“I’ve been all around the world,” explains Cantrell, “and I’ve talked to combat vets from Desert Storm and the recent war in Iraq – and they have a deep affinity with that song. Rooster drew immediate praise, both among followers of grunge and further afield. He said it was a weird experience, a sad experience and he hoped that nobody else had to go through it.” “It even brought him to the point of tears.
“He was totally cool, totally calm, accepted it all and had a good time doing it,” Cantrell added in the notes for 1999’s Music Bank box set. “My father had never talked about that time in his life, and was reluctant to do so if anyone ever asked,” recalls the guitarist, “So I was amazed that he agreed to do Mark’s request, for about an hour, on film. Similarly powerful was the video, in which director Mark Pellington interspersed scenes of Apocalypse Now-style brutality with an interview with Cantrell’s father. “It turned out to be really powerful,” notes Cantrell, “and the way Layne sang on it is amazing.” Rooster was taped at Eldorado Studios on LA’s Sunset Boulevard, which the band co- produced with Dave Jerden. “So in the session that was meant for recording that one song, we ended up demoing about 10 songs, which included all the stuff that ended up on the Sap EP, Rooster and a couple of others from Dirt.” Rooster by Alice In Chains: the video
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“Cameron Crowe had already come to us to ask for a song for his movie Singles,” recalls Cantrell. When it came to recording Rooster, the band turned a prior engagement to their advantage. It’s more of a forum to dig deeper.” Alice In Chains had enjoyed some success with their 1990 debut album Facelift and its single Man In The Box, but Rooster was arguably the first song to announce the depth of the band’s talent.Ĭantrell recalls that “it felt like a major achievement for me as a young writer,” and this sentiment was echoed when he played the demo to vocalist Layne Staley, bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney. To be honest, I didn’t really sit down intending to do any of that it just kinda came out.īut that’s the great thing about music – sometimes it can reach deeper than you ever would in a conversation with anybody. But on Rooster, I was trying to think about his side of it – what he might have gone through. Love Alice In Chains? Check out this awesome selection of authentic Alice In Chains apparel and gear from Rock.“I certainly had resentments,” Cantrell notes, “as any young person does in a situation where a parent isn’t around or a family is split. And if you’d like to add any of the discussed tracks to your collection, you can preview or purchase via iTunes below:
Which ones would make your list? Tell me in the comments. So that wraps up my Top 10 Layne Staley songs. While Alice in Chains have successfully soldiered on with vocalist William Duvall, it’ll never reach the heights of their heyday with Staley.
It’s just all the more frustrating knowing how much more he could have done, making his absence that much more painful. It’s amazing looking back at Staley’s career: despite his debilitating condition, he made a rich body of work that has stood the test of time. Loneliness is not a phase/Field of pain is where I graze/Serenity is far away Staley’s other self-pinned epic from Dirt Angry Chair has a rich gothic atmosphere, with reverb-drenched vocals that epitomize imprisonment in one’s own mind:
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