Post by mushymarionette on Oct 13, 2024 1:06:22 GMT
I've been on a Cornell streak for the last few days, going through old bootlegs studying his voice and technique while also stumbling across some cool discoveries:
Brief B2.
Brief B2 (also at 2:35).
B2, sounding very Jim Morrison here.
Great B2 here, I know the studio track has B2s as well but this is an improvised part.
A2 here, credit to VocalDudeGuy.
0:35 - B2 trailing down to a brief A2.
Brief A2, lol. If you don’t want to count it, that’s ok! He has a looot of these brief lower dips in his post-00s songs. Like here:
Very brief G2 (credit to VocalDudeGuy), I can see why you wouldn’t count it but it’s there.
Very deep speech here, sadly not sung… DAMN IT CHRIS, SING LOW MORE, YOU CAN
Excellent D5, voice is totally amazing here… Studio-quality performance. Underrated era vocally!
This concert from 2009 is amazing and a recommended listen for any Cornell-fans, it’s definitely one of his best post-00s performances involving a full band. Voice in amazing shape, great crowd, very diverse setlist of songs, a very tight and hungry band… You can tell Cornell is having a good time, he’s in a very jovial and extroverted mood, even more than usual! Very charismatic, very fun. (1:18:30 is a great example) It’s why I find this 2007-2009 era very interesting, he seemed to be enjoying his work and having fun and it shows. There’s a performance of perhaps the best post-00s “Jesus Christ Pose” in here as well as a very fiery “Rusty Cage” with a long outro involving tons of cool screams. 1:25:20 is a cool vocal moment, as is 37:40 where he’s straight up flexing and oversinging because why not. The strange thing is that his voice was this amazing here, yet three weeks later it would already be totally burned out. I think it confirms that Cornell’s vice was his tendency to oversing instead of being more strategic with his voice usage and that would cause him a lot of trouble live especially during this period.
Anyway, some notes I found…
40:30 - a great B2, already in the studio song but I liked the sustain and tone of this one.
41:30 - A2.
44:32 - A2.
1:50:00 - live lows here! A2s and a G2.
1:54:22 - a strong F5.
Then, as I mentioned earlier, here’s him just 3 weeks later…
What the hell? Cornell definitely struggled due to his oversinging habit, listen to that drastic difference and how much he is struggling. Straight up stupid stubborness trying to force himself through this material even with all these problems, I think he got a lot better with his consistency in the ‘10s and stopped forcing his voice so much but sadly he stopped playing around with his tone and style a little, getting a little bit more one-dimensional with his singing habits and sticking to the comfort zone (which did help him become consistently amazing in his later years) whereas before the 2010s he was always doing strange, interesting things with his voice and tone. Give and take, I guess, but definitely noticeable… He could have prevented a lot of his vocal trouble by having more low/mid-range songs in the setlist instead of slamming his voice so high on everything even through all that struggle but as I said… Stubborn mofo.
Then a really cool find that we need to investigate more, a live low singing passage that often appeared during this era of Audioslave’s live perfomances:
1:02:20
A lot of B2s and A2s! Really cool find, wish the quality was better. (There’s many of these, should be investigated further in case one of them dips a little lower)
1:04:18 - yet another passage with a lot of B2s and A2s, out of the ones I heard this might be the best quality. Solid!
Then a REALLY cool find…
[if playback doesn't work, the title is 'Chris Cornell - Atlantic City, NJ - 20131130 AUDIO ONLY']
52:59 - Cornell improvises a song and I swear the ‘woos’ coming from the audience encourage him to trail a little lower with the melody he started… Solid sung G2!
1:36:11 - More live lows… Sort of. He’s doing dramatic speaking on top of the chords he plays and trails down to E2s. Sort of spoiler-worthy but not outright disposable imo, not any worse than “Techno Ted”. His speaking sounds really low here.
1:41:12 - He continues the same joke and gets another E2… Then, he trails even lower down to a D2. IMO countable but if nothing else, spoiler-worthy. Very solid however.
1:46:50 & 1:47:18 - Some more spoken lows, less countable than the previous ones.
1:50:10 - awesome high note.
I haven't listened to the full concert yet but will add any new finds I'll stumble across.
EDIT:
11:53 & 12:10 - brief B2s
1:14:07 - brief A2, stronger than the previous one I linked
1:26:55 - brief G2?
