Fave Song On Alice In Chains - Dirt?

Might as well be: Fave Song That Ends With A Question Mark?

Rooster doesnt end with a question mark

nor does them bones.

Oh for the days when radio 1 used to play stuff like Them Bones in the daytime.

it's gotta be "down in the hole" since it reminds me the most of their EPs which are their best shit. i love the way the fuzz guitar comes in just before the chorus starts, like they clicked on a poorly functioning big muff (were there any other kind?!?!) and it took a couple seconds to kick in....

Really loved Layne Staleys voice, shame people hold him responsible for abominations like Creed/Staind etc.
Then again, if you hate a band for influencing bad stuff then you probably would end up hating all music and be a jaded poster on ILX..

"Them Bones"

Rooster was never a Single in the UK, but I remember buying it on import. Was it a hit in the main US chart or just modern rock or whatever it's called over there?

I'm pretty sure just a modern rock hit, seems to have outlasted the other songs as their "legacy" song. I certainly hear it on Q101 far more than any of their other songs.

"Sickman" by a large margin

Would? was their highest charting song in the UK and their breakthrough hit, but Them Bones got the most airplay and made them into a fairly big band. People I knew who weren't into metal and usually preferred the mudhoney/nirvana branch of grunge rather than soundgarden/pearl jam one seemed to be into Dirt, which was a bit of a surprise.

"Would?" definitely seemed like the biggest hit back in the mid 1990's, but I honestly don't think I hear it a third as much as I hear "Rooster". Which is a shame. "Would?" gets my vote.

You certainly never hear any AIC on radio here, but it's a real crime that Them Bones would never get airplay now even if the radio played some AIC.

"would?" but "them bones" is a jam

I vote Them Bones. Though I would like to meet the guy Rooster is about.

Jerry's Dad?

I heard Them Bones on the radio the other day. It wasn't nearly as good as I remembered, but I still love Would.

Jerry's Dad?

Sure, why not. Sounds like a cool guy to have a few beers with.

I cant believe that Jerry reformed AIC with another singer to play festivals. I really hope they don't make an album.

Er... per Wikipedia, but still...

Blabbermouth.net reported in September 2008 that Alice in Chains would enter the studio that October to begin recording a new album for a summer 2009 release.[45] On October 23, 2008, the band began recording it at the Foo Fighters' Studio 606 in L.A. with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush, Stone Sour, Trivium, Shadows Fall, Death Angel).[46] Guitarist Jerry Cantrell recently told Revolver Golden God Awards that Alice in Chains had finished recording the album on March 18th, which happened to be his 43rd birthday, and are in the process of "mixing right now" for a September release.[47] According to the May 2009 issue of Revolver magazine, the band is without a label.[48]

Just don't buy it Herm. I doubt anything on it will be played to an unlistenable extreme on radio.

xpost

I should have said "unavoidable extreme".

disgusting
xxpost

haha... down in a POLL. i was going to start this a couple of months back.

wow this is one of my all time favourite albums, and a whole bunch of these tracks have been my favourite at some point. i think i probably have to go with 'them bones' due to the explosive start it provides the album with, the devastating guitar solo, and the incredible harmonised vocal line. it's the sort of track that you never really get tired of hearing, and that's only partly due to its brevity.

http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/cinema/2636/pic-coll1/rooster.jpg

I remember playing "Angry Chair" a lot when I listened to this, but I haven't heard it in well over 10 years. Will go refresh my memory now.

it holds up very well. One of the best albums of the 90s easily.

I was just going to start a Jar of Flies poll last week...until I realized that "Got Me Wrong" was on Sap...

this album is about the four big singles for me...Them Bones, Down in a Hole, Rooster, Would? (though I like Angry Chair and the title track v. much also)...it amazes me that all four of these songs could be on the same album...choosing between these four is really really difficult...

(Rain When I Die is really great too)

Angry Chair was a single in the UK

it prolley was a single here...it just wasnt one of the big four thatre impossible to choose from...

i think we maybe got it as a single instead of rooster

What's really good is the Alice In Chains Unplugged album, which is easily as good as the Nirvana one.

gotta go with iron gland.

i knew there would be one

IRon Gland??

;-)

this is pretty tough, tho.

most of the tracks deserve multiple votes.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

vote!

Going to listen to this now then choose. I was a big fan as a teenager, they were all over MTV when I visited the USA as an impressionable 14 year old.

Is it me, or do those multi-tracked vocals on this record sound quite a lot like modern autotuned vocals?

just you

The hidden links between Alice In Chains and T-Pain REVEALED!

either "Would?" or "Them Bones" - think I'm going with "Would?"

went with "would?" after much deliberation. but considered "down in a hole" and "angry chair" (two other sentimental, 8 grader favorites) as well.

"Would?" it is.

the winner is a bit predictable now

someone please vote for non singles!

i think this is the only one of the big grunge blockbusters of my youth that i haven't listened to since the 90s and might've actually discarded or gave away...i vaguely remember liking "Dam That River" but I still gotta go with one of the singles, "Them Bones"

i would never give dirt away, i gave a mate a loan of it and never got it back so i ended up buying it again on ebay for 99p

the excitement...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

well its nice to see that everything got voted for at least once.

the top 4 are about right. i'd put dam that river or the title track at number 5.

Is it me, or do those multi-tracked vocals on this record sound quite a lot like modern autotuned vocals?

― zero learnt from nero (Neil S), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 15:16 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
just you

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 15:20 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

No way - Neil is right! Especially on "Rain When I Die" on those choruses! Very good call.

Ha ha glad it's not just me! And a good turn-out for this poll...

wasn't bad. at least some people voted for the non singles :)

what did you vote for?

this is ILM, we don't have to prove that we've heard more than just the singles

"Rain When I Die"

good call. almost voted that myself! but I think the singles are very strong on this one.

but man, how ugly is that cover???

photoshop: the dark ages

those first-generation grunge covers were pretty dire

lol @ me calling Alice in Chains "first-generation grunge"

did God Smack lose out in votes because of a shitty unoriginal band taking it as their name?

10. "Iron Gland" – 0:43

totally forgot there was some kind of short placeholder track on this album -- was it a skit? amp noise?

it's basically amp noise and some yelling. but I just looked the album up on wikipedia, and this was on there:
# Tom Araya: vocals on "Iron Gland"

what?!?

it tells you on the album credits on the cd that it's tom araya. You guys just had taped from a mates cd copy? ;)

what album was that "alice mudgarden" song on? i thought it was a bonus on dirt or something.

You mean Sap?

it tells you on the album credits on the cd that it's tom araya. You guys just had taped from a mates cd copy? ;)

You mean Sap?

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Thursday, April 23, 2009 1:12 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark

yes! i don't know why i thought it was on dirt...

I love Sap. I wrote elsewhere how I searched over Glasgow for that. When it got reissued along with Jar Of Flies , all the critics jizzed over Jar of Flies but it was not a patch on Sap to me.
I still have my original cd of Sap and the vinyl of Sap/JoF.

lol kerr "I actually OWNED an alice in chains CD"

Curtis you surprise me!

yesssss. such a great song. i always get chills when cornell comes in at the end.

you heard the screaming trees album Uncle Anesthesia Cornell produces and adds backing vox on a couple of songs to?

Screaming Trees Best Album Poll

you heard the screaming trees album Uncle Anesthesia Cornell produces and adds backing vox on a couple of songs to?

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Thursday, April 23, 2009 3:08 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i knew he produced, but i've never heard the album, so i didn't know he sung on it too. cool, i'll check that out.

he sings on the vid i linked to above

I feel like I've asked this before, but are there many other albums that end with a single? "Would?" always seemed like an odd choice to close things out (although I like how it's kind of an abrupt ending, matching the sudden attack of "Them Bones" at the beginning).

