His big fuck-off riffs were massively instrumental in the forming of grunge, with numerous Seattle guitarists trying to do what he did, not the easiest of tasks. Computers could only show about six colours, and all weighed a quarter of a ton or more, and cost a million quid. Some of these effects don’t quite hold up in futuristic 2019, but bear in mind this video was made in 1994, 25 years ago. It’s all going full-on apocalyptic now, a locust-filled tornado-y Rapture. Happily, Black Hole Sun is, by Cornell’s own admission, largely devoid of meaning, just a magnificent songwriter letting words take him where they take him, accompanied by both melodic and thunderous guitar, and it’s awesome, and everyone in the video has big terrifying eyes. When an artist takes their own life like Cornell did, it’s tempting to look back through everything they did for clues and statements of intent – something Cornell was very aware of, telling Rolling Stone after Cobain’s death “It’s sort of a morbid exchange when somebody who is a writer like that dies, and then everyone starts picking through all their lyrics.” Through it all, he battled with addiction issues and crippling depression, two subjects he spoke openly about and did his best to help others through. Two romantic comedies took their titles from his lyrics. He introduced Eddie Vedder to the rest of Pearl Jam.
He did the only James Bond theme to ever go to Number One in the UK. He owned a Parisian restaurant and a record label. He fit a lot into his tragically-cut-short life. Kurt Cobain used to try to sing like him.Ĭornell fronted Soundgarden, a massive influence on the grunge world (although, more experimental and musically talented than a lot of their peers, they rejected the grunge label as a marketing gimmick), then Audioslave with former members of Rage Against The Machine, as well as releasing a bunch of solo albums. Probably the greatest singing voice in all of rock ever, in fact – Axl Rose, Alice Cooper and Eddie Vedder are among those who cite him as the single greatest singer we ever had. But because the melody is really pretty, everyone thinks it’s almost chipper, which is ridiculous.When the world lost Chris Cornell in 2017, we lost one of the greatest voices in rock. No one seems to get this, but “Black Hole Sun” is sad. I wasn’t trying to say anything specific I was really writing to the feel of the music and accepting whatever came out.” In a 2014 Rolling Stone interview, Cornell stated, “If you read the lyrics to the verses, it’s sort of surreal, esoteric word painting. But because the melody is really pretty, everyone thinks it’s almost chipper, which is ridiculous." There was no real idea to get across."Ĭommenting upon how the song was misinterpreted as being positive, Cornell said: I was just sucked in by the music and I was painting a picture with the lyrics. Other than that, I sure didn’t have an understanding of it after I wrote it. The chorus lyric is kind of beautiful and easy to remember. It’s funny because hits are usually sort of congruent, sort of an identifiable lyric idea, and that song pretty much had none. In another interview he elaborated further, stating, I guess it worked for a lot of people who heard it, but I have no idea how you’d begin to take that one literally."
Lyrically it’s probably the closest to me just playing with words for words' sake, of anything I’ve written.
It’s just sort of a surreal dreamscape, a weird, play-with-the-title kind of song. Regarding “Black Hole Sun”, Cornell stated: It is one of their biggest hits, reaching #1 of the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and #2 on the Modern Rock chart. “Black Hole Sun” is the 7th track and 3rd single from Soundgarden’s hit 1994 album Superunknown.
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