SPEED OF SOUND

CHRIS BELL

SONGWRITER: CHRIS BELL

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: I AM THE COSMO

LABEL: RYKODISC

GENRE: POWER POP

YEAR: 1992

Christopher Branford Bell(January 12, 1951 – December 27, 1978) was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star through its first album #1 Record(1972). He also pursued a solo career throughout the mid-1970s, resulting in the posthumous I Am the Cosmos LP.

All Music Guide praised Bell as "one of the unsung heroes of American pop music" and noted his lasting impression, saying: "Despite a life marked by tragedy and a career crippled by commercial indifference, the singer/songwriter's slim body of recorded work proved massively influential on the generations of indie rockers who emerged in his wake."

His catalog of proto-alternative rock has inspired the likes of Beck, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream, Afghan Whigs, Pete Yorn, Wilco, The Posies, and The Replacements, all of which have covered his music or expressed their admiration for Big Star in the press.

His life was documented in the acclaimed Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me documentary, released in 2013 on Magnolia Pictures.

In August 2018, Bell's life, and the career of Big Star, was documented in the book There Was A Light: The Cosmic History of Chris Bell and the Rise of Big Star. The 400-page oral-history style bio contains rare interviews with Bell, his band mates, friends, family and notable fans.

I Am the Cosmos is the only solo album by the American pop-rock musician Chris Bell, eventually released in 1992 by Rykodisc, having been recorded over a period of two to three years during the mid-1970s. Bell had previously been a member of Big Star .

In 2009, the album was remastered and re-released in a deluxe two-CD version by Rhino Handmade with alternate versions and additional tracks, and three songs by Bell's pre-Big Star groups, Icewater and Rock City. Some copies included a bonus 7" single of "I Am the Cosmos"/"You and Your Sister", a replica of the original single.

The booklet notes for the album were written by Bell's brother David, who also took the photographs used on the cover and in the CD booklet. The cover features a picture that was taken near Nendaz in Switzerland, it shows the opposite side of the valley with Ardon and the south flank of the snowy massif of Les Diablerets in the back.

The 2017 Omnivore Recordings edition comprises 35 tracks, including eight previously unreleased tracks and two that appear on CD for the first time. Three pre-Big Star tunes that appeared on the 2009 edition are omitted; these are now found on Omnivore's Looking Forward: The Roots of Big Star (also 2017).

I remember the first time

You said you loved me

I waited all weekend

You never called me

So you find him attractive

So what if he is

You'd like some excitement

We could go to St. Kitts

So it goes

On and on

My love grows

And yours is gone

A lonely existence

Well it's just a lie

If there is a reason

I'd like to know why

Something I want you to know

I've told you this once before

Don't want you to see him no more

Once again

You've let me down

Broke my heart

And turned me round

There's a light in the darkness

It doesn't seem far

There's something the matter

That's brought us ajar

The plane goes down

Will not land

Pilot's dead

Nowhere to be found.

SET FIRE TO THE RAIN

ADELE

SONGWRITERS: ADELE ADKINS & FRASER T. SMITH

WHERE: Live at The Royal Albert Hall

COUNTRY: U.K.

ALBUM: ELETRIC AIR

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: SOUL

YEAR: 2010

"Set Fire to the Rain" is a song by English singer-songwriter Adele from her second studio album 21. The song was Adele's third consecutive US number-one single from 21, and reached the top ten in a number of other markets. The song was voted by readers of Billboard as their favorite number one hit of 2012. The song's live rendition from the DVD Live at the Royal Albert Hall won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. With sales of over 10 million copies, "Set Fire to the Rain" is one of the best selling digital singles of all-time.

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins MBE (/əˈdɛl/; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. After graduating from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a recording contract with XL Recordings. In 2007, she received the Brit Awards Critics' Choice Award and won the BBC Sound of 2008 poll. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to commercial and critical success. It is certified eight times platinum in the UK, and three times platinum in the US. The album contains her first song, "Hometown Glory", written when she was 16, which is based on her home suburb of West Norwood in London. An appearance she made on Saturday Night Live in late 2008 boosted her career in the US. At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Adele released her second studio album, 21, in 2011. The album was critically well received and surpassed the success of her debut, earning numerous awards in 2012, among them a record-tying six Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year; two Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year; and three American Music Awards, including Favorite Pop/Rock Album. The album has been certified 17 times platinum in the UK, and is overall the fourth best-selling album in the nation. In the US, it has held the top position longer than any album since 1985, and is certified diamond. The best-selling album worldwide of 2011 and 2012, 21 has sold over 31 million copies. The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book of World Records. She was the first female artist to simultaneously have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the first woman in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three simultaneous top 10 singles as a lead artist, with "Rolling in the Deep", "Someone Like You", and "Set Fire to the Rain", all of which also topped the chart. 21 is the longest-running number one album by a female solo artist in the history of the UK and US Album Charts.

