“That set the tone”: the song that brought Soundgarden back together

Full Article: Far Out
Author: Tim Coffman - Far Out | X (Twitter)

Excerpt:

When the band first got together to jam for the first time, they hit on ‘Blind Dogs’ from their contribution to The Basketball Diaries soundtrack.

Considering how many hits they needed to brush up on, this is the kind of song that works better to showcase every band member. Since it’s not a mainstream hit, this was an excuse to work out the cobwebs, and judging by how well it worked, Cornell knew they had something still left in the tank.

Reminiscing to Rolling Stone, Cornell thought the entire reunion was shaped by playing along to that song, saying, “We’ve never played it live. That set the tone. The best way for the rehearsals to function was to shout out a song title, tune our guitars and play until the muscle memory came back.”

Then again, it was about much more than getting the muscle memory down. Looking back on the new music they made with ‘Live to Rise’ of the Avengers soundtrack or ‘Black Rain’, they seemed to be channelling that same dark energy back into their sound. Even though everything was still on the same lines as Down on the Upside, it was only a few steps away from the song ‘Been Away Too Long’ from their reunion album King Animal.

Although ‘Blind Dogs’ doesn’t deserve the same recognition as Soundgarden’s greatest song by any stretch, it’s essential to why they function so well together. They could pull nearly anything they got their hands on, and even after a decade apart, it sounded like nothing had changed since that last stadium gig for Down on the Upside.