blackholesunshower

33 days after Chris Cornell completed suicide…. his family and friends honored his wish to release the official video for The Promise on World Refugee Day.

It’s a fitting tribute.

Before the music starts we hear a poignant sniff… perhaps from Chris as he ponders the immensity of it all.

The first brutal image is of a flyover of bombed out buildings, then a close-up of folded, wrinkle worn hands.

Then we see Chris sitting stoic in a dark room with his guitar, layered sweaters underneath a halfway zippered jacket. He is turned slightly profile. His eyes seem sad and pensive. Next to him on a table is a laptop with what looks to be recording software up and running.

And the images pound us from there on.

One that really strikes me is when he sings “books still open on the table…”

According to Rolling Stone, “the clip, featuring a performance Cornell recorded in Brooklyn in March, doubles as a fitting testament to the musician’s lesser-known altruistic side.

“He was always curious about how others were feeling and he had an interest in learning about their lives,” [Eric] Esrailian, a philanthropist and close friend of Cornell’s who brought him onto the project, tells Rolling Stone. “He was always asking how he could help me with some of the different non-profit projects I was working on.”

[Video director Meiert] Avis and Esrailian say that Cornell’s mood while working on the video was only positive. “He was happy, passionate, engaged and creative,” says Esrailian. “He was focused but excited; not stressed. Just happy.

“I’m a physician and for me, when people are having mood disturbances – unless they’re able to really hide it well – I’m pretty astute to being able to pick up on those things,” he adds, noting the pair spoke almost daily. “Given the amount of time and how close we were, nothing gave me any sense that he would have any kind of sadness in his life. It was quite the opposite. … The song is a promise to persevere, survive and thrive – that’s the song he was out there promoting.”

Avis recalls one memory of shooting during a New York snowstorm earlier this year. “He was just talking about how happy it made him to scrape the snow off his doorstep that morning and to be in New York with his kids doing the normal shit that dads do,” he says.

The Promise”
If I had nothing to my name
But photographs of you
Rescued from the flames
That is all I would ever need
As long as I can read
What’s written on your face
The strength that shines
Behind your eyes
The hope and light
That will never die

And one promise you made
One promise that always remains
No matter the price
A promise to survive
Persevere and thrive
As we’ve always done

And you said
“The poison in a kiss
Is the lie upon the lips”
Truer words were never shared
When I feel
Like lies are all I hear
I pull my memories near
The one thing they can’t take

And one promise you made
One promise that always remains
No matter the price
A promise to survive
Persevere and thrive
As we’ve always done

The books still open on the table
The bells still ringing in the air
The dreams still clinging to the pillow
The songs still singing in a prayer

Now my soul
Is stretching through the roots
To memories of you
Back through time and space
To carry home
The faces and the names
And these photographs of you
Rescued from the flames

And one promise you made
One promise that always remains
No matter the price
A promise to survive
Persevere and thrive
And dare to rise once more
A promise to survive
Persevere and thrive
And fill the world with life
As we’ve always done