Temple of the Dog was a great grunge and alternative rock musical project which was founded in 1990 in the grunge capital of Seattle, Washington, on the West Coast of the United States of America. Temple of the Dog was, actually, a musical supergroup formed of members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, two of the most illustrative and best grunge bands ever. The group was mainly active from 1990 up until 1992 (subsequently active in 2016 as well with several one-off reunions during the following years: 2003, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2016, and 2019).
The band was started by late Chris Cornell (lead vocalist and frontman of Soundgarden) to his friend, Andrew Wood (lead vocalist and frontman of iconic Mother Love Bone, one of the most early grunge bands). The line-up of the group included the following musicians:
- Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar);
- Jeff Ament (bass guitar);
- Mike McCready (lead guitar);
- Matt Cameron (on drums);
- Eddie Vedder (co-lead vocals and backing vocals).
The Seattle-based group released only one eponymous studio album in April 1991 through A&M Records. The recording sessions for it unfolded at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, Washington, being overseen by producer Rakesh ‘Rick’ Parashar. It charted very well on US Billboard 200, where it reached the 5th position.
My personal copy of ‘Temple of the Dog’, still in very good shape after many years. Image source: personal photograph
In 2016, in order to mark the 25th anniversary of their eponymous debut studio album, Temple of the Dog went touring for the first and last time.
The tracklist of their only studio album is as follows:
- 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.
The album was subsequently re-issued in 2016 in a super deluxe edition, containing bonus tracks, demoes and outtakes, a DVD as well as a Blu-Ray 5.1 audio disc.
Below are my personal top favourite songs from the eponymous album of the band:
- Temple of the Dog on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
- Temple of the Dog (album) on www.wikipedia.org (in English)
- The official website of Temple of the Dog on www.templeofthedog.com