“Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden

"Rusty Cage" came off Soundgarden's third studio album, Badmotorfinger, in 1991 and went out as its third single the next year, and it's Chris Cornell's song, words and music. It's also one of the strangest-sounding riffs of its day. Cornell's idea was to park a wah pedal in its low position and use it as a filter, getting a tone no amp would give up on its own, and the low E string is slackened all the way down to B, so wobbly that Kim Thayil reckoned it helped. The result lurches and churns like it's running in reverse.

Cornell and Thayil share the guitars, Ben Shepherd plays bass and Matt Cameron drives it, with Terry Date producing alongside the band and Ron Saint Germain mixing. It caught on right away, and it later anchored the A-Sides and Telephantasm compilations.

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