“You can’t help but be influenced”: the bands Chris Cornell thought no one could escape
When anyone starts making their own tunes, it’s always important to stand out from the pack. Suppose all that anyone ever listens to is whatever’s on the radio at any given moment. In that case, there’s usually a good chance that some of their tunes will either be too trendy for people to latch onto or not have that much going on underneath the surface level. So while Chris Cornell could stand out from the pack even among the grunge heavyweights, he knew that some bands were essential for any kid to listen to.
But when looking at the big picture, comparing every band that came out of the Seattle scene is a lost cause. There are moments where there might be a similar vocal style or even the odd tune that manages to call back to classic rock, but the idea of folding every band from Nirvana to Mudhoney to Pearl Jam under one roof made for one of the most disjointed genre movements of all time.
And although they did have massive sales right out of the gate, Soundgarden may have been the strangest band on the roster when they first signed to Sub Pop. Melvins had already started to cultivate what grunge could sound like with their heavy tunes and Zappa-esque humour, but in Soundgarden, there was everything from punk to classic rock to prog in a few sections.
For an album that’s as classic as Superunknown, it’s exceptionally strange from a musical perspective. A good chunk of the tunes aren’t in conventional tunings, and when they aren’t tricking the ear with the strange musical detours, there are also odd time signatures to worry about when tearing through tunes like ‘Fell on Black Days’ and ‘Spoonman’. Even when Matt Cameron left to join Pearl Jam, his songs like ‘You Are’ were still incredibly different from their usual stadium-rock sound.
“If you’re an American kid, you can’t help but be influenced by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones because they’re always on the radio.”
Chris Cornell
But stadium rock was never a bad word for Cornell. The biggest bands in his world may have been a bit eccentric, but given the fact that he was able to strut around like a rock and roll god when singing tunes like ‘Loud Love’, it’s not like he was against the idea of occupying the same space as the first heavyweights of rock and roll.
He would be coming at that genre from an indie background, but Cornell realised that some bands were unavoidable as influences, saying, “If you’re an American kid, you can’t help but be influenced by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones because they’re always on the radio. When Soundgarden formed, we were post-punk – pretty quirky. Then somehow we found this neo-Sabbath psychedelic rock that fitted well with who we were.”
And let’s not forget that Zeppelin and Sabbath had their fair share of strange moments. Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne seemed to be allergic to the idea of a pop song structure, and while Zeppelin did have a few mainstream songs in their arsenal when they broke out the acoustics, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were never afraid to come up with riffs that were in strange time signatures or confused the listener when they heard the first notes.
So, in essence, Cornell’s Zeppelin influence may have been a bit more nuanced than sounding like a modern-day update of Robert Plant. He had the same style of voice to carry a decent Zeppelin cover band if he wanted to, but going through everything he did for Soundgarden, it’s clear that he was more interested in the approach his inspirations had towards the musical side of things rather than any kind of posturing.
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