Five of Soundgarden's Best Chris Cornell Songs

Chris Cornell (1964-2017)

As the music world mourns the tragic loss of vocalist Chris Cornell, we can take solace in the fact his music will live on. While known for his work in Temple of the Dog, Audioslave and his solo career, Cornell will best be remembered as the vocalist for Soundgarden, a band he helped found in Seattle in 1984. To honour his talent, we look back at five of the best Soundgarden songs penned (words and music) solely by Cornell.

Ugly Truth (from Louder than Love)

The opener on their impressive Lounder Than Love album is a classic that speaks to exactly what Soundgarden is all about: heavy, downtuned guitar riffs, screaming vocals and pounding, precise drums. This song features a spectacular vocal performance from Cornell. Soundgarden opened with "Ugly Truth" in Detroit the night Cornell died.

Rusty Cage (from Badmotorfinger)

A popular and well-known song, "Rusty Cage" was penned by Cornell and it speaks to gaining one's freedom after a period of being restrained by perhaps a bad relationship. The song changes tempo in a very Black Sabbath way, giving it a sludgy, heavy feel midway through. It was famously covered by the late Johnny Cash, and Cornell even included a Cash-like acoustic rendering of it on his 2015 solo tour.

The Day I Tried to Live (from Superunknown)

A lyrically intense song with a soaring, emotional vocal from Cornell. "The Day I Tried to Live" was released as a single in 1994. It's an existential song about someone deciding to go out and change the world, but soon realizes it doesn't matter because we all end up dead, regardless of what we do in life.

Pretty Noose (From Down on the Upside)

A grinding, grungy song, "Pretty Noose" opens Soundgarden's stellar 1996 album Down on the Upside. With plenty of guitar layers and sounds, Cornell's voice carries the song, soaring above the instruments. He said "Pretty Noose" was about "an attractively packaged bad idea . . .something that seems great at first and then comes back to bite you." Ironically, Cornell died by hanging.

Burden in my Hand (From Down on the Upside)

The second single off Down on the Upside, "Burden in my Hand" has a happy feel to the music with a nice acoustic opening, that kicks into a classic Soundgarden dark anthem. Years after the album was released, Cornell related to ArtistDirect.com what the song had come to mean for him: "That was a song that really came from the guitar itself. It was mostly like the guitar was dictating what the lyrics should be and creating a mental image. The mental image was this sort of destitute guy. I guess he'd lost his cool if you want to put it that way. He's sort of coming to grips with what had happened and not necessarily feeling particularly emotional about it either way. He's trying to figure out how he would stand up and put one foot in front of the other—or not—and the song never really resolves any of that. It's just that moment of somebody sitting in the dirt. I had more moments like that after that song was written than I ever had before it was, so it means a lot more to me now than it did then."

Rest in Peace, Chris Cornell.

"Say Hello to Heaven"

A Look Back at the Making of Van Halen's 5150 Album

After parting ways with original singer David Lee Roth (who left to pursue an ill-fated solo/acting career) after the 1984 tour, Van Halen was a band without a singer.

In the spring of 1985, Eddie, Alex and bassist Michael Anthony were having a tough time finding a suitable vocalist to step into Diamond Dave's large shoes. To that end, they even considered using temporary singers on the 5150 record after auditioning the likes of Eric Martin, Jimmy Barnes and even Patty Smyth.

Heck, their record company, Warner Bros., even advised Eddie and Alex to discontinue the Van Halen name. Naturally, they refused.

Then, in July 1985 Eddie met Sammy Hagar after a referral from his Ferrari mechanic. Hagar instantly hit it off with the band, and they began working on the songs that would appear on the album. The first time Hagar appeared live with Eddie was at Farm Aid, in Sept. 1985, and the Red Rocker was formally announced as Van Halen's new vocalist shortly thereafter.

Recorded at Eddie's 5150 studio at his house in LA's Coldwater Canyon, the album was released in March 1986, with nine songs as it came in as the band's longest record to date.

