Videos by American Songwriter
Stone Temple Pilots rose to fame in the midst of the grunge era and certainly shared certain traits with some of the leading lights of that genre. But they were a little bit too slippery to be cornered so neatly in any classifying box. After all, frontman Scott Weiland had more in common with the decadent glam-rockers of the early ’70s than the dour-faced singers that populated grunge. The guy even danced in his videos.
Another thing that kept Stone Temple Pilots from being typecast was their willingness to alter their formula at regular intervals. That they could pull off a song like “Sour Girl,” which relied on musical restraint and melodic prettiness more than guitar crunch, was evidence of this. Found on their 1999 album No.4, the acoustic-based number gave them their biggest chart success and finds Weiland and company mixing pop smarts with arrestingly honest self-recrimination.
In his 2011 autobiography Not Dead & Not For Sale, Weiland wrote about how the inspiration for “Sour Girl” was misconstrued by fans. “Everyone is convinced that it’s about my romance with Mary [Forsberg, second wife],” Weiland remembered. “But everyone is wrong. ‘Sour Girl’ was written after the collapse of my relationship with Jannina [Castaneda, first wife]. It’s about her.”
“She was a sour girl the day that she met me,” Weiland sings, then admits, “She was a happy girl the day that she left me.” It’s bitter irony that the one thing that finally brightens the girl’s mood is the narrator’s absence from her life. The song’s refrain, rendered in wistful, wondrous harmonies, asks, “What would you do if I followed you?” Based on what he reveals as the song progresses, she’d probably quicken her pace.
When it comes to naming the reasons for her departure, he can’t help but looking in the mirror. “I was a superman but looks are deceiving,” Weiland sings. Her attempts to deal with his erraticism take their toll: “The rollercoaster ride’s a lonely one.” The desolate nature of the vocal makes clear what this fracture has done to his emotional state, but he also makes direct lyrical reference to the monetary cost: “I paid a ransom note to stop it from steaming.”
“The girl got reasons,” Weiland continues. “They all got reasons.” The line seems to be the narrator’s way of suggesting that his shortcomings are eventually discovered by all his lovers. The song is sturdy enough that it probably would have worked no matter how it was played, but the approach that STP took, built around Dean DeLeo’s acoustic guitar, is the perfect setting for the melancholic melody and Weiland’s piercing performance to shine.
The nature of Scott Weiland’s death at the age of 48 on December 3 shouldn’t diminish an impactful, impressive career. Nor should it overshadow the prodigious talents that made such a career possible. “Sour Girl” is one of the undeniable high points of his time with Stone Temple Pilots, an example of a singer and band stretching beyond any preconceived notions of what they were supposed to be about and connecting via tenderness and truth.