I always assumed it finished with an upbeat song to show the light at the end of layne's tunnel of despair or something

didnt see that poll, but would have vote Down In The Hole..

I was surprised it didn't get more votes.

everyone went for the hit singles...happens all the time..

i always felt like "Would?" was just kind of a bonus track on the album, since it had already been on the SIngles soundtrack and a hit off that a few months earlier.

seeing this poll made me miss that song,so i downloaded and listening to it now after many years i didnt...
too bad so many future imatators ruined the fun a their sound a bit..

down in the hole i mean

i think that might have been a uk single

i think angry chair was a uk single?

it was i know i have that.

I'm not sure if I remembered to vote, but if I did I def. voted for one of the top 3...

I'm kind of shocked that Them Bones beat out Rooster, to be honest...

big airplay single over here = uk lurker votes?

them bones got airplay in the u.s. but i'm pretty sure both would? and rooster dwarfed it...

i mightve actually voted for bones on the basis that it was out of the big four the one that seemed the farthest away from being played out...

acrually on 'right turn' chris cornell comes in at 0:45. i always loved how that song features such a range of vocals. kicks off with jerry, then we get cornell singing a verse, then layne singing a verse. i really love this band.

by the way, 'dirt' has an incredible cover

I think he means when Cornell comes in with all the rest of them for the final chorus.

oh yeah i realise that's the bit he meant - just being pedantic about it not being his first entry into the song :)

I can't listen to Angry Chair without giggling...

I think he means when Cornell comes in with all the rest of them for the final chorus.

― pipecock, Friday, April 24, 2009 3:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
yup.

oh yeah i realise that's the bit he meant - just being pedantic about it not being his first entry into the song :)

― Charlie Howard, Friday, April 24, 2009 10:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
yup.

I can't listen to Angry Chair without giggling...

true. "angry chair" is a pretty funny combo of words.

you never sit on an angry chair?

Shall i do a facelift poll?

no poll the tripod one instead

yeah, self-titled is way better, imo. (and pretty underrated.)

nah its not that great

i'll do it after
Alice In Chains - Facelift POLL

Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains(aka Tripod)POLL

Cantrell is such an underrated songwriter.

I still will stan for his Boggy Depot solo record.

Degradation Trip is better imo

but of coursd, Dirt was his masterpiece, though he never took credit

Is it? I remember not liking the single or something and never checked out Degradation Trip.

I hadn't listened to this album for years, so decided to put it on last night. Christ, is this a great but fucking depressing record. In fact, it seems more depressing to me now than it ever did years ago. Unsure what to vote for here, because it's all good: maybe 'Junkhead' or 'Hate To Feel'.

Or unsure what I would have voted for, rather.

It's still a magnificent record

I agree. This is so much darker and heavier than In Utero, as much as I love that record.

I find this (and some other depress-o albums from the same time period like Psalm 69 and, to a lesser extent, Badmotorfinger) really hard to listen to now, and I have to wonder how much damage I did to my developing adolescent brain by listening to it over and over back in the day.

For me, it's very difficult to listen to this record without thinking of what eventually happened to Layne Staley. In fact, I'd say it was completely impossible. I mean, yeah, it's hard to listen to In Utero without thinking of Kurt Cobain killing himself months later, but where In Utero is lyrically cryptic in some places, Staley's "drug hell" songs on Dirt are quite up-front and explicit. Lyrics like "used to be curious/now the shit's sustenance" make it quite clear that Staley knew he had a problem. That he didn't manage to drag himself out of that rut, I find a more than a little sad, and it makes Dirt a bit of a painful listen these days for me.

