Well, we’ve come to the last 24 hours or so of voting in the 2023 Rock And Roll Hall of Fame “fan vote,” and I thought I’d start expanding my territory, so to speak, into talking more often about things other than politics, by taking a look at this year’s Rock Hall vote – in part because it’s a pretty fascinating class and the decision-making was definitely not easy.
There simply is no one band more emblematic of the “grunge” sound than Soundgarden. Not to take anything away from their friends in Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, Tad, Eleven, and a host of others, mind you, but for folks of a certain generation and cultural context the word “Seattle” evokes mental imagery not of space needles and coffee but of soaring, unearthly howling vocals delivered over weird tunings and time signatures with a dark twist of fatalistic hope and appreciation of the most obscure types of beauty and power found in the most hopeless and helpless places.
I could, and have, and will, write reams just about singer Chris Cornell, but the entire band are absolute masters of their craft. (Personally I think Cornell should be in as a solo artist too.) Kim Thayil does things with the guitar that nobody but the Jimi/mys would ever understand, an absolute riff monster with zero limits or boundaries to the things he makes his instrument do. Drummer (and huge musical influence on yours truly) Matt Cameron is an absolute perfect rhythmic blend of influences from the obvious and expected Peart and Bonham touches to out-of-left-field funk, jazz, and just plain unclassifiable grooves and fills, and the way his tunes and mixes his drums with nearly no resonance or reverb but still manages to get them to thump as hard as anything Bonham ever did is beyond masterful and definitely changed the way I and many other rock drummers approach the instrument. Finally, longest-serving bassist Ben Shepherd holds down the fort at the bottom end with all the steady pound and drive that great anchors like Michael Anthony and Cliff Williams bring to Van Halen and ACDC, but also with the riffing capabilities of a McCartney or Entwhistle. Plus he’s huge fun to watch on stage.
The band taken as a whole is simply mind-boggling. Effortlessly intertwining influences from metal, jazz, soul, and funk with alternate guitar tunings and weird overlapping time signatures (check out the polyrhythmic base of “Mind Riot,” where the verses have the guitars and vocals in 4/4 with the drums in 3/3, coming back together on the “one” every twelve beats), they didn’t just make music but defined it for a generation, every inch of the way in spite of each member’s intense desire to simply make good music without particular regard for commercial success.
The band’s early breakthrough album BadMotorFinger is rock-solid grunge perfection; I’ve often said that “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” (included below) contains absolutely every element of every great rock-metal tune ever written, flawlessly executed from fade-in to fade-out, and probably represents the pinnacle of the form. Then their followup, Superunknown, with its massive hit “Black Hole Sun” brought psychedelia firmly into the computer age. There is simply no excuse for this band not having been in the hall from the moment they were eligible, and the fact that they largely eschew such honors and pageantry is just another argument in their favor. I’d have voted for them in all five slots if I could.
I would also go on about how great this band is forever, if I could, but instead of that I’ll let you enjoy this masterpiece. I dare you to get through it without at least nodding your head along to the groove. Get headphones, turn it up, and strap in: it simply does not get better.
