Chris Cornell (1964-2017)

[|iR|Focalor]

The spoonman ...is dead. That sucks. Always liked Soundgarden and Audioslave, and especially what he brought to those two bands. (Tom Morello is overrated imo)

According to an article I read, he was found with some kinda exercise band (I guess a headband maybe?) around his neck, which was apparently looped through a carabiner clip, and then I guess that carabiner was hooked either into the hole in the strike plate of a door frame where the latch bolt fits, or maybe it was hooked over the door hinge.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that it's not a "usual" suicide by hanging. Usually if someone's going to hang themselves, they tie something around a ceiling fan or a light fixture overhead, then put their head through the noose, then kick over a chair they're standing on and hang with their body completely suspended. Because even if you WANT to die REALLY REALLY BAD, if you have a chair or something under you, you're probably going to instinctively stand back up and relieve the pressure so you can breathe. If he was in a sitting position against a doorframe as this information suggests, I'm almost led to believe that suicide was not the intent.

I'm kinda wondering if this wasn't another David Carradine style masturbating accident. (That's fucking horrible to think about, isn't it, haha! That we all remember David Carradine for that.) I'd be willing to bet that it was, and his family doesn't want the world to think of his final moments being... uh... you know... like THAT. I mean, would YOU want to be remembered that way? Some of us wouldn't give a shit either way, but whatever.

From what little info we have so far, an excessive dose of anxiety medication is believed to be what motivated him to kill himself. I don't believe it though. I think the large dose of medication was taken for recreational purposes, and while in the midst of ANOTHER recreational one-man activity, he passed out and it led to him accidentally choking himself to death.

[quadz]

From what little info we have so far, an excessive dose of anxiety medication is believed to be what motivated him to kill himself. I don't believe it though. I think the large dose of medication was taken for recreational purposes, and while in the midst of ANOTHER recreational one-man activity, he passed out and it led to him accidentally choking himself to death.

Could be. But something was taking its toll on him. He was in a veritable walking coma, in the footage I've seen from their final show—certainly compared to the vitality he displayed when the wife and I saw Soundgarden a few years ago.

This was the final song of the night on the 17th (he would be dead later that evening.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98oF1ldq39A
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/98oF1ldq39A/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/98oF1ldq39A"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/98oF1ldq39A" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/98oF1ldq39A</a>

[LedZep]

I just noticed this thread. Have a fucked up story.

Basically, right around the time of his death (within a couple hours, as it turned out!), I decided to watch The Cable Man, since I'd never seen it. Figured hey, Jim Carrey, Jack Black are in it. Might be a cool one. In one of the scenes, I look at JB's shirt, and I'm like hey! Superunknown shirt! Recognized it instantly. Was thinking of telling my buddy, who'd be interested in this kind of stuff when I got back to Canada. Too bad. It was that buddy who I got a message from when I woke up the next day. Told me Chris Cornell passed away. What are the fucking odds...
Kind of fucked with my head when I looked up the article, did the math, and found out that my thought must have occurred within hours of his death.

Fell on Black Days is the most beautiful song on this planet hands fucking down. And it's from that very album, Superunknown. Fun fact: literally HALF of the songs on that album are radio singles. Just goes to show how good it is.

Rest in peace Chris Cornell. His music ought to be remembered and looked back upon for centuries to come.

[|iR|Focalor]

Probably most of the songs use strange open tunings too. Think I saw a Premier Guitar "rig rundown" video of Kim Thayils live gear, and his guitar locker consisted of lots of different Guild S100's and Guild T-birds in several differnt odd tunings. And I bet Kim Thayils the kinda guy who wants fresh strings EVERY SHOW. His poor guitar tech. From what I remember, Chris Cornell's rig was much simpler. Maybe only 3 guitars, mostly Gibson ES-whatever hollowbodies, no effects, just straight into the amp.

[LedZep]

Yes! Off that same album, I know that 'The Day I Tried To Live' uses open E 
Until my friend pointed that out to me, I've never even heard of open E. Only open G, since it's a traditional Russian 7-String tuning.
Really creative music, Soundgarden. Really ups the ante on grunge, too, since it typically had a much simpler style.

[|iR|Focalor]

...grunge...

Pearl Jam. What's in a name?

