30 Years Since Punk Broke
Temple of the Dog release their first album and Nirvana debuts "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
30 years ago saw the release of several albums that would shape the decade of music ahead and forever alter the course of alternative music. Grunge icons Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden all released crucial albums in their respective discographies and while they dropped their first full-length a year prior, Alice in Chains’ “Man in the Box” was already an MTV staple. It was a clear shift set forth by the underground. By now, the story feels well told. ‘80s Hair Metal met its death with the arrival of the Seattle Sound and the disaffected youth would rise to the mainstream. Grunge wasn’t just a music genre, but soon took over America as Capitalism gave in and accepted former outcasts as the new brand and face of a generation. Plaid shirts, ripped jeans, and big boots became the look and everyone soon, millions would be trying to dress the part. Frontmen Layne Staley, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, and Kurt Cobain became the new voices of an unheard faction. In 1991 they were the leaders of the underground, playing angry, loud, heavy rock music that challenged the norms.
For those who consider themselves even the most basic of rock fans, it’d be damn near impossible to say you’d never heard Nevermind or Ten, two albums that both turn 30 this year, but really the start of this comes a bit earlier in ‘91 when Temple of the Dog released their self-titled debut and actually gave Eddie Vedder his first shot at fame months before Pearl Jam’s debut would hit shelves. Recorded over the course of only 14 days, the album was recorded by pre-supergroup members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Chris Cornell had already been fronting his metal and punk hybrid band for a few years, but following the death of his friend, roommate, and Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, he wrote some songs that he knew wouldn’t fit with his current band, but wasn’t willing to let them sit in a vault. He recruited some pals from Wood’s band, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, called up Mike McCready and got to work on a record. It wasn’t long before a fan from San Diego would send the guys in Mother Love Bone a demo and get a call to come up to test his chops as a potential frontman for their new group, but first he’d drop by the studio and take a mighty big risk by stepping in to help Cornell nail the vocals on “Hunger Strike.” Imagine the chemistry in the room the first time Eddie and Chris busted out that chorus!
Temple of the Dog didn’t crack the charts like the group had perhaps hoped, but it set off a spark of what would turn out to be one of the most important years in American rock music. By the fall, Nirvana’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten would shatter the idea of what it meant to be Alternative and not only change music forever, but culture as well. In retrospect, it’s almost impossible to imagine that these records came out only a month apart and that the big brothers of Grunge in Soundgarden would also release Badmotorfinger on the exact same day as Nevermind. While it didn’t give them the same status as these newcomers, it certainly elevated their position and rightfully set them up for future success.
Temple of the Dog’s debut came out on April 16, 1991. The next night, Nirvana played a gig at Seattle’s OK Hotel with support from Bikini Kill. The band was gaining attention not just in Seattle but in the indie community as well after the release of Bleach on hometown label Sub Pop, but they weren’t at quite the level of MTV or heavy airplay. However after this show, that was all about to change. 45 minutes into the band’s set, Kurt Cobain ripped into four chords that would turn the scene on its head. Nirvana’s live debut of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the immediate story of punk rock lore and magically was captured on film almost as if the world knew this moment in history was happening. The lyrics that night weren’t the ones that would end up on record and hearing the track in its raw form unveiled another layer to Nirvana’s now legendary career. As Nabil Ayers said in Rolling Stone, “By the end of the night, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was stuck in my head permanently.” A cultural shift had been set forth and things would never be the same again.
It’s hard to argue that there has been a bigger and more impactful song in the past 30 years and “Teen Spirit,” some will argue, wasn’t only the song of the ‘90s but perhaps the most important song in rock and rock history. In the three decades since Kurt said “This song is called ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’” the world would change many times over, but the legacy and impact of the song would remain intact. Sure the opening lyrics on this version “Come out and play” don’t hit quite the same as “Load up on guns and bring your friends,” but over the next few months Kurt would refine this tune into the perfect anthem we’ve all known and studied in the years since.
It would still be an entire summer before Nirvana would release “Teen Spirit” as a single, but the rise of Grunge felt imminent to take over the mainstream. Momentum was building and the chemistry was in the air. Only blocks away from the career changing night in Kurt, Krist, and Dave’s life, Alice in Chains was filming a show in the Space Center parking lot under the direction of Cameron Crowe for his upcoming film Singles. The movie wouldn’t come out until 1992 when Seattle and these grunge warriors were already heroes, but it continues to prove that a certain kind of magic was in the air at the moment. What an incredible two days in Seattle and what a start to a year unlike any other.
Alice may have been the biggest band headed into the year and at the time of these new releases, but that was all set to change. The bands of ‘91 would surge forward to become the face of the movement and a new generation. It would take them beyond their wildest dreams and launch them into the upper echelon of rock no one would have predicted. As Seattle stood on the precipice of a new musical and generational movement, the rest of the world was still only beginning to understand what was ahead. Temple of the Dog may have been a bit of the moment and the act that was the least revisited unlike so many of their peers, but the others would forever be regarded as the best of their contemporaries and generation. Their moments were only just beginning.