Rusty Cage is a song by Soundgarden. Written by frontman Chris Cornell, Rusty Cage was released in 1992 as the third single from the band’s third studio album, Badmotorfinger (1991). The song became an instant hit and was released as a single in several different formats. The song was included on Soundgarden‘s 1997 greatest hits album, A-Sides and the 2010 compilation album Telephantasm.
Guitarist Kim Thayil on the song:
The tuning on that song was pretty nutty. It’s recorded with a wah wah in the low position used as a filter. That was the first time we did anything like that. It was Chris’s idea; he wanted to get that weird tone that you can’t really dial in on an amp. But if you use the wah wah as a filter, it gets an incredibly weird sound. And if you listen to that riff, especially if you’ve heard the original demos of it, it almost sounds backward.
Rusty Cage was released as a single in March 3, 1992 in various versions with a previously unreleased B-side titled Touch Me. Outside the United States, the single was released commercially in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The song gained considerable airtime on alternative rock radio stations. In 2017, Billboard ranked the song number nine on their list of the 15 greatest Soundgarden songs.
Tracklist:
- Rusty Cage (Edit)
- Rusty Cage (LP version)
- Touch Me
- Stray Cat Blues
The music video for Rusty Cage was directed by Eric Zimmerman, who had previously directed the Jesus Christ Pose music video for the band. The video features Soundgarden performing the song in a white room amid scenes of the band members being chased through a forest by dogs, farmers, and a man in a truck. The video was released in March 1992. It gained considerable airtime on MTV.
Soundgarden
Chris Cornell: vocals, rhythm guitar
Kim Thayil: lead guitar
Ben Shepherd: bass
Matt Cameron: drums
Chris Cornell (July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017)
