Hangin' Out In 100b

Since we’re having a bit of a Grunge revival here at 100b, we might as well talk about one of my favorite Grunge albums – Temple Of The Dog.

Temple Of The Dog was, I guess, a Grunge supergroup – but not at the time they recorded their one and only album. Made of members of Soundgarden and the project that would soon become Pearl Jam, Temple Of The Dog formed for this one album as a tribute to Andrew Wood, singer of the Seattle band Mother Love Bond. Wood was Chris Cornell’s roommate and a bandmate of Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament’s and had tragically died in 1990 of a heroin overdose, just before Mother Love Bone’s debut album Apple was released.

Joined by Soundgarden’s drummer Matt Cameron as well as Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder (who had recently joined with Ament and Gossard on new project Mookie Blaylock, later Pearl Jam), Temple Of The Dog got together in late 1990 to record songs that Chris Cornell had written, some in reaction to Wood’s death (“Say Hello 2 Heaven”, “Reach Down”). The album was released in April 1991, but wasn’t exactly a huge success. Until over a year later, that is, after Grunge had broken into the charts and the album was re-released with “Hunger Strike” as its lead single.

“Hunger Strike” did pretty well for the band (who, by then, no longer existed), reaching #4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. This is the song you might remember from way back then, but it really should’ve been a much bigger hit. Temple Of The Dog is a great album, a hidden treasure that deserves more attention than it’s gotten, but “Hunger Strike” is really something special. A stunning song to begin with, the combination of Chris Cornell’s unreachable wail and Eddie Vedder’s so-deep steadiness is almost magical. It’s like they found a way to make pain and calm work together to create something of true beauty.

   Temple Of The Dog – Hunger Strike
   Temple Of The Dog – All Night Thing