FEATURE:
Speak the Rhythm on Your Own
Soundgarden’s Spoonman at Thirty
_________
I will mark the album…
IN THIS PHOTO: Soundgarden (Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd and Chris Cornell) in February 1994/PHOTO CREDIT: 4/Shinko Music/Getty Images
closer to its thirtieth anniversary on 8th March. That album in question is one of the best of the decade. It is Soundgarden’s immense and near-perfect fourth studio album, Superunknown. It is rammed with some simply awesome songs. Most know it for Black Hole Sun. The third single from the album, it was released on 13th May, 1994. Because the lead single, Spoonman, was released on 15th February, 1994 – quite an interesting post-Valentine’s Day release! -, I wanted to mark its upcoming thirtieth anniversary. It is one of the finest songs from an album that I really love. I will come to the single and dive deeper. A fifteen-track album can seem a bit sprawling. In the case of Superunknown, you are engaged to the very end! Spoonman is the eighth track. In the middle of the pack, it is a nice kick into the second side. Even if the first half is stronger – as it contains Black Hole Sun, Superunknown, My Wave and Fell on Black Days -, Superunknown is well sequenced so that there is a strong end to the album. Written by the band’s lead, Chris Cornell, I wanted to salute this great track. We sadly lost Cornell on 18th May, 2017. He is still very much missed! That incredibly powerful, raw voice that could display so many emotions and so much depth, not enough people talk about him in terms of his songwriting. An incredibly original and intelligent lyricist, he was the antithesis to some of the more meat-headed and simplistic Grunge and Alternative bands of the 1990s - those who were writing sexist, dumb and banal lyrics. A single that was a top twenty in the U.K. and a top five in the U.S., Spoonman remains one of Soundgarden’s best-loved songs. It is their third most-streamed song on Spotify (behind Fell on Black Days and the gold medal holder, Black Hole Sun).
In terms of the songs on Superunknown, there are tracks about Cornell’s depression and emotional state. Black Hole Sun seems like a need for sunshine and hope following bleakness. Released around the time of Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994, a feeling of something coming and washing away the rain. Spoonman is less personal and enigmatic. Its title suggest something quite eccentric. It is an appropriate mid-album track. Most would pass people by or be a great pivot/interval. Instead, Spoonman is a natural single and one of Soundgarden’s best compositions. In this Request interview from October, whilst exploring and explaining the lyrics behind Superunknown songs, Chris Cornell revealed Spoonman’s influence and story:
“Getting back to Superunknown, the first single was "Spoonman." The song is superficially about Artis the Spoonman, but the underlying sentiment is that rhythm and music have healing properties.
It's more about the paradox of who he is and what people perceive him as. He's a street musician, but when he's playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently. The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play”.
Before moving on, Loudwire published a feature in October about the magnificent Spoonman. One of the band’s most iconic songs, some people are not aware of its truth and meaning. It is definitely a standout of Superunknown in that sense. Nearly thirty years old, this song still holds a quirkiness, mystique, power and beauty that few other tracks. Testament to the connection and musicianship of Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron:
“The track is featured on the band's fourth and most commercially-successful album Superunknown, which came out in 1994. It peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock songs chart, and it won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance at the 1995 Grammy Awards. Despite its popularity, many people don't know the origin story of the song, so we're going to dive in and explain it.
Who Is the 'Spoonman'?
"Spoonman" was inspired by a man named Artis, who made a name for himself as a street performer in Seattle. His instrument of choice were always spoons, so he was given the name "Artis the Spoonman." According to his website, he started performing in 1972, and eventually shared a stage with Frank Zappa and Aerosmith, in addition to Soundgarden.
“My mom bought me a pair of musical spoons when I was 10... I had a collection of records that I played along with on my bongos and spoons and I’d sing along, too. She never told me to turn it down or turn off the music," Atis recalled to Maximum Ink in 2019. "I’ve always wanted to be a rocker... Imagine yourself as a 12-year-old, and instead of being something like what your father was, you said: poet or musician. Who is going to accept that? I just wanted to be a rock star, and who would have thought of that?”
"It's more about the paradox of who he is and what people perceive him as. He's a street musician, but when he's playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else," Chris Cornell said of the song in an interview with Request in 1994.
"They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently. The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play."
What Was Artis the Spoonman's Connection to Soundgarden?
Soundgarden knew of Artis because he'd been performing in Seattle for years, and they developed a friendship in the '90s. The rockers invited the artist to open one of their shows in Seattle, and they later asked him to play his spoons on the recording of the song "Spoonman." He's also the star of the music video.
"We didn't know what a spoon solo was gonna sound like on a Soundgarden song since it's never happened before. You don't hear a lot of rock songs with spoons in them, so it was sort of an experiment and it turned out really great," Cornell said during a special with MTV.
"I never really met 'em until they invited me to open a show for them two years ago here in Seattle," Artis explained in the clip. "When I'm in Seattle, or wherever I'm anywhere, my only aspiration and involvement vocationally for 20 years is playing spoons and entertaining."
IN THIS PHOTO: Artis the Spoonman, pictured left, performing in Seattle in 1993
Where Is Artis the Spoonman Now?
Artis suffered a heart attack in 2002, according to The Seattle Times, and a pass-the-hat benefit held during a festival in Seattle helped raise over $3,200 for him to help with his medical bills. Several years later, he moved to Port Townsend, Wash. and has lived there ever since [via KUOW.org].
He released an album called Finally in 2018, and keeps the spoons from the "Spoonman" video in a cabinet in his home, according to the aforementioned Maximum Ink interview.
“I just managed to be a rock-star with fucking spoons!” he concluded”.
