If you were born anywhere in between 1975 and 1985, chances are you grew up in the 90s listening to Soundgarden.
Soundgarden formed in the 1980s and started gaining success with their third studio album, Badmotorfinger, an album where many (myself included) think it was them as their peak. It was the perfect mix of rock, grunge and metal — all packed into one and Chris Cornell at the time was possibly one of the best vocalists around. However, it wasn’t until 1994 that they became a household name. You coudn’t turn on a modern rock station without hearing ‘Spoonman’ or ‘Black Hole Sun.’
1997 was the year in which Soundgarden broke up. I was young and unfortunately never thought I’d get the chance to see them. I never imagined, in my wildest dreams, that they would return, but obviously in 2010 they announced that they were back. I felt like an excited 14 year old all over again and I was fortune enough to see them live a couple of weeks ago.
I recently just finished composing a Soundgarden top 10 list. Oh yeah, feel free to tell me that I missed out on certain tracks or that certain songs should be higher or lower. It might not of been as hard as an Iron Maiden top 10, but it was still quite a challenge.
Make the jump for the top 10 Soundgarden songs ever!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waX1AGPtyto
#10 Big Dumb Sex
The dirtiest and sleaziest Soundgarden track ever. They’re obviously not a band that I want to write songs in the vein of W.A.S.P but it works here and it works well. It’s probably just a joke, but good enough to be the tenth best Soundgarden song.
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOqP3wj2x14
#9 Rusty Cage
Soundgarden are known to be an alternative/grunge band but you can’t deny they were metal at one point of their career. ‘Rusty Cage’ is a solid example of Soundgarden experimenting with metal, grunge and the energy of the 1980s punk scene. I have only one complaint for this song. Well, none for this one in particular. I just hate when people say Johnny Cash‘s remake is better. No, it’s not.
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#8 Head Down
Superunknown was the first album to start off the Soundgarden era where they slightly trimmed down their heavier side and got a little more melodic, a little more polished and focused to become a little more mainstream. It surely paid off since Superunknown is their best selling album to date, currently having sold over 9 million copies in the U.S. ‘Head Down’ is such a great song and most of all, it’s a Soundgarden song that doesn’t really sound like them. ‘Big Dumb Sex’ is heavy, ‘Rusty Cage’ is fast, while ‘Head Down’ is a song just to close your eyes and lay down to. It’s the perfect song to relax to on a hot summer day.
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#7 The Day I Tried To Live
Lyrically, this is probably my favorite Soundgarden song of all time. I’ve always thought it was a song about suicide but Chris Cornell has explained that it isn’t: “A lot of people misinterpreted that song as a suicide-note song. Taking the word live too literally. “The Day I Tried to Live” means more like the day I actually tried to open up myself and experience everything that’s going on around me as opposed to blowing it all off and hiding in a cave.”
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xjVIc_5jPM
#6 Loud Love
Besides ‘Jesus Christ Pose’, ‘Loud Love’ probably has the best intro for any Soundgarden song. It has such a creepy vibe to it. Oh, and that short little scream at the 35 second mark – just wonderful. A heavy, grungy/metal song I feel most would appreciate and head bang to.
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#5 Somewhere
In my humble opinion, 1991 was the year Chris Cornell was at his absolute prime vocally and I think ‘Somewhere’ is him singing at his best, especially in the line where he sings, “But I die to die and I cry to cry.” He has been compared to Robert Plant, who is a great singer, but I honestly think he superior to him as a vocalist in every single way (predicts Led Zeppelin fans are going to throw a fit).
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#4 Outshined
That opening guitar riff is nice and heavy, just the way I like the majority of my favorite Soundgarden songs. It’s pretty much a straight up metal song with a kick ass chorus. I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure what Cornell means with, “I’m looking California and I’m feeling Minnesota.” Not a clue what he means by it at all, but who cares – it’s an awesome song!
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#3 Slaves & Bulldozers
Cornell’s anger and Kim’s riffing are the main attractions that stand out the most for ‘Slaves and Bulldozers’. I absolutely love the aggression in Cornell‘s voice throughout the song, most noticeably when he is yelling “Now I know why you’ve been shhhaaaakkkkiiing!” I might regret not having this in the second spot.
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#2 Pretty Noose
‘Pretty Noose’ is the only song to make the top ten from the ‘Down On The Upside‘ album. To me, it’s somewhat underrated, considering it’s a single that didn’t quite get the popularity it truly deserved. I was actually surprised it wasn’t performed at my show. I just always thought it was a cult classic, but I guess I was wrong. ‘Pretty Noose’ is still one of the best.
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn5OIo4FuPc
#1 Jesus Christ Pose
Here it is folks, like it or not, ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ is the best Soundgarden song ever. I mean, absolute flawless drumming from Matt Cameron (how can anyone not get pumped from drumming in the opening of the song), fantastic riffing from Kim Thayil, and I really don’t need to explain again how awesome Cornell was in those days. If any of you aren’t familiar with Soundgarden, I’d suggest first pick Badmotorfinger, mostly because it’s their best album and ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ is on there and you can repeat it over and over because it’s that good!
