“Hunger Strike” – Temple of the Dog
(Words/music: Chris Cornell, available on Temple of the Dog, A&M 1991)

I grew up on “modern rock radio,” so there’s certain songs that immediately grab my attention.  “Hunger Strike” is one of the songs I can identify from the first note, even if I haven’t heard it in months.  When I first found my way into music, I fell hard for grunge (late to the party, of course, but more on that next week) so I played through my copy of Temple of the Dog, a one off collaboration between Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron and all of the future non-drumming members of Pearl Jam (ironically, Matt Cameron became Pearl Jam’s drummer almost a decade ago, and has become the longest tenured drummer in the band) enough times to recognize the key songs pretty quickly.

“Hunger Strike” is an odd song because it doesn’t really fit into either Pearl Jam or Soundgarden’s cannon (by default, it’s become a “Pearl Jam” song, as they’ve performed it a dozen times or so over the last five years).  The riff sounds like some of the other songs on Ten, but played at a much slower, less dramatic pace than songs like “Oceans” or “Garden.”  Still, it’s not heavy enough to be a Soundgarden song, and Chris Cornell even sounds like he’s trying to sing like Eddie Vedder on this song.  Still, that guitar riff has a circular, hypnotic quality to it; it kind of sounds like waves slowly ebbing and flowing (and, to a lesser degree, has the circular quality of a fugue in classical music, like counterpoint played by a flannel quintet).  It’s soothing in a way that distorted guitars and booming drums could soothe ones’ soul.  As for the lyrics, well, it’s best not to think about them.  The lyrics seem to be a very literal take on going hungry in order to quell financial inequality in the world.  Of course, while the fat cats are eating, Cornell and Vedder just keep getting hungrier and hungrier (and they remind us of that for about 20% of the song).  Just like that circular riff, the lyrics keep repeating; however, while the guitars build on each other, the words go nowhere.  Still, it’s given us that call and response chorus – Vedder takes the low rode and Cornell rides in on the high road soon afterward.  It’s very fun to sing along to – my old college roommate Mike would sing Vedder’s part when he wanted to go eat in the dining hall, and either myself or my roommate Jim would join in with our best Chris Cornell impression (be glad you didn’t live with us during these moments).  Needless to say, I never change the radio when I hear it these days.

Then there’s the video. The song makes me nostalgic for those moments eating rough pork chops or listening to the “Flannel Five” on a Rhode Island modern rock station during summer vacation, but the video is a relic of a very specific era.  The hair, the clothes, the sullen looks off camera – they all tie this video to the early nineties and would make a pretty good “time capsule” description of that era’s aesthetics.  It’s also, almost two decades later, kind of unintentionally hilarious.  Thanks to Mike for uploading the version I remember (and as he pointed out in the comments section, the saddest beach party with Eddie Vedder’s strange downbeat swat at the 2:30 mark).

More on Temple of the Dog: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm