No One Sings Like You Anymore, Chris Cornell RIP

No One Sings Like You Anymore, Chris Cornell RIP

By: Ghost Writer

Rock n Roll Animal

There wasn't a key moment when I knew I wanted to quit.”

Chris Cornell

In a way for me Chris Cornell as a songwriter was sort of like Syd Barrett, he was capable of writing about small and insignificant thinks in an almost profound way, but just like Bowie, he became news in the middle of the night, “Chris Cornell dead at 52” that happened in Detroit, yes, Detroit rock city, on Wednesday, the news came as a shock to me as I was still expecting a decent follow up to King Animal, Soundgarden's last record from 2012, I was pretty disappointed at Soundgarden's after 1994's Superunknown, they were leaving behind the essence of the band, and trying to match the success of their younger Seattle peers like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, I was a big fan of Ultramega OK, Louder than Love and Badmotorfinger, specially Louder than Love, my first Soundgarden's record, 1989, an agitated year, I was a young boy fascinated with the possibility of acquiring USA rock records via my neighbors who went to the USA on a weekly basis, I'm sure my copy of Louder than Love was the first Soundgarden record owned by a Mexican guy at the time when Guns n Roses were seen as the greatest band on earth, Soundgarden was exactly the antithesis of GnR (and when on tour with them to promote Badmotorfinger), as both bands were mixing an amazing array of influences mainly from 70s heavy metal and 80s punk rock and even a touch of blues and hard rock, but Soundgarden was something else, at the time I was really into punk rock and post punk,  Soundgarden were able to integrate the influence from bands like Bauhaus, Killing Joke and Joy Division (whose singer Ian Curtis died some decades ago on May 18, also by hanging himself) into their sonic Molotov bomb, bridging post punk by adding generous American riffing inspired by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

I was able to find Ultramega OK, Screaming Life and FOPP, and a couple of years later Badmotorfinger arrived, I still see the later as the band´s most fully realized record in their discography, and up to this point I saw very few people interested on them, as my friends were more into traditional heavy metal, traditional punk rock or thrash metal, but Soundgarden were really in between all of these, and that was precisely what disappointed me about Superunknown, it wasn't as out there as their previous record, the follow up Down on the Upside was even worst, I lost my interest for the band, Audioslave wasn't a good surprise to me, it was a super group, the complete opposite to what Soundgarden really were, a bunch of super unknown guys from a super unknown part of the USA tock n Roll speaking, people talked to me about Axl Rose being the "New Robert Plant" and I said "No, listen to Cornell", I saw them playing live along Voivod and Faith No More in what looked like a sonic revolution against traditional rock music, but unfortunately the revolution people embraced was the one more marketable led by Nirvana, another Seattle band, which let behind more talented Seattle bands like the Melvins, Mudhoney, Skin Yard or the Screaming Trees, Cornell was a different type of singer, he was different from Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley or Eddie Vedder, Cornell was closer to heavy metal, perhaps the reason why people compared him to Rose, but Cornell also reminded me a lot about Ronnie James Dio, who died on May 16 a couple of years ago, he had a powerful voice with a broad range, he was impressive on Ultramega OK and Louder than Love and he even made some progress on Badmotorfinger, at the time when Superunknown arrived, I felt like I received a bunch of nothing, there was no substance, no depth, I think Cobain shot himself that year and Soundgarden became famous, Cornell made a couple of mediocre solo albums, a controversial recording with Timbaland which at last is interesting and brave, but nothing else besides that, stardom ate him and the guy who wanted to make a parody of rock stars ended up dying just like a typical rock star, sad end for a guy who after Badmotorfinger made a bunch of bad decisions, even his last one, better to remember him fronting Soundgarden before grunge broke big, that’s how I will remember him.