Badmotorfinger

Certain Songs #2385: Soundgarden – “Jesus Christ Pose”

June 17, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Badmotorfinger
Year: 1991

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Even though the breakdown of Certain Songs by year don’t yet support it, it has been my long-held belief that 1991 was my favorite year for music. And specifically the three months from September – November of 1991, from when I could easily list two-dozen iconic albums in every possible genre, but instead will just list the ones that would seem to be in competition with Badmotorfinger, which came out in October: Use Your Illusion I&II, Trompe LeMonde, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Girlfriend Nevermind, Raise, Weld, Bandwagonesque, Loveless & Achtung Baby!. That’s a lot of great music (and the Red Hot Chili Peppers) in just three months!

Certain Songs #2384: Soundgarden – “Outshined”

June 16, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Badmotorfinger
Year: 1991

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Probably Soundgarden’s most famous song until “Black Hole Sun,” the bulldozing “Outshined” is a massive conglomeration of bad feelings and badder riffs, and one of the first times Chris Cornell wrote a set of lyrics that was wholly personal.

And things weren’t going all that well, even if his band could easily navigate the tricky 7/4 time signature that was as nearly as unsettling as the lyrics.

Certain Songs #2383: Soundgarden – “Rusty Cage”

June 15, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Badmotorfinger
Year: 1991

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Badmotorfinger is where Soundgarden started to put it all together. With departed founding bassist Hiro Yamamoto having been replaced by Ben Shepherd, Soundgarden got weirder and more focused at the same time, writing — and arranging — songs that earned titles like “Room a Thousand Years Wide” and “Mind Riot;” songs where anytime you listened hard to what any of the four players was actually doing, you’d be like “what the fuck?” while nodding along.