Thread by @tzemingdynasty

Inspired by @TouchMyPoly 's 30 days of Mariah, and the knowledge that ~20 million fewer people will care, I'm doing the 30-day Chris Cornell song challenge...

Day 1: A song with a colour in the title.

Such choice! Black Hole Sun, Black Rain, Fell on Black Days... But when @tessairini said the "greatest loss of a cultural concept jettisoned between gen x and millennials is 'sellout'" - gotta be Black Saturday

Honestly, these lyrics are so brutal that I can imagine my mother saying them to me.

Day 2: A number in the title.
Zero Chance is a swoony, delicate, atmospheric, almost orchestrally lush song about having no friends and dying alone of course. #30daysofChrisCornell

Day 3: Reminds you of summertime

Island of Summer - an acoustic duet with Andrew Wood, @ChrisCornell’s BFF who died of heroin & whose leftover band became Pearl Jam. The meandering pastoral homoerotic bromance vibe is strong.

#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 4: Reminds you of someone you’d rather forget

Pretty Noose was actually just about an ex who literally stabbed him. I figuratively feel that.
#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 5: A song to be played loudly.
Here we GO @phdwahine. From an SG album originally titled Louder Than Fuck, ’Gun’ *incites armed revolution*. Although half the band was non-White in 1989, this song was not banned because they were Asian not Black. 1/

@phdwahine “I got an idea/of something we can do with a gun/Sink load and fire ’til the Empire/reaps what they’ve sown”. #30daysofChrisCornell 2/

@phdwahine I don’t know what blew my mind more as a young teen - that line, or the fact that guitarist Kim Thayil was the child of Asian immigrants but did a BA in philosophy and started a punk band. (I tried to follow in his footsteps, far less successfully). 3/

@phdwahine But revisit this song on Day 15, to see what could and couldn’t be gotten away with in the 90s, and by whom. More politics and race tomorrow, courtesy of the 30 day @ChrisCornell song challenge. 4/

Day 6: Makes you want to dance
#30daysofChrisCornell
Ty Cobb is a fan favourite live - a frenzied riff on racist paranoid rednecks. Not just the name of a Trump lawyer, Ty Cobb was an American baseballer famous for being a violent racist shithead. 1/

“Hard-headed/Fuck you all”. Soundgarden was a *majority-Asian band* in its first incarnation, and were always grumpy about racists. A big deal to an Asian nerd in the bogan suburbs. 2/

Kim Thayil and first Soundgarden bassist Hiro Yamamoto were groundbreaking in my eyes, & @ChrisCornell was their token pretty white friend. Later, he was Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine’s token pretty white friend in the (strangely boring) Audioslave years. 3/

Cornell was a low-key consistent ally, never expecting cookies or medals, and I wish more pretty white allies could be that way (amirite @phdwahine? Check in on 13 & Day 15 for more of this) 4/

I was always on the lookout for undercover Asians in 90s music: Kirk Hammett from Metallica (Pinay) and James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins were other high points. Dave Chapelle gave me Wu-Tang in the racial draft. 5/

But the Indian guy from No Doubt only gets dishonorable mention b/c he enabled Gwen Stefani’s horrifically influential bindi-wearing.

Day 7: A song to drive to

Beyond the Wheel is my #peakbogan moment. I crank it when taking the Waterview Tunnel to Roskill, b/c it prepares you for death and will hide your screams when the unsignalled lane-switchers come for you. #30daysofChrisCornell 1/

It showcases @ChrisCornell’s 4-octave range (not quite Mariah’s 5 @touchmypoly, but on the level of Whitney, Xtina and Freddie Mercury). If you’ve never heard Beyond the Wheel, now’s the time to do your Youtube reaction video. Here’s a great live version.

Day 8: A song about drugs or alcohol

#30daysofChrisCornell

Must chill out now, so here's 4th of July, a fuzzy doom stunner from that great last third of Superunknown, about an oddly comforting acid trip in the desert.

(TW/CW for the comments section)

If I don't specify what the trigger warnings are about in Soundgarden/@ChrisCornell songs' Youtube comments sections, you can always assume they are suicide-related. Although in this case, the sludge vs doom metal debates are also quite intense.

Day 9: A song that makes you happy

Dusty: Could this be… an optimistic(??) Soundgarden song about giving into the circularity of time? These are the least suicidal comments under any given SG song on Youtube! 1/

#30daysofChrisCornell

Of course, in this live version from one of @ChrisCornell’s drunker shows, he intros it with a lil’ blues ditty about violence and death because of course he does. 2/

Here's the Moby remix too.

Day 10: A song that makes you sad

Oh god let's get this over with.

