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Non è difficile capire come gli Stone Temple Pilots centrino il bersaglio al primo colpo: in piena era grunge, il quartetto californiano propone una musica che riassume con modesta personalità e discreto mestiere l'arte della "somma tetrarchia" di Seattle, composta da Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam e Alice In Chains, senza comunque trascurare gli antesignani Jane's Addiction (e non potrebbe essere altrimenti, avendo costoro ispirato il grunge in primis).
"Core", l'album d'esordio pubblicato nel 1992, vende inevitabilmente milioni di copie e fa salire gli Stone Temple Pilots sul carro dei vincitori. In seguito ad un'attenta analisi, "Core" risulta più che altro una raccolta di canzoni che avrebbero potuto benissimo scivere tutti i gruppi di cui sopra: Dead & Bloated e Piece Of Pie potrebbero essere dei Soundgarden, Wicked Garden degli Alice In Chains prima maniera, Plush sembra provenire da 'Ten' dei Pearl Jam e nella ballata Creep affiorano memorie nirvaniane. Ma non basta. I Nostri si divertono anche a mischiare i vari stili, eseguendo, come nelle addizioni a più fattori, le più possibili permutazioni: Nirvana + Pearl Jam (Sex Type Thing), Pearl Jam + Alice In Chains (Sin), Soundgarden + Alice In Chains (Where The River Goes) e via dicendo. Soltanto il rock'n'roll di Crackerman, tanto per ricordarci che i Pilots sono da Los Angeles e non da Seattle, dimostra una vaga derivazione street-metal.
Il cantante Scott Weiland non ha una brutta voce, ma tende molto ad imitare i suoi beniamini, ricordando (con le dovute distanze, naturalmente) ora Layne Staley, ora Eddie Vedder, talvolta anche Chris Cornell, Kurt Cobain e perfino Mark Lanegan: certamente non straripa di personalità (come il resto della combriccola del resto), ma almeno dimostra una buona versatilità vocale. Anche i testi, tutti firmati da Weiland, danno l'impressione di "già sentito": l'ironia antimachista di Sex Type Thing ricorda le posizioni antisessiste prese qualche anno prima da Nirvana (in Mr. Moustache) e Soungdarden (in Big Dumb Sex), il pessimismo agnostico di Naked Sunday ricalca l'iconoclastia desolata degli Alice In Chains, Creep cita addirittura i Beatles ("I'm half the man I used to be", frase contenuta nel ritornello, è presa a prestito da un verso di Yesterday).
Che dire infine? E' stato appurato che Weiland e soci siano "copioni" fino all'osso e, per quanto siano famosi, nulla hanno aggiunto alla storia del rock, al contrario di altri gruppi californiani nati in quel periodo (i Kyuss, ad esempio, o gli ormai celebri Tool), anch'essi avversi alla tendenza musicale tipica del luogo, lo street-metal, ma molto più originali e innovativi del gruppo in questione. Tuttavia è il caso di spezzare una lancia in favore degli Stone Temple Pilots: non sarà un capolavoro "Core", ma in fin dei conti le canzoni sono gradevoli, per quanto derivative, e tutto sommato strappa un giudizio discreto.
Una volta tanto ci si può anche accontentare.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Sex Type Thing (03:38)
I am, I am, I am
I said I wanna get next to you
I said I'm gonna get close to you
You wouldn't want me have to hurt you too, hurt you too
I ain't, I ain't, I ain't
A buyin' into your apathy
I'm gonna learn you my philosophy
You wanna know about atrocity, atrocity
Chorus:
I know you want what's on my mind
I know you like what's on my mind
I know it eats you up inside
I know, you know, you know, you know
I am a man, a man
I'll give you something that you won't forget
I said you shouldn't have worn that dress
I said you shouldn't have worn that dress
Chorus
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
I am, I am, I am
I said I wanna get next to you
I said I'm gonna get close to you
You wouldn't want me have to hurt you too, hurt you too
Chorus x2
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
Here I come, I come, I come
03 Wicked Garden (04:05)
Can you see like a child?
Can you see what I want?
I wanna run through your wicked garden
Heard that's the place to find you
Cause I'm alive
So alive now
I know the darkness blinds you
Can you see without eyes?
Can you speak without lies?
I wanna drink from your naked fountain
I can drown your sorrows
I'm gonna burn
Burn you to life now
Out of the chains that bind you
Can you see just like a child?
Can you see just what I want?
Can I bring you back to life?
Are you still alive?
Burn, burn, burn
Burn your wicked garden down
Burn, burn, burn
Burn your wicked garden to the ground
Can you feel pain inside?
Can you love?
Can you cry?
I wanna run through your wicked garden
Heard that's the place to find you
But I'm alive
So alive now
I know the darkness blinds you
Can you see just like a child?
Can you see just what I want?
Can I bring you back to life?
Are you still alive?
