To honour the memory of the late, great Chris Cornell, here's the first part of a recolection of his best and most representative songs. One actually realizes what a huge talent he was when leaving outside the list songs as huge as "Big Dumb Sex", "Jesus Christ Pose", "Spoonman" or the entire Down on the Upside album (1996).
10. “Can’t Change Me”, Chris Cornell, 1999
After only two years after Soundgarden broke up in 1997, Cornell released his solo debut, that, at the time, went a bit unnoticed; a new batch of musicians were on top, including pop princesses, boy bands and nu metal heroes were riding high on the wave. This moody song were a step ahead of songs like “Blow up the Upside World” (1996), but were unmistakably Cornell. A semi-acoustic post-grunge gem, this is now considered the best song Cornell did as a solo artist.
9. “Slaves & Bulldozers”, Soundgarden, 1991
If there was something that all the Seattle grunge bands had in common was that they had one foot on metal and hard rock and the other on punk rock. There wasn’t a “punk” scene, a “metal” scene, a “hair metal” band and so, there was a “rock” scene. This deep cut from the 1991 Badmotorfinger album resumes everything that Soundgarden was: basically a sludge punk band, reminiscent of both Black Sabbath and Sex Pistols. Cornell was on top form with his vocal abilities in this long song.
8. “Beyond the Wheel”, Soundgarden, 1989
Pretty much like “Slaves & Bulldozers”, this sums up everything grunge were and was going to become. Rawer than later releases, this noisy tune bridges the early Seattle sound with a more polished future.
7. “Say Hello 2 Heaven”, Temple of the Dog, 1991
Mother Love Bone was the first grunge band to sign for a major label and his lead singer, Andy Wood, was roommates with Cornell. Wood would die of heroin overdose on March 1990, and Cornell wrote two songs to honor his dead friend; this one was one of those. Along with former MLB members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, newcomer Mike McCready and Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron, he recorded both songs and then added some more. This somber jewel is one of the highlights of the entire grunge era.
6. “Be Yourself”, Audioslave, 2004
The best known song of supergroup Audioslave’s second album Out of Exile, carried the ability of Cornell to write mid-tempo rock songs. A more relaxed band sound and amidst a personal peak on composing abilities, it found a place on rock radio and is still used on sports events, TV shows and as a soundtrack to self-improvement sessions.