walking upstream…
Stone Temple Pilots
photo: jeck m. · cc by 2.0 ↗Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots formed in San Diego in 1989 around Scott Weiland's baritone and the rhythm section of brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo, with drummer Eric Kretz rounding out the lineup. Their 1992 debut 'Core' arrived amid the grunge gold rush and was dismissed by critics as opportunistic even as 'Plush' and 'Sex Type Thing' turned it multiplatinum — a reception the band answered by leaning harder into the classic-rock and glam records they'd actually grown up on. 'Purple' (1994) and the psychedelic detour of 'Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop' (1996) proved the grunge tag never fit; underneath was a band as indebted to Led Zeppelin's riffs and Bowie's theater as to anything from Seattle. Weiland's death in 2015 followed years of addiction and a public firing in 2013; the band continues today with singer Jeff Gutt.
the sound in question
1992
PlushStone Temple Pilots
walk the tributaries ↓
The Doors1960s · Psychedelic rock / Rock
Scott Weiland admitted he 'was listening to a lot of Doors' while making 'Core' and worried critics would say he was chasing Jim Morrison's baritone croon — a comparison Slash later made explicit, hearing 'a little bit of Jim Morrison' in Weiland's voice. It surfaces as vocal register and mood: a low, unhurried delivery that treats a verse like a spoken confession before the song opens up underneath it.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rock Celebrities ↗
1971
Riders on the StormThe Doors
1992
CreepStone Temple Pilots
listen forPlay 'Riders on the Storm' next to 'Creep' — both keep the vocal low and half-murmured over a slow, minor-key sway, letting dread build through restraint rather than volume.
David Bowie1970s · Art rock / Glam rock
In one of his last interviews, two days before his death, Weiland called Bowie 'my biggest influence musically, vocally and fashion-wise,' and traced his own habit of performing through invented stage characters directly to him: 'the idea of playing with characters... that's something I got from Bowie.' On 1996's glam-pivot album 'Tiny Music,' that debt turns explicit — stream-of-consciousness lyrics and a strutting, T. Rex-and-Bowie-indebted beat replace the hard-rock riffing of the first two records.
listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone ↗
1974
Rebel RebelDavid Bowie
1996
Big Bang BabyStone Temple Pilots
listen forCompare 'Rebel Rebel' with 'Big Bang Baby' — both ride a strutting, mid-tempo glam beat under a sneering, theatrical vocal, more interested in swagger and persona than in a heavy riff.
Led Zeppelin1970s · Hard rock / Blues rock
Robert DeLeo has said the band grew up on Led Zeppelin, describing STP's harder-rock turn after Dean joined in 1989 as pulling from 'the Zeppelin, James Brown, Grand Funk Railroad vein, with funky backbeats underneath the rock music' — and pointed to the flak Zeppelin took from critics early on as a model for weathering STP's own hostile reviews. The debt shows up as sheer riff-weight: a hard, descending guitar figure built to carry a whole song rather than just decorate a chorus.
listen: upstream & heresource: Louder ↗
1969
Whole Lotta LoveLed Zeppelin
1992
Sex Type ThingStone Temple Pilots
listen forSet 'Whole Lotta Love' against 'Sex Type Thing' — both open on a lurching, distorted riff that refuses to resolve, with a rhythm section that drags just behind the beat to make the groove feel heavier than its tempo.