“What I look forward to the most — because I tour so much, especially the last couple of years, by myself — is the camaraderie. It’s what we missed when we weren’t a band.” – Chris Cornell
The first thing that I read this morning was the title of an article on my phone. It sadly and succinctly stated:
“Sudden and Unexpected: Soundgarden Frontman Chris Cornell Dies at Age 52”
Chris Cornell
I blurted out “OH MY GOD!”
……………………………and then I went numb.
Sometime in the spring of 1990, I came across a copy of the Soundgarden album “Louder than Love”. Like so much music that would discover early on, it came to me as a copy of the original.
“Louder Than Love” Soundgarden Cassette
It was another dirty covered cassette with the titles of the songs handwritten on the cardboard insert.
Found music is new music. New music is good. Free, new music was even better.
It immediately went into the cassette player of my ’88 Escort.
I know what you’re thinking. Escort? That’s so Rock and Roll \m/
Yeah, it is.
1988 Ford Escort: No photos exist of the car owned by Tommy Quirk, this car is a close copy.
The production was different than everything that I knew up to that point. The guitars and bass were out front. It was heavy…Sabbath heavy, but it was more punk.
Chris Cornell
They had what sounded like the son of a “banshee” singing. He wasn’t another Robert Plant wannabe clone. He wasn’t in the 80s Hair Metal mold by any stretch of the imagination.
His voice sounded like it was being blown through a valley between the mountains of the guitar and bass.
Chris Cornell
………that voice.
It was massive, but never too out front in the mix.
Chris Cornell
At this point, I didn’t know too much about the Seattle music scene. None of us did. I had heard some Mudhoney and Queensryche. I had even heard rumblings about a band called Mother Love Bone that was due to break in the next few months.
This was none of those.
Chris Cornell
That cassette tape slowly rolled through my car stereo regularly until its fateful demise one late night in the parking lot of Huck Finn donuts.
Chris Cornell
Chris would write and record a tribute to his roommate and friend Andrew Wood in 1991 – Temple of the Dog – with his band mates. He would also invite their new lead singer to join him – Eddie Vedder.
Temple of The Dog
He helped nurture an entire scene that would blow up the entire Rock status quo.
Temple of The Dog
Later that year, the band released Badmotorfinger. It would go Double Platinum, The world would come to Soundgarden. They would go on to sell more than 22 million records in their time.
The secret was out; they were no longer just mine.
Chris Cornell
In ’92 the band would appear in Cameron Crowe’s Singles (the scariest fucking movie ever made – don’t argue with me – just run with it).
1994 brought a #1 album with Superunknown and a rash of MTV videos.
I’m not telling any of you anything that you don’t already know. You all know the rest: the breakup, new bands, new projects and reunions. .
……….but it was always that voice.
Chris Cornell
Over the past 10-12 years, I discovered two albums. They were both solo acoustic performances of Chris Cornell (Unplugged in Sweden and Songbook).
They are so naked and beautiful.
…..completely exposed.
…….that fucking voice.
“And if you don’t believe the sun will rise, stand alone and greet the coming night in the last remaining light.” – Chris Cornell
Soundgarden 1989
“I don’t think there are too many rock bands in history that can look at the beginning and middle and ending of themselves and see what I see when I think of Soundgarden. I think from the beginning through the middle and the end it was such a perfect ride and such a perfect legacy to leave.” – Chris Cornell
Soundgarden 2017 Courtesy of Republic Records
Soundgarden played in Detroit last night, ( May 17, 2017). The last song that they performed was a ‘Slave and Bulldozers’. They added in a refrain from Led Zeppelin’s “In My Time of Dying”.
“In my time of dying, I want nobody to mourn.
All I want for you to do is take my body home”
Reports are now coming in confirming that his death was a suicide.
( Since this was written it has been officially confirmed that Chris Cornell’s death was a suicide.)
Godspeed on your trip home Chris.
Godspeed.
“At the end of the day, it’s the fans who make you who you are.”- Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell
A statement from The Chronopages editor Mars Blomgren:
I don’t even remember how long it’s been, most likely since the first time I ever heard Chris Cornell sing this, but its been my favorite song by him ever. As an artist we tend to see things a little differently, perhaps the veil is thinner for we who are driven by angels and more often than not, demons. I always felt his pain each & every time in every version of this song as I heard the longing in his voice for an existence that was not this one. I wish he was one of the people I would have met through my career and life but sadly I never did. I would have told him this. I would have asked him if he was ok, if there was anything I could do for him. I wonder sometimes with people in positions of great fame why there never seem to be the people surrounding them who dare to ask the hard questions, the ones they may save their lives. I wish I could have asked you Chris. #ripchriscornell
‘On a cobweb afternoon
In a room full of emptiness
By a freeway I confess
I was lost in the pages
Of a book full of death
Reading how we’ll die alone
And if we’re good, we’ll lay to rest
Anywhere we want to go
In your house I long to be
Room by room patiently
I’ll wait for you there
Like a stone
I’ll wait for you there
Alone
On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone
Who will take me to heaven
To a place I recall
I was there so long ago
The sky was bruised
The wine was bled
And there you led me on
In your house I long to be
Room by room patiently
I’ll wait for you there
Like a stone
I’ll wait for you there
Alone
Alone’
Rest easy now Chris.
Born-July 20, 1964
Died- May 18, 2017
If you or someone you know feels the need to speak with a mental health professional, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
“The news that 52-year-old Seattle grunge rock icon Chris Cornell had killed himself after a concert in Detroit shocked and saddened fans of the Soundgarden frontman.
But perhaps even more shocking is the fact that Cornell was one of scores of middle-aged American men who took their own lives on Wednesday: 121 Americans die by suicide each day, according to the Centers for Disease Control — and 93 of them are men. (The Wayne County medical examiner’s office declared Cornell’s death a suicide by hanging; Cornell’s wife has disputed that ruling and suggested her late husband’s anti-anxiety medication may have played a role.)
In fact, American men make up the bulk of suicides nationwide. Victims of death by suicide are overwhelmingly white (7 out of 10), male and — just like Cornell — between the ages of 45 and 65…”- NBC News