In 2012, Adele released "Skyfall", which she co-wrote and recorded for the James Bond film of the same name. The song won na Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, as well as the Brit Award for British Single of the Year. After taking a three-year break, Adele released her third studio album, 25, in 2015. It became the year's best-selling album and broke first-week sales records in the UK and US. 25 was her second album to be certified diamond in the US and earned her five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and four Brit Awards, including British Album of the Year. The lead single, "Hello", became the first song in the US to sell over one million digital copies within a week of its release. Her third concert tour, Adele Live 2016, visited Europe, North America and Oceania, and concluded with finale concerts at Wembley Stadium in late June 2017.

In 2011, 2012, and 2016, Adele was named Artist of the Year by Billboard. At the 2012 and 2016 Ivor Novello Awards, Adele was named Songwriter of the Year by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2012, she was listed at number five on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Music. Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2016. Her 2016–2017 tour, saw her break attendance records in a number of countries, including the UK, Australia, and the US. With sales of more than 120 million records, Adele is one of the world's best-selling music artists.^[

I let it fall, my heart

And as it fell, you rose to claim it

It was dark and I was over

Until you kissed my lips and you saved me

My hands, they were strong

But my knees were far too weak

To stand in your arms

Without falling to your feet

But there's a side to you

That I never knew, never knew

All the things you'd say

They were never true, never true

And the games you'd play

You would always win, always win

But I set fire to the rain

Watched it pour as I touched your face

Well, it burned while I cried

'Cause I heard it screaming out your name

Your name

When I lay with you

I could stay there, close my eyes

Feel you here forever

You and me together, nothing gets better

'Cause there's a side to you

That I never knew, never knew

All the things you'd say

They were never true, never true

And the games you'd play

You would always win, always win

But I set fire to the rain

Watched it pour as I touched your face

Well, it burned while I cried

'Cause I heard it screaming out your name

Your name

I set fire to the rain

And I threw us into the flames

Well, it felt something died

'Cause I knew that that was the last time

The last time

Sometimes I wake up by the door

That heart you caught must be waiting for you

Even now, when we're already over

I can't help myself from looking for you

I set fire to the rain

Watched it pour as I touched your face

Well, it burned while I cried

'Cause I heard it screaming out your name

Your name

I set fire to the rain

And I threw us into the flames

Well, it felt something died

'Cause I knew that that was the last time

The last time

Oh

Oh no, let it burn

Oh, let it burn

Let it burn.

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

JIMI HENDRIX

SONGWRITER: BOB DYLAN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ELETRIC LADYLAND

LABEL: REPRISE RECORDS

GENRE: PSYCHEDELIC ROCK

YEAR: 1968

Electric Ladyland is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the final studio album released in Hendrix's lifetime before his death in 1970. Released by Reprise Records in North America and Track Records in the UK in October 1968, the double album was the only record from the band produced by Hendrix. By mid-November, it had charted at number one in the United States, where it spent two weeks at the top spot. Electric Ladyland was the Experience's most commercially successful release and their only number one album. It peaked at number six in the UK, where it spent 12 weeks on the chart.

Electric Ladyland included a cover of the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower", which became the Experience's best-selling single, peaking at number six in the UK and 20 in the US. Although the album confounded critics in 1968, it has since been viewed as Hendrix's best work and one of the greatest rock records of all time. Electric Ladyland has been featured on many greatest-album lists, including Q magazine's 2003 list of the 100 greatest albums and Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, on which it was ranked 55th.

"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding, and it has been included on most of Dylan's subsequent greatest hits compilations. Since the late 1970s, he has performed it in concert more than any of his other songs. Different versions appear on four of Dylan's live albums.

Covered by numerous artists in various genres, "All Along the Watchtower" is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix recorded for the album Electric Ladyland with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan's original recording, became a Top 20 single in 1968, received a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 2001, and was ranked 47th in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix(born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career lasted only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential guitarists in history and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music".

