I’ve never given this dude much attention. I was never a fan of Soundgarden. I don’t care for Audioslave cause I felt his voice never went with Morello’s guitar/sound… I always was waiting for Zack’s voice to kick in but it never did. So, I was just never into this dude’s music
I clearly never heard him in the proper capacity.
About a month or two ago I heard his cover of Patience. I sat in the car to hear it. The DJ said it was coming up, and I was already home, but I love to hear how bad somebody will butcher a Guns song (The worst offenders being Sheryl Crow SCOM and Courtney Love PC) so I stuck around, and holy shit, he nailed it. His voice was crazy good. I was blown away. I’ve never heard anybody do a good cover a guns song (except for maybe bumblefoot who did a complete instrumental of Don’t Cry while he was in the band)
So, I was impressed, but about a week later I heard, on the same station, his cover of Nothing Compares 2 U and holy shit that was crazy good too. 2 songs are beginning to give me a different view of Cornell.
Well, I hadn’t heard anything since those two songs, but cut to last night, I’m coming home from a buddies house, and Tom Morello is doing his one man revolution show, and he plays Cornell’s acoustic version of Like a Stone. God Damn! I’ve never really liked Anything by Audioslave, but this acoustic version of Like A Stone is mesmerizing!
So, I’m, on the hunt now for Chris Cornell solo cds. Anything that;'s just him and his acoustic guitar is goddamn gold! I’ve heard his cover of Billie Jean and it’s tremendous! I’ve been blowing up youtube with his solo stuff.
I get the Chris Cornell love now. I still don’t hear it with Soundgarden, Audioslave or Temple of the Dog, but there’s no denying the power of that guy’s voice with him and his acoustic. When he plays those Soundgarden, Audioslave songs by himself it takes on a different sound and different mood that I adore. Way better than they are as band songs.
That’s all. Just thought I’d share.
I could never get into that grunge scene. it was nails on a chalkboard to my ears. I remember buying an Audioslave album in high school because I heard the RATM guys were a part of the band (without Zack) and was curious but even then it was difficult to listen to. It sounded super commercialized and contrived. Audioslave was a marriage of convenience rather than one of substance.
That’s a better position than I was in. I just thought his voice was whatever…
but check out his pipes solo. I wouldn’t call it grunge it’s just this guy crooning and it’s great. https://youtu.be/h3Qjk9LqDvw?t=332
I never got into the so-called grunge scene either.
And Soundgarden / Cornell always felt to me like something that was being pushed on me just because I was stupid enough to walk into a Starbucks. Talented dude with an incredible voice, for sure, and a pretty kind and swell dude off court from what I’ve read/heard, but there’s ust nothing there that I’ve ever connected with.
Yeah, me neither, I still don’t think there’s any Pearl Jam songs I like. I think
I only like a handful of Nirvana songs.
I think Black Hole Sun may be the only decent Soundgarden song
Never was into Mudhoney or temple of the dog, screaming trees, or any other labeled grunge bands.
I really like the first Stone Temple Pilots album though, but I like that cause it’s a good album not because it’s so-called grunge.
I really like one song they did called “You Know You’re Right”. It wasn’t even released until like 10 years after his death. I was scratching my head like, “Damn, Bro! 10 years dead and NOW you come out with the good shit!!!??”
They consider the Big 4 of grunge to be Pearl Jam,Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains…i would take Soundgarden and AiC over Nirvana and Pearl Jam any day of the week…but not a huge fan of any of the 4…some great bands came out of Seattle imo but my tastes lie in the more unheralded ones like Tad,Skin Yard,Screaming Trees,Mudhoney and the like…I always hated Nirvana and never understood their mass appeal and I am not just being a contrarian…they just fucking grate on my ears and always have…I just don’t get it…feel pretty much the same about Pearl Jam…I just don’t get it…
For sure, now that I hear his voice raw, I get it.
I forgot about Alice in chains… I really like the album Dirt. I don’t think there’s a stinker on that album. Can’t say as much for the rest of their catalog, though. I always thought of AIC as more metal than grunge, though… but I know they were lumped in there. I just learned how to play Would? and Down in a Hole. Between Angry Chair and Junkhead those have to be my favorites off that album.
I know exactly what you mean. Many of their songs are like that for me, but I will say, the ones that don’t, are like ear candy! It’s so odd that cobain would go back and forth between unlistenable noise (endless nameless, tourettes) To absolute ear worms like Lithium (my favorite Nirvana song) Love Buzz, School and Sliver
Chris had an amazing voice for sure, but his recorded output is so-so in my ears. I used to own his first two solo albums, but I gave them away eventually as there are a lot of other singer-songwriter type artists I can listen to instead who have way better songs. Soundgarden was also a hard sell for me at first (as I hated grunge music in my early teens), but I eventually caved in and got Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, and Down On The Upside. Those albums are all good, but perhaps a tad too long - at least the latter two. Audioslave just sounds like a MORE boring Led Zeppelin, so no thanks forever to that.
Other highlights of grunge were Alice In Chains, and the first two Stone Temple Pilots albums.
Nirvana and Pearl Jam both belong in the discount bin. Or just bin.
I’m not sure Soundgarden are what I’m calling grunge. They seem more arena rock metal to me.
To me only, grunge is early Mudhoney, Tad, Nirvana (check out Bleach), Melvins, Green River and U Men.
Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots all suck.
And to make it worse we had years of all that post grunge shit bands like Bush, Garbage, Silverchair, Everclear, Cake and Days Of the New. All that shit that was big when I was in high school. I dated a girl who liked all that.
I actually kinda grew over the years to like that “Hunger Strike” song.
I think a huge part of it for me is that it just brings back fond memories of the time. I was up in the desert working a bunch and banging away at community college to try to get the fuck out of the shithole town I was in, but there were a bunch of other misfits and goobers all who were similarly bored and frustrated so we’d all hang out at JEFF AND DAN’S . . . these two hippie dudes who had a trailer house on the outskirts where everyone would smoke dope and hang out.
On one day we’d found a video camera and started making stupid videos just parodying MTV and pretending we were hosts and then filming really stupid music videos. “Hunger Strike” always brings me back to that time because it was one of the songs we did . . . . and me and another dude were alternating turns standing in random bushes and lip-syncing all dramatically. Dumb shit, but, damn, back in those days, if you scored a video camera for a while, you were really on top of the mountain.