Willie Alexander
Singer-songwriter-keyboardist Willie Alexander’s career has been a long and legendary one – locally, nationally and internationally – and has run the gamut from art rock, protopunk and punk to alt rock, experimental rock, power pop and new wave. Very few artists have accomplished so very many things in the rock ‘n’ roll universe.
Born in Philadelphia in 1943 and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, his father was a Baptist minister, and “in the beginning” young Alexander would sneak into his dad’s church to pound on the piano. By the time he reached his teens, he was performing in coffeehouses with Stan “Baba” Pinkney, playing a Chinese drum. “I played it like a conga,” he says. “[Famed jazz percussionist] Don Alias taught me about Afro-Cuban music and I also played jazz drums.” On piano, his earliest influences were Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, he says.
THE LOST, THE BAGATELLE, THE GRASS MENAGERIE, THE VELVETS
Alexander moved from slamming on the church piano into playing keyboards in The Lost, circa 1964, which became one of Boston’s best-known garage-rock acts. He’s also a true Bostonian in the sense that he saw his first rock ‘n’ roll show, The Remains at The Rathskeller, in mid-1966, around the same time that they toured with The Beatles. Remains frontman Barry Tashian helped land The Lost a deal with Capitol Records.
After The Lost split, Alexander played with The Bagatelle and The Grass Menagerie before becoming a member of the final edition of The Velvet Underground in late 1971, (joining Grass Menagerie members Doug Yule and Walter Powers and replacing Sterling Moss). After VU toured England, Scotland and the Netherlands in support of their album Loaded, they planned on going into the studio to start recording new music but the manager had different ideas that ended Alexander’s stay with the iconic group.
“KEROUAC,” “MASS. AVE.,” THE BOOM BOOM BAND, FRANCE TOURS
Since leaving the Velvets, Alexander has performed solo and with a variety of bands. Important solo releases include his two most well-known songs as an A and B side: “Kerouac,” about the Lowell, Massachusetts native who he says is his spiritual mentor, and “Mass Ave.,” his declaration of independence of Boston’s growing punk revolution.
Arguably his most famous group, Willie Alexander & The Boom Boom Band, included growling guitarist Billy Loosigian and was prominently featured on the 1976 double album Live At The Rat Vol I, released by Rat Records. A number of Alexanders solo albums have been marketed in France on the country’s punk-focused New Rose label and he remains remarkably successful there. In fact, in 1991 he toured France solo three times; during a stopover for a show in Paris, a French youngster played him his cover of “At the Rat.”
BOSTON MUSIC HALL OF FAME, TOTAL BANDS
When inducted into the Boston Music Hall Of Fame in 1987, Alexander famously admitted that he was nervous. “I’m not used to getting awards,” he said. “I’m used to playing the piano and singing.” When asked for a complete, list of the bands he’s formed, co-formed or been a part of, he named 12: The Lost, Grass Menagerie, The Bagatelle, The Velvet Underground, Nonies Blues, The Rhythm Assholes, The Radio Hearts, The Boom Boom Band, The Confessions, The WA Band, The Persistence of Memory Orchestra and The Fisheye Brothers.
As of this writing, now 73 years young. And he still has a lot to say.
(by A.J. Wachtel)
