ktfan
Newly Knighted
Posts: 9
|
Post by ktfan on Jul 2, 2020 15:49:12 GMT
When I first listened to Soundgarden 15 years ago, I got deeply into the 1980s records, and then very slowly came to appreciate the more commercially successful songs from the 1990s. My favourite Soundgarden record to this day is Screaming Life. I read that at least one other person feels that way- Kim Thayil, and he was credited for writing most of the material.
So just bearing that in mind, the thing I resented most about latter-day Soundgarden records was that Kim had no solo compositions on Badmotorfinger, and just one solo composition on Superunknown.
Has anyone ever come across any info about why Kim's songwriting credits diminished during the 1990s part of the band's career?
|
|
|
|
Post by teac5 on Jul 3, 2020 18:08:17 GMT
He got lazy 😁
|
|
ktfan
Newly Knighted
Posts: 9
|
Post by ktfan on Jul 3, 2020 23:06:02 GMT
 Yeah, perhaps that's it. I'll be honest, since I've been reading such a lot of magazine articles and interviews during my recent wave of Soundgarden nostalgia, I've been playing around with some conspiracy theories that don't hold up and weren't very nice to other people associated with the group... Was Chris Cornell too domineering? No, because his solo songs usually accounted for between 1/2 to 2/3 of an album. Was Michael Beinhorn down on the heavier stuff? No, because Matt Cameron contributed 3 stellar compositions to Superunknown, to go alongside 4th of July. Was Susan Silver wanting to cut her husband in on as much songwriting money as possible, hence Cornell/Thayil co-credits for My Wave & Superunknown? Uh, no! I read a quote from Chris describing Superunknown as being like Soundgarden's White Album, which is a lovely idea, but not without more tunes from Kim! Kim wasn't Soundgarden's Ringo! A double album with Chris's ballads, Ben's noise pop, Matt's progressive metal, and Kim's avant-jazz-punk, et al. That would've been utter perfection.
|
|
|
|
Post by teac5 on Jul 4, 2020 10:02:37 GMT
Have you also checked the B-sides of Superunknown? How many of them were written by Kim?
|
|
|
|
Post by vikko98 on Jul 4, 2020 10:54:05 GMT
I don't think it's more complicated than that the others started to contribute more material. Especially when Ben joined the band.
/Niklas
|
|
ktfan
Newly Knighted
Posts: 9
|
Post by ktfan on Jul 4, 2020 23:40:19 GMT
Have you also checked the B-sides of Superunknown? How many of them were written by Kim? None that I can find! The Superunknown B-sides were mostly live cuts and alternate takes, according to what I've read.
The "Echo of Miles" box set has a good handful of Cornell/Thayil co-credit songs, they seem to have been collected from all over time- some recorded in the 1990s, some recorded in the 2010s, though maybe written in the 1990s. I might see if I can get someone to buy me a copy for my birthday. I've given the tracks a quick preview and they sound quite good.
|
|
ktfan
Newly Knighted
Posts: 9
|
Post by ktfan on Jul 4, 2020 23:43:44 GMT
I don't think it's more complicated than that the others started to contribute more material. Especially when Ben joined the band. /Niklas Maybe. Ben's songs were like a ray of light to me. That's why I described them as "noise pop" when trying to think of this 4-sided beast that Superunknown could have been with a bit more input from Kim. They're not so much melodic, but with a lighter instrumental touch than cuts from the other band members, and a bit of lyrical relief from Chris's fixations with drowning, suicide, black days and black holes.
But Kim was so much fun. Screaming Life and Ultramega OK are so raw and off-the-wall. And "Get on the Snake" from Loud Love- lewd, silly, but great fun. When I listen to Chris's heavy stuff from Badmotorfinger, and Matt's heavy stuff from Superunknown, as great as most of it is, I just don't find much fun in there.
|
|
link
Newly Knighted
Posts: 3
|
Post by link on Jul 22, 2020 11:51:36 GMT
Having read some interviews of Kim I get the feeling he adds parts even when not credited as the songwriter. Here’s a quote, “Now, if you write a bass line that's doing some oompah tuba part, then you write a guitar line over it that's doing something different and kind of constructing chords or a melody over that, the way we would handle it - and I don't necessarily agree with it, it's just the way we've done things - we would look at the oompah bass part as what constitutes that segment of time that we call a chorus or a verse. And regardless if a melody is written over that part, which is distinct, the band, being drummer-oriented, would say that that melody is bound by that musical idea in that section that occupies the time starting at point A and ending at point B, and then you go on to the verse. See what I'm saying? As opposed to vertically, where you build instruments and musical parts over other musical parts. There are many bands that credit songwriting that way, but the way we do it is linearly and I think that's probably because the idea of drumming and time and seeing songs progress, it's that way” www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/kim-thayil-of-soundgardenRinging Star he is not lol, Thayil is too important to the sound of Soundgarden. Big, sludgy riffs. |
|
Yeah, perhaps that's it.
