Been Away Too Long

The knights of the Soundtable ride again, motherfuckers.

As with most Soundgarden lyrics, there is a mixture of representative symbolism, (mostly) meaningless wordplay, and clever concepts posed for cleverness's sake.

The first verse is more representative: obvious references to Soundgarden's reunion, perhaps of coming back to Seattle, of the journey they've been on.

The chorus might deal with the many hats and musical styles Cornell has tried on, and specifically how the world has reacted to all that. I also think there's a lot of just "rock n roll" sounding words that are there to sound cool.

The bridge is more interesting. "Kilos through keyholes", "widows through windows" evokes (perhaps?) the dark private lives of a lot of these Seattle musicians, and the widows a few of them (most notably, Kurt Cobain) left behind. Pilots through eyelets might just be fun rhyming nonsense or it could refer to the shrinking and flying sensations one gets on certain mixtures of drugs...I imagine feeling like I'm floating and then feeling like I'm shrinking, small enough that I can float right through an eyelet on my shoe. Tankards, flagons, snifters, and flutes are all, to some extent or another, paraphernelia evocative of late 19th century drug use.

The most obvious interpretation is that of the band's comeback, but I was thinking it could be applied to God coming back to the world again after a "vacation" period and he finds all this mess while he was not here. Coming from Soundgarden you never know, maybe the song has a third meaning no one suspects.

Great opening to a great album. Grunge is officially back! Soundgarden is easily one of my all time favorite bands. I saw them live several times in the 90's and would love see them again.

This song explores the journey of Chris Cornell, between Soundgarden of then and now -- He's been walking around, trying to find his place back "Home", only to discover you can walk a million miles, and still not find it, presumably because home is gone.

After so long, people he once knew no longer knew him, or cared enough to save him from danger -- He's been away from who he called friends long ago, for way too long, and there was nothing he could do because it was fate.

The next bit could be about drug use, with the frist one being a gimme: "Kilos" (of cocaine going) "Through keyholes" (or up the nose), though, widows through windows and pilots through eyelets confounds me. That is hat it sounds like to me, anyway (hence the revisions made to the lyrics), can't get any better than that.

The last bit all talk about various alcohol references; Tankards, large beer mugs, could also refer to steins Flagons, extraordinary large containers normally for alcohol Snifters, wide-footed glasses for spirits and liquors Flutes, referring to the neck of tall bottles

Once again an expression of how long he's been away from his friends and fans, in favor for the long-ass drug trip Cornell's been on. And all of it was fate, destiny he knows he couldn't prevent, just another step in his journey through his music career, and more importantly through life.

I don't really see this is being about Soundgarden coming back. Seems more based on the life of a soldier in the military.