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.)

Excellent. Never heard it before. This must have come out during my "Forgetting how important music used to be to me" phase.

Those were the Snowmass years, oddly enough.

Can't tell if that's a mandolin or a capo up on the 12th fret.

I'm sure Keifus will be able to determine if that's a mandolin. (gay people know that stuff)

Speaking of which, this is one of my all time guilty pleasures.

Probably not a mandolin. To tinny. Most likely some capo contraption. It almost has a hammered dulcimer sound to it.

Chris was compared early on to Robert Plant. Of course they all were, including Bono. But he really does have a Plant aspect to his voice. The way he sings, "The seasons roll on by," or whatever, sounds exactly like how Bobby sang, "Sometimes I grow so tired," in "Ramble On".

And I definitely hear Page and, to a greater extent, Townshend in Thayil. 1992 is when it came out. The opening chord progression, if you can call it that, is featured in the wonderful fun for the whole family Cameron Crowe directorial debut, Singles, an actually not terrible look into Seattle in the early 90s.

(Keifus is so very gay!)

Late in Seasons, as the bar chords slide up in chunks of three, I can clearly hear James Page. Almost like 4 Sticks.

Around the 2:40 mark, right about where Chris sings about wanting to fly above the storm, and that tinny chord progression backs him, absolutely reminiscent of early Led. Had I not known what I was hearing, I'd have sworn Zep had made a single I'd never heard before. Good stuff man. Thanks.

I love new discoveries. Don't tell anyone I told you this, but the first Ramones tune I knowingly listened to was in School of Rock.

Sure, Keifus is ridiculously gay, but I am embarrassingly behind the times musically. You aren't.

I'm gay as a lark right now. In fact, I feel tops, which probably has as much to do with the toluene fumes as anything. Whoo-ooo. Or were you suggesting a queer meaning of the word?

I suspect that he's choking (up) on that thing, myself, which is just the more likely bet, but I like the sound of it.

K (and get those fags out of your mouth, you two!)

I'm making some assumptions:

Kim Thayil plays all three parts (not at the same time).
He's playing a very expensive, large-ish Martin.
After the final strum of the final mix of the final playback, the engineer, producer and the band all looked up at each other and said, "Whoa." (But only if they weren't all blitzed on China White. And they probably were.)

Chris is a great story. Cleaned up his act, got off the junk, and went back to his roots: snowboarding and his wife and kid(s). Add the fact that he's got my favorite James Bond song (no, seriously), and I think we can all agree I happen to be a fan.

Just assume everything is essentially an E chord, in some form or another, and an open E chord at that. The refrain is E/D, E/F#-E/C#, E/G#-E/B, etc. It's really a compelling progression, resolved with, melodically on the guitar, Esus-Eb-Esus, Eg#, Ee, which gets us to the E/D of the refrain. Just really sophisticated stuff hidden in what might appear to most as simplicity.

(Keifus is unspeakably gay!)

"Four Sticks" hadn't occurred to me till you said it. That's right on. And you should know by now that I take a great deal of pleasure sharing music that to me is quite special with people I think can appreciate that fact.

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You should, if only for this:

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One of the great records of all time, an essential on my "Deserted Island" list as the representative "grunge" record (it's either this one or Badmotorfinger...I waffle). It really captures the sound and the symbiosis of that Seattle scene pretty well, I think.

Chris Cornell is a minor deity. I like just about everything he's ever done (including the Bond song). And he has the added attraction of having the balls to not shoot himself.

Zep comparisons usually just make me giggle, but not in this case.

Not me.

I meant to say that he's flamboyantly gay.

If you watch the volleyball scene in Top Gun closely, the gayest single scene from the gayest movie ever, you'll see that Keifus was one of the "spectators" who cheered wildly when Rick Rossovich did that flex thing after Iceman's big spike.

Gay, gay, gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I'm still adjusting to Daniel Craig.

I like my James Bonds a little hunkier, like Pierce Brosnan.

After 4 long years, do you not know me at all? Of course I have that one!!!

I suppose you torture your kid by making her listen to music that was important to you in your youth, or you will when she gets a little older, causing her to have both an appreciation for the music itself, and an appreciation for what sort of person her father was at that age.

Jesus. Get some help, dude.

(Made an offer Wednesday.)

I love being late for some parties, like this one.

I'm the guy who asks "Is it me, or does this guy sound a little like Eddie Vedder?"

And then someone says, "No, Eddie sounds like him."

And then the argument breaks out.

And then I say, "Seattle Schmeattle, Eddie's from Evanston."

Switters. Props brother. How it goes will be how it goes. Butterflies still?

And showin everybody that I'm not as old a fart as Schmutzie.

Torturing? No, I'm grooming her with music that she hasn't yet found an appreciation for. Unfortunately, she then grooms me back with the likes of Myley Cyrus (Jeezus, who could have imagined that THAT mullet-headed prick would ever haunt us again?).

Good luck.

Don't ask, don't tell

(I can tell even if you're not telling)

Maybe I can dress like a steelworker instead.

scenes committed to film is the Y.M.C.A. scene in the early-80s classic, Can't Stop The Music. I'd qualify what Schmutzie said about Top Gun ---in my view that's the number one gay subtext scene. For those unabashedly out of the closet, the Y.M.C.A. montage in the Village People's one and only movie is eye-popping---wrestling, jumping, ping pong, saunas, synchonized swimming, Bruce Jenner in a cute little half shirt, and last but not least the bodacious Valerie Perrine quite topless in a hot tub with a group of men, in no danger whatsoever.