_____
There’s a plenty of undiscovered goodies in these live performances which is why I invite any fan to wade through more post-00s bootlegs which seem to be way too ignored, considering he does a lot of interesting stuff there vocally. My theory is that we will find the best discoveries from the following, especially regarding live lows:
1) Audioslave live performances from 2005 where they did the “Slaves & Bulldozers” improv jam with the low singing, might have lower parts somewhere. Audioslave’s music is generally just belters but this thing surprised me positively so…
2) 2006-2010 era Cornell solo live performances… A great place for discoveries, currently way too ignored. Cornell was having fun during this era and improvising a lot, the more dynamic concert space also featured more space for more quiet parts with lower singing. Any bootlegs you can find from this era, please share! I’m quite sure we can find interesting things here.
3) The acoustic concerts from the 2010s… Cornell’s voice has lowered a little with time and the beating, yet his technique has improved drastically around this point and he's extremely consistent with his high notes. He’s doing significantly less wild experimentation with his voice as far as tone goes (sticking to the ‘golden area’ of his voice for the most part) but often does fun improvised jams in these acoustic concerts and they’ve been quite a goldmine for lows so far. Definitely potential for discoveries here!
_____
As a total side note… I found this very interesting:
I knew Cornell’s father was an alcoholic and that he had a complicated relationship with him but I didn’t know about the tyrannical abuser part. Definitely helps explain young Cornell’s rage and constant sense of isolation he explored in his lyrics.Will keep sharing any new discoveries I find after this post!
If anyone's a little bored, here are some channels that currently seem to upload bootlegs and rare material from Cornell that could be investigated:
www.youtube.com/@renaoficial (very active, a lot of pro-shot footage here but also bootlegs - I tried emailing him but so far he hasn't responded, apparently he has a lot of bootlegs which can be requested from him. Perhaps someone could get in touch with him so that we could hear more bootlegs from the 2006-2010 era?)
www.youtube.com/@dropofflame2975 (a very comprehensive Audioslave bootleg channel)
www.youtube.com/@thebootlegmatrix/videos (a general rock/metal bootleg channel, occasionally uploads Cornell-related material)
livebootlegconcert.blogspot.com/search/label/Chris%20Cornell (some Cornell-related bootlegs, not a lot but still interesting... more please!)
Brief B2.
Brief B2 (also at 2:35).
B2, sounding very Jim Morrison here.
Great B2 here, I know the studio track has B2s as well but this is an improvised part.
A2 here, credit to VocalDudeGuy.
0:35 - B2 trailing down to a brief A2.
Brief A2, lol. If you don’t want to count it, that’s ok! He has a looot of these brief lower dips in his post-00s songs. Like here:
Very brief G2 (credit to VocalDudeGuy), I can see why you wouldn’t count it but it’s there.
Very deep speech here, sadly not sung… DAMN IT CHRIS, SING LOW MORE, YOU CAN
Excellent D5, voice is totally amazing here… Studio-quality performance. Underrated era vocally!
This concert from 2009 is amazing and a recommended listen for any Cornell-fans, it’s definitely one of his best post-00s performances involving a full band. Voice in amazing shape, great crowd, very diverse setlist of songs, a very tight and hungry band… You can tell Cornell is having a good time, he’s in a very jovial and extroverted mood, even more than usual! Very charismatic, very fun. (1:18:30 is a great example) It’s why I find this 2007-2009 era very interesting, he seemed to be enjoying his work and having fun and it shows. There’s a performance of perhaps the best post-00s “Jesus Christ Pose” in here as well as a very fiery “Rusty Cage” with a long outro involving tons of cool screams. 1:25:20 is a cool vocal moment, as is 37:40 where he’s straight up flexing and oversinging because why not. The strange thing is that his voice was this amazing here, yet three weeks later it would already be totally burned out. I think it confirms that Cornell’s vice was his tendency to oversing instead of being more strategic with his voice usage and that would cause him a lot of trouble live especially during this period.
Anyway, some notes I found…
40:30 - a great B2, already in the studio song but I liked the sustain and tone of this one.
41:30 - A2.
44:32 - A2.
1:50:00 - live lows here! A2s and a G2.
1:54:22 - a strong F5.
