The Day I Tried To Live (track)
by Soundgarden

From AAL2014 07/15/2022 02:22 | #287429

This is one of my favorite Soundgarden songs. Another hit from this album that features odd time and odd tunings.

I love a lot of the lyrics here too. One of the stanzas that stood out to me recently was “Words you say never seem to live up to the ones inside your head.” Ugh. If there is a more accurate portrayal of my uncertainty, I’ve yet to hear it.

Best song on Superunknown, maybe best Soundgarden song ever.

To me, this and Black Hole Sun are the two pinnacles of a stellar album.

From soundguardian 05/15/2013 21:28 | #76229

The lyrics of the song, written by Cornell, are extremely pessimistic, and so this may turn some listeners off. However, Cornell makes some very interesting points. The massive populations of the planet result in lessening importance of each individual. Most individuals face the daily humdrum of an unfulfilling life, and never experience anything other than the monotonous existence of a desk job, for example. Only a very limited, select few move on to greatness in contributing to the human condition.

The story that "The Day I Tried to Live" tells is of one such boring person who awakens one morning to a new sense of purpose. For all his good intentions, however, everything backfires. Cornell uses such analogies as "stole from the poor and gave to the rich" and "dangled from the powerlines and let the martyrs stretch", which are in antithesis of what would be considered noble and helpful, to demonstrate the destructive nature of the narrator's attempts to make a name for himself.

For all his best efforts he continues to fail, but continues trying, never forsaking his mission. Eventually he realises that he's been reduced to "wallow[ing] in the mud with the other pigs", i.e., reduced to plebeian status, or reduced to become the very corruption and injustice he swore to fight. Regretting even making the effort in the first place, he comes to terms that in a very competitive and unsympathetic world such as this, effort can mean nothing. The world can be too big for a single person to make a positive impact.

Even if the lyrics are too dark for the intended audiences, at the least this track compensates with a rich instrumentation, owed to the composition skills of Cornell. The bass riff developed during the verses is beautifully supplemented by the arresting percussion. The weird slide guitar in the background at the beginning of the song (and interspersed throughout), which alternates pitch-bending up and then back down, commands the attention of the listener in order to suck them into the moment, into experiencing the story.

Great going clean and flying straight track.