107. Rock Goes The Gospel - Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"

The band is named after a sculpture in Seattle called "Soundgarden," and longtime speculation was that this song got its name from another Seattle sculpture called "Black Sun," by the artist Isamu Noguchi. (The piece is located in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill. It looks kind of like a huge, black doughnut and is aimed so you can see the Space Needle through the middle of it.) Chris Cornell stated in a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly that the title came from something he heard on the news - he thought the anchor said "black hole sun," but he really was saying something else. Cornell started thinking about the phrase and decided to write a song around it, as he felt it was a thought-provoking title. He wrote the lyrics first, then composed the music based on the images he came up with. This song was written entirely by Chris Cornell. "If I write lyrics that are bleak or dark, it usually makes me feel better," the Soundgarden frontman said. This song is certainly bleak, with references to snakes, a dead sky, and the summer stench. It's one of the more morose songs to get consistent airplay, and it helped associate the Grunge sound with depression and angst. Cornell, however, was simply expressing some dark thoughts in song - he was not suffering or crying for help in the manner of Kurt Cobain."Black Hole Sun" was released in 1994 as the third single from the band's fourth studio album Superunknown(1994). It is arguably the band's most recognizable and most popular song, and remains a well known song from the 1990s.

In my eyes
Indisposed
In disguise
As no one knows
Hides the face
Lies the snake
And the sun
In my disgrace

Boiling heat
Summer stench
'Neath the black
The sky looks dead
Call my name
Through the cream
And I'll hear you
Scream again

[Chorus:]
Black hole sun
Won't you come
And wash away the rain?
Black hole sun
Won't you come?
Won't you come?

Stuttering
Cold and damp
Steal the warm wind
Tired friend
Times are gone
For honest men
And sometimes
Far too long
For snakes

In my shoes
A walking sleep
And my youth
I pray to keep
Heaven send
Hell away
No one sings
Like you anymore

[Chorus 2x]

(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)

Hang my head
Drown my fear
'Til you all just disappear

[Chorus 2x]

(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
(Black hole sun,
Black hole sun)
Won't you come?
Won't you come?
Won't you come?

The lyrics are are full of riddles and mystery. The themes are a snake in disguise, "hides the face, lies the snake" "Innocence"  "A walking sleep And my youth I pray to keep"  and "Revelation" "Times are gone For honest men" too are in the lyrics as well as remorse and the feeling of being robed and the consequences of all this.. There seems to be links with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and the song "Black Hole Sun" The elements of the Genesis passage are in the lyrics of the song. The Snake, Innocence, Revelation, Remorse, Consequences. You can see how it fits.

Adam and Eve in the Garden is one of the most important stories in the Old Testament, For those who were in the Babylonian exile the garden of Eden with all the other parts of the Pentateuch was the instrumental means of bringing the glorious past into the miserable present by means of an official collection of writings. It was the main body of oral material that was written down again after the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem and the children of Israel taken into captivity in Babylon. It was the instrument that helped a beleaguered people gain strength, meaning and identity.

Adam and Eve, The Garden and The Snake he given identity to God's people in the past. They have helped capture sight of a world-view that was to bring hope along with all the other parts including law, narrative, song, history and practice. This would include all the mistakes that were made before.

The moment and happenings in Eden have been some of the most contested passages in the whole of the bible. They give the follower of Jesus a starting point in the whole of the story of the bible. A moment when things began to take a turn for the worse. They also provide a narrative that explains a world-view of what happened to God's whole creation. Soundgarden's song "Black Hole Sun" fits the scene so well. So much so that you could imagine Adam singing the song. Why not spend a bit of time today reading the early parts of Genesis and highlight some of the major themes. You will find a hope there to that warms the heart. You will find a deeper meaning if you look and reflect. Perhaps too you might say with soundgarden  "Heaven send Hell away"