RIP Chris Cornell 1964 - 2017

[liebzz]

Alright. Next journey will be here - a run through the career of Chris Cornell. A bit of a heads up on this one- I am clearly very familiar with some of this and unfamiliar with other parts. Soundgarden’s 90s output and TotD are among my favorites in life, but I have made only a handful of listens to early Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Chris Cornell’s solos career (some of which I have never listened to). This should be one helluva ride, but I am sure there’ll be moments where we’ll disagree. Let’s get at this one - I am looking forward to it and was planning for it before the Doors journey - but noted I would do that one first. Might be a few days before I start posting.

[VinylGuy]

Cool!
So you are doing his whole career and not just the solo phase? Nice...Brilliant career.

[liebzz]

Cool!
So you are doing his whole career and not just the solo phase? Nice...Brilliant career.

The plan is all of it. 18 albums, and 2 EPS, with what I expect to find other treasures along the way

I will note I was a bit inspired by the Peloton series - though I haven’t done the yoga yet - they should definitely have Show Me How to Live on there.

[VinylGuy]

I might listen to some Soundgarden later.

[liebzz]

Screaming Life EP

I think it’s easy to forget or more like underappreciate Soundgarden before Badmotorfinger. At least I am quite guilty of it. More or less always thought of them more metal - but really going back again now, this here is a phenomenal EP. This time I hear more punk rock in Entering and Hunted Down. Some funk elements mixed in with Little Joe, the heaviness in Hand of God combined into the preaching verses…and then there’s Nothing to Say, which basically nails the sound that would develop out of Seattle. Yes it is raw, and yes the sound could be much better, but we have a band here busting out of the gates, even if Chris I think has yet to quite find his own voice. Nonetheless, after a summer of transitioning from the Grateful Dead to listening to some soul, I am in need of some epic driving rock music. Enter Soundgarden.

[liebzz]

Fopp EP

I probably could have mashed these into the combo they were re-released together as, but I think there’s a flavor to this that is distinct from Screaming Life. Here, Fopp is delivered like Soundgarden taking on the Chili Peppers on this cover. And then top that off with the Dub Mix that sounds like Soundgarden taking on the Chili Peppers through early Beastie Boys studio tricks and well, this ends up being nothing like you would expect from them. There’s great value in that. A more typified Soundgarden emerged on Kingdom of Come and a blazing cover of Swallow My Pride every bit as impactful as the original. In other words, they conquer a lot in a measly 15 minutes.

[oasisfan35]

Probably throw a few of the early releases on today, it has been a while.
Any reason why the RIP thread continually gets bumped as opposed to the non-death centric one?

[bada]

Entering was my favorite SG song for many a year. Maybe it still is...I used to think oh man if I could just sing like that.

[VinylGuy]

I started my SG fandom with SuperUnknown, but most of the stuff in Badmotorfinger were ok by me, specially Outshined...so Screaming Life came later for me, and boy its such a cool debut. Its metal, punk, post punk..menacing and violent while tender.

Hunted Down is fucking amazing.

[liebzz]

I didn’t know another thread on Chris existed but here we are.

[bodysnatcher]

there's probably at least 3 more

[liebzz]

Ultramega OK

The first full Soundgarden album is a logical progression from Screaming Life - they showed I think growth from that EP and have a stunning amount of range for a band with undeniably loud music. As much as the band is propulsive on that middle stretch of the album in Mood for Trouble, Circle of Power, and He Didn’t, they also play some mind blowing stuff in the midst of slower tempos like Beyonfnthe Wheel and an incredible Incessant Mace - this after the great one-two punch of Flower and All Your Lies. In all that though, it is easy to overlook instrumental jams 665 and 667, which show Soundgarden working out some real psychedelic stuff amidst the muscle this album brings. There may be a bunch of raw edges here, but the band embraces them well. Fantastic album.

[bada]

Head Injury!!!!!!

[liebzz]

Brain Injury!!!!!!

On I enjoyed the entire album. I just didn’t use that song to underscore any points I was making. But yeah, the energy in this album is unmistakable. Incessant Mace was my favorite though.

[bada]

Lol you quoted me before I fixed my mistake!

[liebzz]

Lol you quoted me before I fixed my mistake!

Both hurt. I won’t quibble.

[liebzz]

Louder Than Love

On this second album, I often have a hard time telling the difference between whether this album is so consistent that I get lost in it and things run together, or if this is a consistently good album I can’t get behind because what preceded it and what follows is so fantastic. All that aside, the center piece songs for me on this album are still a level beyond just about anyone. Hands All Over, Get On the Snake, and Loud Love are tops for me. And they are doing some interesting stuff on Uncovered, Ugly Truth, I Awake, and No Wrong No Right that I am enjoying. Nonetheless, there’s a middle of the pack feel to this, like they haven’t quite stepped up to the plate like they had before.

Oh and Full On Kevin’s Mom and the Full On reprise are really better songs that song titles.

[VinylGuy]

Ultramega Ok with Flower, Incessant Mace, Beyond The Wheel...imagine those songs in SL. Its an astonishing leap forward from a band that always made them.

[liebzz]

Temple of the Dog

From the ashes of Mother Love Bone…

Successful and great careers tend not to operate in straight lines. There are deviations from the path, tragedies to overcome in a world that does nothing if not continuously batter us with change. It surely was a great idea in the process of healing for the roommate of a fallen comrade, with some of his band mates just turning the corner from his tragic death, to come together for some collective healing.

Temple of the Dog starts off truly in the spirit of Andrew Wood, and outside the comfort zone, if there was one, of Soundgarden’s balls to the wall aural assault. Say Hello 2 Heaven and Reach Down, the intended single, both make huge vocal and musical statements that evoke Andrew Wood in delivery than Cornell - yet these songs are indispensable when talking about Cornell’s range and talent. They are, in a word, incredible. The duet on Hunger Strike, 30 years later, feels like a Seattle endorsement and a passing of that torch from Andy to Eddie. And as you move through the rest of the album, you find Chris Cornell demolishing new, albeit dark, places with a vocal power unmatched by peers, and even his own work to that point. His voice so naturally pairs with McCready’s bluesy wails, and Stone’s big riffs, and as a group you can hear all the moving power and force that Pearl Jam already was with Cornell’s delivery. And for his part, Cornell accomplishes tackling the elephant of drugs and their impact on your functioning and your soul without glorifying the immediate high - he calls Andrew Wood’s addictions out, in Cornell’s own pain, but the places he finds live in sadness and grief. For me, it’s debatable whether Chris Cornell, himself, ever topped this performance (there are Soundgarden albums I prefer over it, but those are collective achievements with his band versus this effort with an entirely different vibe and approach).

As for favorites to call out with the three songs mentioned above, I truly love the blues of Call Me a Dog, and the wild signatures of Wooden Jesus, and the straight ahead rock of Pushing Forward Back, and of course Times of Trouble.

This I posit is an essential album.

[VinylGuy]

yeah, i agree that Temple Of The Dog might be his most brilliant vocal album, and a huge leap forward for him as an artist.