Total Fucking Godhead / The Soundgarden Thread

[evenslow]

there's a cloud over the city today. like someone pointed out earlier in this thread or the other, Cornell was a Seattle native, the only true Seattle native of the "big 4" singers. Went to school here, worked here, performed here. our local station is playing SG all day, with stories from the DJs in between from people in town sending emails. a lot of sad ones, but balanced with a lot of funny memories. one stuck out to me... a woman wrote in talking about how her dad worked at Pike Place for 30+ years, and was super into the whole "grunge" thing when it hit bc he knew all the bands very well since they hung out nearby or in the market. one day in the 80s, he was at working in the market, and he was sitting next to a group of 4 young guys whom he knew, and they were very excited bc they came up with a new band name. they told him "Soundgarden", and he didn't have the heart to tell them it was a dumb name because they were so excited

I was just listening to the WTF that Maron re-released today and there's a whole bit about how the name really worked well for them b/c people would come expecting to see some psychedelic, hippy act and then Soundgarden would just pummel them.

[soundwarden]

There's got to be more to the story. Something had to be going on behind the scenes. Relationship, family, something.

I just don't believe he's been depressed for an extended period of time. Perhaps it's related to a more recent event / episode?

Ugh. This fucking sucks. I can't imagine what state of mind he had to be in to do this, considering all the people in his past that have died or killed themselves.

And what of his children? Suicide is selfish, but I won't judge him too harshly in his death.

[bune]

Most of what I've been thinking, especially with the suddenness of this, is that maybe it's like with Robin Williams.

[PHATJ]

Most of what I've been thinking, especially with the suddenness of this, is that maybe it's like with Robin Williams.

Meaning what? Didn't Robin Williams have a debilitating disease that was becoming hard to function with normally?

[evenslow]

According to a few things I've read his wife was completely blindsided by this and said she knew of no suicidal thoughts. Absolutely confounding.

[Dev]

According to a few things I've read his wife was completely blindsided by this and said she knew of no suicidal thoughts. Absolutely confounding.

That's just how it is when you date a hot girl. They don't know how ya feel.

[96583UP]

maybe he had a relapse

[soundwarden]

I didn't love his last solo effort, but I really liked this song:



The lyrics hit home today.

[kreng]

Maybe, just maybe we don't know a goddamn thing just yet other than what official reports have stated. This sucks, it's impossible to understand why or what happened exactly, and while that may be hard to deal with, there's no point in speculating.

[j's brain]

Maybe it was an accident? It can still be classified as a suicide even if it is unintentional. It is the only thing that makes any sense...

[TortureFollowsReward]

Maybe, just maybe we don't know a goddamn thing just yet other than what official reports have stated. This sucks, it's impossible to understand why or what happened exactly, and while that may be hard to deal with, there's no point in speculating.

Thank you.

[soundwarden]

I did see where Chris walked off stage at the KC concert for several minutes. Kinda unusual for him? @35:40

[Birds in Hell]

So they closed the show last night covering zep in my time of dying

Wtf

That's not unique to last night's show, he'd been adding that tag for some time.

[Superblood Wolfmoon]

Who really knows in this day and age where stop-smoking drugs can make you suicidal. It could have been a side effect of a prescription he was taking. Either way it's just awful and I still can't believe this has happened.

[epilogue]

I'm certainly not going to get into it in detail here. But there are people on RM who have had communications with me outside of the boards. And they know all too well that sometimes people have bad days. And when they have bad days, they can get desperate and feel lost and need to reach out to a support system.

This whole thing is so surreal to me. I won't pretend to know Chris Cornell as a person. I won't pretend to know his heart or his mind. Sometimes it's the people you least suspect that take things too far. If this was a suicide, it's tragic. Because of who he was and his talent and his family and his (supposed) support system. Given all he survived, it makes the concept of suicide even more difficult to imagine.

But right now I don't want to focus on his death. Personally, I'm going to focus on his life. Whatever his legacy becomes because of this, he was one of the biggest influences on my adolescence and my artist life. Like many of you, Superunknown was a landmark record in my growing up. Euphoria Morning is still one of my all time favorite records. That fucking thing.... MAN.

This is a huge loss. I feel confused and sad and strange. I'm glad that I have a community like RM where we can all share thoughts and feelings and memories. This helps. Thanks, team.

[bodysnatcher]

well said, joey

[PHATJ]

well said, joey

[Birds in Hell]

Matt Bayles (assistant engineer on DOTU, worked with Pearl Jam many times, etc.) on Facebook:

Story time.

In the spirit of celebrating Chris Cornell below is a story from the Soundgarden sessions for Down on the Upside. It always makes me smile. Much of what happens in the studio is never to be shared by a non band member, but I know I’m on safe ground. It could be shorter, buy you need some of the back story. Also please forgive my poor writing, for Brian Cook I am not.

It begins in June of 1995. Pearl Jam is in Studio Litho rehearsing for their tour with Neil Young and after that recording a song with Ed Brooks for the Home Alive compilation. I am there as the assistant engineer and am getting acquainted with everyone as we work the kinks out during the first session at the studio.

At some point during the session Mike McCready shows up with a blow up doll, NOT the kind you think. He is named “Safety Man.” His intended use is to sit in your passenger seat so people don’t think you are driving alone. Mike had purchased one for each band member and had brought Stone’s to the studio and blown it up. Eventually Safety Man ends up in the basement along with various other items stored there; Shawn Smith’s (from Brad/Satchel) flamboyant frontman wardbobe, pianos, congas, reels of tape, etc. At some point over the coming months someone (who I believe to be Brian Wood, brother of Andy Wood, from the band Devilhead) dresses the doll up in Shawn Smith’s clothes from the studio’s basement. Big floppy hat covering his plastic face, purple flowing shirt, pants with patches, etc.

When Soundgarden came into the studio in October of 1995 to continue working on the record Safety Man had made his way from the basement, still fully clothed, to a chair on the far side of the kitchen/lounge, which is the room you walk into when you arrive. For quite a while Safety Man would scare the shit out of me when I unlocked the door in the AM because I didn’t expect anyone to be there before me. Eventually I got used to the doll’s presence so I forgot about him.

One of my daily tasks as the assistant (since we didn't ahve interns) was to get our meals. Each night I would bring it back, lay it out, go get whichever members were there and we’d relax and eat. On this night I made my typical trip to a local restaurant and came back with the food. I returned, as expected, to Safety Man calmly keeping guard in the kitchen as the band were in the control room working on something. As I was laying out the food Safety Man got up and started running at me from across the room and yelling. I don’t know exactly how I reacted, but I definitely had the shit scared out of me. Turns out Chris had changed into Safety Man's clothes and had been laying in wait to prank me. Not in 1 million years would I have expected that from him. He got me.

Anyway, that’s my CC story. Thanks for indulging me.

RIP.

Three of my favorites Chris/SG songs:

Tighter and Tighter - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHmBz9T7ml0

4th of July - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU4L6THYAbM

Seasons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TksqEIl1uxU

[bodysnatcher]

that's great and I think it actually might explain the one thing in the No Code inner artwork that I always wondered about!

[dimejinky99]

Good day to remember to never sneer at someone mourning a 'celebrity' death. None of us know what someone means to people or why.