You Realise the Singles Soundtrack is 30 Years Old, Right?

If that doesn’t put things in perspective….

If it wasn’t for the soundtrack, would this film be remembered? Hard to say, since the music scene and the resulting soundtrack actually was the movie. It was released thirty years ago, today.

That was a different world then, and we were different people. I was in the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college and I was coaching swimming, out in the Valley. It was my real-time living away from home.

Brought up through the suburban late 80s on a heady mish-mash of Saturday Night Fever, Van Halen, Lou Reed, and the Pet Shop Boys, a new musical lightning bolt was entering my lexicon: Grunge.

It bears repeating that it was in the previous year, the following albums all came out within weeks of each other:

Nevermind by Nirvana. Achtung Baby by U2. Blood Sugar Sex Magic by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Use Your Illusion I + II by Guns and Roses. These albums were so huge that they got in my way of other sounds and it was only years later that I’d discover Massive Attack, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, The Charlatans, James, Social Distortion and Primal Scream.

Crisis averted, eventually.

These were some of the most massive albums of the decade and only one of them could properly be called grunge. The genre arrived suddenly and burned bright for a time and then collapsed under the weight of cheap imitations. Mudhoney fans will likely argue with me when I say that Pearl Jam is really the only survivor.

But in early 1992, grunge was starting to peek through the cracks. The huge sounds of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana were arguably the Big 3. Gathered around them were Smashing Pumpkins, Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, and Mother Love Bone.

Not all were from Seattle (just down the road from where I was in Vancouver), but Seattle was where the movie and the grunge scene itself were set. The search for authenticity was everything and Seattle had that in spades. The city seemed the natural place for these rainy-headed, distant-eyed, distraught, emotionally distressed, plaid shirt-wearing, tortured soul young hairy white men to make rock and roll’s last stab at providing earnest meaningfulness.

It could be argued that it was a reaction to the drug-addled hair nonsense of Motley Crue and Poison. It could be argued that it was a reaction against the truly menacing hard rock of Guns n Roses and Metallica. It could be argued that it was an antidote to the baggy trousered acid house trippy rock of Madchester happening across the pond.

The music was dark and driving, like the rain on a November night in the Pacific Northwest. They were exploring deep, hidden, repressed emotions and it was coming out in their music. The results were not about positivity and happiness, they were about examining your dark side and welcoming it, staying with it for a while. The music had melody, but it wasn’t meant to lift you up. Unless you felt a lifting knowing that there were other people who were as miserable as you sometimes pretended to be.

The fact that much of the film was a relatively light-hearted romantic comedy didn’t exactly square with a lot of the darker themes in the music. Either way, it was directed by Cameron Crowe and starred Matt Dillon, Kyra Sedgwick, Campbell Scott, and Bridget Fonda. Interestingly, many of the bands on the soundtrack make cameo (or slightly longer) appearances. I saw it in the theatre and though the plot was forgettable, I’ve watched it a few times since. It seems like more of a nostalgic period piece now, thirty years later.

But it’s the soundtrack that I remember best and it’s still my one-stop shop on my unnamed music streaming service when I just want to listen to the “best of” from that time for about an hour while I clean the house.

Would? / Alice in Chains (Dirt, 1992). The tortured soul of Layne Staley screams out for answers to the questions that plague him. He’d go down to suicide a few years later, but he and Jerry Cantrell’s talents continue to shine in this song. The opening bassline and vocal let you know what’s coming.

Breath / Pearl Jam (Soundtrack, 1992 / Ten reissue, 2009). Rock and roll survivors now, they were lean and hungry at this point, Ten having just gone into the stratosphere.

Seasons / Chris Cornell (Soundtrack, 1992). Foreshadowing his post-Soundgarden solo career, this voice still gives me chills. Shame that he’s gone too.

Dyslexic Heart / Paul Westerberg (Soundtrack, 1992). Not exactly grunge this guy and not even from Seattle. Rather a survivor of the 1980s shambles of the superbly chaotic Replacements, from Minneapolis. The start of his solo career.

Battle of Evermore / The Lovemongers (Soundtrack, 1992). I never understood how Led Zeppelin fit in here, other than as a tribute to the heavy sound they helped pioneer and I’m sure inspired musicians 20 years later. Either that or a nod to pre-Grunge Seattle in the form of Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart, who as usual crush this song.

Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns / Mother Love Bone (Apple, 1990). This is a beautiful song, and this is definitely included as a tribute, to commemorate Andrew Wood, who died right as this scene was taking off in 1990.

Birth Ritual / Soundgarden (Soundtrack, 1992). Pure early Soundgarden sound, before radio and video came calling. Driving, insistent and you can’t look away. The controlled rage in Chris Cornell’s vocal. If you are still confused by what Grunge was, watch the video that I linked.

State of Love and Trust / Pearl Jam (Soundtrack, 1992 / Rearviewmirror, 2004, Ten reissue, 2009). Also pure early Pearl Jam, lean and muscular. Crunchy and real. Made for Eddie Vedder’s voice.

Overblown / Mudhoney (Soundtrack, 1992). To me, what Grunge was actually supposed to sound like. Messy, chaotic, shambling, and made in your garage. I think the title refers to where the genre had already gotten to by then.

Waiting for Somebody / Paul Westerberg (Soundtrack, 1992). Poppy and uptempo number, from the ‘Mats frontman. Doesn’t fit with the rest of the music on the soundtrack, but does match the general mood of the film.

May This Be Love / Jimi Hendrix (Are You Experienced, 1967). Again, a great song from 1967, but quite how it fits into 1992, I’m not sure. He was from Seattle though and his gravesite makes it into the film.

Nearly Lost You / Screaming Trees (Sweet Oblivion, 1991). My favourite song on this soundtrack by my favourite band. They were pure rock and roll but never could really figure it out after this. Mark Lanegan who recently passed went on to an incredible solo career, his voice getting more whiskey and cigarette laden as the years went on.

Because it is so good, I’m including Night Flight to Kabul (Somebody’s Knocking, 2019)

Drown / Smashing Pumpkins (Soundtrack, 1992 / Gish reissue, 2011). Not from Seattle, rather Chicago or thereabouts, Billy Corgan and company were about to explode, so maybe that’s why they are on here. Or maybe it’s because the tune is a nice counter to some of the more heavy stuff on this soundtrack.

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There it is, one of the best film soundtracks of my lifetime. It strikes me that a significant number of people who sang on this record aren’t around anymore. Maybe that’s part of what makes these songs still so great.

I don’t know about you, but these songs do bring back some happy and some less than happy memories of a very different time in my life. I can’t be the only one for whom thirty years qualifies for not all that long ago?

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I really do hope that you like what you have just read. If you want unlimited access to thousands of writers, consider a subscription to Medium. It will set you back $5 a month and if you use this link, then I get a slice of that and will continue to set my time travel capsule for the start of the 90s.