71. Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden

They can’t be blamed for their fans: Soundgarden would never abide the treatment handed out to Bjork at the Big Day Out, having gone through enough tough times of their own, and Cornell just had something eminently polite about his demeanour, regardless of the state of loucheness he inflicted upon himself and the world.

Even Cobain had nothing bad to say about them, despite the success (which paved the way for his own, in a lot of ways), probably because, beneath the noise, there was something classic, almost beatlesque about their songs. Don’t believe me? Here’s the original, and it’s highly recommended for clearing the dust from your head, but I’ll end with Cornell’s solo version, just because.

I have to admit to being more than a little shaken when he killed himself – you just think there must be an age cut off for that sort of thing, even though mental illness can strike at any stage – and for a little while it put me back in that horrible period in the nineties when they were dropping like flies and we were all left wondering why, and sadly knowing the answer, more often than not. I just figured he was part of the firmament eventually, solid and impervious to everything, and then he was gone, leaving so much sadness behind him.

But let’s remember him like this instead: no one sings like you anymore.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltc5EsuyBh4