Soundgarden “Screaming Life” EP, 1987. SubPop Records. Sad news this morning:  Chris Cornell died last night at age 52. I previously blogged about Screaming Life back in 2015, having been pleased to discover we had an original pressing of SubPop’s third ever release (though not of the first 500 which were on orange vinyl), and found myself enjoying the rawer, dirtier sound of the band than their later big money releases. That opinion still holds up. Since then, we’ve become pretty good friends with a woman who grew up in Seattle and hung out with many of the not-yet-legendary grunge musicians, including members of Soundgarden. I’ve gotten to hear some pretty entertaining stories from those pre-fame times including one about her playing Scrabble with some of the guys from the band. Her son also happens to be an incredibly gifted musician; he’s in high school and has already earned a WAMI Award. We went camping last summer up in Door County at Peninsula State Park and one evening he and a couple of others pulled out their guitars. One song he played reminded me of one of my favorite Chris Cornell songs, “Seasons” which appears on the soundtrack to Singles. My friend’s son hadn’t heard the song so once I had internet connection (something sorely lacking in the northwoods), I sent him a link to the track. His comment was “Just listened to this, and I love it thanks it’s so beautiful.”