Behind The Music With JB

TEMPLE OF THE DOG - HUNGER STRIKE

Temple of the Dog began when Chris Cornell of Soundgarden wrote two songs in honor of his good friend Andrew Wood, who died of a he**in overdose in March 1990. Wood was kept on life support for three days after he overdosed, during which time Cornell and his band mates came to see him. Wood was in a promising Seattle band called Mother Love Bone with Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, who were forming their new band that would become Pearl Jam. Cornell teamed up with them and guitarist Mike McCready with the intention of recording some of Wood's solo songs along with Cornell's two tribute tracks. Responding to concerns that they were somehow exploiting Wood's work, the guys decided to release an album of all original material in tribute to Wood, and called the band Temple of the Dog after a Mother Love Bone lyric from their song "Man of Golden Words."

"Hunger Strike" was the last song recorded for the album; Chris Cornell wrote it because they had only nine tracks and he has a compulsive distaste for odd numbers. Describing the song in the Pearl Jam Twenty collection, he said, "I was wanting to express the gratitude for my life but also disdain for people where that's not enough, where they want more. There's no way to really have a whole lot more than you need usually without taking from somebody else that can't really afford to give it to you. It's sort of about taking advantage of a person or people who really don't have anything."
The same verse is repeated twice in this song, as Cornell felt he had said everything he could on the subject with those words. Once these verse lyrics are out of the way, it's all chorus and bridge, which works thanks to the second vocalist on the song: Eddie Vedder.

Temple of the Dog recorded the song on the very day Vedder flew in from San Diego to meet with his new bandmates in what would become Pearl Jam: October 8, 1990. It was the first time he met any of the guys, and for most of the sessions, he kept to himself (Vedder was chosen based on a tape he sent to the guys where he added vocals to some of their tracks). Chris Cornell planned to sing both the high and low parts of the "Going Hungry" chorus by himself with the help of overdubs, but he was struggling with the low register. In a defining moment, Vedder stepped up to the microphone and sang the low parts of the chorus, which made the song click for Cornell.

With two distinct voices, Cornell could now sing the verse lyrics at the beginning of the song, and Vedder could follow with the same lyrics, giving it a different sound. With both voices on the chorus, the song really came together and became the highlight of the album. It was a huge moment for Eddie, as he interjected himself into Cornell's song without coming off as arrogant, and gained the respect of his new bandmates in the process. It was Vedder's first recorded vocal for a major record, and it proved to those in the room that he understood their sound and was willing to contribute any way he could, even if it wasn't for his band.

Blind Melon bass player Brad Smith wrote this song before he formed the band. He had moved from Mississippi to Los Angeles, where he fell into a funk. Brad told Songfacts: "The song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have really, in a way, nothing."

At the time, Brad was dating a girl who was going through depression (she would sleep through sunny days and complain when it didn't rain), and for a while he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective. He later realized that he was also writing about it himself. "No Rain" has a very intriguing video featuring a girl dressed in a bee costume. The bee girl, Heather DeLoach, was 10 years old when she starred in it, creating one of the most enduring images on MTV. The concept for the video was inspired by the Blind Melon album cover, which features a 1975 photo of Georgia Graham, the younger sister of Blind Melon drummer Glenn Graham. DeLoach was the first to audition for the role, and because she resembled Graham's sister so much, director Samuel Bayer (who also directed "Smells Like Teen Spirit") chose her. The bee girl parlayed the role into a credible acting career, appearing in the movie Balls of Fury, a remake of the Shirley Temple film A Little Princess, and the TV shows ER and Reno911. She got married in 2017. DeLoach recalled to MTV News her audition for the bee girl: "They told me Sam didn't look at any other tapes. I went in with my hair in braids and wearing those chunky glasses, because they said to look nerdy. My mom said we had to find some glasses before we went in, so we ran to a local mall right before the audition and bought them, and Sam liked them so much they're the same ones I used in the video." The video made #22 on MTV's Greatest Videos Ever Made countdown at the end of 1999. This was a hit on a variety of formats. It reached #1 on the AOR (classic rock), Modern Rock and Metal charts.
The first performances of this song were on Venice Beach, where Brad Smith would do his busking. "That's where the lyric and the song was inspired from, is just having to write songs," he said. "Then being in the state of mind I was in and having to come up with material to go play down on the beach for change. I played that song on the beach for change for over a year before Shannon Hoon actually joined the band and really made that song a hit." The band didn't always appreciate this song. When they opened some shows for The Rolling Stones in 1994, they left it off their setlist. Their tour manager, Paul Cummings, explained: "They had become one of those bands that hate their hit - at least at that point. I couldn't understand it, but it's not my call. That probably would have been the only song that crowd would have recognized." A hallmark of Brad Smith's lyrics is a feeling of melancholy, which doesn't always match the music he puts to the song. He describes the music to this song as a "jaunty little happy halfway island beat," which sounds like "Don't Worry, Be Happy." He explained: "A lot of my songs come from a darker place. And if you just met me walking down the street, you'd say, 'Oh, you're such a happy guy, Brad. Why the dark songs?' I'm like, 'I don't know.' For me, it just has more meaning if you can get inside someone's soul and identify with them on a heavier level and try to connect with them on that level. Because when you're sad and you're down, you're the most vulnerable, and you feel the most alone." Blind Melon's songs, including this one, were credited to the entire band even when one member wrote the vast majority of the song, as Brad Smith did with this one. Brad says that even though he wrote it, lead singer Shannon Hoon took it to a new level with his vocal. "That was a good song, and Shannon made it a great song," he told Songfacts. In 1993, Heather DeLoach reprised her role as Bee Girl in the Weird Al Yankovic video for "Bedrock Anthem" (a parody of "Give It Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers). The inertia described in this song sounds typical of the stoner ennui like that described in "Because I Got High," but you can't blame this one on the herb. "I wasn't even on drugs or drinking," Brad Smith told Songfacts. "It was just a tough point in my life. And the cool thing about that song, I think a lot of people do interpret those lyrics properly and can connect with it on that level, where 'I don't understand why I sleep all day and I start to complain that there's no rain.' It's just a line about, I'd rather it be raining so I can justify myself by laying in the bed and not doing anything. But it's a sunny day, so go out and face it." In 2003, this was used in a commercial where a girl in a hot dog costume meets a guy in a Pepsi costume. Love blooms.
Pearl Jam has a song called "Bee Girl" that they first performed in 1994. With lyrics like, "Bee girl, you're gonna die. You don't wanna be famous, you wanna be shy," the track was seen as a very accurate warning to Shannon Hoon that he was on a path of destruction. The song can be found on their Lost Dogs rarities album.

