Room a Thousand Years Wide

Album: Badmotorfinger (1991)
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Songfacts®:

  • A track from Soundgarden's breakthrough album Badmotorfinger, this one has music written by their drummer at the time, Matt Cameron, and lyrics by their guitarist Kim Thayil. It's one of the few songs by the band that lead singer Chris Cornell had no part in composing.

    The lyrics can be interpreted many ways, and Bible scholars will find parallels to a verse in the Book of Revelation: "When the thousand years come to an end, Satan will be let out of his prison."

    In this context, the song could be about death and judgment. However, in our interview with Kim Thayil, it became clear that he was not reaching for anything so profound. When he writes lyrics, he starts by humming melodies to fit the groove, then finding the right words to fit those melodies. "I try to get a feel for the song, what it evokes with me," he said.

    Of course, there may have been a higher power guiding his hand as he wrote the words - perhaps even the same one that influenced "Stairway To Heaven." Like Robert Plant, however, Kim doesn't think so.
  • Regarding the line, "Tomorrow begat tomorrow," Kim Thayil says that came from a movie, which he's pretty sure is the 1922 film Häxan, which is about witchcraft. He remembers a scene where witches are saying it in some kind of ceremony.

Comments: 4

  • Larry from Forest Lake, Mn.I guess that I didn't know that Kim wrote the lyrics and Matt the music, but I like the song, just heard Tom Morello play it on his Sirius radio show.
  • Camilo from Temuco, ChileThe lyrics are written by Thayil, not Cornell.
  • Cel from Philadelphia, PaMaybe Chris is talking about an alter personality that he has. It's a little weird but the song's still awesome.
  • Stink from Male'I love this song. The lyrics is deep and hard to say what it is about. I have been thinking about the lyrics for a long time and still dont know what Chris is talking about. Is he talking about someone who is trying to live? Or a lost chance?
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