Soundgarden - Like Suicide
Posted on June 14, 2007 by Albert Costill
Filed Under Music |
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One of my favorite Soundgarden tracks. Both the studio version from Superunknown and the acoustic version found on Songs From The Superunknown (or “The Day I Tried To Live” and “Black Hole Sun” singles) are both great, each version having their own vibe.
I read that the lyrics were inspired while Cornell was in his basement writing music and he heard a thump upstairs. Cornell goes up and investigates the noise and discovers that a bird had flown into the window and broke it’s neck; so Cornell takes a brick and smashes the bird to put it out of it’s misery.
Hence the lyrics:
“Dazed out in a garden bed
With a broken neck lays my broken gift” and“And my last ditch
Was my last brick
Lent to finish her
Finish her “
However, some feel the song has more meaning than a bird flying into a window. I’ve read theories that the song was about Kurt Cobain:
“Bit down on the bullet now
I had a taste so sour
I had to think of something sweet
Love’s like suicide
Safe outside my gilded cage
With an ounce of pain
I wield a ton of rage
Just like suicideWith eyes of blood
And bitter blue
How I feel for you
I feel for you”
Whether or not the song has more meaning than the bird or Cobain, its still with haunting guitar and dark lyrics; it’s Soundgarden at their finest.
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I agree. Like Suicide is one of my favorite Soundgarden songs. I especially the acoustic version because I think it really accentuates the great guitar part and the often under appreciated lower range of Cornell’s vocals.
Great, now I gotta go and listen to it.