The 27’s – Chris Bell 1951 - 1978

Part 21 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.

Chris Bell’s first love was the music of the British invasion and inspired by the Beatles he took up the guitar in his early teens. Born January 12, 1951 in Memphis, his musical interested fell well outside the mainstream of the Memphis music scene of the time.

In high school, Bell struck up a friendship with another young performer named Alex Chilton. Chilton soon rose to fame as the front man of the Box Tops and Bell became entrenched at Memphis' Ardent Studios, where he worked as a part-time recording engineer and also cut his earliest songs with friends Richard Rosebrough and Terry Manning.

The group that would later be known as Big Star stemmed from two of Bell’s band projects that began in the late 1960’s - Icewater and Rock City. These groups featured Rosebrough and Manning as well as musicians Jody Stephens, Tom Eubanks, Andy Hummel, Vance Alexander and Steve Rhea. Bell eventually asked Chilton to join and during a period of recording demos and tracks for their first album, the group settled on the name "Big Star."

The lineup for Big Star's first album was composed of Bell, Chilton, Hummel and Stephens. Bell and Chilton wrote most of the group's songs, with occasional writing contributions from Hummel and Stephens. Along with Terry Manning, Bell is also credited with much of the mixing and engineering work done on the first Big Star album.

The album, released in 1972, failed to achieve commercial success mostly due to bad marketing by the record label Stax, whose catalog was predominately soul oriented at the time. Crushed, Bell became suicidal and left the band, only contributing to a few tracks on the follow-up album. Chris’ brother David went with him to Chateau D'Herouville studios in France, where they recorded demos for a new album. After the tracks were cut the Bell brothers mixed the songs at producer George Martin's Air Studios in London.

Chris returned to the United States for a planned Big Star reunion tour, but when the reunion fell apart Chris dropped out of music all together, taking a job in father’s fast food restaurant where he continued to fight depression.

Bell died on December 27, 1978 at the age of 27 when he lost control of his car, sometime while on his way home from work. The car struck a wooden light pole on the side of the road, killing him instantly. His funeral was held the next day, December 28, the birthday of former band mate Alex Chilton.

Over the course of the following decade, the reputation of Big Star continued to grow and eventually Bell's long-unreleased demos were collected under the title “I Am the Cosmos.” The album was released in 1992 and quickly became a critical success, strongly influencing the singer/songwriter movement for years to come.