Chris Cornell is apparently releasing a more traditionally “rock” version of “Long Gone” as the third single from his Timbaland-assisted solo album, Scream; the new version of the track is the bed for the above video. In its initial incarnation, “Long Gone” was a five-plus-minute OneRepublicy ballad about lost love; the new mix speeds up the proceedings a bit and turns down the Timbaland beats and loops in favor of a smoothly gliding bass line and lots of riffs. It’s a smoother version of the track, to be sure, but the proceedings are a bit more lively, and anything that can allow a song to sidestep comparisons to OneFreakin’Republic should be seen as at least a modest improvement.
The producer of the radio-friendly unit-shifter version is Howard Benson, a rock-radio lifer who produced a couple of tracks on Kelly Clarkson’s All I Ever Wanted (including the crunchy Katy Perry composition “Long Shot”), as well as Daughtry’s self-titled album, My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, and a bunch of other alt-rock staples (Hoobastank, Flyleaf, Seether). Of note to some is the fact that he also produced the album that spawned the following track:
Chris Cornell - Long Gone [YouTube; HT Music Is The Heart Of Our Soul]
PRETTY BOY FLOYD [YouTube]
I can now say that Chris Cornell is only great when he is in a band. Majority of the time, Timberland gets my closeted pop music loving self moving and shaking; in this case Timbo makes me want to slap bunnies.
I still love that Pretty Boy Floyd album and know every single word to all of the songs. =/
@LeighBlack: that is not a =\-worthy statement at all!!
At one point someone suggested that Scream get rereleased as a rock album. This gives me hope that perhaps that’ll happen (before you scoff, it worked for Shania Twain about 10 years ago)
Okay, so insteading of sounding like a shitty OneRepublic song it sounds like a shitty Daughtry song?
@LostTurntable: point taken, but Daughtry > OneRepublic, even if it is a marginal improvement
@Maura: ha ha. thanks, Maura. that makes me feel a little better.
Singles reference FTW.
@LostTurntable: To me it sounds more like a David Cook song. Not that that’s much more respectable.
Rather to my surprise, I like this.
@Chris Molanphy: This does sounds like a David Cook song - specifically, the Cook song Chris Cornell himself wrote for Cook, “Light On”. And listening to the two songs’ choruses - “try to keep the light on/when I’m gone” vs. “I’m long gone/long gone” - it seems like Cornell’s trying to hide this in plain sight.
I never thought that a neutered “Burden In My Hand” would appeal to me, but I don’t hate this, either.
Well he’s been on all the Universal related talk shows doing more or less rock versions of the songs. He must have noticed everybody hates his album. I can definitely see a rock reissue, but it still wouldn’t be much better. I think he needs this crushing defeat to send his ego back to Soundgarden.
Leigh, you should definitely not feel ashamed about love for that album. I sure don’t.
Appalling, all of it.
Man, I don’t know y’all, I fucking love Scream. Mostly because it’s the most fucking ridiculous thing ever, OneRepublicanisms and all.
Whereas this version of the song seems to drain all the silly shit from it and infuse it with a smooth nothing. Blah.