Maps of Music

Dirt (1992)

Where the lyrics of Dirt take you, and where it was really made.

Dirt was recorded in Los Angeles while the city erupted in riots after the Rodney King verdict, and the band left town for the Joshua Tree desert before returning to finish the album.

Key places

Recording at Eldorado in Burbank (1992)

Recording site The Enterprise (Burbank) — Part of Dirt was recorded at Eldorado Recording Studios in Burbank between April and July 1992. The point is placed at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording at London Bridge in Seattle (1992)

Recording site London Bridge Studio — Dirt was recorded at London Bridge Studio in Seattle during the spring and summer of 1992. The point is placed at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording at One on One in Los Angeles (1992)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Dirt was recorded at One on One Studios in Los Angeles from April to July 1992, in the same weeks as the city's riots. The point is placed at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Cover shoot in Hollywood (1992)

Album cover The Music Grinder (Hollywood) — The cover photo was shot at Rocky Schenck's Hollywood studio on June 14, 1992, under drummer Sean Kinney's supervision. The point is placed at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Dirt: second studio album by the American rock band Alice in Chains
• Released September 29, 1992 by Columbia Records
• Last album recorded with all four original members; bassist Mike Starr was fired in January 1993 during the tour supporting the album
• Most songs written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell
• Layne Staley wrote two songs by himself, "Hate to Feel" and "Angry Chair", and played guitar on them
• "Iron Gland" features Tom Araya of Slayer on vocals
• Lyrics explore depression, pain, anger, anti-social behavior, relationships, drug addiction (primarily heroin), war, and death
• The band's most commercially successful album

Background

• Debut album Facelift released August 1990 through Columbia Records
• Early shows were local gigs and festivals around Seattle
• Video for "Man in the Box" landed regular rotation on MTV
• Joined the Clash of the Titans tour in mid-1991 and later a Van Halen tour
• Staley and bassist Mike Starr were both introduced to heroin during the Van Halen tour
• Recorded "Would?" for Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles; about ten demos from these sessions fed the acoustic EP Sap and later songs on this album

Recording

• Recording began in spring 1992; producer Dave Jerden returned from the debut album
• Recorded from April to July 1992 at three studios: Eldorado Recording Studios in Burbank, London Bridge Studio in Seattle, and One on One Studios in Los Angeles
• Sessions started on the first day of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of four LAPD officers
• The band went to the Joshua Tree desert for four or five days, then returned to the studio
• Staley went back to heroin during the sessions
• "Rooster" was written by Cantrell for his father, a Vietnam War veteran

Cover

• Cover photo by Rocky Schenck: a nude woman half-buried in a cracked desert landscape
• Model was Mariah O'Brien, not Staley's girlfriend as fans long believed
• Cover shoot held at Schenck's Hollywood studio on June 14, 1992

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Seattle in 1987; the original lineup was Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney, Layne Staley, and Mike Starr.
• The name came from Staley's earlier band, Alice N' Chains.
• Signed to Columbia Records in 1989 after The Treehouse Tapes demo.

Members

• Current lineup since 2006: Jerry Cantrell (vocals/guitar), William DuVall (vocals/guitar), Mike Inez (bass), Sean Kinney (drums).
• Original vocalist Layne Staley died in 2002; former bassist Mike Starr left in 1993 and died in 2011.

Career

• Rose to fame in the early 1990s grunge movement with Facelift (1990) and Dirt (1992).
• Jar of Flies (1994) and Alice in Chains (1995) both topped the US Billboard 200.
• Hiatus from 1996 due to Staley's substance abuse; reunited in 2005.
• Released Black Gives Way to Blue (2009), The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (2013), and Rainier Fog (2018).
• Has sold over 30 million certified records in the US and received eleven Grammy nominations.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Dirt received critical acclaim and charted in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
• Kerrang! voted it "Kerrang! Critic's Choice Album of the Year" for 1992
• Nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 1993 Grammy Awards

Reappraisal

• Steve Huey of AllMusic: "Dirt is Alice in Chains' major artistic statement and the closest they ever came to recording a flat-out masterpiece."
• Michael Christopher of PopMatters praised the album as a brutally truthful work
• Chris Gill of Guitar World described Dirt as "huge and foreboding, yet eerie and intimate"
• Don Kaye of Kerrang! called it an unflinching, brutally truthful and fiercely rocking testimonial to human endurance
• Joe Robinson of Loudwire named it one of the best metal albums of the 1990s in 2011
• Guitar World ranked it number one on its top ten list of guitar albums of 1992 in October 2011
• Rolling Stone ranked it No. 26 on its list of the "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time" in June 2017
• Rolling Stone ranked it No. 6 on its list of the "50 Greatest Grunge Albums" in April 2019

Records

• Peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 and charted for 102 weeks
• Certified 5× platinum by the RIAA, the band's most commercially successful album
• Sold 3,358,000 copies in the United States as of 2008
• Returned to the top 10 of the Billboard 200 at No. 9 after the 30th anniversary reissue on September 23, 2022

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The 43-second "Iron Gland" grew out of a guitar riff Cantrell kept playing, which annoyed the other band members
• Cantrell wrote "Would?" as a tribute to his friend Andrew Wood, the late lead singer of Mother Love Bone
• Originally titled "Iron Man" on the back sleeve, with the opening line from Black Sabbath's song, before being re-titled "Iron Gland" on retrospective releases
• During the riots the band took Slayer vocalist Tom Araya with them to the Joshua Tree desert for four or five days
• For many years fans believed the cover model was Staley's girlfriend, but the photographer later said it was Mariah O'Brien
• The album came out exactly 17 years before the release of Black Gives Way to Blue, which featured "A Looking in View" with a cover reference

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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