In this post the stuff in italics is written 10 hours or so after the stuff not in italics.
Wow, just got a message from a friend letting me know that Chris Cornell has died. He was 52.
It turns out he committed suicide.
Man that is young. It seems weird that someone whose music I was pretty into as a later teenager very early twenties person, who seemed to be of my generation, although he is a few years older has died. I know it is the same as the other grunge singers who are no longer with us, but somehow this seems a little less expected and somehow more shocking as a result.
I have been listening to that a lot more recently, last year or so , as my son is into it.
Getting back to the above, Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley, Scott Weiland (not technically grunge at all) all seemed , from a distance, to be pretty doomed individuals. They all had well documented drug issues and whilst they were able to find an outlet for some of their pain through music and performing, ultimately they were unlikely to die from age related concerns..
Chris Cornell was obviously around a lot of those guys as well as the whole Seattle scene which seems to have its fair share of drug abuse. Andrew Wood , lead singer of Mother Love Bone , died before the scene became the worldwide phenomenon. Mother Love Bone had members of what would become Soundgarden in it. Cornell always seemed a little removed from it somehow. Just my perception, it may turn out he was as bad or worse than the others, but somehow I doubt it. He seemed to be more able to deal with the stresses of stardom and dare I say, seemed to be cooler and so less tied into the usual abuse cycles.
I really am quite shocked about his suicide. I have not been plugged in on anything other than I saw that Soundgarden had got back together and were touring, so I do not know why I am shocked. I guess it is my perception of him as being cooler than some of the other people I mentioned as above. I have seen a number of interveiwsAt these times people always talk about waste and surprise, I understand that having been through it, but the decision to end your own life must be the darkest and loneliest place a person can reach.
I think that is still my favorite Soundgarden song. Certainly shows off Chris's range.
To me it is interesting that Soundgarden were considered, at least through my experience of the media, as sort of the third big grunge band. Obviously they were not as overnight successful as Nirvana, and certainly didnt generate the same headlines. They didnt perhaps have the same global appeal as Pearl Jam. But listening to their top five on Spotify as I write this, their music certainly seems to stand up better than those two. Although that is of course subjective.
So, in one of the anomalies in music, he also went on to have almost as a successful second and third carrier in music. Audioslave, was him and the three members of Rage against the Machine that werent the singer. You can here the deeper voice and more expressive vocals he produced in this incarnation. It is also perhaps better production. Not sure I really ever got much into Audioslave. Time of life thing as much as anything else I guess. I have all their albums of course, but they always seemed to be a song or two away from making a huge impact on me.
Then there was his solo career. He did that song above, theme to a James Bond movie obviously, which is certainly his most popular of this period. But then he also did a few shockers which given the circumstances he will be forgiven for and they will not be brought up again.
A new tour for Soundgarden was underway and a new album was apparently being worked on, or scheduled to be released soon. Hopefully, the vocals were done and we get to see what they came up with. I am sure there will be some release of stuff that hasn't been released before I look forward to that. I really do. Maybe it will speak to me in early middle age as some of the songs did in my earlier years
That was from a band called Temple of the dog. Made up of members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Seems appropriate now somehow.
RIP
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