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I saw him in London a couple of weeks ago. He played for over 2 hours and the set included: Spoonman, Jesus Christ Pose, Slaves And Bulldozers, Rusty Cage, Black Hole Sun, Outshined and (oooooh) Hunger Strike. Oh, and some Audioslave stuff, but we can mostly pass over that. Oh, and Seasons from the Singles soundtrack.
I am the jackass complaining about the recording. The lyrics juxtaposed with Earnest, Dramatic Chris Cornell makes me giggle a little and cringe a little. Way to strangle a up-tempo pop number to death, Chris.
Well, sure, and if it's supposed to be sardonically overwrought interpretation, more power to him. But I don't have the context here to make that intent clear, and taken at face value I have to stick with the giggle-and-cringe-and-wonder analysis.
Cheers Otis - I'd completely forgotten about Soundgarden covering Big Bottom. Also, thanks BP, I'd not heard the Devo cover - I never bought Soundgarden singles for some reason, so don't have any of their B sides. Some kind of compilation would be in order, I think. Either that or I'll just download them from somewhere!
jeez, the last time i heard those two soundgarden covers, the dead sea was merely sick.
iirc, the spinal tap cover came from the "louder than live" video, recorded when jason everman (ex-nirvana - he footed the bill for the recording of "bleach") was their fill-in bassist. they also did a fun cover of cheech & chong's "earache my eye" on that same video.
And to go on at greater and more wonkish length, it's not that it's wrong to do a dramatic take on an up-tempo song, or that Chris Cornell in particular shouldn't do so, or that people shouldn't cover Michael Jackson.
It's the package deal. You listen to this prime-of-his-career Michael Jackson stuff, and it's abundantly clear that he's a great pop songwriter, but not on the strength of the fineness and elegance of his lyrics. They fit the meter and got the job done amidst all that note-perfect pop production, and Michael sold it all really well, but it's not the close and careful writing of a great lyricist. ('The doggone girl is mine'? Anyone?)
So here comes Chris, stripping out essentially everything from the original except the lyrics, and then treating them at a glacial pace so you've got time to really consider every word in plunking, revealing slo-mo style.
Billie Jean is not my lover
she's just a girl
who thinks that I am the one
but the kid is not my son
"But the kid is not my son"? That's first draft shit. That's writer's block shit. It's clunky, and the only reason it works in the MJ original is because the song around it is so good that you've got no reason to stand around and gawk.1
So it's a bad fit for the slow and dramatic. It's the sort of thing you fuck around with in the studio and like the idea of, but you play it some more and work it out and listen to what it sounds like and realize that you were totally high and that it just doesn't work, it sounds like a bad joke no matter how much you polish it. So you put it to bed, shrug, and move on.
Or you put it on a major release. To each his own.
1and maybe you know the backstory and so are willing to forgive the imperfect attempt at a pithy hook.
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