Monday, August 3

I cannot fathom...

...how any one could say that Chris Cornell writes shit lyrics. Granted, it's a minority of people, nearly all vaunted "rock critics" - ordinary people tend to think he kicks ass, in my experience, except maybe for his last hip-hop flavored LP which was a bold but perhaps not brilliant move. Oh well, gotta him props for trying something new - dude's been making hard, dark rock for 25 years. Let him have some fun! I could listen to him sing all day, personally.

But the critics (and it's inevitably professional critics) who criticize his lyrics while at the same time going ga-ga over his voice... those people strike me as the same uber-lames who called 2Pac a charismatic figure but a "medicore rapper/writer." What?? That's taking someone's best feature and calling it rubbish. It's light saying Vermeer was a hell of a painter, but his use of light was suspect and amateurish.

In the world of grunge/alternative metal/whatever it has come to be called these days, it's not necessary to be intelligent or pay much attention to lyrics, and long as you can play your instrument and have a great music engineers to make you sound like the bee's knees, and a top-notch record label that will hype your mediocrity until it's on every radio station nonstop (not that I dislike Green Day, but see: Green Day). Or else you have to be so real and awesome musically and unique and composed of genius-quarks that people will canonize you despite your refusal to sell out (see Radiohead).

But Chris Cornell has always competed against groups who struggled even to write corny love songs, songs about alienation (always in a hackneyed way), drugs and drink, women, and so on, and he's had success against them... AND his lyrics have always had a strange, dark edge - a spiritual core - to them that most of his fans don't even notice, much less celebrate. Even he doesn't emphasize it. It must be because he's an intelligent, thoughtful, soulful person who wouldn't respect himself if he didn't put solid words to his songs that did them justice. The moshers won't care one was or another, but borderline hard-rock fans like me most certainly pay attention to that stuff - I could never like a straight up DUMB band. To prove my point, I chose one song by literally closing my eyes and pointing at the screen (full of Soundgarden/Audioslave/C.C. Solo songs) and haved reproduced the words here:

***

"Scar On The Sky"

As I fall I leave this scar upon the sky
A simple note for you, I'll wait for your reply
And in your answer I'll regain my will to try

So hover in the diving light
We will rip the night
Out of the arms of the sun one more time
Close your eyes and we will fly
Above the clouded sky
And over the dumbstruck world, we will run

In these hills they wash the golden grains away
To the valley under all of this I lay
And may you dig me out unearthed and saved

So hover in the diving light
We will rip the night
Out of the arms of the sun one more time
Close your eyes and we will fly
Above the clouded sky
And over the dumbstruck world, we will run

We can rip the night
Out of the arms of the sun...

A blood red feather leaves a scar upon my hand
No longer stranded like a painted bird on a fan

So hover in the diving light
We will rip the night
Out of the arms of the sun one more time
Close your eyes and we will fly
Above the clouded sky
And over the dumbstruck world, we will run

We can rip the night
Out of the arms of the sun.

***

Now, it's a bit mysterious what he's going on about here, but this is a FAR cry from something Ozzy or Metallica or Mudhoney or Foo Fighters would write. What it lacks in simple power or clarity it gains in riddles and replayability. Kinda like REM not in substance, but it abstract form. Strange turns of phrase... poetry... unexpected rhymes.

But the bottom line is really this: You may like Mr. Cornell, you may be indifferent, or his brand of music may not be your taste at all, and in any of these cases that's cool. But just don't ever say his writing is shit. I think I can objectively say it's NOT. For really bad lyrics, look up "nearly all 80s hair metal." Meantime, I'll be listening to my "Carry On" CD....

7 comments:

clarefromscotland said...

Agree - his lyrics, along with his voice, were what drew me to his music first even before I even knew his name or what he looked like. His lyric-writing seldom disappoints and even when he's just having fun, there's always something witty in there which gives a song a special twist. Published this article about his lyrics a few years back - http://bit.ly/JmMy4

warriorwoman said...

I've always said that Chris Cornell's lyrics are a "thinking person's" lyrics. When you figure out what they mean, you become impressed by the clever way he has of painting a picture with words.

Then, you make the mistake of thinking you are the only person who "gets" what Cornell is saying. Only to find out later, his lyrics are purposely ambiguous to encompass multiple interpretations of their meaning.

"One size" doesn't fit all when it comes to Chris Cornell's lyrics. I thank the day I started listening to his music! He's spoiled me against the more common sounding, meaningless stuff that is out there now.

Metamatician said...

