Died On This Date (December 27, 1978) Chris Bell / Big Star
themusicsover Chris Bell
January 12, 1951 – December 27, 1978
Member of the 27 Club
Chris Bell was a guitarist, singer and brilliant songwriter who is best remembered as a founding member of the highly influential power pop band, Big Star. Formed during the early ’70s in Memphis, Tennessee with friend, Alex Chilton, Big Star set out make music that took the best pop elements of the British Invasion and added a dash of Memphis soul. In 1972, Big Star released #1 Album, which although it was a commercial failure, was highly influential to the Replacements, R.E.M., Wilco, Whiskeytown the Flaming Lips, and Teenage Fanclub. One song from the album, the Bell-Chilton penned, “In The Street,” was re-recorded by Cheap Trick in 1999 and used as the theme song for That ’70s Show. Bell left the band following the release of #1 Album and set out on a solo career. He did however, make several contributions to Big Star’s subsequent albums. Although he recorded numerous songs during his solo years, none made it to album until after his death. On December 27, 1978, Chris Bell, age 27, was killed when he lost control of his car and crashed into a light pole while driving home from his father’s Memphis restaurant. In 1992, a collection of his unreleased recordings came out under the name, I am the Cosmos.
What You Should Own
Gram Parsons was a highly influential singer-songwriter who helped launch what would later be called country rock and then alt-country or Americana. Parsons began playing the guitar as a teenager to escape a less than ideal home life. The first group he played with, the Shilohs, were a folk band in the tradition of the Kingston Trio. When the band broke up, he and other Boston area folk musicians formed the International Submarine Band with whom he began to develop a sound the borrowed the best from country, folk and rock. They enjoyed moderate success, primarily getting airplay on the up-and-coming progressive radio stations. In 1968, Parsons was asked to join the Byrds as a replacement for David Crosby and Michael Clarke. He started on keyboards but soon switched to guitar, helping guide the group down a more country rock path. Parsons left the Byrds in the summer of 1968. He joined back up with the Byrds’ Chris Hillman soon after to form the Flying Burrito Brothers whose debut, The Gilded Palace of Sin would be a direct influence on the likes of the Eagles, Dwight Yoakam and later, Wilco and Ryan Adams. By the early ’70s, Parsons was working as a solo artist while recording and performing with good friend, Emmylou Harris. It was during this period that Parsons’ inner demons were taking control in the form of substance abuse. He was also spending more and more time in an area he had become fond of, Joshua Tree National Monument in the desert outside of Los Angeles. He liked to go there and take LSD while searching for UFOs. It was during one of these trips that Gram Parsons apparently overdosed on morphine and alcohol and died at the age of 26.