For the longest time, I thought it was just your typical stupid pointless band name that made no sense whatsoever. (Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, etc) Or at the very least, maybe it meant in their early days the drummer played on a Pearl brand drum kit and they'd jam together, thus Pearl Jam. But then recently I think I was watching an episode of Weeds where someone referred to semen as "pearl jam", and I was like, ".....Oh! Oh my god, I can't believe it took me this long to get that. Facepalm." But yeah, totally makes sense now that Eddie Veder would be in a band named after the substance he loves to gargle while trying to sing.

That rig rundown video I was referring to might've been a few years old. Just from the still on that video of Cornell's last gig, looks like he's playing a Gibson Les Paul Standard, and quite possibly one of the '59 Les Paul reissues that Gibson is hocking unscrupulously lately. Many of these big name pro players like Brad Whitford from Aerosmith, Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick, Joe Bonamosa, and pleeeenty of others, they all swear that the Les Paul 59 reissues are simply the greatest Les Paul models ever built, but I kinda disagree. I haven't had someone crazy enough to let me play their real 1959 Les Paul that would be valued anywhere from $250,000 on up to 1mil or more... obviously... but I have had the opportunity to play a 1958 and a 1959 Les Paul reissue, and yeah, they sound and feel/play terrific, (especially the 59 with the rounded neck profile I like so much, but that's just personal preference really, has no bearing on the "quality" of the guitar really). I'm not sure about "ALL" of the in's and out's and what goes into producing these models. Supposedly every component matches what the used to produce the sunburst Les Paul's back in the late 50s, from the wire shielding material, all the way down to the specific composition of the copper wire used to wind around the pickups, and even the type of plastic used for any plastic cosmetic parts. That kinda shit... might add up to a more expensive guitar, but in my opinion, NAH. Not what they're asking for the damn things.

And if you've played a Les Paul before and KNOW how they're supposed to sound, and then go to a Guitar Center and pick a current year model of a Les Paul Standard or Les Paul Classic off the wall and give it a whirl, you'll instantly hear that something is very off with it. They have live humans set up the guitars before they ship out, which is more than what most manufacturers do, and usually they do a decent job of getting it playing right before sending it on it's way. But it's not a setup problem. Another thing you know about Les Paul's if you've ever played one before is how incredibly heavy they are compared to many other guitars. They're made of a really fat piece of mahogany that's about 18 inches long, 13 inches wide and 2 inches deep (just measured mine). That's quite a large hunk of wood, about 12 pounds just in the body wood alone, not including hardware and the neck. It gets heavy during a long session. So lately Gibson's had the bright idea to route out weight relief holes and chambers throughout the body backs to lighten the guitars. It's helped lighten them quite a bit. But it's also made them sound like smaller thinner guitars as well.

I think I lucked out on the model I got. It was a dirt cheap poor man's Les Paul model, but it was pretty much everything I was looking for at the time. It sounds very bright and open, mostly because of the weight relief as well as not having a thin satin finish instead of the usual thicker gloss finish. However, I've noticed that the hardware components are obviously kinda cheap. The pickup switch goes retarded and you get no sound until you flip it around if you leave the guitar sitting unplayed for a couple of weeks. The pickups sound okay, but they could definitely be better. I think the volume knob wiring is fucked up somehow too. For some reason when you have the bridge or neck volume knob all the way off (I forget which one) it cuts the sound all the way off to the other pickup as well, even if you have ONLY the other pickup selected with the switch. Pretty sure it ain't supposed to operate like that.

Anyway, I was at a high dollar guitar shop in Roswell a few months back called Righteous Guitars. They had some used 1990's Les Paul Classics and Standard Premium Plus tops. I also played on a current rare custom shop Les Paul zebrawood top as well as a rare custom shop Les Paul sunken treasure model. (made from wood salvaged from some ship wreck). Both of the current rare custom shop Les Paul's were priced at something like 5,000 or more, while the old mid-90's Les Paul's were just under 2,000. And I swear on a stack of bibles, the used 90's Les Pauls sounded 1000x better than the new custom shop ones.

I was kinda wanting to buy another Les Paul at some point, one of the fancier Standard models or maybe even a Les Paul Custom. But from the looks of things, it's gonna have to be a one-off fluke of a Les Paul to convince me to take it home. I think I'd be happier buying a beat-up less pretty used one. They don't make 'em like they used to. And if they do (as in the case of the 58,59,60 reissues), they want WAAAAAAY too much for the fucking things.

Wow, that turned into a fucking novel.