It's the first VH record without Ted Templeman producing, so Eddie, Donn Landee and Mick Jones of Foreigner fame, handled the production duties. According to Hagar he and Landee didn't get along all that well at first.

"Ted Templeman had done all of the albums up to that point," Hagar told Ultimate Classic Rock. "And Donn Landee was the engineer who was running Eddie’s studio and he’d done every album they had done and here was I, walking in from a completely different place in a way and stepping in [(with a) ‘Who’s this guy?’ kind of thing. I got that feeling at the beginning from Donn Landee. He wasn’t particularly thrilled to see me, I don’t think."

So Hagar called up Jones, who kind of took over, which pissed off Landee somewhat, who reportedly locked himself in a room and threatened to burn the tapes up to that point.

"(Jones) came right in to do it and started making decisions about mixing and stuff, like ‘No no no, we need the vocals louder,’ or, ‘No, hey, Ed’s guitar has got to be on the left and not the right,'" recalled Hagar. "I think Donn freaked out or something. I don’t remember why, but yeah, that happened."

New Sound and Mix for Eddie's Guitar

The "new" Van Halen in the preppy days of 1986

Of note regarding the new sound on that album is Eddie's guitar, which previously sat high in the mix and was often pushed to the left channel (to simulate a "live" sound"). On 5150 his guitar tracks sat equal in the mix and while his overall sound had changed. This may have been Eddie's doing, as he was not a fan of the "live mix" that Templeman created on the previous Halen records. This is also the first Van Halen album not to feature any instrumental tracks.

Many of the songs were already written by Eddie before Hagar got onto the scene, so his main contribution was adding lyrics.

The Red Rocker described the 5150 studio as somewhat of a shambles, noting " There must have been 300 beer bottles and cans laying around. Half of them had beer in them and old cigarettes. Every ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts. There were butts left burnt on the floor. That place stunk like a fucking bar that hadn’t been cleaned for a hundred years. Eddie’s guitars were everywhere – maybe 30 guitars, laying against walls, on the floor, just knocked over."

Despite, at first, being nervous singing with the band, Hagar and the boys quickly got into the songs, while Hagar began scatting lyrics and instantly came up with "Summer nights and my radio..."

In fact, Hagar would make up many of the lyrics on the spot, as they were jamming.

"Love Walks In" was one of the first songs Eddie and Sammy worked on together and it's a perfect example of the more poppy, keyboard-influenced sound that permeates several tracks on 5150 like "Why Can't This be Love?"and "Dreams".

But there are some hard rocking songs like "Good Enough", "Get Up" and the hugely underrated title track, which is one of the best Hagar-era Van Halen tracks.

Many hardcore Van Halen fans dismissed the album and Hagar as the new singer, many old and new fans embraced the tracks for what they are: Fantastic rock songs, bottom line.

Check out the five most underrated Van Halen songs with David Lee Roth

The Five Most Underrated Eagles Songs

After releasing seven studio albums, the Eagles are the biggest selling American band of all time (more than 150 million albums sold worldwide), have won six Grammy Awards and had five singles reach No. 1 on the Billboard Charts. But they also have plenty of underrated gems in the catalogue that are just as good, or even better, than the hits. Here are five of the Eagles most underrated tracks:

Ol' 55 from On the Border (1974)

Never released as a single, "Ol' 55" is a standout track featuring those amazing harmonies the Eagles are famous for. It was written by Tom Waits for his debut record Closing Time and the Eagles do a fantastic cover paced by Glenn Frey's lead vocal as he sings of leaving a lover, driving away early in the morning. The trademark Eagles harmonies for the chorus will give you goosebumps when they sing "And now the sun's coming up. I'm riding with Lady Luck. Freeways, cars and trucks." Interestingly, Waits said the Eagles version was too "antiseptic".