There are features like this that give more insight into a classic song. I am fascinated by the origins of Spoonman and how it took shape. The fact that it sounds like an anomaly on Superunknown is because of its inspiration. Rather than Chris Cornell taking from the personal or traditional lyrical sources, this song has a very different starting point – especially in terms of its geography. Rolling Stone explained when they marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Superunknown on 8th March, 2019:
“In a deleted scene from Cameron Crowe‘s grunge-steeped 1992 rom com Singles, Matt Dillon’s character, Cliff Poncier, busks on a Seattle street. A friend walks by and asks him what happened to his band, Citizen Dick. “They didn’t get it; they weren’t with the program,” the dudely, long-haired singer-songwriter says. “But I’m solo now — I’m doing some really, really interesting things.”
At that point, he reaches down and grabs a homemade demo tape from a box. “That’s my latest,” he says of the cassette, adorned with his silhouette and simply titled Poncier. “They’re playing that record in France.”
At the time, Poncier wasn’t real, but the fictional tape — the brainchild of Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament — served as the inspiration for “Spoonman,” a future classic by Soundgarden, one of the bands featured in the film.
“The idea was that Matt Dillon’s character, Cliff Poncier, in the course of the movie, he loses his band, and he loses his girlfriend, and he gains soul,” Crowe told Rolling Stone of the origins of the Poncier tape “So, there’s a period where he’s on a street corner busking, having lost his band, but beginning his solo career. And there would be, in reality, these guys standing on the corner outside the clubs in Seattle hawking their solo cassettes. So we wanted Cliff Poncier to have his own solo cassette. And Jeff Ament, in classic style, designed this cassette cover and wrote out these fictitious song names for the cassette.
“And Chris Cornell was another guy who was close to us when we were making the record and still is a good friend,” Crowe continued. “I really loved Soundgarden; they were my favorite band. I originally thought Chris could play the lead, but then I think that turned into too big of a commitment for everybody and so he became the guy he is in the movie, but in the course of making the movie he was close to all of us. He was always around.
“Anyway, Jeff Ament had designed this solo cassette which we thought was hilarious because it had all of these cool song titles like ‘Flutter Girl,” and ‘Spoonman,’ and just like a really true-type ‘I’ve lost my band, and now I’m a soulful guy — these are my songs now’ feeling. So we loved that Jeff had played out the fictitious life of Cliff Poncier. And one night, I stayed home, and Nancy [Wilson], we were then married, she went out to a club, and she came back home, and she said, ‘Man, I met this guy, and he was selling solo cassettes, and so I got one for you.’ And she hands me the Cliff Poncier cassette. And I was like, ‘That’s funny, haha.’ And then she said, ‘You should listen to it.’ So I put on the cassette. And holy shit, this is Chris Cornell, as Cliff Poncier, recording all of these songs, with lyrics, and total creative vision, and he has recorded the entire fake, solo cassette.”
“I felt like these titles were brilliant,” Cornell told Rolling Stone of the tape in 2014. “They inspired me. I never would have written [‘Spoonman’] or the other four songs that were part of that if the titles weren’t compelling.”
Cornell’s solo version of “Spoonman,” listed on the tape as “Spoon Man,” appeared in the film and was released at the time on a promo CD. (The entire Poncier EP was reissued in 2017 on the deluxe edition of the Singles soundtrack, and also later came out as a stand-alone Record Store Day exclusive.) Soundgarden’s brawny version of the song would become the first single from the band’s fourth LP, Superunknown, which turns 25 today.
Ament’s original title was inspired by the Seattle street performer Artis the Spoonman, known for playing percussion with spoons. Cornell’s lyrics delved further into Artis’ persona, and the real-life Spoon Man would be featured on the song itself as well as in the video.
“It’s more about the paradox of who he is and what people perceive him as,” Cornell said of the song in a 1994 interview. “He’s a street musician, but when he’s playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he’s a street person, or he’s doing this because he can’t hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently.”
Cornell also later credited Artis for inspiring his career as a solo singer-songwriter.
“He also changed my life in that the only thing I do outside of Soundgarden is this one-man acoustic show that I tour with,” he told Rolling Stone. “He was a big inspiration for me that anyone can do that. I remember sitting in a room, probably with eight or 10 people, and he walked in with his leather satchel he always carries with him and took out spoons. Everyone’s jaw dropped. I thought, ‘It’s amazing this guy performs at festivals, fairs and street corners.’ This guy can walk into a room and get a reaction. Suddenly, I felt embarrassed and smaller, ’cause I felt like I call myself a singer, a songwriter, a musician, and I’ve sold millions of records and toured the world, but I can’t do what he can. I can’t just walk into a room and pick up an instrument and perform and entertain everyone and their jaws drop. So that stuck in the back of my mind, and at some point I started to pursue that. He was the main inspiration for that.”
The song would make it to Number Three on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and win the 1995 Grammy for Best Metal Performance. The band performed it hundreds of times, including at Cornell’s final show in Detroit on May 17th, 2017”.
On 15th February, the first taste of the genius album that is Superunknown turns thirty. For many, Spoonman might have been their very first experience of Soundgarden. I think that Black Hole Sun was my initial exposure. I listened back to albums such as Badmotorfinger (1991) later on. Spoonman, in my view, is one of the all-time best Soundgarden releases. A perfect introduction to the classic Superunknown, I wanted to celebrate this song ahead of its thirtieth anniversary. It makes me think of Chris Cornell and how he is so missed today. How he would be chuffed that this song continues to get played and hit new ears.! Superunknown turns thirty in March. Another chance to remember one of the best songwriters and leads of his generation. Spoonman is a typically brilliant offering from a musical mind…
LIKE no other.