The Sundazed Reissues (2000)--
Tear Off--
Complete review of The
Purple Weekend (in Spanish)
The band gave a surprise warm up gig at the Paradise four days prior to
their official opening date at the Tweeter Center. It was amazing to see
the band had not lost one bit of its original spark and appeal. Peter Wolf,
normally a fairly quiet and polite gentleman off stage, is still a possessed
and consummate front man. It was an emotional and nostalgic treat to watch
the band fully revive its catalog for the first time in 16 years. It is so
sad that they wasted a decade and a half in a state of separation.
While the Geils reunion was the focus of most local media attention, it
unfortunately overshadowed the original band slated for that night. The Box
Tops had been scheduled to play the Paradise for several weeks, and the
addition of Geils was announced only two days before. It was
unfortunate that several people at the club (who had come to see Geils) were
not aware of the Box Tops' legacy. That oversight was quickly
erased when the quintet (all original members) ripped into to the
ultra-catchy "Cry Like A Baby" and immediately grabbed the crowd's full
attention. The Tops ripped though a 13-song set that was tight, playful,
professional, vibrant, and soulful. Guitarist Gary Tally and bassist Bill
Cunningham have a bag full of powerful licks and rhythms
respectively. Vocalist Alex Chilton was very animated with his seemingly
never changing distinctive voice. Unquestionably, this was a classic double bill
that will be boasted about endlessly by the few, but lucky, attendants."--John Reed,
Senior Staff Editor
While the band members spent the past month rehearsing, doing interviews and making TV
appearances, Saturday found them getting down to the real business: sweating it out in front of a
live audience - for the first time in 17 years....Originally planned as a short warmup set, Saturday's
show wound up stretching more than two hours...
The only downside was that the Box Tops had to play while the crowd was still filing in - only a
few dozen got to hear them open with one of their greatest hits, ``Cry Like a Baby.''
But for lovers of blue-eyed Southern soul, the Memphis band's reappearance after three decades
was an event in itself. The Box Tops landed a half-dozen chart hits in the late '60s; frontman Alex
Chilton later formed Big Star and became a power-pop cult hero.
On Saturday, they played a '60s-style set, mixing their own hits with period cover tunes (some,
like the frantic ``Flying Saucers Rock 'n' Roll,'' were holdovers from Chilton's solo career). Often
reserved and moody onstage, Chilton was positively exuberant with this group; and the band had
such a juiced-up, garage-soul sound that drummer Danny Smythe couldn't stop grinning. This
reunion calls for an encore."--Brett Milano
[Peter] Wolf said "It's an honor for us to play here with The Box Tops, Mr. Chilton...the band
went into "blues you can use", and I was thinking how this show was not a retro, or a nostalgia
party like The Remains concert about a month ago, this was an event...a legendary night for
Boston Rock & Roll."--Joe Viglione
On his last solo tour, he performed Rice's signature tune, "Why Should I Care" -- the anthem of
a performer whose forced grin masks his disgust for his audience.
Even so, after the five original Box Tops finished a reunion show Sunday night at the New York
club Coney Island High, some of Chilton's admirers were shocked to hear him volunteer that,
while he was onstage he was thinking about Olivier's jaded song-and-dance man...
Putting his right index finger to his temple, he wearily quoted the film's most famous
line: "Dead behind the eyes."
But when Chilton was onstage earlier that night alongside his late-'60s bandmates,
singing their #2 pop hit "Cry Like a Baby", his eyes seemed to brim with boyish exuberance. His
voice was in as good form as it's ever been, and he was exercising his entire range. It was as
though the 48-year-old singer had been transformed into a 16-year-old acne-plagued kid -- that's
how old Chilton was when the band formed...
If the audience had any doubts about the talents of the original Box Tops -- Chilton, Gary Talley,
John Evans, Bill Cunningham and Danny Smythe -- they vanished the moment the group kicked
into the set-opening "Cry Like a Baby." When Talley played the tune's signature riffs on a copy
of the Coral electric sitar he used on the record, and the band (augmented by three horn players)
settled into a Memphis soul groove, it might as well have been 1968...
