Jesus Christ Pose

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“Jesus Christ Pose”
“Jesus Christ Pose” cover
Single by Soundgarden
from the album Badmotorfinger
B-side "Stray Cat Blues" / "Into the Void (Sealth)" / "Somewhere"
Released 1991
Format CD single, Cassette, Vinyl
Recorded March 1991–April 1991
Genre Grunge
Length 5:51
Label A&M
Writer(s) Matt Cameron, Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd, Kim Thayil
Producer Terry Date, Soundgarden
Soundgarden singles chronology
"Room a Thousand Years Wide"
(1990)		 "Jesus Christ Pose"
(1991)		 "Outshined"
(1991)
Badmotorfinger track listing
"Slaves & Bulldozers"
(Track 3)		 "Jesus Christ Pose"
(Track 4)		 "Face Pollution"
(Track 5)
Audio sample
Info (help·info)

"Jesus Christ Pose" is a song by the Seattle grunge band Soundgarden. It appears on the band's 1991 album Badmotorfinger and was released as a single in the same year. It would later appear on the band's greatest hits album A-Sides.

Contents

[edit] Composition

"Jesus Christ Pose" was performed in drop D tuning and is in 4/4 time. Some see the song as defining the "essence" of Soundgarden, as it is credited to all four band members. Regarding the song, guitarist Kim Thayil said, "The song's groove reminds me of helicopter blades. I bent the strings at the beginning and end of the song."[1]

[edit] Release and reception

Greg Prato of Allmusic said, "In addition to Cornell's biting lyrics and vocals, the rest of the band helped fuel unquestionably one of Soundgarden's most vicious and venomous rockers. Breakneck guitar riffs do battle with sledgehammer drumming for most of the song's five minute and 50 seconds."[2]

[edit] Lyrical meaning

In a press release, Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell, who wrote the lyrics, explained the term "Jesus Christ Pose":

You just see it a lot with really beautiful people, or famous people, exploiting that symbol as to imply that they're either a deity or persecuted somehow by their public. So it's pretty much a song that is nonreligious but expressing being irritated by seeing that. It's not that I would ever be offended by what someone would do with that symbol.[3]

[edit] Music video

The video features various images of crosses, a crucified girl, a crucified skeleton and even vegetables crucified in a human form. Much of the imagery in the video was chosen by the band members themselves. The video was directed by Eric Zimmerman. The video was released in October 1991.[4] Kim Thayil said that the video was one of the few Soundgarden videos the band was satisfied with.[5]

[edit] Controversy

The song garnered popularity when MTV decided to ban its corresponding music video in 1991—it has not been shown by the channel in its entirety since.

Many listeners were outraged by the song and its video, perceiving it as anti-Christian. The band actually received death threats about it on a UK tour in the early 1990s.[6] The band explained that the lyrics concern the exploitation of religion for personal benefit. The song is a criticism of how public figures use religion (particularly the image of Jesus Christ) to portray themselves as being 'better' than others, or as 'martyrs'.

Kim Thayil on the "Jesus Christ Pose" music video and controversy:

That was our first single off Badmotorfinger, but it never got any airplay because of the references to Jesus. And MTV wouldn't play the video because they didn't like the idea of a girl on the cross. There are no guitars in the video at all. There's not even a picture of a guitar in the video. It's like this hard, rock-fast, punk-metal video that has no instruments in the whole thing. And it's a six minute video![1]

[edit] Live performances

A live version of the song appears on the "Black Hole Sun" single. A performance of the song is included on the Motorvision home video release.

[edit] Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to "Jesus Christ Pose" is adapted in part from AcclaimedMusic.net.[7]

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Kerrang! United Kingdom "100 Greatest Singles of All Time"[8] 2002 95
Q United Kingdom "The Ultimate Music Collection"[9] 2005 *

* denotes an unordered list

[edit] Track listing

US Promo CD, UK 12"
  1. "Jesus Christ Pose" (Matt Cameron, Chris Cornell, Ben Shepherd, Kim Thayil) – 5:51
UK Picture 12"
  1. "Jesus Christ Pose" (Cameron, Cornell, Shepherd, Thayil) – 5:51
  2. "Stray Cat Blues" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 4:46
Etched 12", Etched Digipak CD, UK Poster Bag 12"
  1. "Jesus Christ Pose" (Cameron, Cornell, Shepherd, Thayil) – 5:51
  2. "Stray Cat Blues" (Jagger, Richards) – 4:46
  3. "Into the Void (Sealth)" (Chief Sealth, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward) – 6:37
  4. "Somewhere" (Shepherd) – 4:21
Promo 7", Promo 12"
  1. "Jesus Christ Pose" (Cameron, Cornell, Shepherd, Thayil) – 5:51
  2. "Drawing Flies" (Cameron, Cornell) – 2:25

[edit] Chart positions

Information taken from chartstats.com.[10]

Year Chart Position
1992 UK Singles Chart 30

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Gilbert, Jeff. "Primecuts: Kim Thayil". Guitar School. May 1994.
  2. ^ Prato, Greg. "Jesus Christ Pose > Review". Allmusic.com. Retrieved on May 19, 2008.
  3. ^ Magnuson, Ann. "Sub Zep?". Spin. February 1992.
  4. ^ Soundgarden music videos. Music Video Database. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
  5. ^ Maloof, Rich. "Kim Thayil of Soundgarden: Down on the Upbeat". Guitar Magazine. July 1996.
  6. ^ "I Don't Care About Performing for 20,000!". Raw. September 15, 1993.
  7. ^ "Jesus Christ Pose" accolades. Acclaimed Music. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
  8. ^ 100 Greatest Singles of All Time. Kerrang!. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
  9. ^ The Ultimate Music Collection. Q. Retrieved on 2008-05-06.
  10. ^ UK Singles & Albums Chart Archive - Soundgarden. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.

[edit] External links

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Soundgarden
Chris Cornell · Kim Thayil · Matt Cameron · Ben Shepherd
Scott Sundquist · Hiro Yamamoto · Jason Everman
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