Folk singer-songwriter John Prine explained in a Performing Songwriter interview how this track was sparked from a John Lennon tune and evolved into a poignant song about growing old:

"I heard the John Lennon song 'Across The Universe,' and he had a lot of reverb on his voice. I was thinking about hollering into a hollow log, trying to get through to somebody - 'Hello in there.' That was the beginning thought, then it went to old people

I've always had an affinity for old people. I used to help a buddy with his newspaper route, and I delivered to a Baptist old peoples home where we'd have to go room-to-room. And some of the patients would kind of pretend that you were a grandchild or nephew that had come to visit, instead of the guy delivering papers. That always stuck in my head.

It was all that stuff together, along with that pretty melody. I don't think I've done a show without singing 'Hello in There.' Nothing in it wears on me."
Prine on choosing the name Loretta for the song's aging wife (as told to Bruce Po***ck): "The names mean a lot. You know, like Loretta in 'Hello In There.' I wanted to pick a name that could be an old person's name, but I didn't want it to stick out so much. People go through phases one year where a lot of them will name their kids the same... and I was just thinking that it was very possible that the kind of person I had in mind could be called Loretta. And it's not so strange that it puts her in a complete time period."

As for the name of old factory friend Rudy, Prine explains: "We used to live in this three-room flat and across the street there was this dog who would never come in and the dog's name was Rudy. And the lady used to come out at five o'clock every night and go 'Ru-dee! Ru-dee!' And I was sitting there writing and suddenly I go 'Rudy! Yeah! I got that.'"

Don’t Follow - Alice In Chains

"Don't Follow" is a sad conversation partly sung by guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell and partly sung by vocalist Layne Staley. The split isn't merely an artistic novelty. The parts represent two halves of a parting discussion. Jar of Flies producer Toby Wright opened this window into the song when, in Alice in Chains: The Untold Story by David de Sola, he explained that Cantrell developed the "two-sides-to-the-story type of thing" split-vocal concept. In the song, Cantrell is trying to break off his relationship with Staley because it's become too painful to try to save him from his self-destruction. It begins with Cantrell singing the opening verse:
Hey, I ain't never coming home
Hey, I'll just wander my own road
Hey, hey, I can't meet you here tomorrow, no
Say goodbye, don't follow
Misery so hollow
Hey you, you're livin' life full throttle
Hey you, pass me down that bottle, yeah
Hey, hey you, you can't shake me 'round now
I get so lost and don't know how, yeah
And it hurts to care, I'm going down

Staley then comes in, speaking as the wayward other half.

Ooh, forgot my woman, lost my friends
Things I'd done and where I've been
Sleep in sweat, the mirror's cold
See my face, it's growin' old
Scared to death, no reason why
Do whatever to get me by
Think about the things I said
Read the page, it's cold and dead
And take me home
Yeah, take me home, oh oh
Take me home
Take me home, yeah
Take me home

The sad, closing response that meets Staley's desperate request is poignant in its brevity: "Say goodbye, don't follow." The story works as a universal tale of people growing apart, but it rings too true to the actual Alice in Chains situation to believe it was anything but biographical. At the time they recorded the song for their third EP, Jar of Flies, Staley was deeply mired in he**in addiction. Problems started to arise with the previous recording, Dirt, but now they were coming to a head. Staley entered rehab just after they completed the EP, but it didn't take. He quickly relapsed while rehearsing for a tour with Danzig, Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, and Fight. AIC had to drop out and were replaced by Candlebox. His final performance with the band came in 1996 after a rocky couple of years. He died from a speedball overdose in 2002. Cantrell was the driving force behind AIC. Disciplined, focused, and ambitious, he led the band to fame. He and Staley were close friends, but Cantrell also had a business to run and decisions to make. The biographical interpretation also makes sense knowing that AIC from their inception determined to make emotionally raw music that drew directly from their lived experiences. It was their philosophy that only honest, personal songs could be performed with real conviction. It's strange to think of Cantrell and Staley writing and recording this song of separation while still together, but it wouldn't be the first time such a thing happened. "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac had Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks singing about their own breakup essentially as it was happening. "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes was performed at every show long after frontman Alex Ebert and frontwoman Jade Castrinos broke up.
Staley never performed "Don't Follow" live with AIC. The band didn't perform it at all until September 25, 2006, nearly 10 years after its release and four years after Staley died. New AIC vocalist William DuVall sang it, as he did for its many performances during the 2006-2007 AIC reunion tour. This is the theme song for the Instagram TV series titled Mind Wide Open. Lily Cornell Silver, wife of deceased Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, hosts the series. "Don't Follow" was the third single released off Jar of Flies, following "No Excuses" and "I Stay Away." After going out on October 1994, it spent seven weeks on the US Mainstream Rock chart and peaked at #25 on the week of December 3.