Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Temple of the Dog
Label: A&M Records / Interscope
Release: 1991
Length: 54:59
Rating: 4/5
The story behind Temple of the Dog is actually pretty sad. The project was kicked off in 1990 by Chris Cornell, a close friend of Andrew Wood, the Mother Love Bone vocalist who died that March. Wood died of a heroin overdose at just twenty-four, right before his band’s debut came out. A few days after Wood’s death, Cornell headed off on a European tour with his main band Soundgarden, and that’s where he started writing songs in memory of his late friend. Cornell wanted to give these songs a special stamp, so he didn’t release them under the Soundgarden name and gathered a different crew around him instead. He brought in two former Mother Love Bone members, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, and the lineup was rounded out by drummer Matt Cameron (then of Soundgarden, now of Pearl Jam) and Mike McCready as lead guitarist, since Cornell gave up the guitar for this project. Then little-known singer Eddie Vedder joined as a backing vocalist, which means most of the Pearl Jam lineup was in the room — only drummer Dave Krusen was missing. The album was put together at the end of 1990, a month after Pearl Jam’s first gig and a good year before the “Ten” explosion. The musicians took the name Temple of the Dog from a line in the Mother Love Bone song “Man of Golden Words”, which came from Wood’s own pen.
Since the music on the album is dedicated to a departed friend, the songs are loaded with emotion, and you can feel the huge void left by that loss. Chris Cornell, who wrote most of the material, leaned on the legacy of the Mother Love Bone debut, hit the brakes, toned down the aggressive, metallic sound of his Soundgarden, and came up with songs that serve as a fitting farewell to his former roommate Andrew Wood. Slow and tender, the kind that really get to you. Stone Gossard, the other songwriter on the album, also managed to pour his soul into his three tracks and so played a decisive part in shaping the one and only Temple of the Dog album.
The very presence of a banjo and harmonica is proof that this isn’t a typical alt/garage rock project — there’s more thoughtfulness and feel for songwriting here. The snotty punk-rock charge of the Mudhoney or Screaming Trees type, where grunge started growing out of in the late eighties, is something you can forget about with Temple of the Dog. The opener “Say Hello 2 Heaven”, with its relaxed tempo, twin-guitar interplay that for a moment recalls the old Lynyrd Skynyrd school, and bluesy vocals, introduces all the album’s trademarks. Next comes “Reach Down”, the album’s centerpiece at eleven minutes. Besides the two-part harmony chorus, the star of the track is a long instrumental jam with a standout bass line and both guitars trading licks, and the ending captures Cornell experimenting with his vocals up in the high register. The first two songs on the album were written in the days right after Wood’s death, so they hammer home the sense of loss and the untamed outburst of grief even more. On “Hunger Strike”, the then-unknown Eddie Vedder steps up to the mic for the first time, having stepped in for Cornell because of recording trouble — and they hit the jackpot with that one. Thanks in large part to Vedder’s distinctive voice, backed by Cornell in the background, the song became a huge hit. Most of the track is carried by dreamy guitars, and the heavier riff that kicks in after the chorus has a whiff of Alice in Chains. The softened-up dreaminess gets shaken awake by the more dynamic “Pushin’ Forward Back”, one of four songs where Vedder helps out on backing vocals. In the melancholic “Call Me a Dog” the atmosphere is led by acoustic guitar and even some piano, and in that spirit the album carries on through a slightly weaker second half until the very end.
Thanks to the two interwoven guitars, the songs are lively and varied, but as a rule the biggest slice of the pie goes to Cornell’s vocals, which, with an immersive performance and some singing at several pitches when needed, put himself and his voice front and center. The mastermind behind the band has an exceptional feel for songwriting and sensitivity, and so “Temple of the Dog” delivers without a single miss. “Temple of the Dog” isn’t your typical grunge album. Cornell took the Mother Love Bone sound as his starting point, calmed it down, stripped out a big chunk of the hard rock side, and replaced it with blues-tinged guitars in the vein of Led Zeppelin, with an occasional touch of Southern rock on top, and this whole conglomerate got thoroughly kneaded by that typical grunge melancholy.
Despite the album’s quality, it sold only a few tens of thousands of copies after release, which in the gigantic American market isn’t even enough to make the charts. It was only the mainstream success of Pearl Jam’s debut “Ten” half a year later, and the label “A&M Records” deciding to push Temple of the Dog harder because of it, that turned the crowd’s attention to this album too, which belatedly brought it platinum status and a million copies sold, and it even landed among the hundred best-selling albums of 1992. So the album was out, the project’s goal was achieved, and Temple of the Dog called it a day without ever playing a proper gig.
Although lyrically Temple of the Dog only directly touch on Wood’s memory a handful of times, you can feel his presence throughout the dreamy music. Chris Cornell and company really hit the jackpot here. Listening to the album, the world stops for just under an hour. It’s more than a fitting tribute to the musician who helped shape the beginnings of the grunge era. Andrew Wood, rest in peace.
Lineup
Chris Cornell – vocals, banjo, harmonica
Stone Gossard – guitar
Jeff Ament – bass guitar
Mike Mccready – guitar
Matt Cameron – drums, percussion
Eddie Vedder – backing vocals on “Pushin Forward Back”, “Your Saviour”, and “Four Walled World”, vocals on “Hunger Strike”
Production
Rick Parashar, Temple of the Dog
Tracklist
1. Say Hello 2 Heaven
2. Reach Down
3. Hunger Strike
4. Pushin Forward Back
5. Call Me a Dog
6. Times of Trouble
7. Wooden Jesus
8. Your Saviour
9. Four Walled World
10. All Night Thing
