“I think, and this is now with some distance in listening to the records, but on the outside looking in with all earnestness I think Soundgarden made the best records out of that scene,” band vocalist Chris Cornell offered in an ’07 interview. “I think we were the most daring and experimental and genre-pushing… and I’m really proud of it. “We started getting (comparisons to Led Zeppelin) a lot: ‘Zeppelin, Zeppelin, Zeppelin,’ and we were like, OK, let’s check some of this out,” Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil explained “We were all very acquainted with it individually, but collectively we weren’t sitting around the table listening them. So initially we would deny that influence. Ultimately, we started to re-embrace Zeppelin, Beatles, (Black) Sabbath and Pink Floyd. I think they were always there. It’s a weird story, but it may explain why, for a few years, we denied the Zeppelin/Sabbath influence.” #10. Pretty Noose (Down On The Upside, 1996) “Pretty Noose” was written by frontman Chris Cornell. “That song for me was kind of interesting, because we were at the phase where we were just going to demo tunes,” offered drummer Matt Cameron, “I’d walked to the studio (in Seattle) and my legs were really tired. But to make a long story short, I was trying to get a walking feel on the drum part. So it probably has a little weird shuffle to it probably from that walk that I took to the studio that day.” #9. The Day I Tried To Live (Superunknown, 1994) “It’s about trying to step out of being patterned and closed off and reclusive, which I’ve always had a problem with,” explained Cornell. “It’s about attempting to be normal and just go out and be around other people and hang out. I have a tendency to sometimes be pretty closed off and not see people for long periods of time and not call anyone.” #8. Rusty Cage (Badmotorfinger, 1991) “The tuning on that song was pretty nutty. It’s recorded with a wah wah in the low position used as a filter,” stated guitarist Kim Thayil. “That was the first time we did anything like that. It was Chris’s idea; he wanted to get that weird tone that you can’t really dial in on an amp. But if you use the wah wah as a filter, it gets an incredibly weird sound. And if you listen to that riff, especially if you’ve heard the original demos of it, it almost sounds backward.” #7. 4th Of July (Superunknown, 1994) “One time I was on acid, and there were voices ten feet behind my head,” Cornell told RIP magazine. “The whole time I’d be walking, they’d be talking behind me. It actually made me feel good, because I felt like I was with some people. At one point I was looking back, and I saw that one person was wearing a black shirt and jeans, and the other person was wearing a red shirt. They were always there. It was kinda like a dream, though, where I’d wake up and look and focus once in a while and realize there was no one there.” #6. Spoonman (Superunknown, 1994) The song was originally written for the “Singles” soundtrack with the title inspired by Artis The Spoonman, a street performer from Santa Cruz, CA, and later Seattle, who played a set of spoons. “It’s more about the paradox of who (Artis) is and what people perceive him as,” Corbell commented. “He’s a street musician, but when he’s playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he’s a street person, or he’s doing this because he can’t hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently.” #5. Blow Up The Outside World (Down On The Upside, 1996) “”People said there was a Beatles-ish element,” said Thayil. “I suppose there is a bit of Paul McCartney and a little bit of (John) Lennon in the flavor of the song. Everyone in the band grew up with the Beatles and we had a certain degree of respect and admiration for them that’s not uncommon.” #4. Jesus Christ Pose (Badmotorfinger, 1991) “(It) was definitely a jam at rehearsal,” noted Thayil explaining the song’s origin. “I think Ben (Shepherd) was just jamming up this loud and blurry, detuned bass line flopping around there. And Matt (Cameron) starts making it precise and coherent; Matt’s drum part is insane – it’s so fast and coordinated. And I picked up my guitar, thinking, “What the hell are they doing?” It took me a while to figure out what’s going on rhythmically and where to punctuate the one, so what I start hearing is that swirling, kamikaze bat (guitar) sound at the beginning. And that was a groove.” #3. Outshined (Badmotorfinger, 1991) “I don’t know how everyone else feels … but I definitely go through periods of extreme self-confidence, feeling like I can do anything,” offered Cornell. “But then someone will say something, however insignificant, or I’ll get something in my head and, all of a sudden, I’m plummeting in the opposite direction. That’s where “Outshined” comes from. #2. Fell On Black Days (Superunknown, 1994) “Fell on Black Days” was like this ongoing fear I’ve had for years,” noted Cornell. “It’s a feeling that everyone gets. You’re happy with your life, everything’s going well, things are exciting—when all of a sudden you realize you’re unhappy in the extreme, to the point of being really, really scared.” #1. Black Hole Sun (Superunknown, 1994) “I wrote the song thinking the band wouldn’t like it—then it became the biggest hit of the summer,” remembered Cornell. The song topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. “No one seems to get this, but ‘Black Hole Sun’ is sad,” added Cornell. “But because the melody is really pretty, everyone thinks it’s almost chipper, which is ridiculous.” ### Soundgarden: Chris Cornell: Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Drums Kim Thayil: Lead Guitar Ben Shepherd: Bass Matt Cameron: Drums Former Members: Hiro Yamamoto: Bass/Backing Vocals (1984 – 1989) Scott Sunquist: Drums (1985 – 1986) Jason Everman: Bass (1989 – 1990 ### The post Soundgarden’s Top 10 appeared first on RockinTown.