The group did six of its seven top-40 hits, including "Choo Choo Train" (which Chilton
disparaged as "not much of anything"), "Neon Rainbow" (a slice of light psychedelia), "I
Met Her in Church" and "Soul Deep." The omission of "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March"
did not go unnoticed by some audience members, who shouted for that one as well as for
obscure B-sides and album cuts. It was all to no avail as the group stuck to its well-chosen
setlist.
The 17-song set ended with a faithful version of the song that started it all, the Box Tops' 1967 #1
hit, "The Letter". For an encore, Chilton led the band through a high-energy version of "Keep on
Dancing," a 1965 hit by another Memphis group, the Gentrys.
His "dead behind the eyes" feeling seemed to go unheeded by fans, who found his energetic stage
presence a welcome change from the disinterested performances that have marked
his solo career. If fans wish only to be entertained, Archie Rice may not be such a bad influence
after all.
Deena Canale, 28, grabbed Talley's setlist from the floor as the last notes faded away. "I'm really
into Memphis music, and they incorporated so much of it into their set," she said, declaring the
show "amazing." -- Dawn Eden
Feature article--Performance Magazine (9/5/97, p.19)
Still the Tops
After the November session, talk turned to touring. The music was good, the mood was good
and Rick Levy with Florida-based Rick Levy Management was interested in booking the band.
In
February, he met with the group in Memphis during the mixdown of the project. "Our feeling
was, if you want to book some gigs go ahead and let's see what happens," explained Talley. Levy
booked the House of Blues in Los Angeles... and on April 18, the group performed there--and has
been working consistently ever since.
...As for future plans, Talley says the group will continue to tour and actively seek a record deal.
He told PERFORMANCE, "We're all excited and we honestly sound better than ever."
Best of the Box Tops (Soul Deep)--
It's a record characterized by tight, sharp musicianship, a loose and casual atmosphere (you'd
almost swear it was live) and a sense of spontaneity that conveys a joyous party-time
feel..." --Tierney Smith
Also added to The Rough Guide to Rock website page on Alex Chilton...
"1998 got off to a great start, with Alex getting together with a re-formed Original line-Up Box
Tops, and calling in the Memphis Horns to record 'Tear Off!' (Last Call, 1998), a
marvellous album including a magnificent re-visit to The Letter. Great production and a
cheery, almost party atmosphere blend to make this a great 'good times' recording."
--Alan Spicer
(See THE LETTERS page for audience comments.)
Purple Weekend 2001
"Very, very endearing was the appearance of the spirit of Memphis, The Box Tops led by Alex Chilton,
closing the latest edition of the Purple Weekend [festival] at the scene of the Tropicana [Club in
León Spain], creating a gala event with an enviable voice, a lot of class and attitude, a terrific horn
section, and a fantastic sound that left the audience in an unbelievable festive mood. There they were, the
Box Tops, an authentic lesson of Soul and Rock 'N' Roll, who through classics like Cry Like to Baby, Soul
Deep, The Letter, revisions of Flyng Saucers Rock 'N' Roll., Whiter Shade Of Pale, Neon Rainbow, and
others hits...transported us there [to Memphis], and personally their performance was what I enjoyed the
most [about the festival]. " Pepe I Wanna
What was hot from summer of 1999's concerts
"Also on the rebound was the J. Geils Band. Often forgotten these days, this
group was the biggest band on the planet for a brief time in the early
80s. Their success was due mostly to the mega-huge hit "Centerfold" and a
non-stop party stage show so immense that their live discs are some
of the best of that genre.
The J. Geils Band with the Box Tops, at the Paradise,
Saturday
"Consider the J. Geils Band officially relaunched. Thinly disguised under the name Juke Joint
Jimmy and his House Party Rockers, the reunited Boston band was a last-minute addition to the
Box Tops show at the Paradise Saturday night.
