Kurt Cobain - 17 years gone...

[Lemonade]

Today is the 17th anniversary of Cobain's death, which is just terrifying really, I remember reading about it in the newspaper and talking about it at school that day, and it does not feel like 17 fucking years ago.Kurt was my hero as a teenager, I knew every word of every album, could play most of it on guitar, had an entire wall of my bedroom dedicated to Cobain / Nirvana, and had enough Nirvana t-shirts that they probably outnumbered the number of non-Nirvana t-shirt I had. I was pretty much obsessed.

So Kurt's been dead 17 years, Nevermind is 20 years old, and yet I still see young kids walking around in Nirvana hoodies every day, kids that weren't even born when he died in 1994. Despite still being a huge Nirvana fan, I'm the first to admit that musically they weren't great, a lot of the songs were simple and repetitive, and I think it was the image and the attitude that propelled them so hugely at the time. But yet, the world has moved on drastically in the past 17 years, and kids are still being drawn in by Nirvana. What is it you think that gives them such lasting appeal? Is it the music that does it, or is it like a rite of passage that every moody teenager has to walk around in a Nirvana hoodie for a while (just like every student has to own a Che Guevara t-shirt at some point? )

[Paranoid Android]

I like them because their music is fucking great.

[Guest idol_wild]

Quite simply, Nirvana have made some of the best rock/pop songs I have ever heard. That's why I like them.

These days, we see just as many Led Zep, Ramones, Beatles or Rolling Stones t-shirts as we do Nirvana, I reckon. People just love well-marketed iconic music.

[Christy]

Kids love angsty music that they can shout along to. When I were a lad it was all Nirvana and RATM. Nowadays it is probably the same.

Never really liked them tbh. Hugely important band, though, and his death remains a great loss.

[Lemonade]

Quite simply, Nirvana have made some of the best rock/pop songs I have ever heard. That's why I like them.

These days, we see just as many Led Zep, Ramones, Beatles or Rolling Stones t-shirts as we do Nirvana, I reckon. People just love well-marketed iconic music.

That was kinda my point, are Nirvana good enough musically to be mentioned in the same breath as Led Zep, Beatles, Rolling Stones etc or is it because it is well marketed? Don't get me wrong, I love them, but that might be because I was really into them at the time when they were massive and the music you listen to in your teens / early 20s generally sticks with you. But compare "All You Need Is Love" to "Sliver" and it's really not much of a competition.

[Pilot Error]

Today is the 17th anniversary of Cobain's death, which is just terrifying really, I remember reading about it in the newspaper and talking about it at school that day, and it does not feel like 17 fucking years ago.Kurt was my hero as a teenager, I knew every word of every album, could play most of it on guitar, had an entire wall of my bedroom dedicated to Cobain / Nirvana, and had enough Nirvana t-shirts that they probably outnumbered the number of non-Nirvana t-shirt I had. I was pretty much obsessed.

So Kurt's been dead 17 years, Nevermind is 20 years old, and yet I still see young kids walking around in Nirvana hoodies every day, kids that weren't even born when he died in 1994. Despite still being a huge Nirvana fan, I'm the first to admit that musically they weren't great, a lot of the songs were simple and repetitive, and I think it was the image and the attitude that propelled them so hugely at the time. But yet, the world has moved on drastically in the past 17 years, and kids are still being drawn in by Nirvana. What is it you think that gives them such lasting appeal? Is it the music that does it, or is it like a rite of passage that every moody teenager has to walk around in a Nirvana hoodie for a while (just like every student has to own a Che Guevara t-shirt at some point? )

Agree with every word of that, and was exactly the same. Had a ticket to see them on the ill fated In Utero tour, and caught them at the Dutchess in Leeds back in 89.

I saw an interview with Chris Robinson from the Black Crows, when he was saying that everybody talks about Nirvana because of the drugs and the celebrity marriage and the circus around them, but why couldn't they talk about Nirvana because "that guys writes really good songs and....well, they rock". Think that summed it up.

Seems to be the fashionable thing nowadays not to give Nirvana the credit they deserve for helping bring punk and alternative into the mainstream. If it wasn't for them, bands like Screaming Trees, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, Pixies etc wouldn't have had anywhere near the exposure and success that they did. He championed his favourite bands like Shonen Knife, Daniel Johnson and Flipper and kids saw him wearing those bands on his T-Shirts, and went out to buy their records and check them out.

