10 Hard Rock Songs That Are Impossible To Understand
3. Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden
The beauty of Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden comes in how it is able to transcend the grunge labels that it grew up in. As opposed to the typical angsty teen anthems, this dark journey into Chris Cornell's psyche feels like the perfect combination of the classic rock-isms of their past being grounded in the same alternative sphere as something like Nirvana or Mudhoney. It would be awesome if we actually knew what it meant though.
As the song plods along, there's actually a lot of beautiful imagery being brought across, with Cornell talking about the snake that lies within his...eyes...indisposed...maybe? Despite sounding absolutely stunning, Cornell has spoken at length that he turned to the absurd when stringing most of these lyrics together. As opposed to his usual way with lyrics, these are the results of Cornell just riffing as he tried to get a melody, which he described as painting with words.
Nevertheless, the song eventually became one of Soundgarden's greatest tunes, with the heavy balanced out with the melodic to create something that sounds like a heavier Beatles song. That's before you even see the music video, which is the stuff of a grunge stoner's fever dream. I'll give it this though, the lyrics of the song probably make as much sense as the video which accompanies it.