Been Away Too Long

Been Away Too Long

Soundgarden

“Been Away Too Long” is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden, the opening track and leading single off their reunion album King Animal (2012). In a way, the song is Chris Cornell saying “Guess who’s back? Back again?”:

I don’t think I would write lyrics to a Soundgarden album that would be like Eminem writing lyrics to a new Eminem song, which is essentially telling the story of the making of the album and where he feels he exists in pop culture and that kind of thing. So it’s not really that, it’s more autobiographical and more of a look back at history in sort of a strange atmospheric way, the way that I write. But the initial spark of the idea did feel like it would be right in the narrative of, yes, we’ve been out, and we’ve been gone for 15 years, and now we’re back. It’s about time, and we still have something to say about rock music that no one else is saying and I feel confident about saying that.”