RIP Chris Cornell

[Simto]

http://loudwire.com/audioslave-tom-morello-poem-chris-cornell/

Today I came to the Audioslave stage of my mourning and listened to them with a different set of ears and a heavy heart. I got all 3 CDs and thought they were good, but a little underwhelming in the early 2000s. RATM + SG should have equealed the baddest thing I could never think of when they first came out. Listening now, I hear maturity and the best of who those guys are in the band, not what was missing from the folks that weren't there. It sucks and my vocabulary is not big enough to describe how I feel, I can only hope that his wife and children can find peace in all this.

Love Audioslave. I just feel like if if they had made one album with the best material from all three albums, it would have been one insane album!

 

[NortheastHick]

I'll take my lumps.

 

[fishleehooker]

Love Audioslave. I just feel like if if they had made one album with the best material from all three albums, it would have been one insane album!

I have or had the first album when it was a demo and I liked that better. Its exciting. Modern production just smothers the excitement out by not being live enough. That's a whole 'nother rant, but that Audioslave demo had me so so amped about it, then I heard it and....well, it sounds better now.

Man this is just the biggest kick in the balls in a long time.

 

[pickaguitar]

I've got questions still...

Why didn't the bodyguard remove the band from his neck and start CPR?
I would imagine the band is in mourning and pissed 43 different ways...wonder how many times they saw him with the red band during the tour?
Maybe Chris planned this all along and wanted to 'go out' in the midst of touring with his original band?
Or maybe Chris thought of this tour becoming cliche and simply 'packed it up' and left?

 

[fishleehooker]

I can't talk about this enough I guess....

I think Chris is getting the most love of any of the big 90s guys to die. Why that is, there must be many reasons, but the one I think is that he brought the scene together in many ways, most obviously with Temple of the Dog and allowing Eddie some moments as well as giving McCready his shot and all that. Chris, even while suffering at times emotionally, was able to verbalize his love for the listener, while Layne and Kurt just weren't wire that way at all. Chris was also on Alice In Chains, likely my fave of those bands actually, SAP and that one is all the better for it too.

One of the real bummers about all this is that the Industry feasted on these Cats so much that they turned and ran from the scene and we all lost a lot of music because of it. Cobain first, then Layne and co bailed around the time the 'Garden bailed. Etc. Mostly we just lost some music that could have been really good.

 

[fishleehooker]

I've got questions still...

Why didn't the bodyguard remove the band from his neck and start CPR?
I would imagine the band is in mouring and pissed 43 different ways...wonder how many times they saw him with the red band during the tour?
Maybe Chris planned this all along and wanted to 'go out' in the midst of touring with his original band?
Or maybe Chris thought of this tour becoming cliche and simply 'packed it up' and left?

I'm the type of guy that will be wondering about this 'til I can't wonder anymore.

 

[Route67]

I do think he eventually needed the commercial side of Soundgarden again, after a few years of solo stuff. I know one of his albums got bagged on pretty good. ANd we get nostalgic as we age. So he came back to Soundgarden, likely thinking it would be the same in a good way. I'm sure it wasn't bad or anything, but the fans, unfortunately don't want to hear your new stuff, when your old stuff is so dam good. Its always a dead end for an established act. I bet that bummed him out for sure.

+1. "Money can't give what the truth takes away..."

 

[niassist]

After hearing the duet with his daughter I'm curious if she will pursue music. She seems like she has the gift.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

You only think you know, which writers, musicians, performers and vocalists are really moving you. As compared say, to others.

I really figured this out when I heard Chris was gone. Unbelievable.

I thought he was writing and performing for someone else, and I even gave away a set of tickets to one of his shows one time, convinced a couple younger guys I knew would enjoy it more intensely. (I was also terrified about how loud it would be).

We've lost some gifted people lately, but something about the sudden departure of Chris Cornell just really messed me up. I know he was fragile but it wasn't supposed to go down like this. Angry at you, man! Angry.

 

[Lost_Cause]

One of the best vocalists ever. Just so damn sad...

I agree. This is a great song and vocal. My favorite from this record (which is saying something).

You will never hear a word from meeeeee, if its an all night thing.

Feel so bad for his family to have to live with this.

 

[The Captain]

Love Audioslave. I just feel like if if they had made one album with the best material from all three albums, it would have been one insane album!

Ah, but your best of all three would not be the same as mine, so lucky we have all three albums. Why would you want less output from such great artists ?

 

[chrisjw5]

@chrisjw5, do you see Show Me How To Live as a sequel to JCP ?

No. Show Me How To Live is an excellent song, but I don't think there's much that be a sequel to Jesus Christ Pose. Listen through headphones - there's so much going on and it's happening so fast and it seems to be both metronomic AND have a groove.