Having said that, 'Junkhead' is more than a little unsettling for a different reason. It's pretty much a portrait/snapshot of a guy who is so far gone in his addiction that he doesn't see it as a problem. It's a bit of a controversial lyric, too: reading the lyrics cold off paper it comes across as being a pro-drugs song, but there's undoubtedly much more to the lyric than that.

aic are kind of a horrorcore gnr aren't they

this ... holds up

i am shocked but i am listening to it for the first time in probably 20 years and it is great

def holds up. comes out swinging too.

Loved the hell out of this album/band back in the day. Sickman is their Dazed & Confused.

Amazing album. wtf voted for iron gland tho? that's taking Slayer worship too far

I would have gone with Down in A Hole, I think. I battle with Staley's voice over a whole album, but song by song AIC still rule.

Yeah, this definitely still holds up, but I think a lot of major American alternative rock records from the '90s still hold up.

Big shout for Sean Kinney - fabulous drummer.

AiC lost a lot when the bassist quit

Hang on... I thought Starr was fired?

Either way, Mike Inez's bass on the Unplugged album is lovely.

no he quit.
xp

Yeah, I've heard the official line was that he quit, but I'm sure Starr himself is on record as saying he was fired.

he didnt want to tour was what he said at the time

AiC had the best vocal harmonies... like the pre-chorus in “hate to feel”

Ah yeah, just looked it up... he later said he was fired due to drugs, which is quite something when you think about it.

I saw them live in this era and expected them to R.O.C.K. and they were really stiff, awkward and boring except for the bass player who did the hair whirl-whip thing a lot.

this is the best album

i love that someone voted for iron gland

probably me because I vote for anything tangentially related to Slayer

hard to vote against "Would?". that song walloped me upside the head the first time I heard it as a kid, that chorus, but that "IF! I! WOULD! COULD! YOU?" ......chills

"Rain When I Die"'s chorus is majestic, but Cantrell does some fine work on this one as well.

always loved the verse of "Dam That River" a ton, plus the fuckin solo and the riff underneath it....

ooof i love this alb

would’ve gone for “sickman” in this poll. bad trip

oh yeah, the AHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH part

always loved how they had cool vocal harmonies on like every track, it was like the Crosby Stills and Nash of stoner rock except Layne was Crosby and Stills and Jerry was Nash and actually no they weren't that makes no sense

I think "Down in a HOle" is the first song off of this I ever heard.

"Them Bones" was the second and I was fairly shocked as at the time I'd only heard DIAH and the Jar of Flies album and didn't realize they were so heavy

So fucking good. Has to be “would?” but... yeah great album.

Thanks to discovering this thread I ... may actually revisit this record for the first time in 15-20 years.

Rain When I Die has a fantastic vocal performance from poor old Layne.

this is the best album

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, February 4, 2021 3:55 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I get the chorus from "Rain When I Die" pop in my head whenever I'm driving and it starts to rain

I think it's Down in A Hole but could be convinced it's Rooster. Fantastic album.

Love it but Rooster is a total momentum killer (maybe i've just heard it way too many times)

Dam That River was always my least favourite track on this killer album,

used to love Rooster, Angry Chair and God Smack but they definitely weren't my faves on returning to it the other week

Which gland were they talking about? Can someone explain to me the joke?

idk, between that and "God Am", I think they liked really bad puns and absurdism

just like that bonus track on Sap which featured Sean Kinney screaming word salad into a megaphone

I sang "Junkhead" at karaoke once, the audience found it very depressing. such a heavy-assed song

"rooster" has been somewhat diminished by overplay but also i sometimes think... "rooster" was a hit???? lol

i think it's still harrowing in sequence though

always took Iron Gland as a vamp on Iron Man tbh

Rooster's verses were some of Layne's finest singing.

definitely a strange hit. 90s alt rock radio allowed for some quirkier hits to emerge, esp Soundgarden's Superunknown tracks and their weird time signatures/tunings.

if there's one song I don't *love* outright, it's probably "Hate to Feel". I still like it, but it feels very disjointed, like riding a wooden roller-coaster that stops working periodically

i'm with the person who said "dam that river" is the weakest here. still a jam, just kinda lacks the "this song has a dark underbelly that's even scarier than the surface" feeling of pretty much every other track for me

it is an excellent track two for that reason tho

I love the prechorus of “hate to feel”, seriously intense vocal harmony

you love to feel it

i'll not hear any dam that river slander.

