“Dusty” by Soundgarden

Chris Cornell himself described Dusty as being “like the opposite of Fell on Black Days”.  The latter is a track Soundgarden dropped in 1994 which is based on the vocalist being afflicted with a disheartening bout of depression. In contrast, Dusty is about overcoming such a state. The singer has come to realize that he is emerging out of the funk which previously afflicted him. He does not know exactly why this is happening.  But either way he is not going to self-sabotage himself, as in do anything which may prevent this phenomenon from successfully transpiring. So basically, this song is a celebration of overcoming a previous state of melancholy and fully welcoming the newfound experience in the process.

This song is featured on Soundgarden’s album Down on the Upside. The title of the project is actually derived from a line in the first verse of Dusty. In fact Dusty itself was originally entitled Down on the Upside. However, the band changed the name of the track since they weren’t fond of dropping songs with the same title as the album they are featured on.  And in fact the word “dusty” is not actually found in the lyrics.

This song was produced by Soundgarden alongside Adam Kasper. And band members Chris Cornell (1964-2017) and Ben Shepherd wrote this classic.

A&M Records released it on 21 May 1996.