Literary Mixtape | Anne of Green Gables

The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.

Chris Cornell provided much of the soundtrack to my teenage years, and my adult years too, quite honestly. Soundgarden, Audioslave, solo, original or cover, I enjoyed it all. This morning, after I heard the news, I started thinking of all of the songs I particularly loved, and as it happens, I am currently reading Anne of Green Gables (in honor of Anne with an E). Somehow they just wove themselves together. It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s better than I expected.

01. Doesn’t Remind Me // Audioslave. “Anne finished up with another sigh, of relief this time. Evidently she did not like talking about her experiences in a world that had not wanted her.”

02. Be Yourself // Audioslave. “There’s such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I’m such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn’t be half so interesting.”

03. Can’t Change Me // Chris Cornell. “I’m not a bit changed–not really. I’m only just pruned down and branched out. The real ME–back here–is just the same.”

04. Black Hole Sun // Soundgarden. “Anne always remembered the silvery, peaceful beauty and fragrant calm of that night. It was the last night before sorrow touched her life; and no life is ever quite the same again when once that cold, sanctifying touch has been laid upon it.”

05. Fell on Black Days // Soundgarden. “It’s all very well to read about sorrows and imagine yourself living through them heroically, but it’s not so nice when you really come to have them, is it?”

06. Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart // Chris Cornell. “My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.”

07. Like a Stone // Audioslave. “It was November – the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.”

08. Heavy is the Head // Zac Brown Band feat. Chris Cornell. “We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world; and although ambitions are well worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self denial, anxiety and discouragement.”

09. Nothing Compares 2 U (cover) // Chris Cornell. “It has always seemed to me, ever since early childhood, amid all the commonplaces of life, i was very near to a kingdom of ideal beauty. Between it and me hung only a thin veil. I could never draw it quite aside, but sometimes a wind fluttered it and I caught a glimpse of the enchanting realms beyond – only a glimpse-but those glimpses have always made life worthwhile.”

10. I am the Highway // Audioslave. “When I left Queen’s my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend…”

Is this combination just completely inappropriate? Or weirdly suited?