"The J.GEILS BAND performed at the Paradise Rock Club, Commonwealth Ave. in Boston for
the first time in 17 years. Opening was THE BOX TOPS, the original Box Tops with Gary on
guitar, Alex on vocals, the real thing doing Neon Rainbow, Cried Like A Baby, the eternal hit
"Soul Deep", and the magnificent #1 hit "The Letter." The Box Tops went on before 8 PM which
was really annoying, but these clubs in Boston push the concert crowd out for Eurodance, which
is even more annoying house music and an audience totally different from the one which came
to see The Box Tops and Geils. But The Box Tops were absolutely brilliant, and their review will
be posted either here or in another newsgroup...
"Alex Chilton, the legendary frontman of the '60s soul-pop group the Box Tops and the '70s
power-pop band Big Star, makes no secret of his fondness for "The Entertainer," a 1960 movie
that starred Laurence Olivier as Archie Rice, an English music-hall has-been.
"...who would have expected Alex Chilton to reunite with the four original members of his
long-estranged Memphis-based group and hit the road? Nevertheless, the diminutive singer
cavorted
in soulful fashion about the stage of Chicago's House of Blues on Feb. 10 with those same Box
Tops providing staunch support...Once he opened his mouth to deliver the group's 1968
million-seller "Cry Like A Baby" though, there was no mistaking the gritty growl that made the
band so
popular during its original incarnation (or the pseudo-sitar lines fingered flawlessly by guitarist
Gary Talley)...
Promising to play every Box Tops song the crowd knew, the animated Chilton and his crew
powered through "Choo Choo Train," "People Gonna Talk," an inspired "I Met Her In Church,"
"Fields Of Clover," and "Neon Rainbow," along with an eagerly anticipated "Soul Deep" and
"The Letter"...from the band's new French CD, Tear Off!...the Sam & Dave
staples "Ain't That A Lot Of Love" and "Soothe Me," Percy Sledge's "It Tears Me Up," and
Wilson Pickett's "I'm In Love" worked well live...[Alex's] heartfelt testimonial to Dan Penn, who
cowrote and/or produced many Box Tops classics ("the greatest white singer of rhythm n' blues
that anybody ever heard") rang as true as his intense revival of Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford's
1962 hit "I Need Your Loving," where he threatened to scream himself hoarse, or the vengeful
sarcasm of the Talley-penned ["Last Laugh"]...[the] group's long-deprived fans are delighted to
see all five Box Tops together again.-- Bill Dahl
Box Tops' Reunion Wows New Hampshire
"Once again, the impossible has happened. A band that, it had been thought, would never
re-group, let alone tour, has one more time proven the world wrong. The legendary Box Tops
have re-grouped, currently touring (for the first time in 27 years) and showing a new generation
some of the high points of the 60s that many missed.
Fronted by the fabled Alex Chilton, the Box Tops (with all of its original members)
played a pristine gig at the Univ. Of New Hampshire's Whittemore Arena on Sunday. From the
opening "Cry Like A Baby," the Box Tops ran through an hour of "blue-eyed soul," so moving, it
would have made even artists from the old Motown stable green with envy.
Chilton is the epitome of a great frontman. He is filled with humor, charisma to spare, and an
angelic voice. The bands cover of Sam Cooke's "Soothe Me," (which was done as a duet with
Chilton and lead guitarist Gary Talley, no slouch in the vocal area either!), was too smooth for
words. So was their semi-hit "I Met Her In Church" which is almost as spiritually moving a tune
as The Impressions' "People Get Ready."
Aided only by a keyboardist and a (Boston-based) trio of brass, the Box Tops are, from an
instrumental view, second to none. Bassist Bill Cunningham (who also maintains the Tops'
website) laid down some very tasteful (and complicated) rhythm, as did drummer Danny Smythe
(kind of the Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts of soul). Guitarists Talley and John Evans were
equally as impressive...
The Tops closed their set with (of course) the mega-hit "The Letter"...It was nice hearing the tune
done in its original arrangement (the only other version I have ever heard live was a drastically
different cover by Joe Cocker), and a nice ending to a perfect night.
The Box Tops, along with The Rascals, wrote the book on "blue-eyed soul" during the
psychedelic 60s...although as of late, the term "blue-eyed soul" has become somewhat of a cliche.
