CHRIS BELL I Am The Cosmos Orig US 7" Big Star Powerpop

	£		43
	$		57

** RECORD COLLECTOR **

CHRIS BELL

I Am The Cosmos

Original US 7" single released on CAR Records in 1978. Comes in a picture sleeve.

Chris Bell (January 12, 1951 – December 27, 1978) was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star, which recorded albums during the early 1970s. Chris Bell left the group after their first album, #1 Record, but contributed some music and lyrics to their second LP, 1974's Radio City. He recorded as a solo artist for the remainder of the 1970s; two of these influential solo recordings, "I am the Cosmos" and "You and Your Sister," were released on a 1978 single on Car Records. These two songs became popular among collectors of Big Star-related items, and they were later covered on the 1991 Blood album by This Mortal Coil.

Bell had played in a number of Memphis bands beginning in the 1960s, prior to his later famous work in the 1970s with Chilton. He had started playing music at age 12, influenced heavily by the Beatles and other British Invasion groups like The Yardbirds and The Who. One of his early groups included Memphians Richard Rosebrough and Terry Manning, with whom he continued to work for the rest of his music career. In 1964 and 1965, Bell played lead guitar in a British Invasion-influenced group called the Jynx (the name is a takeoff on The Kinks) with local musicians. Other lead vocalists at some of the group's shows and rehearsals, though not present on their recordings, included local teens Ames Yates, Vance Alexander, and Chilton. Chilton, who attended nearly every Jynx show and sang lead vocals for a couple of weeks, soon joined the Box Tops with Cunningham, as the Jynx split up in 1966. Bell continued to perform and record in Memphis throughout the rest of the decade, turning his focus more toward writing original songs by the late 1960s.

Bell began to concentrate on solo work after leaving Big Star, recording demos at Ardent Studios and Shoe Recording in Memphis with old friends including Rosebrough, Manning, Cunningham, Ken Woodley, and occasionally Chilton and Jim Dickinson. One of Bell's better known solo songs from this period is "You and Your Sister," featuring Bell's guitar work and vocals, Chilton's backing vocal, and Cunningham's string arrangements and bass work. Bell also began playing in a group with local songwriter Keith Sykes in the 1970s.

During the late 1970s, a few of Bell's pop song lyrics began to evince influences from his newfound interest in Christian spirituality. He worked at his father's restaurant as he continued to grapple with clinical depression. Although he released a single in 1978 on the Car Records label, none of his solo material was released on a full length album during his lifetime.

Tracks Are :-

Side One

I Am The Cosmos

Side Two

You And Your Sister

Released on 'CAR Records' in 1978

Catalogue No. CRR 6

Record is in EX++ condition

Sleeve is in EX+ condition

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UK POSTAGE RATES

• 7" SINGLES £1.50 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL

• 12" SINGLES & LP's £2.50 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL

• CD's £1.50 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE RATES

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•  12" SINGLES & LP's WITHIN EUROPE £5.00 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL. US, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN ETC. £6.50 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL.

• CD's £2.50 FOR THE FIRST THEN 50p FOR EACH ADDITIONAL