a friend, “Hey, the Devilles should get this guy!”
C HAPTER 5
From Moondog to Deville
“The first time I ever saw Alex, he was smoking a cigarette and looked like a little punk,” Gary Talley remembers about his fifteen-year-old future bandmate. The nineteen-year-old guitarist had also been in the audience for the Moondogs’ performance at the Central High talent show. When he heard Alex sing, it reminded him of Eric Burdon of the Animals, “definitely a soulful kind of sound,” he recalls. Afterward he spotted Alex puffing on a Camel outside the school.
Like Alex, Gary would in 1966 join the Devilles, one of the hottest garage bands in Memphis. The group had formed in late 1963, but after three years, the only original member was drummer Danny Smythe. Vocalist Ronnie Jordan joined in 1964; an attractive teen with a big voice and a forceful personality, he quickly moved from backup singer to front man. It didn’t hurt that his uncle was Roy McElwain, professionally known as Roy Mack, a popular DJ and later program director at WMPS, who began managing the group. By 1965, as the Devilles’ lineup continued to evolve, the band appeared on such TV shows as Ted Mack’s
Original Amateur Hour
and George Klein’s
Talent Party
. The Devilles signed with booking agent Bill Chapman, who put them on as the opening act for three Yardbirds concerts during the group’s first U.S. tour, in 1965. Alex had seen their September 10 shows, and while impressed by the Yardbirds, he didn’t care for the Devilles.
By the fall of ’66, the group, now calling themselves Ronnie and the Devilles, played constantly around Memphis, as well as in Mississippi and Arkansas, and had cut some records at Chips Moman’s American Recording Studios, home of local garage band the Gentrys’ 1965 smash “Keep On Dancing.” Their first single was an original, “Oh Love,” which Devilles bassist and cowriter Russ Caccamisi describes as “sort of a Herman’s-Hermits-meets-a-Southern-accent.” It wasbacked by a version (with lyrics and vocals added) of a 1960s instrumental, “Last Date,” by Nashville session keyboardist Floyd Cramer. Another 45 was a soggy 1959 cover of the Thomas Wayne ballad “Tragedy.” Alex considered both covers “kinda schmaltzy.” Those, plus another original, “Cindy’s Carousel,” came out on Moman’s independent Youngstown label; when Mack added the singles to the WMPS playlist, they became quite popular.
But the group’s behavior at the sessions had not sat well with Moman. “Ronnie was incredibly arrogant,” according to Russ, “to the bandmates and quite often to the crowd. He was an asshole in the studio. Chips hated working with him.” The last straw came in October 1966, when the group got into a fight at a frat party in Oxford, Mississippi: Ronnie quit, leaving the rest of the group—Smythe, Caccamisi, and guitarist Richard Malone—high and dry. Mack had cosigned a loan so the Devilles could buy a PA system, and he threatened to take it back and sell it if they didn’t reorganize the group within thirty days. First onboard was guitarist/keyboardist John Evans, who’d played with Russ in an earlier combo called the Chantelles, coincidentally a favorite local band of Alex’s. The search began for an R&B-styled front man. First they approached Evans’s former bandmate Jimmy Newman, lead singer for the In Crowd, a band that also included guitarist Gary Talley. Newman turned them down, but after seeing Alex at the Central High talent show, he called Evans and recommended his discovery, saying, “He soundsblack as hell!”
When Evans rang up Alex, he tried to entice him to audition by mentioning, “We’ve got ‘Sunny’ worked up!” Alex agreed to
C HAPTER 5
From Moondog to Deville
“The first time I ever saw Alex, he was smoking a cigarette and looked like a little punk,” Gary Talley remembers about his fifteen-year-old future bandmate. The nineteen-year-old guitarist had also been in the audience for the Moondogs’ performance at the Central High talent show. When he heard Alex sing, it reminded him of Eric Burdon of the Animals, “definitely a soulful kind of sound,” he recalls. Afterward he spotted Alex puffing on a Camel outside the school.
Like Alex, Gary would in 1966 join the Devilles, one of the hottest garage bands in Memphis. The group had formed in late 1963, but after three years, the only original member was drummer Danny Smythe. Vocalist Ronnie Jordan joined in 1964; an attractive teen with a big voice and a forceful personality, he quickly moved from backup singer to front man. It didn’t hurt that his uncle was Roy McElwain, professionally known as Roy Mack, a popular DJ and later program director at WMPS, who began managing the group. By 1965, as the Devilles’ lineup continued to evolve, the band appeared on such TV shows as Ted Mack’s
Original Amateur Hour
and George Klein’s
Talent Party
. The Devilles signed with booking agent Bill Chapman, who put them on as the opening act for three Yardbirds concerts during the group’s first U.S. tour, in 1965. Alex had seen their September 10 shows, and while impressed by the Yardbirds, he didn’t care for the Devilles.
By the fall of ’66, the group, now calling themselves Ronnie and the Devilles, played constantly around Memphis, as well as in Mississippi and Arkansas, and had cut some records at Chips Moman’s American Recording Studios, home of local garage band the Gentrys’ 1965 smash “Keep On Dancing.” Their first single was an original, “Oh Love,” which Devilles bassist and cowriter Russ Caccamisi describes as “sort of a Herman’s-Hermits-meets-a-Southern-accent.” It wasbacked by a version (with lyrics and vocals added) of a 1960s instrumental, “Last Date,” by Nashville session keyboardist Floyd Cramer. Another 45 was a soggy 1959 cover of the Thomas Wayne ballad “Tragedy.” Alex considered both covers “kinda schmaltzy.” Those, plus another original, “Cindy’s Carousel,” came out on Moman’s independent Youngstown label; when Mack added the singles to the WMPS playlist, they became quite popular.
But the group’s behavior at the sessions had not sat well with Moman. “Ronnie was incredibly arrogant,” according to Russ, “to the bandmates and quite often to the crowd. He was an asshole in the studio. Chips hated working with him.” The last straw came in October 1966, when the group got into a fight at a frat party in Oxford, Mississippi: Ronnie quit, leaving the rest of the group—Smythe, Caccamisi, and guitarist Richard Malone—high and dry. Mack had cosigned a loan so the Devilles could buy a PA system, and he threatened to take it back and sell it if they didn’t reorganize the group within thirty days. First onboard was guitarist/keyboardist John Evans, who’d played with Russ in an earlier combo called the Chantelles, coincidentally a favorite local band of Alex’s. The search began for an R&B-styled front man. First they approached Evans’s former bandmate Jimmy Newman, lead singer for the In Crowd, a band that also included guitarist Gary Talley. Newman turned them down, but after seeing Alex at the Central High talent show, he called Evans and recommended his discovery, saying, “He soundsblack as hell!”
When Evans rang up Alex, he tried to entice him to audition by mentioning, “We’ve got ‘Sunny’ worked up!” Alex agreed to
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