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It just goes to show that when it comes to the creative process in music there are no rules. It’s hard to believe the song that still serves to define an era of music is 30 years old. It was the third single, following ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ and ‘Outshined’. ‘Rusty Cage’ was released on the Soundgarden album ‘Badmotorfinger’ in October 1991. How can I write a visceral, up-tempo, aggressive, post-punk rock song with screechy vocals, but that’s not a heavy metal song or a retro hard rock song?” It sounds like what we were, which is a band that’s all over the map.” Chris Cornell So, to create a checklist of inspiration, we have a combination of folk, bluegrass, country, early heavy metal and grunge. ‘Rusty Cage’ is what I came up with.” Chris Cornell I thought, ‘If anyone can do it, Soundgarden can do it.’ I was listening to a lot of Tom Waits at the time, and I wondered how Soundgarden could approach similar imagery and I wondered what the music would sound like. I thought that would be cool and possible. I wanted to create this hillbilly Black Sabbath crossover that I’d never heard before. When we finished the tour and Soundgarden returned home to Seattle, I picked up a guitar and tried to come up with music that I felt matched the essence of that song. I never wrote any of the words down, but I somehow remembered them. I have a vivid memory of staring out the window, looking at the countryside, and feeling pent-up. The fact that he essentially wrote it in his head and then recalled it all later blows my mind. Here is Chris Cornell’s recollection of how these words came together. I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run” Chris Cornell Well, I’m gonna break, I’m gonna break my
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Yeah, I’ll take the river down to still waterĬutting my teeth on bars and rusty chainsĪnd when the dogs are looking for their bonesĪnd it’s raining icepicks on your steel shore I’m burning diesel, burning dinosaur bones Yeah, I’m gonna break, I’m gonna break my Yeah, you tied my lead and pulled my chain The rusty cage was the tour bus and Cornell began to narrate his plight in the most stark and descriptive way. The allegory became a man who was imprisoned, and needed to break out. Here is the brief story of the vision and the connection.ĭuring the early part of 1991, Soundgarden was essentially living on a tour bus and Chris Cornell and his bandmates were busting to get out. The fascinating combination of sources he drew upon for this definitive song is not only intriguing but, in many ways, it draws a direct line to the artist that opened it up to an even wider audience less than a decade later. Chris Cornell is quite candid about the inspiration for ‘Rusty Cage’.