Burn, burn, burn
Burn your wicked garden down
Burn, burn, burn
Burn your wicked garden to the ground
05 Sin (06:05)
Holywater clouds my thinking
Sinking low now
Keep on drinking
Down you go, suffer long
Down you go, sin make me strong
You control me, soul you stole, mine
Wishful thinking
Six feet under
Down you go now, suffer long
Down you go now, sin make me strong
Dead by dreaming, sleep you steal, mine
Pool of cold sweat
Hatred burns me
Down you go, suffer long
Down you go, sin make me strong
Holywater clouds my thinking
Sinking low now
Keep on drinking
Feel what were my eyes
Sink into the holes in my eyes
My sins have made me blind
Sink into the holes in my eyes
Still shackled to the shadow
Still shackled to the shadow
That followed you...
06 Naked Sunday (03:49)
You're the fuel to the fire
You're the weapons of war
You're the irony of justice
And the father of law
I've been waiting for awhile to meet you
For the chance to shake your hand
To give you thanks for all the suffering you command
And when all is over and we return to dust
Who will be my judge and which one do I trust?
Angst...
You're the champion of sorrow
You're the love and the pain
You're the fighter of evil
Yet you're one and the same
Been waiting while to meet you
For the chance to shake your hand
To give you thanks for all the suffering you command
And when all is over and we return to dust
Who will be my judge and which one do I trust?
Angst...
07 Creep (05:32)
Forward yesterday
Makes me wanna stay
What they said was real
Makes me wanna steal
Livin' under house
Guess I'm livin', I'm a mouse
All's I gots is time
Got no meaning, just a rhyme
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause it likes to heal
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause I like to steal
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause it likes to heal, I like to steal
I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
Well, I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
Well, I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
Well, I'm half the man I used to be
Half the man I used to be
Feelin' uninspired
Think I'll start a fire
Everybody run
Bobby's got a gun
Think you're kinda neat
Then she tells me I'm a creep
Friends don't mean a thing
Guess I'll leave it up to me
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause it likes to heal
Take time with a wounded hand
Guess I like to steal
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause it likes to heal, I like to steal
I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
I'm half the man I used to be
Half the man I used to be
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause it likes to heal
Take time with a wounded hand
Guess I like to steal
Take time with a wounded hand
'Cause it likes to heal, I like to steal
I'm half the man I used to me
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
I'm half the man I used to be
This I feel as the dawn
It fades to gray
I'm half the man I used to be
Half the man I used to be
Half the man I used to be
Half the man I used to be
08 Piece of Pie (05:25)
I broke the breadline
Nobody knows
I walked the frontline
Still got far to go
I mixed the water
I drank the water
I broke the breadline
Don't wanna know
It's staring me down
Wearing a crown of apathy
I'm standing around
Dressed like a clown
Don't you know my name
You know where to find me
I killed the manchild
I'll fast alone
I had the midwife
Naked and alone
I mixed the water
I drank the water
I killed the brainchild
I'll fast alone
Don't wanna let me be a man
Don't wanna lead me to your home
09 Plush (05:13)
And I feel that time's a wasted go
So where ya going to tomorrow?
And I see that these are lies to come
Would you even care?
And I feel it
And I feel it
Where ya going to tomorrow?
Where ya going with the mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?
And I feel, so much depends on the weather
So is it raining in your bedroom?
And I see, that these are the eyes of disarray
Would you even care?
And I feel it
And she feels it
Where ya going to tomorrow?
Where ya going with that mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
And I feel it
And she feels it
Where ya going to tomorrow?
Where ya going with that mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
Where ya going to tomorrow?
Where ya going with that mask I found?
And I feel, and I feel
When the dogs begin to smell her
Will she smell alone?
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
When the dogs do find her
Got time, time, to wait for tomorrow
To find it, to find it, to find it
To find it
To find it
To find it
10 Wet My Bed (01:38)
Hey everybody
Where did mary go?
Where did mary go?
And where's my only cigarette?
Please think for me I can't bare to...
I'll just lie here for a while,
wet myself,
wet my bed,
I readied it all for her,
ya know.
Clean sheets,
insense,
and lot's of fluffy,
pillows,
now soiled.
And where's my cigarette?
Did you check the bathroom?
The bathtub?
She sleeps there sometimes,
water cleanses you know,
washes dirt away,
makes new.
Maybe she
Maybe she
Maybe she sw...
Maybe sh...
Maybe she swam away...
11 Crackerman (03:13)
Kickin' as I'm tryin' to sleep
Got the mud beneath my
shoes
Rubber band, rubberband
Gun in hand, gun in hand
I wanna use
Roamin', roamin', roam
Get away, gotta get away
And I think I think too much
I don't care, yeah but I
don't care
Trippin' as I'm thinkin'
'Bout a boy, his name was
Sue
He's a man, he's a man
Crackerman, crackerman
He's a woman too
And I'm thinkin'
While I'm thinkin'
And I'm thinkin'
While I'm thinkin'
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Altre recensioni
Di marcmat
Purtroppo gli Stone, se proprio li devo criticare, non evidenziarono la loro passione per i Doors che ne avrebbe condizionato le successive composizioni.
Evviva Core allora ed il rombante inizio Dead & Bloated: fresca nell’esposizione e nell’esordio della stessa band.