Just amazing.

 

[GtrGeorge!]

He was/is brilliant. It's a different World without him.

 

[rickcard71]

I can't remember the death of a musician or celebrity - or I guess someone that I didn't personally know - affecting me this much. I really can't. Chris and I were born only days apart, so maybe it's partly that I know we are the same age. But he seemed like such a good guy. And I came up in the grunge era, same age as the guys doing it. I can remember trying to copy their clothes and boots etc.

Me too! I can't stop thinking about it.

 

[spakuloid]

Yes, it is very difficult for me to even listen to some of his songs right now. Chokes me up. Feels like a piece of my soul has been taken away.

 

[desertrat07]

When somebody so vital is taken so suddenly, it's a reminder that we are all mortal. Maybe that's at least part of the sadness so many of us are feeling.

 

[Route67]

I do think he eventually needed the commercial side of Soundgarden again, after a few years of solo stuff. I know one of his albums got bagged on pretty good. ANd we get nostalgic as we age. So he came back to Soundgarden, likely thinking it would be the same in a good way. I'm sure it wasn't bad or anything, but the fans, unfortunately don't want to hear your new stuff, when your old stuff is so dam good. Its always a dead end for an established act. I bet that bummed him out for sure.

To reply more directly, the slow progress of a follow up to 2012's 'King Animal' must have been frustrating as well. I think the band was in a slump or busy with side projects.

There has been little mention of King Animal here. I was very enthusiastic about Soundgarden reuniting at the time and was sure to buy the new release, and thought it was good (some very dark lyrics; back then such was taken with a grain of salt, so to speak, as Cornell was the 'famous survivor' [no longer, the world is different now]). However, King Animal was fatally flawed by the addition/repetition of 3 'bonus demo recordings' tagged on at the end, at least in the edition I bought. Instead of an album, it became an unbalanced collection of songs. Unfortunate.

 

[ChicagoJoe]

I can't remember the death of a musician or celebrity - or I guess someone that I didn't personally know - affecting me this much. I really can't. Chris and I were born only days apart, so maybe it's partly that I know we are the same age. But he seemed like such a good guy. And I came up in the grunge era, same age as the guys doing it. I can remember trying to copy their clothes and boots etc.

I would say the same thing, and a lot of people have said the same thing. We've lost some great musicians over the past couple of years, but I don't really remember fans of David Bowie or Prince being moved with grief like this. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm 37, so I was in jr high and high school when the grunge scene was hitting big in the early to mid 90s. He gave voice to all the angst and sorrow, he was brave enough to acknowledge the demons that many of us wrestle with.

I watched Pete Thorn's video of him talking about Chris, and at one point he said that he remembered thinking, "Yeah. He beat it. All that stuff he was singing about that took Layne, Scott Weiland, Andrew Wood... he beat it." It sucks. It eventually got him. It's jarring because we believed that those demons were past him, and he had all kinds of money and reasons to be happy in his family life. Maybe it's the faulty premise that if you have certain things or status in your life, that should mean that you're fulfilled and the old demons can't touch you. Whatever role the Ativan played in his suicide, it's still a gut-punch for fans that felt and identified with Chris' vulnerability in his music.

 

[drewbledsoe]

Nice post ChicagoJoe.

 

[Route67]

I would say the same thing, and a lot of people have said the same thing. We've lost some great musicians over the past couple of years, but I don't really remember fans of David Bowie or Prince being moved with grief like this. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm 37, so I was in jr high and high school when the grunge scene was hitting big in the early to mid 90s. He gave voice to all the angst and sorrow, he was brave enough to acknowledge the demons that many of us wrestle with.

I watched Pete Thorn's video of him talking about Chris, and at one point he said that he remembered thinking, "Yeah. He beat it. All that stuff he was singing about that took Layne, Scott Weiland, Andrew Wood... he beat it." It sucks. It eventually got him. It's jarring because we believed that those demons were past him, and he had all kinds of money and reasons to be happy in his family life. Maybe it's the faulty premise that if you have certain things or status in your life, that should mean that you're fulfilled and the old demons can't touch you. Whatever role the Ativan played in his suicide, it's still a gut-punch for fans that felt and identified with Chris' vulnerability in his music.

Interesting comment about Chris' ability to communicate on a vulnerable level with the listener.

I'm coming to terms with the loss now, framing it in the context of a mid life crisis, health problems, but also a notion of high stress level in his life. He was known to set very high standards for himself in his work. I have friends (especially female) who would criticize anyone expressing "dark energy, negative thinking" in lyrics etc. but Cornell always came across on a very human, approachable level for me. It makes me think the final Soundgarden album may have come up short on that account; too sinister, lacking somewhat in human empathy, at least in a couple of striking songs. Maybe it was a warning sign.