Born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at age 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army and trained as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, but he was discharged the following year. He moved to Clarksville, Tennessee soon after and began playing gigs on the Chitlin' Circuit, earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later with Little Richard, with whom he continued to work through mid-1965. He played with Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after being discovered by Linda Keith, who interested bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals in becoming his first manager. Within months, Hendrix earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". He achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and his third and final studio album Electric Ladyland reached number one in the US in 1968; it was Hendrix's most commercially successful release and his only number-one album. He was the world's highest-paid performer, and he headlined the Woodstock festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. He died from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at age 27.

Hendrix was inspired by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored overdriven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in popularizing the previously undesirable sounds caused by guitar amplifier feedback. He was also one of the first guitarists to make extensive use of tone-altering effects units in mainstream rock, such as fuzz distortion, Octavia, wah-wah, and Uni-Vibe. He was the first musician to use stereophonic phasing effects in recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone writes: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began."

In 1967, readers of Melody Maker voted Hendrix the Pop Musician of the Year, and Rolling Stone declared him the Performer of the Year in 1968. Disc and Music Echo magazine honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969, and Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year in 1970. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Rolling Stone ranked the band's three studio albums among the 100 greatest albums of all time, and ranked Hendrix the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time.

There must be some kind of way out of here

Said the joker to the thief

There's too much confusion

I can't get no relief

Business men, they, they drink my wine

Plowmen dig my earth

None will level on the line

Nobody offered his word, hey

No reason to get excited

The thief, he kindly spoke

There are many here among us

Who feel that life is but a joke

But you and I, we've been through that

And this is not our fate

So let us not talk falsely now

The hour's getting late, hey!

All along the watchtower

Princes kept the view

While all the women came and went

Barefoot servants too

Outside in the cold distance

A wild cat did growl

Two riders were approaching

And the wind began to howl, hey!

(All along the tower)

(Beware, oh, beware)

All along the watchtower.

POR AMARTE ASÍ

CHRISTIAN CASTRO

COMPOSITORES: ALEJANDRO MONTALBÁN & EDUARDO REYES.

PAIS: MÉXICO

ALBUM: MI VIDA SIN TU AMOR

DISCOGRÁFICA: BERTELSMANN MUSI GROUP

GÉNEERO: BALADA

AÑO: 1999

Christian Valdés Sánchez Castro (Ciudad de México, 8 de diciembre de 1974), de nombre artístico Cristian Castro, es un cantante y actor mexicano, hijo de los actores Verónica Castro y Manuel «El Loco» Valdés, y sobrino de los también actores Ramón Valdés(conocido por encarnar a Don Ramón en El Chavo del 8) y Germán Valdés «Tin-Tan». De herencia familiar artística, es también sobrino por parte de madre de José Alberto «El Güero» Castro, conocido productor de telenovelas de Televisa.

Cristian creció en el núcleo de su familia materna donde, impulsado por el hábitat artístico que lo rodeaba, comenzó desde muy temprana edad a incursionar en las artes a través de la actuación. Finalmente se decantó por el canto.

Entre 2005 y 2007, Cristian edita dos discos más: Días felices y El indomable, mientras que el 28 de abril de 2009 lanza al mercado El culpable soy yo. Esta última producción sería, hasta ese momento, la más ambiciosa de su carrera en cuanto al nivel artístico y musical, ya que había contado con ayuda de productores notables, de la talla de AB Quintanilla III, Armando Ávila, Kiko Cibrián y Christian Leuzzi.

Pero los éxitos serían aún mayores a partir de 2008, ya que tras cantar en los Premios Grammy Latino durante el homenaje a José José, a quién considera como su padrino artístico, lanza, también en su honor, la edición de sus 13 y 14 álbumes de estudio: Viva el Príncipe (en 2010) y Mi Amigo El Príncipe(en 2011)

Viva el príncipe cuenta con ventas certificadas como disco de diamante en México; cuádruple platino en Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico y oro en Colombia, Venezuela y Centroamérica. Por otra parte, el segundo álbum tributo continuará la cosecha de éxitos que le precedieron, recibiendo disco de oro y platino en su primera semana en el mercado al vender más de 100.000 copias y ubicándose entre los más vendidos de la lista Top Latin Albums Billboard. Esto le permitió estar nuevamente nominado en los premios más importantes de la industria musical (destacándose el Latin Grammy y la obtención del Premio Oye 2012 al mejor solista masculino pop) y también llevarse varios reconocimientos internacionales, como el del Consejo de la ciudad de Los Ángeles y el de Billboard, quien lo ubica como el tercer artista de más alto rango en la historia de la revista Billboard Latin Songs y el Artista Pop Latino de 2011.