I have mad love for the title track on this. it's the slow-burning heart of the album, a centerpiece if you will.

also, this verse always gets under my skin:

You, you are so special
You have the talent to make me feel like dirt
And you, you use your talent to dig me under
And cover me with dirt

it's kind of a testament how my darker moodset was already almost in place by high school because I lent this album to a friend and he returned it and I asked him how he liked it and he hated it and said "this shit is way too depressing" and he quoted the title track to me and I was like "oh...that? who among us hasn't felt this w etc etc"

truly the most perfect intro

I went through a heavy AiC binge a few weeks ago so this revive is hitting the spot <3

probably gonna spin this later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIR9dkEA_c

Playing and tempo is pretty loose, but pretty much the better for it, and his bass tone is the sound of grunge.

this was one of the albums that i learned how to type with
i would just type the lyrics as i heard them and try to keep up with the song

"AHHHHHHH <Enter>
AHHHHHHH <Enter>
AHHHHHHH <Enter>
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

lol

I love Hate to Feel. One of the few weak chinks in the album though is how it is sequenced so close to Angry Chair, which has a very similar structure (I actually prefer Hate to Feel).

And yes the title track is immense.

middle 8 to “angry chair” is so great.. LOST MY MIND YEAAAAHHH

that was my favorite part of the song growing up

Layne's voice frightened me on "God Smack" too

was blasting this shit in the car earlier. it was never exactly my fave back in the day but fuck me

I've not listened to the whole album in a good long while but god it's so beautifully produced. Every slough, every murky corner is lit like an M.R. James story. I don't mind admitting I struggle with Staley's voice over a sustained period but as a document of what he was capable of, this is the album.

Sean Kinney is a motherfucker.

one thing I love about the song "Dirt" is that it's one of the songs that comes to mind when searching for music in the vein of PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me.

what's everyone's preferred placement of "down in a hole"

i feel corny for preferring it as a penultimate track. wiki says the band wanted it as track four, but the citation for this information is an interview that... doesn't really reflect that claim

i think my reasoning is less about "down in a hole" and more about how "rain when i die" -> "sickman" is sort of a signal that the record will just be a deepening vortex of bad vibes and things will never get better

The intro to Rain When I Die is gruesome

yknow brad i kind of like that idea, because as much as i enjoy it as a kind of "breather" after three songs of wonderful sludge, i always thought that having "angry chair" and "would?" back to back made the ending of this album feel really abrupt, like it seems that there should be something in between those two songs..

it = "down in a hole"

otoh, the "i don't mind.." and "i'd like to flyyyy" parts are maybe a little too similar to be back to back? but maybe that's not a problem!

"Junkhead" is my #1

Eric Harvey for Pitchfork Sunday

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/alice-in-chains-dirt/

someone upthread said that “sickman” was their dazed & confused but it’s clearly “hate to feel”!

the weighting of tracks in this poll is probably about right, but I think I'd bump up the title track a few notches, and Sickman could go down a bit. maybe.

there are so many devastating lines on this album, but one that's unfairly overlooked is "ah, what's the difference, I'll die in this sick world of mine". obviously the entire album is focused on how his addiction was killing him and knowing where it all leads to but there's such an eerie fatalism to that one line, one that hints at much more of a desire to escape it than he shows elsewhere on the album, but understanding the odds are stacked against him

Rain When I Die

I always confuse "Sickman," "Junkhead" and "God Smack"

Think I missed this poll but it wouldn't have skewed the results anyway

still the most interesting and least-dated sounding of the "big" Seattle bands imo (though Soundgarden is a close second)