Try and Love Again from Hotel California (1976)

Because we love Randy Meisner's voice so much, "Try and Love Again" gets on the list. And it's a fantastic song, to boot. The Eagles lost a lot of their feel when Meisner left the group and was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, but we can still go back and listen to this gem. Glenn Frey handles the lead guitar, while Joe Walsh adds the Gretsch guitar flavouring. Meisner shows his penchant for writing amazing lyrics with lines like "Right or wrong, what's done is done. It's only moments that we borrow ... But the thoughts will linger on".

I can't Tell You Why from The Long Run (1979)

While I can't Tell You Why was released as the third single from The Long Run album, the reason for its inclusion on this underrated list is Glenn Frey's phenomenal guitar solo. There has been debate about who played the solo, however, both Don Henley and Frey himself point to the latter and not Don Felder, as many believe, for the great-sounding fretwork. While a fairly generic song overall, Frey's fade-out solo brings a deeper feel to the track. It's not technically dazzling, but the notes are perfectly chosen.

Seven Bridges Road from Eagles Live(1980)

Perhaps the pinnacle song when it comes to harmonies for the Eagles. The band used to sing it as a warmup prior to hitting the stage during the Hotel California tour through a single mic for the waiting audience. Written by Steve Young, the Eagles sing it in perfect five-part harmony with a sparkling acoustic guitar accompaniment. Another song that brings goosebumps. We also love the fans screaming during the quiet parts.

Tequila Sunrise from Desperado (1973)

Penned by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, "Tequila Sunrise" has a cool Mexican flare in the guitar, with lyrics most people can relate to or have even lived through, watching the sun come up after a night of drinking. The lyrics were originally intended to refer to the popular drink, Tequila Sunrise, but Henley told Frey to take it from another angle as in the sun rising after drinking tequila all night.

Check out five of the greatest love songs of all time

AC/DC's "Flick of the Switch": A Great Album Overlooked

For fans of AC/DC in the early 1980s, the release of Flick of the Switch took plenty of people by surprise, as well as a host of radio stations.

Gone was the polished, sharp sound found on its predecessor For Those About To Rock We Salute You, which shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts. Instead, fans heard a very raw, dry record with minimal depth in terms of the sound (guitars and drums especially).

But this is what the band wanted in 1983 – to get back to basics.

Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson and Co. were tired of working with uber-producer Mutt Lange (he did Highway to Hell, Back in Black and For Those About to Rock) and his constant knob twitching and endless takes.

So the band congregated at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, and hammered out Flick of the Switch in a month (For Those About to Rock took about five months), producing it themselves and damn how it sounded.

"There was a genuine desire to get back to the basics with Flick of the Switch," said engineer Tony Platt in the book AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll. "There was a general kind of consensus that we needed to find some way of moving on a little bit. You know the Johnny Winter version of Muddy Waters' 'Mannish Boy?' Where they're all shouting in the background? Basically what Mal had said was that he wanted to try and get that feeling of being in a room with it all happening. I don't think it really worked entirely."

The album enjoyed a lukewarm reception, barely selling a million copies upon release in the U.S. and getting to No. 15 on the chart. Radio stations largely ignored it, especially when Atlantic Records barely promoted the record in America because they felt there were no singles in site.

However there are some great songs on the record. The title track is an AC/DC standout, while "Rising Power", "Badlands", "Guns for Hire" and "Bedlam in Belgium" are fantastic AC/DC songs. All in all, it's a solid album that doesn't sound as good as it could. But after waiting two years between records, hardcore fans of the band loved the record.

This Band is on Fire

AC/DC at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, 1983

But it was a time of turmoil for the Australian hard rockers.

After recording drums for the album, Phil Rudd would get kicked out of the band, a victim of drugs and alcohol.

According to AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll, Rudd had been struggling for some time; tour manager Ian Jeffrey recalls getting a phone call from a strung-out Rudd at four in the morning when the band was playing in Nebraska during the Back in Black tour and finding the drummer in his hotel room in a state of disorientated agitation. Eventually Rudd broke down crying and begged Jeffery "Don't tell Malcolm." Jeffery also told that Malcolm punched the drummer after he showed up two hours late for the band's show at Long Island's Nassau Coliseum and was unable to play the last song of the encore.