A bird flew into @ChrisCornell’s windowpane, and he had to kill it with a rock.

Trigger warning of course, esp. the comments. #30daysofChrisCornell

Day 11: One you never get tired of
'The Straw That Broke the Rhino's Back' remix of Rhinosaur by that guy from Ministry starts out abrasive as fuck but then reveals the swooping low end sensory magic. 1/
#30daysofChrisCornell

Listening to this on repeat while recovering from surgery last year was like getting cut up and healed over and over.

Just gonna skip ahead to Day 12 tomorrow as I'll be busy - and because I'd lined this one up well in advance but feel like posting it today for obvious reasons...

Day 12: From your preteen years

Nothing Compares 2 U, @ChrisCornell’s 2016 Prince tribute from exactly two years ago today, a year before his own death. Cornell was a big Purple Rain fan; I often hear Prince-elements in his upper metal register.

Day 13: A song you like from the 70s
#30daysofChrisCornell

Soundgarden's legendary cover of Into the Void replaces the Sabbath lyrics with the words of Chief Sealth (Seattle) tearing strips off the white man. @phdwahine & @AlienWeaponry take note.

Day 14: A song you’d like to be played at your wedding
#30daysofChrisCornell
Call Me a Dog is a heart-swellingly romantic slowdance that you eventually realise is unbelievably passive-aggressive, like so many Asian marriages. 1/

Chris Cornell trivia note: Chris Cornell liked dogs more than people.

Day 15: A song that’s a cover

Iconic 90s history thread alert!

Body Count played before Soundgarden throughout Lollapalooza ’92. The ‘Garden would use their 3/4 White Privilege to play the banned post-LA riots track ‘Cop Killer’ on Ice T’s behalf 1/

While they played Cop Killer, @ChrisCornell would deliver rants on free speech, whip up the crowd into chanting ‘Fuck the police’ and tell them to bootleg and distribute the track. 2/

@chriscornell This meant something, because industry bans were a big deal in the pre-internet era. Rap was called ‘Black CNN’ because there was no social media as we know it now. The radio & the record store were social media. 3/

Body Count faced industry bans & intense political. Meanwhile Soundgarden had a song that incited armed revolution very literally (see Day 5) with no trouble, and that album was nominated for a fucking Grammy (see 3/4 White Privilege). 4/

The mixing and alliances between political rap and alternative rock at Lollapalooza ’92 was widely seen as a watershed moment in the syncretic evolution of popular music in America. 5/

Rage Against the Machine was already in full force at Lollapalooza ’92, and - hey, remember that Body Count was Ice-T’s all-Black *thrash metal band* (A Black metal band but not a ‘Black Metal’ band FYI @LewSOS @phdwahine) 6/

@LewSOS @phdwahine Other fruits of this early 90s cross-pollination: The legendary Judgement Night soundtrack (my fave was the Faith No More/BooYa Tribe joint); the mashup trend that gave us The Grey Album, Q-Unit & Wugazi; and… less fortunately… ‘rap-rock’ by white people. Sorry. 7/

@LewSOS @phdwahine .@BodyCountBand has a new album out for the Trump years. Their bassist was on tour with Soundgarden last year as their guitar tech, when @ChrisCornell died. *wait I have something in my eye* 8/

@LewSOS @phdwahine @BodyCountBand @chriscornell But enjoy this strange moment of nostalgia when American free speech struggles weren’t dominated by literal Nazis trying to promote Nazism.

#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 16: A song that’s a classic favourite
Two today from that feisty, drunk show in 1996 I’ve posted from before: Soundgarden’s two biggest hits, Black Hole Sun & Outshined, back to back live, with maximum drama. 1/
#30daysofChrisCornell

The studio version of Outshined is one of those overplayed songs of the 90s, but the drunk-Chris live version brings me round again. It’s classic @ChrisCornell - a really aggressive-sounding song about feeling depressed and passive.

Day 17: A song you’d sing as a karaoke duet

#30daysofChrisCornell

Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog =Chris Cornell+Pearl Jam, playing Chris Cornell songs). From experience, a great post-midnight duet *provided* you warm up for the Cornell parts. 1/

My interpretation of this utterly 90s anthem is that it’s all about the guilt of white male privilege, and not being equipped to take any action against the system without deploying the toxic masculinity they’ve already rejected. 2/

‘The masters tools will never dismantle the masters house so, as a white man, I’ll just hide here under the table like a child, but you women and PoC please go burn it all down eh’. Pretty sure everyone agrees this is what it’s about. 3/

Well that's where my child would go when he didn't want to eat dinner.
#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 18: From the year you were born
#30daysofChrisCornell
Elvis Costello made Nick Lowe’s Peace, Love & Understanding famous in 1978. @ChrisCornell liked to play it in the post-SG era. He’s topless here (maybe the best thing about the Audioslave period?)

