There are many stories you can hear about music in Seattle. This one, the story of Temple of the Dog, happens to be true.
Temple of the Dog begins with a cassette tape containing two songs that came out of the loss of Chris Cornell's friend and roommate Andrew Wood (lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone). Wood had great talent, but people are complicated, and he struggled with cocaine and heroin, which landed him in rehab in 1989. In March 1990, Wood suffered a relapse and died at the age of 24. It was, as Cornell would say, "the death of the innocence of the scene". Cornell was devastated. "Chris and Andy had a very deep relationship," noted Matt Cameron of Soundgarden. Soundgarden was on tour when the news broke.
Out of this deep tragedy came life, and new musical connections. What Cornell initially thought was a tribute song with the surviving Love Bone players developed into a larger song cycle. Songs like "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Reach Down" were mournful elegies, but like Andy Wood himself, they were fearless. "I had no goal for these songs," Cornell reflected. "I was compelled to write them, and there they were - written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy. My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and maybe we could release them as a tribute."
Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament of Mother Love Bone began playing with Mike McCready, who had previously played in a band called Shadow, while Matt Cameron of Soundgarden was brought in to play drums on some demos. Three of these songs, written in collaboration with Cornell, found their way onto the album Temple of the Dog. That's how it was in Seattle back then: creative sparks flew all over the city, regardless of who was in which band. Cornell wrote a few more songs to round off the material for the rest of the album.
The project became a true collaboration. The group went into London Bridge Studio with no commercial expectations and recorded ten tracks in fifteen days. It was, as Gossard later remarked, "the simplest and most beautiful record we've ever been involved in". Cornell added: "Temple was about making an album just for the fun of it. We didn't worry about what anyone outside our circle of friends would think of it. It was the first and perhaps only stress-free album we all made.
Gossard, Ament and McCready formed a new band at the same time, which would become known as Pearl Jam more than six months later. A singer from San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who was bidding to lead the Gossard/Ament/McCready project, came into the studio to do background vocals on three of the Temple songs. When Cornell felt that another song, "Hunger Strike," needed a duet, Vedder was brought in, and the result is magical.
The songs on the 1991 album 'Temple of the Dog' were written by Andrew Wood as well as Chris Cornell and the rest of the band. The album's lasting impact and the robust individual musical journeys that followed are the result of fully embracing the spirit of collaboration in both music and life - that's the Temple of the Dog lesson. And as with everything in Seattle, those words, that music and that loss belonged to everyone. They still do. And always will.
25th Anniversary 180g 2LP black vinyl pressing.
Tracklisting
Side A:
1. Say Hello 2 Heaven
2. Reach Down
Side B:
3. Hunger Strike
4. Pushin Forward Back
5. Call Me A Dog
6. Times of Trouble
Side C:
7. Wooden Jesus
8. Your Saviour
9. Four Walled World
10. All Night Thing
Side D:
Etched
