The following year, Soundgarden won two Grammy Awards. "Black Hole Sun" received the award for Best Hard Rock Performance and "Spoonman" received the award for Best Metal Performance. The album, "Superunknown" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album of 1995. It has since been certified five times platinum in the United States and remains Soundgarden's most successful album.
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| Soundgarden |
Regarding the idea behind "Black Hole Sun", frontman Chris Cornell stated, "It's just sort of a surreal dreamscape, a weird, play-with-the-title kind of song." He also said that "lyrically, it's probably the closest to me just playing with words for words' sake, of anything I've written. I guess it worked for a lot of people who heard it, but I have no idea how you'd begin to take that one literally." In another interview he elaborated further, stating, "It's funny because hits are usually sort of congruent, sort of an identifiable lyric idea, and that song pretty much had none. The chorus lyric is kind of beautiful and easy to remember. Other than that, I sure didn't have an understanding of it after I wrote it. I was just sucked in by the music and I was painting a picture with the lyrics. There was no real idea to get across."
That's all very interesting because there has since been plenty of talk about a literal interpretation of the song, as represented in the video, of our sun collapsing into a black hole and sucking planets and whatever else into itself. Every astronomical website where I checked out this possibility debunked the notion, typically with a discussion like this one by Ted Bunn of Berkeley.
Nonetheless, there are still those who contend that "Black Hole Sun" is indeed about an apocalypse wiping impurities from Earth and returning it to a more perfect state, as cued by the lyrics "Won't you come and wash away the rain" and "Times are gone for honest men and sometimes far too long for snakes". So it is possibly a song about how humanity is failing and needs to be cleansed, but like the author, I will leave that interpretation up to you.
However, there are occasions when ponderable lyrics can get in the way of an inspired melody. It often takes someone who is a master of their instrument that is far more eloquent and expressive with it than with their own singing voice to make that melody shine. Such is the case with Peter Frampton.
Yes, that Peter Frampton; the elfin guitarist who left Humble Pie in the early 70's to forge a solo career and became successful beyond anyone's imagination. After releasing a few reasonably good records, Frampton struck mega-platinum with his 1976 "Frampton Comes Alive" album that was the "Thriller" of its day. Every household that I knew back then had at least one copy of the album. Those with siblings had multiple copies. Nearly every song was on the radio all day, every day and the album is still a staple of Classic Rock radio, or whatever passes for that anymore.
It seems that Frampton has been holding up fairly well over the years, staying healthy and releasing new music, including the 2006 all-instrumental album "Fingerprints", where you can find his intriguing interpretation of "Black Hole Sun".
Here's a nicely done live performance filmed for Guitar Center. Every concert clip I could find of this song wasn't usable for one reason or another, but the audience freaked out every time. Frampton proves he's still a master of tone and technique. Crank this one up loud!
You may recall hearing that Frampton's prized 1954 Les Paul guitar that was featured on the cover of "Frampton Comes Alive" and had been lost in a cargo plane crash in Venezuela 30 odd years ago, was recovered last year in remarkably good condition, for all it had been through. Frampton has restored it to being playable and uses it at his concerts to this day. You can watch the CBS Sunday Morning story about it here.
Nearly everything that Peter Frampton ever recorded is available at Amazon and your usual local retail outlets. Same goes for Soundgarden.
That's all very interesting because there has since been plenty of talk about a literal interpretation of the song, as represented in the video, of our sun collapsing into a black hole and sucking planets and whatever else into itself. Every astronomical website where I checked out this possibility debunked the notion, typically with a discussion like this one by Ted Bunn of Berkeley.
Nonetheless, there are still those who contend that "Black Hole Sun" is indeed about an apocalypse wiping impurities from Earth and returning it to a more perfect state, as cued by the lyrics "Won't you come and wash away the rain" and "Times are gone for honest men and sometimes far too long for snakes". So it is possibly a song about how humanity is failing and needs to be cleansed, but like the author, I will leave that interpretation up to you.
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| Remember this? Of course you do! |
Yes, that Peter Frampton; the elfin guitarist who left Humble Pie in the early 70's to forge a solo career and became successful beyond anyone's imagination. After releasing a few reasonably good records, Frampton struck mega-platinum with his 1976 "Frampton Comes Alive" album that was the "Thriller" of its day. Every household that I knew back then had at least one copy of the album. Those with siblings had multiple copies. Nearly every song was on the radio all day, every day and the album is still a staple of Classic Rock radio, or whatever passes for that anymore.
It seems that Frampton has been holding up fairly well over the years, staying healthy and releasing new music, including the 2006 all-instrumental album "Fingerprints", where you can find his intriguing interpretation of "Black Hole Sun".
Here's a nicely done live performance filmed for Guitar Center. Every concert clip I could find of this song wasn't usable for one reason or another, but the audience freaked out every time. Frampton proves he's still a master of tone and technique. Crank this one up loud!
You may recall hearing that Frampton's prized 1954 Les Paul guitar that was featured on the cover of "Frampton Comes Alive" and had been lost in a cargo plane crash in Venezuela 30 odd years ago, was recovered last year in remarkably good condition, for all it had been through. Frampton has restored it to being playable and uses it at his concerts to this day. You can watch the CBS Sunday Morning story about it here.
Nearly everything that Peter Frampton ever recorded is available at Amazon and your usual local retail outlets. Same goes for Soundgarden.
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