Yeah, I know, I have been very lazy posting over here recently! I have been working really hard on developing my other blog, so many apologies for the neglect. Apologies out of the way, no let's move on to the matter in hand!!
The latest in my (occasional) series of the essential albums of the early 90s is the phenomenal Superunknown. This is, in my opinion, the greatest album of the period, if not the genre. It has very few weak tracks on the album, an outstanding achievement given that it contains 15 songs (16 if you include She Likes Surprises) and runs to over 70 minutes! Many of the singles released from this album have become classics in their own right. Few could argue with the quality of songs such as Spoonman, Black Hole Sun, Fell on Black Days, The Day I Tried to Live and Superunknown. It is very difficult, however, to choose any tracks that standout above the rest, the quality is so high. Not only is the quality high, there is a distinct variation in the styles. You have the Eastern influence of songs like Half, the psychedelia of Head Down and the dirty grunge of 4th July.
One of my early favourites was Spoonman. I always always intrigued to know why the title was credited to Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam. I since discovered that Ament wrote a list of possible song titles during the filming for Singles and Cornell took it upon himself to write a song with one of those titles, and so Spoonman was born!! I loved that song when I first heard it. The use of the spoons was so unexpected and yet so skillfully done. I mean, who would have thought playing the spoons would sound so cool on a rock song??? Not me, but then Artis the Spoonman is a damn fine player.
While doing a bit of background research, I found something interesting about one of my favourite tracks, Like Suicide.The following is from Wikipedia:
"Like Suicide," the last track off of Soundgarden's Superunknown was inspired when Chris Cornell was in his basement trying to write songs. He heard a 'thump' that came from the ground floor. When he opened the front door to investigate he saw a bird had flown into the door and had nearly killed itself. He subsequently put the bird out of its misery. The lyrics are almost literally what happened.
Heard it from another room/ Eyes were waking up just to fall asleep/ Love's like suicide/ Dazed out in a garden bed/ With a broken neck lays my broken gift/ just like suicide/ / And my last ditch/ Was my last brick/ Lent to finish her/ Finish her
The song goes on but this is the primary part that pertains to the bird.
Cool eh? One of my favourite Soundgarden songs is about a bird that had flown into a door. I guess that goes to show what an imaginative writer Cornell really is!
If you want to buy the album that defined the early nineties Seattle scene, this is the one!! It is one of the very few albums that I can listen to from beginning to end without pressing skip once. No self-respecting fan of 'alternative rock' can afford to be without it. End of.
