Wild to think that Soundgarden’s Down on the Upside is approaching its thirtieth anniversary. This is an important album to me, because the years between Superunknown and this (1994 – 1996) represent the peak of my adolescent drug use, hallucinogenics in particular.
The years after? I should have known better.
Giving these recordings a close listening-to for the first time in decades made me realize I’ve been singing Dusty, lyrics from which the album takes its title, wrong. In the warped vaults of my memory, this song went a lot harder than it did. Whether that’s a good or bad side effect of drug use I’ll leave for you to decide.
I’ll forever miss Chris Cornell.
2025.08.15