Goodbye CHRIS CORNELL: A Short Tribute

All of us at PureGrainAudio are completely devastated by the sudden loss of Chris Cornell today at the age of 52. Cornell is one of the reasons why we started this website in 2005. I was 22 when we started this site and Audioslave was a few weeks away from releasing their second record, Out of Exile. Even though rock n’ roll wasn’t flourishing at the time, Audioslave, along with the imminent release of Nine Inch Nails’ With Teeth, had brought a little excitement back in me that maybe rock wasn’t dead. Well, it feels like a part of it died today.

Aside from Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, Chris is my all-time favorite lead singer. He had the perfect voice for rock n’ roll; loud, melodic and full of unbelievable passion. He could scream with the best of them like in “Slaves and Bulldozers,” but also could tug at your emotions with a soulful ballad like Audioslave’s “Getaway Car.”

To me, this loss is about just as devastating as the loss of Kurt Cobain was 23 years ago. And if the early reports are true, we lost both of them in the same way. It didn’t have to end this way, for either of them. But all we can do now is celebrate Chris’ life and his unbelievable contribution to music. Below are a couple of my favourite and lesser known Chris Cornell songs and performances. RIP Chris.

Chris Cornell – “Peace, Love and Understanding”

Chris Cornell – “Sunshower”