Chris Cornell Watches The Seasons Roll On By

noah | May 4, 2009 4:00 pm
Chris Cornell is apparently releasing a more traditionally “rock” version of “Long Gone” as the third single from his Timbaland-assisted solo album, Scream; the new version of the track is the bed for the above video. In its initial incarnation, “Long Gone” was a five-plus-minute OneRepublicy ballad about lost love; the new mix speeds up the proceedings a bit and turns down the Timbaland beats and loops in favor of a smoothly gliding bass line and lots of riffs. It’s a smoother version of the track, to be sure, but the proceedings are a bit more lively, and anything that can allow a song to sidestep comparisons to OneFreakin’Republic should be seen as at least a modest improvement.

The producer of the radio-friendly unit-shifter version is Howard Benson, a rock-radio lifer who produced a couple of tracks on Kelly Clarkson’s All I Ever Wanted (including the crunchy Katy Perry composition “Long Shot”), as well as Daughtry’s self-titled album, My Chemical Romance’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, and a bunch of other alt-rock staples (Hoobastank, Flyleaf, Seether). Of note to some is the fact that he also produced the album that spawned the following track:

Chris Cornell – Long Gone [YouTube; HT Music Is The Heart Of Our Soul] PRETTY BOY FLOYD [YouTube]