Temple of the Dog
Hunger Strike

THE REVIEW

They are all there in the studio. Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Jeff Ament on bass, Mike McReady on lead guitar, Matt Cameron on drums and his partner in Soundgarden as well as frontman Chris Cornell on vocals.

They have a handful of demo tracks, recorded to include in a tribute album for a departed friend, Andrew Wood, singer of Mother Love Bone and Chris's roommate.

He didn't make it out alive from the golden years, and an overdose wiped out his promising career. Now he's just "one of many dead junkies in Seattle with foam at their mouth". It's the same dust that enslaved him. But he's also much more than this, and everyone knows it. A magnetic frontman and sensitive songwriter. He was the Stardog Champion.

There is talk of a song that deals with the everlasting distinction between rich and poor. Of how the former exploits the latter to assert themselves.

There's a chord progression, notes that rise from the bass to observe a perhaps unreachable peak. The voice of the songwriter comes in:

I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence.

But I can't feed the weak when my cup's already overfilled.

On the table, the fire is cooking.

And they're baking children, the slaves are all working.

The blood on the table, the mouths are churning. But I'm hungry.

Cornell can reach impressive levels with his singing, but he struggles with the choruses and the part where he hits the lower pitches. He's frustrated.

Then, the singer of Mookie Blaylock, Eddie Vedder, who recently arrived there from San Diego, reflects on the fact that he has nothing to do with all this, doesn't know yet how many lives he will warm with his baritone timbre, but something drives him.

He decides to try to add more pathos to the piece. So he immerses himself in that atmosphere, approaching the microphone and with the beat of the drum, he goes as well:

I don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence.

And he continues until the verse where his voice and Chris's highs meet and blend.

And I’m hungry.

This is the phrase that marks the cohesion between the two souls, there to sweat, scream, and complain together.

Everything in this world is inevitably part of a cycle.

Andrew is dead, the eighties are dead. But their souls rise again in different attire.

And everything begins anew.