Hands All Over
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| “Hands All Over” | |||||
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| Single by Soundgarden from the album Louder than Love |
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| B-side | "Come Together" / "Heretic" / "Big Dumb Sex" | ||||
| Released | 1990 | ||||
| Format | CD single, Cassette, Vinyl | ||||
| Recorded | December 1988–January 1989 at London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington | ||||
| Genre | Alternative metal, grunge | ||||
| Length | 6:00 | ||||
| Label | A&M | ||||
| Writer(s) | Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil | ||||
| Producer | Terry Date, Soundgarden | ||||
| Soundgarden singles chronology | |||||
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| Louder than Love track listing | |||||
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"Hands All Over" is a song by the Seattle grunge band Soundgarden. It appears as the second track on the band's second album Louder than Love, released in 1989. It was also the second single to be released from the album, and appeared on the band's EP Loudest Love, both of which were released in 1990. It would later appear on the band's greatest hits album A-Sides.
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[edit] Composition
The song features lyrics written by frontman Chris Cornell and music written by guitarist Kim Thayil. Guitarist Kim Thayil on the song:
What I liked about the song was that it was just one simple riff -- one note, one chord -- but with a lot of dynamics. In some ways it's simple and basic; in other ways, it's very sophisticated in how it was layered. We don't really have many songs that are like 'Hands All Over'.[1]
[edit] Release and reception
The single also marked the beginning of Soundgarden having cover versions as B-sides. The B-side to the single is a cover of The Beatles song "Come Together". Producer Jack Endino provided the backing vocals on the song. This was also the last time that Soundgarden recorded with him.
Tom Maginnis of Allmusic called "Hands All Over" a "walloping behemoth of a track." He said, "The song combines an Eastern-tinged rock riff in an extended arrangement, as singer Chris Cornell airs out his impressive lung capacity while lyrically taking a stab at environmental politics."[2] J.D. Considine of Rolling Stone said that the song "applies swooping bass and jazzily vigorous drumming to counterbalance the static intensity of the song's bone-simple guitar hook."[3]
Both the song and video were featured in the 1990 film Pacific Heights, but the song was not included on the film's soundtrack.
[edit] Lyrical meaning
Regarding the song, Chris Cornell said that "it's just sort of an environmental thing. Not strictly environmental, but mostly. It's basically about how we humans tend to screw up everything that's good enough as it is...or everything that we're attracted to, we love to go and defile it."[4]
[edit] Music video
The music video for the song was shot in a factory and features the band swinging on equipment and performing the song. Kim Thayil described the video as "one of the lamest ever made. It really sucked."[1] Chris Cornell added, "Making this video was fun because we were in a steel foundry. And there was like a black cancer dust all over everything. We're all gonna get cancer from it and die. So I hope you enjoy it. This will be the video that killed Soundgarden."[4] The video was released in January 1990.[5]
[edit] Formats and track listing
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[edit] Chart positions
Information taken from chartstats.com.[6]
| Year | Chart | Position |
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| 1990 | UK Singles Chart | 82 |
[edit] References
- ^ a b Gilbert, Jeff. "Primecuts: Kim Thayil". Guitar School. May 1994.
- ^ Maginnis, Tom. "Hands All Over > Review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved on May 19, 2008.
- ^ Consideine, J.D. "Soundgarden: Louder than Love". Rolling Stone. June 17, 1997.
- ^ a b Gilbert, Jeff. "Big Ugly Truth". The Rocket. March 1990.
- ^ Soundgarden music videos. Music Video Database. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
- ^ UK Singles & Albums Chart Archive - Soundgarden. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
[edit] External links
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