Shannon's Swansong: Revisiting Blind Melon's "Soup"

Blind Melon circa 1991

Finally, the '90s nostalgia is starting!

Recently, I've been seeing a lot of "greatest of" lists on the interwebs lately, and I have seen Blind Melon listed frequently as a one-hit wonder.  This startled me.  Were they really a one-hit wonder?

I guess so!  Their only solid billboard hit was 1993's "No Rain."  Anyone who watched MTV knew who they were - a ubiquitous video catching on the feel-good, hippie-dippy vibe that was sweeping the nation in the early '90s - a bunch of long-haired. shirtless guys basking in the sunlight and sunflowers with a chubby girl in a bee suit tap dancing around.  Everyone knew this song.

The first time I heard their 1995 sophomore album, "Soup", I was blown away.  This was not the band I thought they were.  It was dark, gritty, hard, and, well, not hippie at all!  This was rock!  Sure it took a page from the late '60s and early '70s, drawing heavily from the psychedelic sound of bands like Led Zepplin.  But these guys deserved a second look.

What does it mean to be a "one-hit wonder" anyway?  Can a band's artistic merits be measured in their ability to mass produce hits?  That Blind Melon was able to follow up the commercial success of a radio hit with a stark and raw album like "Soup" is a testimony to their legacy.  Unfortunately, that legacy was cut short.

Shannon Hoon 1967-1995

Life was good for Blind Melon after the release of their first album.  Shannon Hoon, the principal singer/ songwriter had emerged from rehab and celebrated the birth of his daughter, Nico Blue.  To support the release of the new album, the band embarked on a tour.  Hoon took a drug counselor with him on the tour to try to remain focused.  Eight months after the release of the album, Hoon dismissed his counselor, and a few days later was found dead in the tour bus from a drug overdose.  It's a story that tragically is all to common among rock musicians, and other artists.  I have often wondered what Hoon might have accomplished had he survived and gone on to produce other music.  In a way, "Soup" is his swansong.

The album starts out with "Goodbye", complete with a horn section lifted right out of a New Orleans funeral procession.  "Galaxie" is an ode to Hoon's car, a 1964 Ford Galaxie.  The song demonstrates the band's capability to create complex rhythms.  "2 X 4" is about Hoon's experience in drug detox, with Hoon screaming, "I'm talking to myself more!"  The riffs could be lifted right from "Houses of the Holy", and Hoon's voice soars like Robert Plant's.  "Vernie" slows don things to a more contemplative pace, and "Skinned" is a playful tune complete with banjo and kazoo with Hoon singing about a serial killer who makes human skin and body parts to make furniture.  "Toes Across the Floor" is probably my favorite song with Hoon's philosophical musings going from a plaintive whimper to a hoarse shout.  "Walk" simmers down to the kind of acoustic numbers I like to see with the band, complete with a mandolin.  "Dumptruck" starts out with the fury of a Motorhead song, but shows the band's uncanny ability to work through mood changes in the same song.  "Car Seat (God's Present" is a feverish song with a violin added, recounting the horror of Susan Smith, who murdered her own children.  "Wilt" is another Led Zepplin-esque song.  "The Duke" is a slow, psychedelic

Soup.

shimmer.  "St. Andrew's Fall" is a beautiful song, recounting the story of a friend who committed suicide by jumping.  The song starts out subdued and works itself into a rage, finishing out with an exquisite string arrangement.  "New Life" has some pleasant interplay between guitars, a song about the birth of his daughter, Nico.  "Mouthful of Cavities" is an acoustic duet with Jena Kraus.  The result is a very haunting melody.  The album finishes with "Lemonade" which tells the story of a bar fight.  It starts out with a dull blues grind and progresses to fast-paced ska, finishing out with the same New Orleans jazz it started with.

This is really great album - one of my favorites.  Over the last twenty years, I have listened to it many, many times.  In preparing to write this review, I found out that Blind Melon is still together and touring.  Imagine my surprise.  I guess I assumed that they had disbanded with the death of Shannon Hoon as I have not heard anything new from them.  I'm glad they are still together.  But this record remains a tribute to Hoon's genius, a talent taken from us too soon.