“Loud Love” by Soundgarden

"Loud Love" came first from Louder Than Love, Soundgarden's second album, in 1989: the lead single and very nearly the title track. Chris Cornell wrote it, words and music, Terry Date produced it with the band and engineered it, and Michael Barbiero and Steve Thompson mixed it for A&M.

That keening intro is Kim Thayil's handiwork, and it isn't what it seems. Plenty of listeners, and more than one transcription, assumed he used an E-bow; Thayil says he's never even seen one. He simply stood in front of his amp until the note fed back, then walked his finger up the string, hauling the feedback with it. The single came backed with the unreleased "Fresh Deadly Roses", Kevin Kerslake shot a video of the band playing amid car crashes, and the song later anchored the Loudest Love EP and the Louder Than Live video.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.