The Story Behind Soundgarden's song Spoonman and Artis The Spoonman

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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

One of soundgarden’s most popular songs Spoonman would be released on the band’s fourth studio album 1994’s Superunknown. The song named after a Seattle artist named Artis the Spoonman would see him play a spoon solo in the song. Today we’re going to take a look at the history of the song and the man who inspired it and whatever happened to him.

In 1991 Soundgarden would release their album Badmotorfinger which seemed to hit at the perfect time as rock n’ roll was seeing a massive shift with alternative rock becoming more mainstream thanks to bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam aAlice in Chains and of course Soundgarden.three of those bands would released massive albums in 1991 with Aice in Chains releasing their debut album one year prior and being the first so called grunge band to have a gold album with facelift.

It was following the promotion cycle for Badmotorfinger in 1993 that the band began work on their follow up Superunknown comandeering Seattle’s bad animals studio. The members themselves had individually worked on their song ideas before convening to flush out tracks for their next record with drummer matt cameron telling melody maker "It grooves and it rocks and everything is where it should be. I can listen to it. Normally, rock songs are about certain things - chicks, cars and dicks. But the lyrics to Superunknown are very introspective, very dark. They're saying a whole different thing. Basically, it's a big f--k you to the world, a plea to 'leave us alone!'" Guitarist Kim Thayil would echo these sentiments telling an interviewer "A lot of Superunknown seems to me to be about life, not death. Maybe not affirming it, but rejoicing -- like the Druids [say]: 'Life is good, but death's gonna be even better!'"

The album would be released in March of 1994 a month before kurt Cobain’s death. The first single put out in february of 94 would be the song spoonman. The song’s origins dated back to 1992 and made a brief cameo in the Cameron Crowe film singles. Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament is credited for coming up with the song’s name as it was his responsibility to come up with song names for the fictional band portrayed in the film. Soundgarden Frontman chris cornell would make a cameo in the movie and challenged himself to write songs using the titles ament had come up with for the film. One of those would be Spoonman, and it would be the acoustic demo that can be heard in the film.

Despite some thinking the song was a reference to heroin given seattle’s drug problem, it wasn’t. The title was inspired by a local seattle artist named Artis the Spoonman who would appear on the track playing the spoons. Cornell would tell Request, "It's more about the paradox of who [Artis] is and what people perceive him as. He's a street musician, but when he's playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently. The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play."

The song would peak at No. 3 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, No. 9 at Modern Rock, earn the band a grammy and would become an MTV staple and get the album off to a good start. Superunknown would go on to become the band’s biggest commercial album going six times platinum.

According to songfacts Artis got just a small flat fee for performing on the song and for appearing in the video, but didn’t get any royalties as Chris Cornell is listed as the sole songwriter on the song.

Artis frequently performs at Pike’s Place Market accompanied by guitarist Jim Page. Since 1974 playing spoons has been Artis main source of income. Soundgarden wasn’t the only musical artist he performed with as he has also played with Frank Zappa, Phish and Aerosmith. Frank Zappa would tell him and i quote "You haven't got a commercial bone in your body."
Coming from a broken family the spoonman would change his name to Artis when he was age 40. His infatuation with all things spoon happened at the age

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