One of the most unusual songs Soundgarden recorded was “Head Down” — a deep cut on their biggest-selling album, 1994’s Superunknown — that tumbles slowly over six minutes, adding crusts of snaky guitar and ear-twisting vocal harmonies until it settles as a clatter of percussion. Bassist Ben Shepherd wrote the song, but it was Chris Cornell who pushed the limits of his voice into the upper strata to sing Shepherd’s lyrics about cloaking depression in a smile. “We see you cry, we turn your head,” he sings like an onlooker to his own strife, “Then we slap your face.”
Now Lizzie Weber, a St. Louis–based self-described “tendercore” singer-songwriter, has recorded a head-turning negative image of the original. Where Soundgarden turned up their amps, she uses glistening orchestral strings and piano. Where Cornell, who died in 2017, tested his voice’s limits, she sings in a lower register and whispers some of the words. Where Soundgarden’s recording ends with a bang, Weber’s ends with a whimper.
Weber, who loved Soundgarden in high school, decided to reinterpret the song when a friend suggested it. “From then on, I was listening to Superunknown almost obsessively, and I sort of fell in love with their music in a way I could not have as a teenager,” she tells Rolling Stone. “After a decade of writing my own songs, I was listening to theirs, admiring their genius, and feeling inspired to try new things musically.”
As she reconsidered “Head Down,” Shepherd’s lyrics spoke to her in a new way. “There is nuance and depth to Ben’s lyrics — a kind of cynical, sarcastic undertone, or suggestion of expectations being placed upon others unfairly,” she says. Weber points to the line, “Bow down to live your life,” as one that gave her pause. “It just has an intoxicating energy,” she says.
Her first instinct was to play the guitar melody on piano. “It was immediately moving,” she says. “I slowly sang the first lyric in a lower key than Chris, which made it feel eerie. I experimented with re-writing some of the chord progression, sometimes changing major chords to minor. … Slowing the tempo was really what gave me the chance to play with writing three-part harmonies supported by an orchestral, cinematic soundscape.”
She then flew to Seattle this past March to work out the song with recording engineer Nathan Yaccino, who had worked with Soundgarden on their Avengers soundtrack contribution, “Live to Rise,” and their Live on I-5 album, to help her realize her vision. He played the song on the piano, helping to layer guitar, synth, and percussion to sweeten the chorus, and introduced her to multi-instrumentalist Abby Gunderson to play violin, viola, and cello. Engineers Phil Schawel and Zach Kranz contributed mixing and mastering, respectively.
Rolling Stone’s original review of Superunknown compared “Head Down,” which was a departure from the Cornell-penned hard rock of “Black Hole Sun” and “Spoonman,” to Captain Beefheart, Nirvana, and Cream all playing at once. Here, the song recalls late-Sixties Scott Walker or Nico.
Once she was happy with it, she sent the recording to Shepherd who gave her a thumbs up. “I was nervous about how this re-imagined version might be received, especially by [the band’s] Ben, Kim [Thayil], and Matt [Cameron],” she says. “So I was flattered that Ben took the time to listen to it and share his appreciation for my vision. It was his feedback early on that gave me the confidence to move forward in this direction.”
Weber, who previously reinterpreted Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” and Leonard Cohen’s endless sighs, is releasing the recording now as a standalone single because it’s “moody and dark, perfect for a Halloween playlist.” It’s also a recording that will bridge her previous work, including her recent “Paris” single, with a “heavy and bold” concept album she’s been working on with Yaccino for a summer release. “Like ‘Head Down,’ it’s a departure from anything I’ve done before,” she says.