Temple of the Dog is the only album by the rock band Temple of the Dog, released on April 16, 1991, through A&M Records. It is a tribute to Andrew Wood, the former lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, who died on March 19, 1990, of a heroin overdose. The album has been certified platinum by the RIAA in the United States. Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who had been Andrew Wood‘s roommate, approached former Mother Love Bone members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament about working on material he had written when he was on tour with Soundgarden in Europe. The line-up eventually included Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and newcomers Mike McCready (lead guitar) and Eddie Vedder (background vocals). McCready and Vedder were featured on the album due to their involvement with Ament and Gossard‘s next project, which became Pearl Jam. The name Temple of the Dog is derived from the opening lyrics of the Mother Love Bone song Man of Golden Words: “Wanna show you something, like joy inside my heart. Seems I been living in the temple of the dog”.
The recording sessions took place from November to December 1990 at London Bridge Studios in Seattle, Washington. The album was recorded in only 15 days. The group worked with producer Rick Parashar, who also engineered, mixed, and played piano. Two songs on the album, Reach Down and Say Hello 2 Heaven, were written in response to Wood‘s death, while other songs were written by Cornell on tour prior to Wood‘s death or re worked from existing material from demos written by Gossard and Ament.
Ament described the collaboration as “a really good thing at the time” for him and Gossard that put them into a “band situation where we could play and make music”. Gossard described the recording process as a “non-pressure filled” situation, as there were no expectations or pressure coming from the record company. Gossard later said it was “the easiest and most beautiful record, that we’ve ever been involved with”.
This was the first recording studio experience for McCready and Vedder. Regarding McCready, Cornell said: “You almost kind of had to yell at him to get him to realize that in the five-and-a-half-minute solo of ‘Reach Down’, that was his time and that he wasn’t going to be stepping on anybody else.” The song “Hunger Strike” became a duet between Cornell and Vedder after Cornell was having trouble with the vocals at practice and Vedder stepped in. Cornell later said: “he sang half of that song not even knowing that I’d wanted the part to be there and he sang it exactly the way I was thinking about doing it, just instinctively”.
Tracklist:
- Say Hello 2 Heaven
- Reach Down
- Hunger Strike
- Pushin Forward Back
- Call Me a Dog
- Times of Trouble
- Wooden Jesus
- Your Saviour
- Four Walled World
- All Night Thing
Temple of the Dog
Jeff Ament: bass guitar, art direction and design, photography
Matt Cameron: drums, percussion
Chris Cornell: lead vocals, harmonica (track 6), banjo (track 7)
Stone Gossard: rhythm guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar
Mike McCready: lead guitars
Eddie Vedder: backing vocals (tracks 4, 8, and 9) co-lead vocals (track 3)
Production
Rich Frankel, Walberg Design : art direction and design
Don Gilmore: additional engineering
Lance Mercer, Josh Taft: photography
Rick Parashar: production, piano (tracks 5, 6, and 10), organ (track 10), mastering
Ken Perry: mastering
Temple of the Dog: production
Chris Cornell (July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017)
Andrew Wood (January 8, 1966 – March 19, 1990).
