Cochise -- Audioslave

I've pretty much been a fan of Chris Cornell's entire career. Soundgarden wasn't the best band to come out of the Seattle grunge movement, but they were solid. Temple of the Dog, Cornell's side project with other grunge-masters was an excellent tribute to a fallen comrade. When Soundgarden broke up in the late 90's, Cornell produced a solo album that didn't get much attention, but I found amazing. I think it's always been his voice. He has a perfect rock star voice...gravelly and deep...able to reach places most of us would end up in a coughing fit if we tried.

On the other side, Rage Against the Machine was never one of my favorite bands, but I always dug their sound, especially Tom Morello's warbling guitar work. When Zack de la Rocha left, the rest of the band joined with Cornell to make a new entity, Audioslave. I heard the first single when I saw the video by Mark Romanek, which appropriately beckoned in the opening frame, PLAY LOUD.

Opening with a building of chopper sounds, drums and light guitar, it crashes into the riff as Morello takes over. The song has a swaying, ground-level quality to it. When Cornell joins in, you know you have the makings of a classic rock tune. I can't say that the rest of Audioslave's catalog is as impressive, but this is a fine track in its own right.

On a great side note, when I made my first mix CD, Martian War Songs, this was the lead track.

2/365

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction -- The Rolling Stones

I don't feel like I really "discovered" music until I was a teenager in the 90s, but I did get some exposure to it in my youth. Being a mostly studious (re: nerdy) lad in the 80s, I didn't gain the nostalgic appreciation of that era's pop scene. Most of the music I heard was what my mom listened to. She was a fan of oldies and ordered those cheesy record (as in vinyl) collections you'd see on TV.

I had one of those little plastic Fisher Price record players that was mostly used for those read along record books featuring Disney movies or Star Wars cartoon stories in easy doses. My mom dug up some old .45 singles one day and gave them to me. "Satisfaction" was one. I'm not sure if I even knew who The Rolling Stones were, but if you'd asked me back then if I was a Beatles or Stones fan, I'd go with the latter just because of this tune.

It's not their best song, but it has a great guitar hook that drives in from the beginning. It just sounds old, but you know it doesn't quite belong in the time it was recorded either. It's edgy and strutting and when Mick spits out the title, followed by "I can't get no...girly action" even a pre-teen knows he's craving something a little sweeter than a Snickers.

1/365

Mic Check

As I was finishing the 29x365 project, I became aware of several of its participants starting a new 365 concept...this one even more appealing to me. One of the few things I love more than writing is music...so a writing project about music that has influenced and moved me is a marriage akin to those old Reese's commercials with everyone screaming about getting their chocolate in your peanut butter and vice-versa. (Personally, I think that was a vague sexual allusion, but I'm a freak.)

The idea here is to write a daily entry on a song that I'm familiar with and why. It could be something I simply love...it could be tied to a specific person I've known, a time, a place, a feeling. Music is quite possibly the greatest form of human expression and few people could (or should) say that it doesn't touch them in some way on a daily basis.

I can't promise a post a day. I'll try, but life occasionally gets hectic and I occasionally get lazy. Whenever possible, I'm going to include some album (or single) art or stock band photo. Said images are the property of whoever took or distributed them, naturally. I just like the idea of sprucing up the entries a bit.

I know musical taste is intensely subjective, but I encourage anyone to seek out these songs and just give them a listen for yourself. You never know when you'll find your new favorite song. My "genre" is somewhat difficult to define as I can find gold in any kind of music. Generally speaking, I refrain from country and rap/R&B, but there are always exceptions. I own well over 200 CDs (possibly another 100 burned CDs) and my computer is currently holding just shy of 513 hours of musical goodness. I often put WMP on random and just let the music flow. I listen to music at work, bringing in CDs and listening to online resources like Launchcast, Pandora and "local" station CD101. If I could pipe music into my head 24/7, I probably would.

That's enough rambling...on to the tunes!

John