It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns

How's it going my gumdrops? Last Saturday (on April 5th) was the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's suicide and the 12th anniversary of Alice in Chains, Mad Season, and Class of '99's Layne Staley's (vocalist) death by a drug overdose.

Even though Nirvana was the most popular Seattle Grunge band during the 1990's, several others such as Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains held their own. 2 decades later, I still enjoy Classic Alice In Chains.

Alice In Chains had a very distinct sound with musical themes, which centered around death, depression, and drug abuse. Unlike Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden for example, Alice In Chains was apolitical. It's not that Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden were terrible bands.

Honestly, Alice In Chains was a Grunge band, that I was able to indentify with a lot better than the other Seattle Grunge Rock bands regarding issues such as death and depression.

The band was somewhat atypical, during their Grunge era. Most Grunge bands had ONLY 1 vocalist, whereas Alice In Chains always had 2. Layne Staley had a unique vocal sound and Jerry Cantrell had the ability to harmonize with him.

The media NEVER praised Alice In Chains the way they praised Nirvana.

Kurt Cobain was and still is placed on The Grunge God Pedestal by Nirvana zealots. However, Kurt was highly uncooperative and instigated fights with Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses, for instance.

On the other hand, Layne Staley was more articulate, showed versatility, and worked collaboratively with other bands. This included Layne forming 2 "supergroups," while being a hardcore drug addict. Maybe his collaborations did well because he seemed more humble, versatile, and had a likable personality compared to Kurt Cobain.

Not to speak ill of the late Kurt Cobain, but he rubbed A LOT of other musicians the wrong way with his insane antics.

Layne Staley worked with at least several musicians in the Rock Industry ranging from different sub-genres. He collaborated with artists and bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Jane's Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Heart's Ann Wilson, and A Perfect Circle/Puscifer/Tool's vocalist, Maynard James Keenan to only name a few.

I am actually surprised that Maynard chose to collaborate with Alice In Chains, since he has the tendency to view drug addicts as scum. It appears Maynard James Keenan contradicted himself, AGAIN.

As I was saying, Staley collaboratively worked with other Rock bands. In addition, Alice In Chains was featured on movie soundtracks and toured with some popular 1980's Metal bands like Megadeth. This was in Alice In Chains' earlier years, for example.

Alice In Chains' sound was very niche YET their music still heavily influenced other bands. I will dare to say, that Alice In Chains may have influenced Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. Dee Snider created the theme song to the '90s cartoon, The Terrible Thunderlizards.

2 decades later, I still believe that The Terrible Thunderlizards theme song sounds very similar to Alice In Chains' "Man in the Box."

The Terrible Thunderlizards Opening Theme Song (1993)

Layne Staley may have been dead for these last 12 years, but the following artists and bands have paid tribute to him within the last decade:

Cold, Staind, Adema, Black Label Society, Kat Bjelland,Theory of a Deadman, Metallica,Godsmack,Eddie Vedder, and so on.

Rather than dwelling on Layne Staley's drug addiction, I chose to do a Song Saturday Tribute to him. Today, I present some of my favorite Alice In Chains songs, followed by 1 of the songs from Layne Staley's most popular supergroup, Mad Season.

Just a quick reminder to you all, I had trouble posting the uncensored music video for Alice In Chains' "Man In The Box." Luckily, I found the uncensored version of the music video. It just has Spanish subtitles. So, bear with me.

1) Alice In Chains "Man In The Box" Facelift (1991)

2) Alice In Chains "Would?" Singles, Dirt (1992)

3) Alice In Chains "Nutshell" Jar of Flies (1994), MTV Unplugged (1996)

4) Mad Season "River of Deceit" Above (1995)

Let me know if you agree with me about The Terrible Thunderlizards' theme song resembling "Man In The Box."

RIP LAYNE STALEY!!!