Day 4: Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns

 

For emotive, melancholy, soulful children of the grunge era, this song is an undisputed classic, even if it feels more suited for a decadent piano lounge than a dank Seattle warehouse. The opening piano line is almost impossibly dramatic, and the nakedly personal and poetic lyrics still resonate 30 years later. And of course the whole thing is overshadowed by the death of the singer/songwriter Andrew Wood. The song itself is about a doomed love affair with a mystical woman from the French Quarter, and for a teenager listening at home on his Discman, the jaded descriptions of adult vices sounded no less evocative for being out of reach. Though for my slightly older cousin, who loved this song above all others, those problems were something she could relate to on a more literal level. We used to talk about music a lot, and she described what I could expect once I got old enough to drink, party, experiment, etc. I lost track of her for several years, but eventually heard from a family member that she had a baby daughter. Guess what she named her.