Actually not such a bad little video montage. (But what's with all "the giving of the finger"?) Slap on those giant headphones and crank it up! This version is the only one of the song that exists in my world.

I didn't come across this song until 1996. The-one-that-got-away put it on a mix tape she made for me. There was a Big Head Todd And The Monsters song on it, if I recall correctly. The Winter Park years. Better days.

Probably one of their best songs ever, and that's saying something. "Burden In My Hand" certainly has its sublime moments, but when they leave the "acoustic" realm of the first verse and turnaround, the original intent of the ethos gets lost. But that could indeed be just me.

Of all the bands to come out of the late 80s and early 90s, not one had a better poet than that which exists in Chris Cornell. I'll leave it at that.

One of the many things that makes this song perfect is the stereo left and right guitars. At certain points it gives the impression of a 12-string, which it really kind of is by default. And is that a mandolin in the center?

The entire song has an implied open E pedal tone. At least that's the key I learned to play it in. Then soaring octave counterpoint moving below the B and high E string drones with Chris's own compound melody, in a way. Then chugging open bar-chorded triple strokes. Perhaps the original incarnation of "phat". P-h phat.

Note the peculiar mix. Cornell's vocal is so not out front. I suspect they mixed it that way because his voice is such that it can cut through galvanized steel, and that the power of the acoustic guitars drives the syncopation. The beat, or rather, more specifically, the rhythm, like the back and forth major/minor nuances, is merely implied, never "said out loud", as it were.

And if the falsetto melody during the bridge doesn't give you goose bumps, you're made of stone. Or dirt.

As for soundtracks and life, this would be in my Act III. (Dad didn't care for this one. Said it was too dark. Reminded him of his college days in South Dakota. Go figure.)