Dirt (album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dirt | ||
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| Studio album by Alice in Chains | ||
| Released | September 29, 1992 | |
| Recorded | March - May 1992 at One on One and Eldorado in Los Angeles, California | |
| Genre | Heavy metal Grunge |
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| Length | 57:35 | |
| Label | Columbia Records | |
| Producer(s) | Alice in Chains and Dave Jerden | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Alice in Chains chronology | ||
| Sap (1992) |
Dirt (1992) |
Jar of Flies (1994) |
Dirt is a grunge album by Alice in Chains, released on September 29, 1992 (see 1992 in music).
The band's breakthrough album, Dirt is widely regarded as Alice in Chains' best album, and classic from the golden age of grunge. Recorded while lead singer Layne Staley was suffering through a heroin addiction, the album's gloomy, tortured music helped turn it into a hit, reaching #6 on Billboard's 200 albums chart, and over the years climbing up to 4x platinum.
The songs "Sickman", "Junkhead", "Dirt," "God Smack," "Hate To Feel" and "Angry Chair" are based on Staley's experiences with heroin. The song "Rooster" is based on the experiences of Jerry Cantrell's father, who fought in the Vietnam war. Cantrell's father was a member of the 101st Airborne, who wore patches on their arms featuring a bald eagle. There are no bald eagles in Vietnam, so the Vietnamese referred to them as roosters.
"Iron Gland", the untitled track before "Hate To Feel", features vocals by Tom Araya of Slayer, whom the band brought in so he could provide an Angel of Death-style scream.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- "Them Bones" (Cantrell) – 2:30
- "Dam That River" (Cantrell) – 3:09
- "Rain When I Die" (Cantrell/Staley/Kinney/Starr) – 6:01
- "Down in a Hole" (Cantrell) – 5:38
- "Sickman" (Cantrell/Staley) – 5:29
- "Rooster" (Cantrell) – 6:15
- "Junkhead" (Cantrell/Staley) – 5:09
- "Dirt" (Cantrell/Staley) – 5:16
- "God Smack" (Cantrell/Staley) – 3:50
- "Iron Gland" (unlisted) (Cantrell) – 0:43
- "Hate to Feel" (Staley) – 5:16
- "Angry Chair" (Staley) – 4:47
- "Would?" (Cantrell) – 3:28
- "Iron Gland" is a brief cover/parody of the classic "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath. It is not mentioned in the tracklisting printed on the album sleeve, but was later given its name in the Music Bank box set released in 1999. On the album, the track number is listed, but no song title is printed. There may also be some alternate (incorrect) titles to the song: the iTunes store lists the song as "Iron Man" while cdscan lists it as "Intro (Dream Sequence)".
- Some early CD versions, including the Canadian and European releases, feature "Down in a Hole" as the penultimate track instead of the fourth one. This was due to an early error, where putting "Down In A Hole" as the second to last track disrupts the storyline of this semi-concept album about addiction.[citation needed] On this version, the track number of "Iron Gland" is not present anywhere on the album, making it appear that there are only 12 songs on the record. Oddly enough, the Australian CD version was never amended and even later pressings have this track sequence, although the cassette version has the correct sequence. The UK versions were never amended either, and still bear the mistake.
[edit] Personnel
- Alice in Chains - Producers
- Jerry Cantrell - Guitar, Vocals
- Bryan Carlstrom - Engineer
- Annette Cisneros - Assistant Engineer, Mixing Assistant
- Kelly Curtis - Management
- Doug Erb - Design
- Peter Fletcher - Product Manager
- Steve Hall - Mastering
- Dave Jerden - Producer, Mixing
- Sean Kinney - Drums
- Mary Maurer - Art Direction/FX
- Rocky Schenck - Photography
- Eddy Schreyer - Mastering
- Susan Silver - Management
- Layne Staley - Guitar, Vocals, Sun Logo/Icons
- Mike Starr - Bass
- Nick Terzo - A&R
- Ulrich Wild - Assistant Engineer
- Tom Araya - Vocals On "Iron Gland"
[edit] Charting
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Billboard Top 200 | 6 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | "Would?" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 5 |
| 1992 | "Would?" | Modern Rock Tracks | 11 |
| 1992 | "Them Bones" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 24 |
| 1992 | "Them Bones" | Modern Rock Tracks | 30 |
| 1993 | "Rooster" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 7 |
| 1993 | "Hate To Feel" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 34 |
| 1993 | "Hate To Feel" | Modern Rock Tracks | 27 |
| 1993 | "Down In A Hole" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 10 |
| 1993 | "Down In A Hole" | Modern Rock Tracks | 10 |
| 1994 | "Down In A Hole" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 11 |
[edit] External links
| Alice in Chains |
| Jerry Cantrell | Mike Inez | Sean Kinney | William DuVall |
| Layne Staley | Mike Starr |
| Discography |
|---|
| Studio Albums: Facelift | Dirt | Alice in Chains |
| EPs: We Die Young | Sap | Jar of Flies |
| Live Albums: MTV Unplugged | Live |
| Compilations: Nothing Safe: Best of the Box | Music Bank | Greatest Hits | The Essential Alice in Chains |
| Singles: "Bleed the Freak" | "'We Die Young" | "Man in the Box" | "Sea of Sorrow" | "Would?" | "Them Bones" "Angry Chair" | "Rooster" | "Down in a Hole" | "What the Hell Have I" | "Got Me Wrong" | "No Excuses" "I Stay Away" | "Grind" | "Heaven Beside You" | "Again" | "Over Now" | "Get Born Again" | "Fear the Voices" |
| Videos |
| Live Facelift | The Nona Tapes | MTV Unplugged | Music Bank: The Videos |
| Related content |
| Articles: Grunge music | Singles | Mad Season | MTV Unplugged |
| Categories: Alice in Chains | Alice in Chains Albums | Alice in Chains songs |
