In 1984, three guys got together in the cold, dreary Pacific Northwest city of Seattle and started a band. One of those members was the shredding guitar player Kim Thayil and the group he co-founded was Soundgarden, which then included singer-drummer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto.
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With songs like “Black Hole Sun” and “Jesus Christ Pose,” the band became immensely famous, one of the four core grunge groups from the Emerald City. And while Thayil was known for his guitar prowess, many fans may not know he also wrote some of the band’s most impactful tunes.
[RELATED: Kim Thayil Remembers Cofounding Soundgarden and Late Friend Chris Cornell]
So, let’s dive into the music from the grunge guitarist. These are three songs you likely didn’t know Kim Thayil wrote for Soundgarden.
1. “Jesus Christ Pose”
Written by Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd
Released in 1991 on Soundgarden’s record, Badmotorfinger, this is a song each of the primary members of the band had a hand in. By now, Cornell had moved from behind the kit to the front of the stage and Ben Shepherd had taken over on bass with Matt Cameron taking over the kit.
“[It] was definitely a jam at rehearsal,” Thayil told Rolling Stone. “I think Ben was just jamming up this loud and blurry, detuned bass line flopping around there. And Matt starts making it precise and coherent; Matt’s drum part is insane—it’s so fast and coordinated. And I picked up my guitar, thinking, ‘What the hell are they doing?’ It took me a while to figure out what was going on rhythmically and where to punctuate the one, so what I start hearing was that swirling, kamikaze bat [guitar] sound at the beginning. And that was a groove. Then I revisit the feedback and beneath-the-bridge guitar squeals that I used to do in ’84 and ’85. I did that mostly out of necessity because I really didn’t understand what it was Ben and Matt were playing; it was just too fast and involved. Eventually, Matt and Ben lost each other, so we recorded it. Chris takes it home. We loved the groove, the action, and the dynamic of it. So Chris takes a recording home and works lyrics and around the lyrics finds a chorus. So he writes a couple of other sections to help flesh out the arrangement dynamic and give room for the vocals. He brought that to rehearsal and we’re like, ‘Holy shit, this crazy, insane car wreck is now a song.'”
2. “My Wave”
Written by Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil
“My Wave” came out on the band’s 1994 LP, Superunknown. It was a big hit, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Featuring an odd time signature, which wasn’t itself odd for Soundgarden, frontman Chris Cornell sings,
Take, if you want a slice
If you want a piece
If it feels alright
Break, if you like the sound
If it gets you up
If it brings you down
Share, if it makes you sleep
If it sets you free
If it helps to breath
3. “Superunknown”
Written by Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil
The title track for the band’s 1994 LP, “Superunkown” was one of four tracks Thayil helped write or co-write on the LP. In the song, the guitar player provides a big bed of psychedelic-yet-sludgy sounds over which frontman Chris Cornell wails like the singer he was.
If this isn’t what you see
It doesn’t make you blind
Yea, if this doesn’t make you feel
It doesn’t mean you’ve died
Where the river’s high
Where the river’s high
If you don’t want to be seen
Well you don’t have to hide
And if you don’t want to believe
Well you don’t have to try to feel alive, yea
Alive in the superunknown
Alive in the superunknown
Alive in the superunknown
First it steals your mind and then it steals your
Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images
