Tragedy hits Soundgarden, as Chris Cornell departs us.
Yet again, a tragic loss has occurred as Chris Cornell was pronounced dead after committing suicide. The Soundgarden lead singer and main songwriter will undoubtedly be a huge loss to the millions of fans around the world. Here are some thoughts from the Washington Post no less.
Chris Cornell Remembered
Chris Cornell, a key figure in the grunge rock movement as the banshee-voiced singer in the seminal Seattle band Soundgarden, killed himself in a hotel room after playing a Wednesday night concert with the group, authorities said.
Cornell, 52, was found dead early Thursday in his room at the MGM Grand Detroit, police said. The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death as suicide by hanging. A full autopsy report has not been completed, the medical examiner said in a statement.
“His wife Vicky and family were shocked to learn of his sudden and unexpected passing,” Brian Bumbery, a publicist for Cornell, said in a statement. The singer’s family, Bumbery said, “would like to thank his fans for their continuous love and loyalty and ask that their privacy be respected at this time.” Cornell, who had a complicated relationship with his rock-and-roll fame, was on tour with Soundgarden, which was in the midst of making its first new album in five years. The band performed, as scheduled, at Detroit’s Fox Theatre on Wednesday and was headed next to Ohio, to headline the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus.
Alongside the likes of Nirvana, Mudhoney and Alice in Chains, Soundgarden was one of the most important and successful bands in the loosely defined grunge movement that roared out of the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s and ushered in a new era of rock. A mesmerizing front man with a flowing mane and piercing blue eyes, Cornell played rhythm guitar, but was best known for his songwriting and that throaty, multi-octave voice, which he once called “unapologetically male.”
Soundgarden’s music — which could be brooding, beautiful and bombastic, sometimes all at once — resonated with listeners at a time when hair metal and New Wave competed for chart space. The band’s songs were laden with emotion, and more often than not, that emotion was anger. Of his band’s sound, perhaps the heaviest in grunge, Cornell told the Guardian: “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. But from 17 to 19, all I listened to was Elvis Costello and the Beat. 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.”
This is yet another shock for rock fans to come to terms with as so many great names have passed over the last calendar year. Chris may have gone, but his music and that of Soundgarden lives on.
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Learning Black Hole Sun By Chris Cornell
Black Hole Sun spent seven weeks at number one in Billboards mainstream rockcharts. The song was released in 1994 and was included in the fourth album Superunknown (1994). Black Hole Sun was one of the band’s most recognizable and popular releases.
Here are the band playing the song which starts of with an amazingly clear guitar riff.
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Tributes and mourning on Twitter
Understandibly, there has been a huge outpouring from fans and stars alike on Twitter at the unexpected and shocking news.
RIP Chris Cornell
Incredibly Talented
Incredibly Young
Incredibly Missed. pic.twitter.com/pKNI4tKiXz— Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) May 18, 2017
Family of Chris Cornell dispute verdict he intentionally killed himself https://t.co/M16FXh2CLE
— The Independent (@Independent) May 19, 2017
Chris Cornell – Black Hole Sun #RIPChrisCornell https://t.co/IZlmEhbjuo
— Giuseppe Sfregola (@giuseppesfrego2) May 19, 2017
If you ever needed proof that you never know what someone’s going through, look at Chris Cornell.
Mental health conversations can’t stop.
— JD (@JDfromCJAY) May 19, 2017
Check out all our other learn this song on guitar features by clicking the link.
