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Soundgarden - Spoonman

submitted by Zifnab

1 decade 7 years 8 months ago

"Spoonman" is a song by Seattle grunge band Soundgarden. It appears on their 1994 album Superunknown and was released as the album's first single in February the same year. It would later appear on their greatest hits album A-Sides. "Spoonman" is often credited as one of the songs that launched Soundgarden's career into the mainstream.

It was originally written for the soundtrack to the film Singles in 1992. At this time, Soundgarden, along with fellow grunge band Pearl Jam, was working on the soundtrack for the film. Pearl Jam's bassist, Jeff Ament, had been put in charge of creating the name for a fictional band that would appear in the film. Before finally choosing Citizen Dick for its name, Ament had compiled a list of potential names which included the name "Spoonman". The name was inspired by Artis the Spoonman, a street performer from Santa Cruz, California and later Seattle, who played music with a set of spoons.

Soundgarden vocalist and songwriter Chris Cornell eventually used the names on the list to create songs for the film. "Spoonman" was among these, and an acoustic version was created from it. This early version of the song can be heard in the background during a scene of the film. Rather than just leave the song on the film's soundtrack, Soundgarden began working on an electric version of "Spoonman". The band would play it while on their 1993 tour with Neil Young. With hype building around their upcoming album Superunknown, Soundgarden released the single a month before the album's release. Shortly after this, the song became widely popular, reaching high positions on rock charts. It would later win the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.

The song's inspiration, Artis the Spoonman, played a prominent role in the song itself. The final version of the song featured Artis the Spoonman playing his spoons as part of the song's instrumental. The music video for the song also featured Artis prominently, making him the focus of the video instead of the band. The song's call-and-response style is reminiscent of "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin.

While most rock music is composed in 4/4 (common time) or 3/4 time, Spoonman is fairly unique in that it is a mix of 4/4 and 7/4 time. Two other notable compositions that employ 7/4 time are Pink Floyd's "Money" and the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love".