People who don't know any better have referred to such musical shams as Michael Bolton and a
million others like him...Well, Bolton and company should have been at UNH taking notes
Sunday. While soul is not something you can learn, "wanna-be's" like him would have realized
that in their wildest dreams, they could not hold a candle to the real thing. And the Box Tops are
the real thing."-- John Reed
"Again From the Box Tops, Antics and Blue-Eyed Soul...Mr. Chilton was more
relaxed than usual, introducing 'The Letter' as "one of Joe Cocker's biggest hits" and parodying
soulful stage moves like dropping to his knees...With help from a surplus keyboardist and a
three-man horn section, the band played the blue-eyed soul it's best known for, as well as
rockabilly, cover songs and psychedelia (including a revelatory version of "Neon Rainbow"). The
show was a reminder that the Box Tops legacy is a lot more than hits like "The Letter" and "Cry
Like a Baby." Not only did much of its pop soul transcend nostalgia in concert, but even the new
material it had just recorded for a forthcoming album sounded good, a rarity when any band that
hasn't played together in decades reunites."
"When this year's lineup for the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival was
announced, there was a general consensus that the latest edition of the festival
could never match last year's. It didn't; it probably surpassed it. More than 110,000 people
squeezed into Tom Lee Park over three days last weekend
to see 60 acts, most of them blues-driven -- a marriage of acts and audience
that has helped make the BSMF one of the premier festivals in the country.
...But the most interesting act on Sunday [the last day] was the reformed Box Tops. The original
lineup of the seminal '60s Memphis garage band appeared onstage, presumably for
the first time since they parted ways in 1968. Fronted by an Alex Chilton who
seemed for once to be genuinely enjoying himself, the group ran through a set
composed of [songs from their soon-to-be-released album] and hits like 'The Letter'
and 'Cry Like A Baby.'"
"The biggest bit of nostalgia for Memphians came from a Box Tops reunion with the complete
original lineup, including rock guru Alex Chilton. It was the first time in 30 years that the five
musicians--Chilton, Gary Talley, Bill Cunningham, John Evans, and Danny Smythe--had played
together, according to Chilton...The Box Tops may have been rough around the edges, but the
edges were garage rock heaven. Chilton played the goofy teen, pratfalling and calling for Medic.
The songs, from 'Cry Like A Baby' to 'The Letter', had lost little charm in
three decades. "
"...The Box Tops popped on-stage, pumping out a pluperfect-for-frat-parties version of their
1968 smash Cry Like A Baby...Keeping the grits'n'gray coming, the band slammed into Southern
soul journeyman Homer Banks's A Lot Of Love, followed by fellow Memphis maniac Billy Lee
Riley's bug-eyed rockabilly Flying Saucers Rock And Roll, with a deadpan dedication to "all the
Heaven's Gate people". And so it went. Sprinkling the 60-minute set with solid-gold renditions
of their biggest hits, The Box Tops leapt the space between the sublime to the ridiculous with a
single bound: "This is a song about group sex," cackled Chilton, introducing Choo Choo Train.
For every soul shot on the rocks, there were weak-tea chasers of R&B standards, with Chilton
alternating between ersatz Joe Tex mic-stand manoeuvers and Jaggeresque swagger."
"In September 1996, rock n' roll history was made as the five original members of the Box Tops
returned to a Memphis recording studio for the first time in more than 30 years. They cut tracks
that night and the evening proved so rewarding the group decided to reunite for a tour...The
reunion began when Cunningham asked the original members of the group to record a few songs
for fun. The group recorded six songs at Memphis' Easley Recording Studio and returned in
November to record six more. According to Talley, the group didn't know what songs they were
going to record until they got to the studio. They eventually picked 12 old cover songs and one
original penned by Talley and co-writer Richard Fleming. "We all sort of brought in songs and
we
picked them out on the spot," Talley confessed. "Even though we were unrehearsed, everything
sounded pretty good and we were surprised at the energy the tracks had."
Webmaster
bcunning@boxtops.com
