November 1 - Reach Down

March 19, 1990. Soundgarden was touring behind 1989's Louder Than Love, Nirvana had yet to find and team up with Dave Grohl as their ultimate drummer, and Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood dies of a heroin overdose. Andy Wood's roommate, Chris Cornell, the singer in Soundgarden, was home just long enough to process the loss through writing two songs, dropped them off for the remaining members of Mother Love Bone, then went back to tour.

November and December of 1990. Cornell hits the studio with Mother Love Bone's Jeff Ament (bass)  and Stone Gossard (guitar). He brings Matt Cameron, Soundgarden's drummer, and Ament and Gossard had been playing with guitarist Mike McCready, who rounded out the lineup. On one track, the iconic Hunger Strike, a young singer named Eddie Vedder helped out on vocals. They called themselves Temple of the Dog, and their one and only album was released 25 years ago, in 1991.

I was a huge fan of both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, which at that time made up 40 and 60 percent of the band respectively (today it is 40 and 80 percent respectively, as Matt Cameron plays the drums in both bands - it is Pearl Jam with Chris Cornell), so as soon as I heard about it, I bought it. I literally wore out my first copy of the album, that's how good I found it, and today I picked one of Cornell's initially penned songs, Reach Down.