‘High water mark”: Stone Gossard on the best project he ever worked on
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(Credits: Far Out / Tidal)
It’s hard for any artist to decide what their best work is. Records can be like musical children for anyone, but even if some resonate with the public better, they will still have affection for the strange records that never got the spotlight they deserved. Although Pearl Jam has boasted some of the strangest detours that any major band has gone down, Stone Gossard claimed that this emotional album set the bar for what he could do with his bandmates.
Then again, it’s hard to call anything that Pearl Jam did as formulaic. Although they have had their stadium rock moments across the first half of their career, Eddie Vedder seemed to make it a point to switch it up every time they make a record, whether that’s going back to art-rock styles on No Code or making the alternative equivalent of a new wave record on Backspacer in the late 2000s.
If time had worked out a little differently, though, Vedder probably wouldn’t have been a part of Pearl Jam at all. Gossard and co. had been working fine in Mother Love Bone with frontman extraordinaire Andy Wood, but the minute that he died of a drug overdose, there was no way that anyone could continue on with the group.
That would have been the equivalent of Queen trying to make music without Freddie Mercury, but even though they were lost, Chris Cornell helped them find the way out with Temple of the Dog. The grunge screamer had no plans to leave Soundgarden, but with the help of Matt Cameron, Temple of the Dog became one of the most moving tribute albums anyone has made, especially with them turning their tunes into a rock and roll wake on ‘Say Hello 2 Heaven’.
And even if they weren’t thinking about it then, this was the perfect breeding ground for Pearl Jam. Mike McCready had been brought in to play a couple of leads, but his stellar performance on ‘Reach Down’ as well as Vedder’s vocal cameo on ‘Hunger Strike’ was practically the first incarnation of Pearl Jam with Cornell on vocals instead of Vedder.
Even though decades had passed since Temple of the Dog, Gossard still considered it one of the best records he had been involved with, saying, “We made a record with Chris Cornell called Temple of the Dog. I still listen to it and think that it’s the best thing I’ve ever been involved with. Whatever that combination of people was, I’d never been in a situation where it was that easy. I’ve almost been looking for that ever since.”
But maybe the raw pain behind the record made it so easy. No one in this band wanted to do anything other than do Wood proud, and by leaving everyone’s ego at the door, tunes like ‘Pushing Forward Back’ and ‘All Night Thing’ probably served as healing much better than any kind of therapy would have.
Whereas most records can be thrown together to sell millions of copies, Temple of the Dog earned its reputation because it was written for no one else but the group members. The public may have seen a supergroup in the making years later, but nothing mattered more to them than sending off their friend properly.
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