Chronology of Chris Cornell's personal style:
1980s: Too poor for shirts.
1990-1994: Still no shirt. Could afford a moustache.
1994: Puts on shirt & cuts hair. World mourns.
2001: Takes shirt off again!!!
2009: Last sighted topless moment. Grows hair.
2010-2017: White Jesus.

Day 19: A song that makes you think about life

#30daysofChrisCornell

The Day I Tried to Live: A very personal song for me, & in my mind a counterpart to Deleuze & Guattari’’s paradox of the Trickster & the Traitor. 1/

D&G: You might think you’re a trickster, but it turns out you were a traitor all along. Which is far better. But don’t ever claim to be a traitor, or you really will just be a trickster. See also: Asian women and Imposter Syndrome. 2/

I was a little nervous to admit how much I identify with this song, in case I get a lot of ‘u ok hun?’s and then have to reply ‘Uh - I’ve always been like this.’

I'VE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THIS

Day 20: A song that has many meanings to you

#30DaysofChrisCornell

Chris Cornell mostly seemed to write songs that were specifically about something, but with early Soundgarden he had a surreal psychedelic streak that I love. Two SG-psychedelia faves follow: 1/

Nothing to Say, from Soundgarden’s first Sub-pop EP goes straight to that experimental, art-punk Doorsy realm where meaning and noises and eerie vocalisations just shake loose. But more Sabbathy. 2/

Searching With My Good Eye Closed: Pure acid trip lyrics. When I came out of 6.5 hrs of general anaesthesia last year, I was hallucinating that I was listening to this song. Notable: towards the end of this performance @ChrisCornell rips his shirt off.

Day 21: A song with a person’s name in the title
I was not that interested in Audioslave but Cochise is their best song I know of (RATM-Zac+Chris=Zep?). And now I have some thoughts about the ridic video, and performative masculinity by committee. 1/

Tom Morello obviously named the song - for a badass Apache chief who fought the US govt to a standstill. The video is the over-the-top hypermasculine rock-star nonsense, but drastically undercut by several things. 2/

First, the lyrics have nothing to do with the Apache wars. 3/

It’s also that strange Cornell combination of incredibly aggressive music paired with the most passive-aggressive lyrics I think I’ve ever heard in rock; @ChrisCornell outdoes himself here, pushing the passive-aggression UP TO ELEVEN 4/

Imagine Cochise the Undefeated launching into battle howling “Go on and save yourself! Take it out on me!” at the white man colonizer. What. 5/

RATM gives @ChrisCornell a big group hug at the end after their rock-star explosion antics because he literally got a day-pass out of rehab to be at the shoot, and looks to be clearly emotionally fragile and underweight in the video, hence left mostly unlit/backlit. 6/

Cornell did write some nakedly aggressive lyrics, but they generally seemed to be ironic or parodic characterisations of toxic masculine archetypes he disliked or thought were stupid (see Ty Cobb, Big Dumb Sex, maybe even Gun) 7/

… while his personal lyrics were emotional, poetic, full of self-loathing, mourning, isolation, foreboding, and when specifically to/about someone, passive aggressive as fuuuuuuck. 8/

In conclusion, @chriscornell was like a depressed Asian woman, and not just because his chest was so hairless.

#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 22: A song that moves you forward

#30daysofChrisCornell

By Crooked Steps, from Soundgarden’s 2012 reunion album. Helluva comeback single, and a video that’s probably Dave Grohl’s best work this century YEAH, I SAID IT.

Day 23: A song you think everybody should listen to
Jesus Christ Pose. If you find this song weird and uncomfortable, my feeling is that you deserve to be punished by being made to listen to it. Like my 6 year old son.

Day 24: A song by a band you wish were still together

#30daysofChrisCornell

Live clip time! Got two for you.

Never The Machine Forever - again from that really drunk show in ’96. @ChrisCornell disappears into the mosh pit right at the end. 1/

Another. Spoonman was the heaviest shit ever live. I remember being in the stands at BDO ’97 and wanting to be too cool for Soundgarden ‘cos I was so grown up now. Then they opened up this riff and I Lost. My. Shit. 2/

My much cooler friend Li-Ming who worked at bFM & MaxTV kept having to tell me to stop screaming in her ear. 3/

The first time I saw Soundgarden was at BDO ’94 (just a couple of months before Chris Cornell cut his hair). Still 15yrs old & front-row of the mosh pit for 7 hrs straight (Breeders, Smashing Pumpkins, Straitjacket Fits, then Soundgarden) 4/

I actually have very few specific memories of either Soundgarden gig because I was basically hysterical the whole time.

