Tuesday, September 23, 2008

CHRIS CORNELL, YOU'RE NOT MAKING IT EASY TO BE A FAN!

I'll stick up for Chris Cornell's decision to work with Timbaland on his upcoming album. Timbaland is clearly a really creative guy, and has made some great records. But I wish Chris hadn't performed at Fashion Rocks a few weeks ago. It was basically a performance by three artists Timbaland is working with: a group called One Republic, The Pussycat Dolls and Chris Cornell. Each group performed a portion of thier song, but the Dolls got about twice as much stage time as Chris. Really.

Chris is going to do a west coast tour with Timbaland where they do the entire new album and nothing else. I'm not sure how much I'd pay for that. I think what I've heard is ok, but money's tight, know what I mean?

And now I've heard that Chris has written the first single for American Idol winner David Cook's upcoming album. I think it must be really liberating for Chris to let go of the hangups that indie rock or alternative rock had in the '90s. But I feel like he's lowering his "stock," for lack of a better way to put it. I don't think you should say yes to anything, just because it puts you in front of a new audience. Although I do wonder if younger pop kids will care about Chris Cornell (or, for that matter, Linkin Park fans, since Chris toured with them this summer).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

While I agree with much of what you are saying, let's not forget that Chris is free to do what ever the heck he wants to do with his musical career. It's very easy for us Soundgarden fans to look at Chris's career and point fingers and bag on him for the choices he's made, but it still comes down to what HE wants to do. That's what going solo is all about. Remember, Chris only went into the studio to "try out" some things with Timbaland; they had such a good time trying things out that they decided to put it out as a whole album. If all he did was do Soundgarden with new people, you'd probably bag on him for not doing anything "new." As far as writing for David Cook is concerned, I think he really respects Cook as a musician, especially after doing Chris's version of Billie Jean on American Idol and giving due credit for it. David Cook is probably totally stoked about now to have had CC write a song for him, dontcha think?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the blog about Chris.
I agree with some of what you say but not all.
Washy hit the nail on the head and I agree with his/her comments.

That's a little harsh to put words in Linkin Park fans' mouths. They dug the new music by Cornell. So I guess you can say they did care. I should know because I attended the Projekt Revolution tour when it came to Wisconsin a couple months back. Chris performed "Watch Out" and "Scream" and got great reception from Linkin Park and Chris Cornell fans alike - thank you very much!