Chris Bell - I Am the Cosmos

I paid homage to Chris Bell on the cover of my 2021 single, “Overwhelming”.  I shot it myself in the course of a few minutes, with help from my friend Dave to make sure my tripod didn’t blow over on a windy Colorado day.  In recent years, Chris has started to catch up with his former bandmate Alex Chilton in posthumous “cool credibility”, but I have long been as connected to, if not more, Chris’s musical talents as I have Alex’s.

Some of you might be saying, “Who is Chris Bell?”  Well, do you remember That 70s Show?  The theme song was a tune called, “In the Street”, which was performed by Cheap Trick, but was originally a song by Big Star, written by Chris Bell, on their 1972 debut #1 Record.

I was first turned onto Big Star in the mid-90s.  I can’t remember the first experience, but it was either a Paul Westerberg interview, or Superdrag’s cover of “September Gurls” on their I Know the Score EP.  Either way, I was hooked and I’ve been a big fan ever since. 

I really don’t know why Chris is starting to get his due.  It could be the wonderful documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, or the rumors that he might have been gay or bisexual which have been exploited by some recently without much evidence (it is certainly possible, but there seems to be no agreement amongst people who knew him).  No matter the reason, or the fact it’s over fifty years too late, he certainly deserves the recognition.

Bell’s story is a complicated one.  He was the impetus for the forming of Big Star.  He and bassist Andy Hummel were roommates at the University of Tennessee.  Hummel brought in his friend Jody Stephens on drums and then Bell was adamant on bringing in Alex Chilton, who had recently quit The Box Tops (see their smash hit “The Letter”).  He was a capable engineer who honed his chops by being ever-present at Ardent Studios in Memphis.  He definitely set the creative direction of the band and wrote, or co-wrote half the songs on #1 Record.  His production work and lead vocals are all over it.  However, seven months after the album’s release he quit.

There were all kinds of issues with the album.  It was critically acclaimed, but they were on Ardent Records, the rock subsidiary of Stax Records and Stax had multiple issues from promotion to distribution.  The band members, including Bell, were consuming a lot of drugs and Bell was struggling with depression. 

After this, he recorded I Am the Cosmos and it remains the only solo record he released.  He ended up back in Memphis, working in a restaurant, and at age 27, on his way home from band practice, he struck a light pole in his Triumph and died on impact.

As I sit here at age 43, Bell’s music resonates more than ever.  You can hear the weight of his life in his music.  That must have been a terrible burden for someone in their twenties because it’s no picnic for someone in their forties.  He worked through these troubles with music.  Spending all night playing with melodies or trying to get a sound that he had in his head out of the instruments he had at hand.  He laid his heart bare in his songs.  He just had to make sense of things and this was perhaps the only way he knew how.  The vocal melodies are beautiful and his voice is haunting.  The guitar lines are intricate and provide the perfect counterpoint to his vocals.  Seldom in the history of popular music has an artist so perfectly made themselves so vulnerable while presenting so confidently. 

The thing about retroactive “cool” is that most of it is bullshit.  It is more about what the discoverers of this “lost” artist think about themselves than it does the artist himself.  It’s not that Chris Bell is cool for his amazing musical work, it’s that they’re cool because they knew about it before you did.  It’s sad and does Chris no justice.  That’s not to say you can’t appreciate it, he died two years before I was born, I couldn’t have discovered him during his life.  Nor am I saying you can’t make it personal (that’s what I’m doing right now) but don’t make it personal and try to dress it up like it’s just about Chris. 

I recommend watching the film.  I believe as I write this it’s free on Prime, but it’s certainly worth the $4 to rent if it’s not.  Listen to #1 Record and I am the Cosmos.  See for yourself.

Jeremy