En el 2012 Cristian Castro, recibió doble reconocimiento en los Latin Billboards, como mejor artista pop masculino y mejor solista POP, por su álbum Viva el Príncipe lanzado al mercado en 2010. Siendo el mejor intérprete de la música de José José según palabras del mismo.

A principios de 2012 fue el intérprete del tema «Dame la llave de tu corazón» para la telenovela argentina Lobo. Meses después, participó en el disco tributo a Selena Enamorada de ti con el dueto de la canción «Como la flor» junto con la voz de la propia Selena. En otro sentido, grabó «Buenos días amor» a dueto con Karlos Rose, «Amarte» a dueto con Henry Santos el mismo año y «Todo en tu vida» a dueto con la chilena Myriam Hernández.

A mediados de agosto Cristian anuncia su retiro definitivo de Universal Music, por lo que Sony Music pasaría a ser su disquera oficial hasta la fecha.

En el mes de septiembre se grabó el disco 1.ª Fila de Gigi D´Alessio, donde Cristian hace su participación en el tema «Abre tus brazos», tema que se ha convertido en uno de los favoritos del europeo.

En octubre se lanzó el disco Celebrando al Príncipe donde Universal Music puso fin a su contrato con el complemento de la trilogía a José José, este disco incluye temas como «Pero me hiciste tuyo», y «Mi vida».

En noviembre se grabó en vivo desde Los Ángeles, 1.ª Fila de Cristian Castro, con la participación especial de Verónica Castro, Reik, Benny Ibarra, Leonel García y otros. El álbum Primera Fila lanzado el 2 de abril, debutó Nº 2 en iTunes. El cantante recibió disco de oro a los diez días por vender más de 30.000 copias del material, el cual debutó en el Nº 4 del Billboard latino. Además, al mismo tiempo se encontraba en el Nº 1 de ventas en México, Argentina, España y Chile.

A comienzos del año 2014, mostró su otra faceta en la música, junto con el exguitarrista de Maná, César "Vampiro" López formaron el grupo de rock alternativo La Esfinge, con el cual lanzó su disco debut El cantar de la muerte.

En 2015 presentó el tema "Tan cerquita" en colaboración com Aleks Syntek que logra posicionarse en el Top 20 del ranking de Monitor Latino.

Mi vida sin tu amor es el nombre del sexto álbum de estudio grabado por el cantautor mexicano Cristian Castro. Fue lanzado al mercado bajo el sello discográfico BMG U.S. Latin el 1 de junio de 1999 y se convirtió rápidamente en un éxito arrollador. El álbum estuvo producido por el compositor y productor musical colombiano Kike Santander. Sus canciones combinan pop latino, boleros, baladas románticas y cuenta con la colaboración de la Miami Symphony Orchestra.

Siempre serás la niña que me llena el alma

Como un mar inquieto, como un mar en calma

Siempre tan lejano como el horizonte

Gritando en el silencio tu nombre en mis labios

Sólo queda el eco de mi desengaño

Sigo aquí en mi sueño de seguirte amando

Será, será como tú quieras pero así será

Si aún tengo que esperarte siete vidas más

Me quedaré colgado de este sentimiento

Por amarte así

Es esa mi fortuna, es ese mi castigo

Será que tanto amor acaso está prohibido

Y sigo aquí muriendo por estar contigo

Por amarte así

A un paso de tu boca y sin poder besarla

Tan cerca de tu piel y sin poder tocarla

Ardiendo de deseos con cada mirada

Por amarte así

Así voy caminando en esta cuerda floja

Por ir tras de tu huella convertida en sombra

Preso del amor que me negaste un día

Contando los segundos que pasan por verte

Haciéndote culpable de mi propia suerte

Soñando hasta despierto con hacerte mía

Será, será como tú quieras pero así será

Si aún tengo que esperarte siete vidas más

Me quedaré colgado de este sentimiento

Por amarte así

Es esa mi fortuna, es ese mi castigo

Será que tanto amor acaso está prohibido

Y sigo aquí muriendo por estar contigo

Por amarte así

A un paso de tu boca y sin poder besarla

Tan cerca de tu piel y sin poder tocarla

Ardiendo de deseos con cada mirada

Por amarte así, por amarte así

Por amarte.