Thank you for your post, Clare, and equally for the link to your article. Good stuff. And warriorwoman, I quite agree with you as well and you put it very well - everyone can take something personal away from his songs, since in so many cases, his metaphors can be interpreted as referring to a woman, to God, to himself and his own demons, and so on. You see in his words what you want to see, I believe. He just paints lovely pictures, a bit like Rorschach images.

Thanks to you both for dropping by!

Anonymous said...

Chris cornells lyrics are great
I like his voice
I can easily say he is the best vocalist out there
so what if his lyrics dont make sense sometimes
but they go along with the music perfectly

hes an excelent songwriter
i just hope he doesnt release another pop album

TheRealMe said...

I'm not sure where this blog is coming from, most people who have gotten into Chris Cornell have realized what a great songwriter he is. Even his peers like Eddie Vedder, Kim Thayil, Jeff Ament and Alice Cooper can say that about him. I don't think they are vaunted rock critics.His songwriting skill has always been recognized by most rock critics and he is well known as a "songwriter" first and "singer" second or visa versa. I think the critism he's recieved in recent years about his songwriting, is that the lyrics have become almost formulaic and simplistic to the point of being overly straight forward. It's very common for writers to suffer somekind of writers block and they also say that alot of their best songs have come very quickly and magically like nothing at all. If that's the way things have been written in the past maybe trying to follow a songwriting formula is just not going to work for someone like Chris Cornell.

I don't think this blog is a good representation of what fans and critics have been complaining about. I don't feel that people think Chris's lyrics are "dumb", but more that they have "dumbed down". A song like "Part Of Me" has been critised for the word 'bitch', because people feel it follows a hip-hop formula, because derogatory slang is typically used by hip-hop artists and if Chris is going to make a record with Timbaland then he might as well include the derogatory word in a way that is straight forward and unnecesary. Also, it's not really subject to interrpretation, because I think most people can tell you the lyrics are about a girl and they are also about a guy who's a player, another typical character in the world of hip-hop, not to mention the chorus is repetative,which can be a big turn off to some listenners. He also worked with Timbaland's writing team on "Scream" and so it's not quite clear who exactly wrote those lyrics. Sure he's written a song called "Cold Bitch" but, here's the magic. The word "bitch" was never used in the lyrics, It made the listenner think about the subject matter.. Who was the "bitch" in "Cold Bitch"? Was it a woman or drugs or withdrawal, considering herion use was everywhere during that time in Seattle, it's all up for interpretation..

clarefromscotland said...

I thought the lyrics to "Part Of Me" were a bit Raymond Chandler. ;) You know the sort of thing - "She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket". He's written fun, throwaway lyrics before, in any case, like "Kickstand".

There's plenty more on newest album "Scream" that touches the profound - for example "Enemy", or "Take Me Alive" which are both as dark and as complex as anything he wrote in the 90s.

Metamatician said...

I admit (and even alluded to it in the original post) that Scream isn't my favorite album, but I still like individual tracks from it. I too thought he was making an obvious reach for street cred by throwing in some typical hip-hop style likes: "That bitch ain't a part of me," etc. I disagree that his writing has gotten formulaic, but everyone has his/her own opinion. I used to be a huge Moz fan (still love all me old Smiths albums), but Morrissey jumped the shark a a long time ago. Talk about formulaic... his singles of the last 3 albums could probably be matched up using some oscilloscope and proven to be identical with only the words changed! Yet I still will always love Viva Hate, Your Arsenal, Vauxhall and I, and even the maligned Kill Uncle, which I think is quirky and brilliant. Not to mention his tons of great B-sides during that era, and even a few that surface nowadays which aren't bad.

I guess I really don't have an overall point, just wanted to say I don't think has lost it creatively or anything, as I said in the post, I think he's striking out in some different directions rather THAN become a stereotype or be formulaic. Every time he's reached that point (Soundgarden broke up at a peak, IMO so did Audioslave, and I love his first two solo albums and especially the acoustic Live in Sweden album - not to mention the old Temple of the Dog LP). And I don't mind Scream for what it is, and even bump it in my car sometimes. It's just not really something I'm gonna sit and listen to in headphones.

It will be interesting what he does next, because no matter what it is, he'll have ardent fans that think it's his best work ever and dismissive critics who will pan it no matter what. Most are likely to fall somewhere in the middle, like a bell curve. Personally I could care less what others think (except that I like to see him sell albums, just like I paid full price for Radiohead's incredible In Rainbows even though they were nearly giving it away) - I will always support artists whom I enjoy and will enjoy them whether the critics OR the masses do or do not.

You can check out my profile. I like a lot of alternative rock, but I also like The Beatles, Cream, Dan Fogelberg, Gordon Lightfoot, lots of Motown and reggae... Just like good artists in general. Ok, I'll stop blathering now ^_^

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