Day 25: A song by an artist no longer living

I still remember the moment in that drab Roskill hallway in 1991 when I heard Soundgarden for the first time - it was the clarion-call opening of Rusty Cage, the first track on Badmotorfinger. 1/

Johnny Cash covering Chris Cornell's Rusty Cage. 2/

And @ChrisCornell covering Johnny Cash covering Chris Cornell’s Rusty Cage
#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 26: A song that makes you want to fall in love
Sweet Euphoria - delicate, complex, mysterious & beautiful. It seems to be about falling in love with death and/or Oxycontin, and one line is maybe about period sex but I guess we’ll never know.
1/

.@ChrisCornell had the versatility and eclecticism to write stunning acoustic songs like this (that I could picture Mariah covering @touchmypoly) and Seasons, as well as some of the most full-on punk/metal tracks of the late 80s/90s.

#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 27: A song that breaks your heart

Live from the v. early 90s. Chris Cornell guests on a stunning cover of Wild Horses, w/ Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart/The Lovemongers - cherished mentors whom he later inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. 1/

I approve of hair rock dudes who look up to older women. 2/

He also sang this at Layne Staley’s funeral, who died on my 24th birthday. Kurt Cobain died on my 16th birthday. @ChrisCornell at least had the courtesy to not die on my birthday. His exit hurt the most though. 3/

@chriscornell I actually only heard this cover last week, and there were many things in my eye suddenly.

#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 28: A song by an artist whose voice you love
Seasons, from the Singles soundtrack. It was hard to believe this mournful complex, acoustic song was ‘the guy from Soundgarden’ if it wasn’t for his voice.
#30daysofChrisCornell

Day 29: A song from your childhood
#30daysofChrisCornell

My dad is dying - slowly, though a little quicker every day. When he is able, he tells me stories of his teenage Beatles fandom that call back to some of my own embarrassing stories in this thread. 1/

Like when he was 15 and A Hard Day’s Night came to his hometown of Kota Bharu. He was the biggest of his friends, so was sent to fight his way through the mosh of adult scalpers, crammed into a cage-like tunnel leading to the little box office ticket window. 2/

And at the window, he and half a dozen others stuck their fists (clenched tight around their cash) through the hole and held them there, motionless for hours, piled on top of each other. 3/

People hanging off the sides and the top of the ‘cage’, mildly suffocating. Waiting for the box office to open, for that taste of rock n’ roll glory. We’re a lot alike, me and dad. Like, both secretly nuts. 4/

Rock n’ Roll was something genuinely revolutionary to a generation of teenagers waiting for the British Empire to give up and leave their lands. Honestly, Baby Boomers from the third world are the best Baby Boomers. 5/

30 years later in New Zealand, we played the Beatles box set tapes constantly on those endless Kiwi summer holiday car journeys. 6/

I got two @ChrisCornell Beatles covers for you - one early Beatles (my dad’s favourite era) and one from the late period. Both mind-boggling vocal performances. Ticket To Ride - to quote a commenter, looks like Jesus, sings like God. 7/

@chriscornell In Chris Cornell’s later acoustic gigs, Jeff Buckley’s red telephone would always be on the stage. They were close friends - Buckley drowned in ’97. Cornell said he kept the phone on the stage ‘in case Jeff called’. 8/

@chriscornell Chris Cornell died right before I went under the knife for a preventative double mastectomy last year, which I was trying to rush through the NHS so I could move back to NZ to be with my dad. 9/

In the weeks after the surgery, as the nerves knitted together, through the fog of pain and weirdness, and tangled tubes of blood bottles, I would get the unmistakable sensation of a telephone ringing in my left boob. 10/

I told myself it was Chris Cornell calling.

Here’s another one I love: Soundgarden’s cover of Come Together

Day 30: A song that reminds you of yourself

#30daysofChrisCornell

A lot of songs in this thread have done this (esp. Day 19), but Drawing Flies was my 5th form Theme Song For My Bad Self Sitting Alone At Lunchtime and tbh not much has changed. 1/

Music by Matt Cameron (whose SG contributions were standouts) but @ChrisCornell’s lyrics are working double-duty, being aggressively passive-aggressive about his own passive-aggression. 2/

It’s important to know you are essentially ridiculous, even if life is truly terrible and grim, and everyone really does suck. 3/

Tracing how this one musician’s legacy (and his death) has been woven through my life has been emotionally fucking excruciating at times, but this one’s a good way to leave it I think.

#30daysofChrisCornell

Unroll please @threadreaderapp, there are weird far-right trolls coming for me and they don't know enough about my dated musical tastes.