Nothing was off the table from day one when Soundgarden entered the studio. Regardless of their pedigree as grunge heavyweights, the foursome was by far the most eclectic band to come out of the Seattle scene, gravitating as much towards punk as they did classic rock mainstays like Led Zeppelin. Although Chris Cornell may have been prolific in his time, one of the band’s signature tunes went through a long gestation period to get right.
Then again, writing songs had quickly become second nature to the hard rock frontman. Before Soundgarden had even formed, Cornell would use his tunes as a form of therapy, writing down the innermost thoughts he could never articulate when talking to his friends.
Even when not working within the confines of Soundgarden, Cornell could still deliver the greatest songs and vocal performances of anyone’s career, crafting songs like ‘Seasons’ for the Singles soundtrack and making one of the pivotal supergroups of the 1990s by teaming up with the future members of Pearl Jam for the tribute album Temple of the Dog.
After the rest of their brethren began making waves in the mainstream, though, Soundgarden became one of the last to profit off the massive hype of the grunge movement. Arriving shortly after Kurt Cobain’s death, Superunknown would become the cornerstone album for the band, turning in songs that had as much in common with The Beatles as they did with Dead Kennedys.
Although the album’s standout would remain ‘Black Hole Sun’, ‘Fell On Black Days’ would be one of the most straightforward tracks on the album. While the song’s initial idea came to Cornell in the early ‘90s, it would take him three years before flushing out the idea, saying that he needed to be in the right headspace to find the lyrics.
Unlike the visceral anger from acts like Pearl Jam, Cornell’s depressing streak throughout the song speaks to a more insular pain. When talking about the song to Melody Maker, Cornell discussed a sullen feeling at the centre of the track, recalling, “It’s a feeling that everyone gets. You’re happy with your life, everything’s going well, things are exciting – when all of a sudden you realise you’re unhappy in the extreme, to the point of being really, really scared. There’s no particular event you can pin the feeling down to, it’s just that you realise one day that everything in your life is fucked!”
While the core ethos of the song was sinister even by Soundgarden’s standards, Cornell’s melody kept things interesting whenever it was on the radio, with fans flocking to his soulful demeanour rather than the Zeppelin-esque squeals that was always Cornell’s strong suit. Then again, ‘Fell On Black Days’ would be one in a long line of sonic detours throughout Superunknown.
For all the customary material that Soundgarden fans were used to, songs like ‘4th of July’ tapped into the primal sounds of Black Sabbath, while ‘Black Hole Sun’ captured a Beatles sense of bombast for Generation X. The tides were turning for Soundgarden in the mid-1990s, and ‘Fell On Black Days’ may as well capture the feeling of moving towards parts unknown.
