One of the most beautiful voices in the world has chosen to be so far away that we can no longer hear him.
Short story: Chris Cornell is an American musician who was the lead vocalist of the grunge band "Soundgarden" until its disbandment and later formed the band "Audioslave". The famous singer continued his music career with his solo career after the disbandment of the "Audioslave" group in 2007, but he passed away on May 18, 2017.
Christopher John Cornell (né Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American singer and musician best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary lyricist and songwriter for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. He also had a solo career and contributed to numerous movie soundtracks. Cornell was also the founder and frontman of Temple of the Dog, a one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend Andrew Wood.
90s MTV screens were very important to our childhood. We used to admire the clips we tried to capture on the screen when the grunge trend had started, with flabby cardigans and worn Converse shoes, when there was no internet yet. They were the square aces of mainstream grunge music: Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.
Nirvana was the most popular team in this whole storm. Kurt Cobain was something else. Our generation was deeply shaken the day Cobain shot himself on April 5, 1994. We watched the 2005 movie "Last Days" by Lars Von Trier about Cobain's last days, crying.
Then, Alice in Chains... Layne Staley's unique vocal talent would have us captivated. 34 years old; He died of an overdose on April 5, the same day as Cobain. The year was 2002.
Soundgarden and Pearl Jam remained. Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell's four-octave voice was different, and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder's songwriting was different. They made solo albums and produced unforgettable movie soundtracks. None of them were indispensable because Grunge was our first youth and they remained: the unforgettable rockstars of the time, the "happy" family men of today...
But then the grunge storm was over. Converses were thrown, and cardigans were taken off. The grunge spirit was "left" as something of the '90s and first half of the 2000s. We have grown. In this new world where we are nothing without a scrolling screen; it was as if rainy, dark music full of mysteries had no place. What was social media saying: “Be happy! Pretend as nothing happened! Oh, laugh hard, no one will understand what's going on!”
WE WERE IN THE "COOL" PART OF THE MUSIC
But we old-fashioned never let go of that wing. The reason we sometimes resisted the new was that we wanted to let go of that spirit that made us who we are. We were the generation that wondered what kind of tools young Americans played in their garages. Then we watched them live on Instagram, we saw them on Snapchat, and we tried to catch them, but it didn't work. We also swiped the screen successfully. But our chemistry just didn't work. Something was missing, something was wrong somewhere.
The world has turned into something else, from communication to communication. We realized that when we talk too much, we don't actually talk about anything, and when we share too much, we don't actually share anything. The "obligation to share" has taken us out of ourselves and thrown us away. For example, it was not enough for us to release a new song in one day. We wanted more; more songs, more followers, more comments, more striking ideas, etc...
We pursued other things. We wanted more of the "cool" part of the music, the ones that reminded me of the music, not the music. No lie, we were smitten with that "cool" part in the beginning too. The captures were later. We are all in pieces; For example, while listening to Audioslave's "The Last Remaining Light", we left our colors that took days to decipher but in which we could swim safely.
WHERE COULD WE BE LOOKING TOWARDS?
That's why I've been thinking low on my head since yesterday: What did we miss?
We missed the big truth under the iceberg. Something powerful enough to cause her to abandon her three children, whom Cornell always praised. His happy photos with his second wife, with whom he expresses at every opportunity that he is "so in love", another very powerful thing that can overshadow Soundgarden's reunited tour, which is reunited in honor of its 20th anniversary. That last thing that he decided to scoop with all his soul...
The final song of Chris Cornell's Soundgarden performance in Detroit was Led Zeppelin's cover of 'In My Time of Dying'. "When it's time to die, I don't want anyone to mourn/ All I ask of you is to take my body home," the song said.
One of the most beautiful voices in the world has chosen to be so far away that we can no longer hear it. Maybe he wanted to say it his own way, as Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington said…
In farewell to Cornell, Bennington wrote:
"... Your voice was joy and sorrow, anger and forgiveness, love and heartbreak, all of that. As you sang 'A Day in the Life' by the Beatles, I understood that this is your way of saying goodbye. Let me be a part of you in my life. Thank you for giving, my friend. With all my love."
https://chriscornell.com/