Simon Wright, who is not nearly as good a drummer as Rudd, was brought in and appears in the promotional videos for the album. He stayed with the band until Chris Slade joined in the 1989. Rudd then returned to the kit for 1995's Ballbreaker album.

The band also cleaned more house, purging manager Peter Mensch as well as de facto photographer Robert Ellis.

It really was back to basics, even down to the album cover a pencil drawn rendering of Angus pulling a switch against a stark, white background. It's a cover concept Atlantic Records apparently hated.

Check out why making For Those About to Rock was a tough slog for AC/DC

Operation: Mindcrime - How Queensrÿche Created their 1988 Opus

When you look at hard rock and heavy metal in the 1980s, Queensrÿche's opus Operation: Mindcrime is a record that soars above the crowd and has definitely stood the test of time.

May 3 will mark 29 years since the band released their first concept album, which has sold several million copies worldwide. And when it came time to record the follow-up to the hugely underrated Rage for Order record, the band probably didn't realize they'd made something that would be compared to legendary concept albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall or The Who's Tommy.

There's a Canadian connection to the idea for the story in that singer Geoff Tate came up with the concept during his time living in Montreal in 1987 and his observation of a terrorist group there. He found himself in an old Catholic church late one evening and was flooded with ideas for the revolutionary love story featuring Nikki, Dr. X and Sister Mary. Interestingly, Operation: Mindcrime was recorded at Le Studio, just north of Montreal.

"The idea for Operation: Mindcrime came in a flood one night as I sat on a well-worn wooden bench in the back of a Catholic Church," said Tate. "I had stayed behind in snow-covered Montreal in the end of the previous tour and the city and its people were my muse. One night in a bar called St. Supice, I met the man who became Dr. X. The cold, calculating, vicious personality of this man still makes me feel uneasy as I write this."

"His character and alleged involvement with a terrorist organization coupled with other personalities I had met on my travels truly were inspiration for this record," said Tate.

"We tried to paint a picture of what was going on and that's a real difficult thing to do. What we were trying to do was to paint an aural picture if you know what I mean," said Tate in 1988. "This album is the most difficult thing that we've ever had to do since we started the band. The lyrics were a lot of hard work. I got the idea not from a book I'd read or a film I'd seen, but from myself."

In the Donald Trump era of today, the story holds up remarkably well.

Pamela Moore as Sister Mary

Tate features prominently in the songwriting, writing lyrics on all tracks except for "The Mission" (written by guitarist Chris DeGarmo), and the instrumentals "Anarchy-X" and "Waiting for 22".

"We'd been tossing around the idea of doing a complete concept album. Geoff especially wanted the band to do something massive in scope that utilised strict chronological sense," said DeGarmo in 1991. "He had a rough idea of the outline, of the Nikki, Mary and Doctor X characters way up front, and things just started to spark from his early enthusiasm. Lyrically I know Geoff considered the whole thing a massive personal challenge. Up until 'Mindcrime' he and I had pretty much collaborated on all lyrics, but he got on a roll with this one and virtually did the entire thing alone."

The band used Englishman Peter Collins to produce Mindcrime because Neil Kernon, who did Rage for Order, was working with Dokken and unavailable.

For the part of Mary, the band decided to use Seattle singer Pamela Moore, who met DeGarmo when she was working at a record store. According to Moore, they would often talk and then one day DeGarmo came in with Tate, who asked her if it was her voice on a series of radio commercial that been airing back then.

Then DeGarmo and Tate saw Moore play a live show and decided to use her as the voice of Mary. They flew her to Montreal to record vocals on "Suite Sister Mary", one of the most epic songs on Mindcrime.

In 2006, Queensrÿche (with DeGarmo out of the band) released the follow-up album Operation: Mindcrime II, which was well-received and went to No. 14 on the Billboard album charts.

Check out our post on Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" album - one of their best