This page discusses the songs from Chris Cornell's most recent solo album, Songbook. For a look at the songs on 2007's solo album Carry On go here or for 2009's Scream go here.

Songbook is Chris Cornell's first-ever live solo album and sees him stripping down songs to their raw constituents, bereft of any elements that might limit them as to context or genre.

Comprising songs from right through his career, including his time with Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple Of The Dog as well as as a solo artist, the album displays the depth and breadth of his songwriting talent and reveals common themes between songs from different times in his life.

It's an idea he first talked about soon after parting company with Audioslave in 2006; however, the germ of that idea morphed into something else with Carry On, recorded with producer Steve Lillywhite who encouraged Chris to experiment with different styles of studio arrangement.

We start Songbook where we left off with Scream. The album opens with as hope and promise fade, the slow blues which first appeared as a secret final track on the previous album. Written from the point of view of an old alcoholic, it's a wry look back at a life mispent and a psyche which will always be "just two drinks away from crying. "Replacing the Hammond organ and harmonica embellishments of the original with a stark acoustic accompaniment, the song sets the sonic tone for much of the varied emotion to come.all its lyrics intact.

Lyrically, scar on the sky is another solo track, this time from 2007's Carry On. It's a Lennon-esque song in songwriting style, though the lyrics are ferociously optimistic. Though not overtly written to a woman, the song implies the start of a romantic adventure: "we will rip the night out of the arms of the sun."

call me a dog is a song from Temple Of the Dog, the one-off musical project formed as a tribute to Chris's friend Andy Wood, who dies of a drug overdose in 1990. The band also included Andy's ex-bandmates in Mother Love Bone, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, and Matt Cameron, Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder also appear - making Temple of the Dog a fascinating precursor to Pearl Jam and an astonishing document of what might have been.

ground zero is another song from Scream, here stripped down to its basics; the song emerges as a pierce of agit-folk expressing anger at how the events of 9/11 were misused by those in power for the sake of political advancement.

The album moves from the political to the personal with can't change me. it's a piece of defiance against those who would try to alter a lover or friend to suit themselves. The song was the opening track on 1999's Euphoria Morning, though the last track to be written for the album. I

Audioslave is represented by i am the highway, a ballad which Chris often played acoustic during the band's live shows. It's changed quite a lot since it was recorded for their debut album; the tempo is faster and there are new,serpentine vocal twists and turns in the vocal line, lighting up a ballad which in Audioslave’s hands could sometimes sound pedestrian.

thank you is a cover of a lesser known Plant/Page ballad from Led Zeppelin II. Chris first performed this song during his famous (and much-bootlegged!) Stockholm show in 2006, and that version was released as the B-side of UK single Arms Around Your Love the following year.

cleaning my gun is not a new song, but it had never been recorded and seldom performed live. Written originally with Johnny Cash in mind, it's a short story of a song about a man who's lost the love of his life and finds himself staring into the abyss as he watches her sleep; "I know it's not me you're dreaming of". A sublime example of American Gothic.

wide awake was written in reaction to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting devastation of New Orleans. Full of Cornell's characteristic wordplay, it juxtaposes blindness and sight, sleep and wakefulness, while imagery of death lurks behind every phrase.

fell on black days was a song which went through multiple versions before arriving at the one we hear on Soundgarden's Superunknown album. Full of self-doubt, the singer asks why people say he's a "searchlight soul" when he feels confined by darkness. "I'm only faking when I get it right".

all night thing is as close as you'll find in Chris Cornell's work to an ordinary boy-meets-girl song. It was recorded for Temple Of The Dog, although it's not concerned with the tribute to Andy Wood which gave rise to the album.

doesn't remind me appeared on Audioslave's second abum Out Of Exile. If Fell On Black Days was dark and constrained in its outlook, this song speaks of an escape from depression into life and happiness - although there's always a shadow of memory following. "I like colourful clothing in the sun," he sings, "because it doesn't remind me of anything."

Rather like Cleaning My Gun, like a stone seems to be about a man deep in despair, waiting to die. It's unclear who he's waiting for, but he'll accept any offer of a ride to heaven. The song was Audoslave's biggest hit, crossing over to mainstream and country radio rather than being played only on rock stations.

The impressionistic black hole sun was written in a single creative episode. Chris has often said that he has no idea what the lyrics to this Soundgarden anthem are all about, but they paint a powerful apocalyptic picture.

Chris's cover of John Lennon's imagine switches the song from 4/4 into 3/4 waltz time, subtly changing the musical emphasis. A lifelong Beatles fan, Chris has often described Lennon as one of his musical mentors as he was growing up.

Finally, the keeper is the only song on the album not taken from a live show. Written as the theme to Machine Gun Preacher, a film telling the story of unconventional missionary Sam Childers, it's a simple acoustic ballad with similar instrumentation to the other songs on the album.

Want more? Read my review of Songbook here.