Day: April 13, 2021

Times Of TroubleTimes Of Trouble

0 Comments 8:02 am


by Temple of the Dog

~ Re-used Riffs ~

This Is a good song. Let’s just lead with that. It’s overshadowed by many of its compadres on the Temple of the Dog album, but this one is very clearly tied to the death of Andy Wood as the lyrics are obviously in line with the rest of Cornell’s odes to his best friend. 

However, the song shot to much greater prominence once Pearl Jam released “Footsteps” as the b-side to “Jeremy” in ’92. In that 2-year gap between Ten and VS, the world was starved for Pearl Jam recordings, and even the b-sides of their singles took on lives of their own. This one was aided by its appearance in the infamous Rolling Stone cover story about Pearl Jam that included stories from Eddie’s childhood and how they manifested themselves in a trilogy of songs, starting with “Alive“, winding through this one, and ending with “Once”, the lead track from Ten.

I had a quote from this one written in sharpie on the inside of the flap of the bag I used for school most of my sophomore/junior years of college. People largely forgot about this song, even though it was very well-written, and sung with heartbreaking conviction by Chris Cornell. Given what’s happened in the interim since Andy Wood’s death, to Layne Staley, and Cornell himself, this song, like many from this album, are even more painful.