3 Bone-Crushing Rock Riffs From the 1990s That Obscure Profoundly Dark Lyrics

A great guitar riff is often the first thing we notice in a rock song, as it sets the mood before the singer enters. Occasionally, rock music features abstract lyrics, which may leave a song’s meaning unclear. And it’s equally common for a wall of distorted guitars to obscure the lyrics in a mix, all of which further conceals the meaning. In the list below, the meaning of one track is fairly obvious, but the other two require some background. See if you know the profoundly dark meanings behind these bone-crushing rock riffs from the 1990s.

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“4th Of July” by Soundgarden

Thanks to “Black Hole Sun”, “Spoonman”, and “Fell On Black Days”, Soundgarden’s Superunknown became the Seattle band’s biggest seller. However, late in the track listing, “4th Of July” finds the band returning to its sludge-metal roots. Chris Cornell wrote the song about a bad acid trip. And instead of celebrating independence with fireworks, Cornell’s hallucinations are apocalyptic, and at one point, Jesus, attempting to smile, gets buried in the ground. The general vibe is paranoia, and the gloomy, descending guitar riff gives one the sense that there’s no escape.

“Them Bones” by Alice In Chains

Bone-crushing in both theme and volume, it’s not only the riff that’s jarring in “Them Bones”, but also Layne Staley’s terrified screams punctuating Jerry Cantrell’s trudging power chords. The opening track on Alice In Chains’ second album, Dirt, describes the fate of all living things. And speaking of dirt, Staley sings about how one day he’ll “end up a big old pile of them bones.” Though we’ll all wind up in a similar arrangement (depending on the circumstances), Staley can’t escape the loneliness he feels as he envisions himself as a fossil.

“100%” by Sonic Youth

Thurston Moore opens “100%” with this lyric: “I can never forget you / The way you rock the girls / They rule the world and love you / A blast in the underworld.” Moore is singing about a friend and former Black Flag and Rollins Band roadie, Joe Cole. In 1991, Cole and Henry Rollins were robbed while heading home from a grocery store. They had attended a Hole concert earlier in the evening at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. Cole was fatally shot as gunmen ordered Rollins to retrieve cash from inside the house Cole and Rollins shared.

Kim Gordon recalled hearing about Cole’s murder, writing in her memoir, Girl In A Band: “When Henry called to tell me about Joe, I burst into tears. I didn’t get over it for a couple of years, to be honest. The senseless, random act of violence against someone so full of life and innocence was mind-blowing, and I hated Los Angeles for a long time after that.”

Photo by Donna Santisi/Redferns