I'm not sure if it was Loud Love but I remember they stood out to me.
(how come duct tape shorts never caught on?!)
Funny-
I know Axl Rose was a big fan of Chris Cornell..
but as much as I loved Gun's and Roses...
I'd grown tired of them. They had started to become what I thought they had rebelled against in the first place.
They went from raw and gritty to overdone.
I'd always been a bit uneasy with their portrayal of women in my young mind too.
Don't get me wrong - I still have a place for them but there is a cut-off.
Chris said they later decided to tour with them because who else would they tour with? Again - no one knew who to put them with... they wanted to tour and they'd go out with who they had to!
The SOUND of Soundgarden just intrigued me.
It was so different than all of the copy cat bullcrap that was out there.
No makeup and ridiculous hair or goofball clothes
Let's not name names - but you know who they are! Subsequently - I went down to the record store to try and dig out anything I could find on them . When they didn't have it - I asked them to get it!
I scored points with the clerk who was there for even knowing who they were.
A proud point in my 17 something year old life.
UltaMega O.K. and Louder than Love - if I'd only known then...
don't buy Cassette tapes - they won't work in 10 or 15 years-
buy Vinyl!
When Badmotorfinger came out
and the videos started to follow...
I was like THIS is music! Chris seemed to lower his range a bit and the music just got this quality to it - I don't know what to describe it as. A bit thicker, more grinding, and a slowed down more powerful edge? Radio here wasn't playing this kind of music yet- so the videos were the first link I had to it.
Badmotorfinger had that SOUND... Slaves and Bulldozers - that Bass , the slow buildup.... and then Chris pounding you with that voice ! Letting you back down only to build it back up again and again!
Jesus Christ Pose...Outshined...Rusty Cage... I was converted. Birth Ritual and Seasons on The Singles soundtrack... sealed the deal.
Let's re-visit Rusty Cage simply because it is the first song my 5 year old asks for on a regular basis and knows all the words to...
The lyrics to the music on this album were like poetry but in a way that I could really understand...
Of course I'm not talking Lord Byron either - I'm just saying no "all night long girl - Cherry Pie kind of stuff" Something with imagery and some meaning.
Seemed like a lot of people misunderstood Chirs lyrics on the other hand. To me - you can sit down with lyrics just like a book. Look at them, read them, think about it. Everyone is going to have their own interpretation. The crap that followed after Jesus Christ Pose is a perfect example of misunderstanding. A song written to admonish people who use religion to portray themselves as being persecuted or to push their causes. What does the mainstream do with that? Don't think - just automatically turn it around - not listen to the lyrics - and call them anti-Christian and send them death threats?! Do exactly what the song is speaking out against! The Irony of it all- I hope Chris laughs at it to this day! Go back and listen people - the song is still pertinent in 2013! I kind of think however when people see the imagery that was in the video certain minds automatically don't listen. The older I have gotten- I agree with Eddie Vedder in basically saying that he didn't want imagery to affect what a person got out of a song - he wanted the individual to use their own mind and go from there.
Anyway - I was fascinated and on board with Soundgarden. The soon to come flood of what came out of Seattle only fueled my fire...
When they later broke up ...it was like... "NO WAY!?" Now that they're back together and you can kind of get a glimpse as to why things broke off - I can respect that... Every artist - heck - human being- at some point has issues. As artists I think it is harder for people who aren't creatively minded to understand why you do some of the things you do. When I try and "push" myself to finish something (artwork) when I'm not feeling it... it turns out crap in my opinion. Who wants to put that out there? That break caused them to grow in my opinion.
King Animal is in the vehicle on a daily basis right now... bringing me back to the early 90's and the music I fell in love with. A live peek at the song "Worse Dreams" It has that awesome bass thing going on courtesy of Ben ... There may be better audio/visual of this out there... but this video has the Crowd who is loving them! What a show is all about. You can hear the "perfect" version on the album if that's what you want... for now some raw new SG.
