I bought Soundgarden's best known album Superunknown in vinyl format over the weekend. I already have it on CD and CDs occupy half of a wall of my flat, I haven't actually played one for over twelve years since I moved in here and probably won't again.
Superunknown is an actual beast of a record. Everyone should own it frankly even if you don't generally go for 'heavy' records. It may well be the 'heaviest' record I know of. Not necessarily 'heavy' as in 'heavy metal'. It does share some characteristics and traits with that genre but I can't stand Heavy Metal while I love Superunknown, every minute and moment of it. It's a punishing and relentless record which explores a truly dark psychology and perspective on life. Not quite like any other record in my collection. And I've got a lot of records.
I have a personal history with the band and the album. I saw them play on the world tour they did to support it. At a club in Dortmund called, err, Soundgarden on an extremely large stage. In 1994 with some of the best friends I've ever had or will ever have.
That's a whole story in itself as is the full story of my appreciation of this record. I may save that for another post. The Day I Tried to Live is more than enough to concern us here.
If asked to describe it, (and I'm perfectly aware that I haven't been), I'd call it the centre-piece and mission statement of this wonderful immersive record. It seems to exemplify, the strange, merciless intensity of Chris Cornell, Soundgarden's singer, leader and surely driving force. The fire that drove him and seemingly consumed him eventually, leading to his death, or more accurately leading him to take his own life in a Detroit hotel room after a Soundgarden gig in 2017.
Magnificent is probably the best way to describe the song. It's incredibly ambitious and stands out even among a record that has so much ambition and range and so many peaks. Cornell always feels as if he's performing with his facial muscles utterly taut to form a rictus grin of the kind that primates form when they're excited or afraid. He never really seems happy. Such was his condition. But here he at least comes across as validated. As if he's expressed himself as completely as he wants to.
In terms of its lyrics Cornell described it thus:
'It's about trying to step out of being patterned and closed off and reclusive, which I've always had a problem with. 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. It's actually, in a way, a hopeful song. Especially the lines "One more time around/Might do it", which is basically saying, 'I tried today to understand and belong and get along with other people, and I failed, but I'll probably try again tomorrow.' A lot of people misinterpreted that song as a suicide-note song. Taking the word "live" too literally. "The Day I Tried to Live" means more like the day I actually tried to open up myself and experience everything that's going on around me as opposed to blowing it all off and hiding in a cave.'
The song is one of his and the band's great achievements. Given the ways things turned out, it's just a tragedy that it couldn't bring the man himself more succor.
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