Hail..hail..hail..!!!
Here we are, the band "Temple of The Dog" where Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder did the duo at "Hunger Strike". I gave you the brief stry and also the video clip of "Hunger Strike". Enjoy,my friends...
Temple of the Dog was started by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, who was a roommate of Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. Wood died on March 19, 1990 of a heroin overdose, the day Cornell got back from a tour. As he went on to tour Europe a few days later, he started writing songs in tribute to his late friend.The result was two songs, "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven", that he recorded as soon as he got back from touring.
The recorded material was slow and melodic; much different musically from the aggressive rock music of Soundgarden. That is why Cornell approached Wood's former bandmates, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament—who were still figuring out how to continue without Mother Love Bone—with the intention of releasing the songs as a single. Ament described the collaboration as "a really good thing at the time" for him and Gossard that put them into a "band situation where we could play and make music". The band's lineup was completed by the addition of Soundgarden (and later Pearl Jam) drummer Matt Cameron and future Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready. They named themselves Temple of the Dog, after the lyrics in a Mother Love Bone song, "Man of Golden Words".
The band started rehearsing "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and other songs written by Cornell on tour previous to Wood's death, as well as re-working some existing material from demos written by Gossard, Ament, and Cameron. One such demo became a song for two bands; recorded as "Footsteps" for Vedder's and Gossard's future band, Pearl Jam and as "Times of Trouble" for Temple of the Dog. The idea of doing covers of Wood's solo material also came up, but was abandoned quickly, as they realised it would make people (including Wood's close friends and relatives) think they are "exploiting his material".
The release of a single was soon deemed a "stupid idea" by Cornell and dropped in favor of an EP, or album.The album was recorded in only 15 days, produced by the band themselves. Stone described the recording process as a "non-pressure filled" situation, as there were no expectations or pressure coming from the record company. Eddie Vedder, who had flown from San Diego to Seattle to audition to be the singer of Mookie Blaylock (which eventually became Pearl Jam), ended up providing backing vocals. "Hunger Strike" became a duet between Cornell and Vedder. Cornell was having trouble with the vocals at practice, when Vedder stepped in. Cornell later said that "he sang half of that song not even knowing that I'd wanted the part to be there and he sang it exactly the way I was thinking about doing it, just instinctively."
Temple of the Dog was released on April 16, 1991 through A&M Records and initially sold 70,000 copies in the United States. Ament recalled that they requested a Pearl Jam sticker on the cover—as they had just picked their new name—because "it'll be a good thing for us", but they were refused. The album received favorable reviews, but failed to chart. Contemporary critic Steve Huey, from All Music Guide, rated it with four and a half stars out of five, while David Fricke from Rolling Stone wrote—in retrospective—that it "deserves immortality". The band members were pleased with the material, as it achieved its purpose; Cornell believed that "Andy really would have liked" the songs, and Gossard also asserted that he thought Wood would be "blown away by the whole thing". Soon after the album's release, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam started recording and Temple of the Dog broke up.
In the summer of 1992, the album received new attention. Although the album had been released more than a year earlier, A&M Records realized that they had in their catalog what was essentially a collaboration between Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, who had both risen to mainstream attention in the months since the album's release. A&M decided to re-issue the album and promote "Hunger Strike" as a single, with an accompanying music video. The attention allowed both the album and single to chart on Billboard, and resulted in a boost in album sales. Temple of the Dog ended up selling more than a million copies, achieving platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. In a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar Archive, Cornell stated he would be open for a Temple of the Dog reunion, or "some collaboration with any combination of those guys". He also revealed that Temple of the Dog was the reason he joined Audioslave, as the experience made him "keep an open mind"
about collaborations with musicians from other bands. (source: wikipedia;Youtube).
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