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Stone Temple Pilots' Debut 'Core' Turns 25: Why the Critics and Haters Were Wrong
Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots performs at The Palladium in Hollywood, Calif
“I ammmmm smelling like the rose that somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed / I ammmmmm smelling like a rose that somebody gave me ‘cause I’m dead and bloated!!!”
Crack-crack-duhn-nuh-nuh-nuhhhhhhh!!! -- thunder-clap drums and a bulldozer of guitar crunch follow frontman Scott Weiland’s a cappella introduction to Stone Temple Pilots’ debut album, Core,
released 25 years ago today (Sept. 29). It’s as classic sounding as an
album far older. And, then and now, it’s sonic catnip—just picture a
group of teenagers screaming Weiland’s intro, in unison, and playing
rock star, air guitar and all. This is how many were introduced to STP,
and the power of this band and their debut LP remains today—and will as
long as the unpretentious spirit of rock persists. And don’t you forget
it, Mr./Ms. Fancy Pants Music Snob.
Weiland certainly stirs our inner rock star. After all, he was, in
essence, playing rock star his whole life, and he eventually succumbed
to the hazards of the job. But Core is Weiland, guitarist Dean
DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz mimicking the musical
idols of their youths—especially 1960s psych-rockers like The Doors and
‘70s arena Goliaths like Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, but with the angst
and sludged-out touches that defined the early 1990s.
After
forming the core quartet in 1989 under the name Mighty Joe Young, the
band started gaining a considerable following in their native San Diego,
CA. Soon the quartet switched their name to Stone Temple Pilots (a
bluesman already had the Mighty Joe Young moniker) and inked with
Atlantic Records during the early-‘90s alt-rock gold rush, driven by the
commercial success of Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam—the colossal
acts of the Seattle Sound, who would soon come to haunt STP.
The
band hit the studio with producer Brendan O’Brien and when the LP
dropped Sept. 29, 1992, it shot to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 thanks to
hit singles "Sex Type Thing,” “Plush” and “Wicked Garden,” which remain
rock radio staples today. Soon, however, the band was met with
significant backlash from critics and grunge purists, some of whom
claimed STP were constructed by label execs to cash in on the grunge
sound. Still others labeled them Pearl Jam rip-offs, copy-cats of the
band fronted by the moody Eddie Vedder, who were riding high after their
debut, Ten, exploded in ’92 on the strength of “Alive” and
“Jeremy." In hindsight, though, this comparison is unfair, the rock
equivalent of a high school punk calling his rival a “poseur.”
And
it didn’t stick—STP grew and grew, because theirs was a unique version
of the popular sound of the day, imbuing far more glam flair, sludgy
psychedelia and hook-laden riffage, a sound they’d perfect on releases
to come (culminating in 1996’s essential Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop).
Also, Weiland wasn’t a brooding introvert a la Vedder (or Nirvana’s
Kurt Cobain, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell or Alice in Chains’ Layne
Staley)—he wanted to be a rock god in the classic sense; he strutted the
stage like Robert Plant or Mick Jagger or Steven Tyler, and brought a
sexual energy to an otherwise SERIOUSLY ARTISTIC genre.
As for Core, the numbers speak for themselves: The album
eventually went eight times platinum. And for good reason—these songs
are undeniable: "Sex Type Thing” is ear-worm guitar crunch as Weiland
elevates the song to a massive chorus—the man can sing. “Wicked Garden”
bobs and weaves rhythmically (the drumming across the album is
top-notch) and reaches a poppy chorus with Weiland stretching out wide: “Can you see just like a child? / Can you see just what I want?” Then of course, that refrain: “Burnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn burn burn!!!”
as the DeLeo Bros provide mimicking backing vocals. “Plush,” the LP’s
second single inspired by a newspaper article Weiland read about a woman
found dead in San Diego, is slower and less in-your-face, hinting at
the sounds STP would soon explore (“Interstate Love Song” etc.). It’s
powerful—the layers of power chord slashes and twinkling riffs surround
Weiland’s crooning: “When the dogs do find her / Got time, time, to wait
for tomorrow.” It won the Grammy for Hard Rock Performance and its
video nabbed the MTV VMA for Best New Artist. And its acoustic
performance on MTV’s Headbangers Ball became a fan favorite.
But
there’s more than the hits we all remember: The band attempted to
recreate the concept album approach of their rock idols, cutting in
trippy, experimental interludes. There’s “No Memory,” a dense,
“Stairway”-on-smack guitar and bass riff, and the 1:30-long “Wet My
Bed,” a floating ether of acoustic twanging which finds Weiland,
sounding very loaded, pissing himself and searching for his girlfriend
(and his only cigarette) in the bathtub. Because “Water cleanses, you knowwwwwww?”
While this could be discarded as posturing, it was different and
enticing to first-time listeners, providing a breather between the
pedal-to-the-metal hard rockers. You typically didn’t hear anything like
this in the Billboard Hot 100 top 10.
There’s also the compelling
“Naked Sunday,” which finds STP experimenting in SoCal funk-rock
territory with a stuttering guitar riff and aggressive drum patterns
(cowbell and congas, too). “Creep,” the LP’s acoustic single, delivers
one of their best-known choruses: “I’m half the man I used to beeeeeeeeee.”
One of the best and most underrated tracks, though, is “Crackerman,” a
tune that perhaps best represents STP on the LP and in their future.
It’s glammy, heavy and has attitude—this ain’t grunge, it’s hard rock,
baby—and finds Weiland and the band in their sweet spot, delivering
monster guitar riffs, crushing drums and Weiland’s memorable melodies up
front. Here Weiland would introduce a move that’d become a trademark, a
thrill to see live—his switching between singing straight into the mic,
then yelling through a bullhorn. You can almost see him slithering
across the stage, pink feather boas, crushed-velvet shirt, Jackie O
sunglasses, red-dyed hair and all. This is not the Seattle Sound.
Core
is truly the core of STP’s career. It’s a young band playing with their
favorite sounds, honoring their heroes and trying to find their place
in a musical landscape monopolized by the grunge rock Big Four. With Core,
STP laid the foundation for a career that would get more musically
experimental and successful. And despite their naysayers, when the story
of the 1990s is told decades or centuries from now, the music of STP
will be one of the stars of its soundtrack, as integral to the times as
any Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains, but with a
version of the era’s sound that’s theirs alone. It pays to be a poseur.
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