Then, as I mentioned earlier, here’s him just 3 weeks later…
What the hell? Cornell definitely struggled due to his oversinging habit, listen to that drastic difference and how much he is struggling. Straight up stupid stubborness trying to force himself through this material even with all these problems, I think he got a lot better with his consistency in the ‘10s and stopped forcing his voice so much but sadly he stopped playing around with his tone and style a little, getting a little bit more one-dimensional with his singing habits and sticking to the comfort zone (which did help him become consistently amazing in his later years) whereas before the 2010s he was always doing strange, interesting things with his voice and tone. Give and take, I guess, but definitely noticeable… He could have prevented a lot of his vocal trouble by having more low/mid-range songs in the setlist instead of slamming his voice so high on everything even through all that struggle but as I said… Stubborn mofo.
Then a really cool find that we need to investigate more, a live low singing passage that often appeared during this era of Audioslave’s live perfomances:
1:02:20
A lot of B2s and A2s! Really cool find, wish the quality was better. (There’s many of these, should be investigated further in case one of them dips a little lower)
1:04:18 - yet another passage with a lot of B2s and A2s, out of the ones I heard this might be the best quality. Solid!
Then a REALLY cool find…
[if playback doesn't work, the title is 'Chris Cornell - Atlantic City, NJ - 20131130 AUDIO ONLY']
52:59 - Cornell improvises a song and I swear the ‘woos’ coming from the audience encourage him to trail a little lower with the melody he started… Solid sung G2!
1:36:11 - More live lows… Sort of. He’s doing dramatic speaking on top of the chords he plays and trails down to E2s. Sort of spoiler-worthy but not outright disposable imo, not any worse than “Techno Ted”. His speaking sounds really low here.
1:41:12 - He continues the same joke and gets another E2… Then, he trails even lower down to a D2. IMO countable but if nothing else, spoiler-worthy. Very solid however.
1:46:50 & 1:47:18 - Some more spoken lows, less countable than the previous ones.
1:50:10 - awesome high note.
I haven't listened to the full concert yet but will add any new finds I'll stumble across.
EDIT:
11:53 & 12:10 - brief B2s
1:14:07 - brief A2, stronger than the previous one I linked
1:26:55 - brief G2?
_____
There’s a plenty of undiscovered goodies in these live performances which is why I invite any fan to wade through more post-00s bootlegs which seem to be way too ignored, considering he does a lot of interesting stuff there vocally. My theory is that we will find the best discoveries from the following, especially regarding live lows:
1) Audioslave live performances from 2005 where they did the “Slaves & Bulldozers” improv jam with the low singing, might have lower parts somewhere. Audioslave’s music is generally just belters but this thing surprised me positively so…
2) 2006-2010 era Cornell solo live performances… A great place for discoveries, currently way too ignored. Cornell was having fun during this era and improvising a lot, the more dynamic concert space also featured more space for more quiet parts with lower singing. Any bootlegs you can find from this era, please share! I’m quite sure we can find interesting things here.
3) The acoustic concerts from the 2010s… Cornell’s voice has lowered a little with time and the beating, yet his technique has improved drastically around this point and he's extremely consistent with his high notes. He’s doing significantly less wild experimentation with his voice as far as tone goes (sticking to the ‘golden area’ of his voice for the most part) but often does fun improvised jams in these acoustic concerts and they’ve been quite a goldmine for lows so far. Definitely potential for discoveries here!
_____
As a total side note… I found this very interesting:
I knew Cornell’s father was an alcoholic and that he had a complicated relationship with him but I didn’t know about the tyrannical abuser part. Definitely helps explain young Cornell’s rage and constant sense of isolation he explored in his lyrics.
If anyone's a little bored, here are some channels that currently seem to upload bootlegs and rare material from Cornell that could be investigated:
www.youtube.com/@renaoficial (very active, a lot of pro-shot footage here but also bootlegs - I tried emailing him but so far he hasn't responded, apparently he has a lot of bootlegs which can be requested from him. Perhaps someone could get in touch with him so that we could hear more bootlegs from the 2006-2010 era?)
www.youtube.com/@dropofflame2975 (a very comprehensive Audioslave bootleg channel)
www.youtube.com/@thebootlegmatrix/videos (a general rock/metal bootleg channel, occasionally uploads Cornell-related material)
livebootlegconcert.blogspot.com/search/label/Chris%20Cornell (some Cornell-related bootlegs, not a lot but still interesting... more please!)
