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.
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