What’s Your Sign Girl?

Chilton was an underrated guitarist. Feeling nostalgic for the late Nineties today …

From 1999 performance at Memphis’ Cooper-Young Festival. With Ron Easley – bass & background vocals, and Richard Dworkin – drums. Video by David Julian Leonard.

8 Replies to “What’s Your Sign Girl?”

  1. Viva Chilton, we praise thy name.

    Also, I welcome this opportunity to be a pedant:

    The zodiac arose from Ptolemy’s work in astronomy in the 2nd century AD. The constellations present along the sun’s ecliptic have shifted over time. Nowadays, it’s essentially this:

    Though he sings “I’m a Capricorn”, he was born on 28 December in the 20th century.

    That makes him a Sagittarius.

  2. Although that song seems tongue-in-cheek, he was seriously into astrology, at least when I knew him. The first thing he’d ask you was your birthday, year included. He’d make some instant judgements based on what he knew off the top of his head. Later, he’d vet you more thoroughly with charts. I don’t know his criteria for deciding who warranted that extra effort, or how his charts worked. I never inquired, because it all seemed more than a little out there.

    As for his own sign, I’m guessing he used Capricorn in that song because it scanned better. He was more of a music than lyrics guy, so he probably wrote the melody first and had to make the lyrics fit.

    1. So it turns out “What’s Your Sign Girl?” is an obscure cover by somebody named Danny Pearson, off an album produced by Barry White in 1978.

      Here’s the original.

      1. Good find, Makerbot! I first heard him play that song in the mid-80’s and just assumed it was his. I thought it was hilarious, because the lyrics run through all these positive traits of the various signs. In reality, he believed some people to be malevolent based on their astrological info.

        Honestly, I don’t know if he was still into that stuff by the time he was playing this song. He’d straightened up quite a bit. We weren’t really in touch at that point, but I’d go see him play every now and then, and we’d have a superficial chat before or after the gig. He was a different person, much more stable, off drugs and drinking moderately. It was a heartening transformation. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’d moved away from the astrology too, but again, I don’t really know.

  3. Thanks for the context! My guess was that he was at least a little bit into it, but you never know with songwriting.

    Definitely out there. Whenever someone says to me “well I’m a Pisces so I feel things deeply and…” I just smile politely.
    And think “you’re probably not even a Pisces.”

  4. Here’s another goofy zodiac song that was a minor hit.

    The zodiac craze began, as far as I can tell, with hippies–Age of Aquarius and all that rot (an increasingly laughable prediction as the cynical, drug-ravaged 70’s played out). Sometime in the 70’s it really took hold in black popular culture.

    The 70’s were fucking weird.

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