Yeah, he had his failings but so the fuck what? Who doesn't? Pop songs with a fuzz box and a dash of punk attiture - that sums it up pretty nicely to me!

[Paranoid Android]

Comparing any band to the beatles is a pointless exercise. I'd easily take them above The Ramones / Led Zeppelin though, I don't care much for either of those.

I think that the Nirvana marketing and image has in fact led to them getting less credit these days than they deserve. They made absolutely great songs and were always better than just being the focal point of a teen fad.

[givemeasmile]

Nirvana are the reason I play in bands. Sounds like a bit of a gay cliche.

Got the greatest hits CD which only wet my appetite for more, so I bought the anthology and still listen to it religiously until this day. I've even got an In Utero tattoo. I should probably get a life.

[Lemonade]

Nirvana are the reason I play in bands. Sounds like a bit of a gay cliche.

Got the greatest hits CD which only wet my appetite for more, so I bought the anthology and still listen to it religiously until this day. I've even got an In Utero tattoo. I should probably get a life.

Probably true for me as well. Nevermind was the reason I bought a guitar (a strat copy similar to Kurt's, natch) and my first task was to set about learning the whole album. Hugely influenced me as a musician, the quiet-LOUD dynamic that was used in pretty much every Cobra Kai song came from listening to so much Nirvana as a youngster.

[Guest idol_wild]

That was kinda my point, are Nirvana good enough musically to be mentioned in the same breath as Led Zep, Beatles, Rolling Stones etc or is it because it is well marketed?

Surely as fans of music, we have all realised that music doesn't have to be in any way good or technical in order to become massively popular.

For the record, I think Nirvana absolutely piss all over Led Zep, The Ramones, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and all of these other emotionally devoid bands (emotionally devoid in my opinion - I'm aware that other people have probably lay on their bed with their favourite teddy bear and cried their eyes out to Norwegian Wood by The Beatles). Nirvana were definitely no less capable as musicians than the other bands mentioned. Musically, there was nothing weak about them at all. They just didn't like guitar solos, and frankly, this merits absolute reverence.

[Guest idol_wild]

Nirvana are the reason I play in bands. Sounds like a bit of a gay cliche.

Not as gay as me: OMD are the reason I play music.

I am gayer than thou.

[Shaki]

Surely as fans of music, we have all realised that music doesn't have to be in any way good or technical in order to become massively popular.

For the record, I think Nirvana absolutely piss all over Led Zep, The Ramones, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and all of these other emotionally devoid bands (emotionally devoid in my opinion - I'm aware that other people have probably lay on their bed with their favourite teddy bear and cried their eyes out to Norwegian Wood by The Beatles). Nirvana were definitely no less capable as musicians than the other bands mentioned. Musically, there was nothing weak about them at all. They just didn't like guitar solos, and frankly, this merits absolute reverence.

x 2

I also think their unplugged performance proved that they weren't one trick ponies.

[mistersticks]

I think it is very likely that Nirvana would have split in 1994 if Cobain did not die; he was growing more and more tiresome with the band and wanted to pursue different musical projects; namely one with Micheal Stipe which i for one think would have been fucking awesome. He had so much more potential so in that sense it his was a very tragic and untimely loss.

Although i think the 'iconic' status that has been credited to Nirvana and Kurt Cobain is due to the untimely young death, kind of like that of James Dean, Jim Morisson and Jimi Hendrix. Would Nirvana have this appeal to youngsters if Kurt had lived on?

[scandaldallas]

Nirvana are the reason I play in bands. Sounds like a bit of a gay cliche.

Totally agree. Nirvana sounded easy to play, and even for me most of it was. Nirvana is the reason I picked up a guitar aged 16 was Nirvana and to me that's a pretty good reason to play. I like to believe that that really was one of things motivating bands like them who had the anyone can play guitar ethos...

Used to love watching Live tonight sold out and then head upstairs to bash out some similar noise with my brothers!! Good times.

Oh and live at reading DVD says it all. energy, chaos, noise, great songs and the best rock vocal rasp I've ever heard!

Timeless.

[jon]

My school band was onsessed with being Nirvana. Heady days. Great band, massive influence on me (I'm guessing I'm of the same vintage as Lucky - my mum bought me In Utero from Woolies when I was off sick from school), and still more exciting and visceral than 90% of rock music today.

As for the "they couldn't play" argument, I must say I think it's complete bollocks. Writing tunes as consistently strong as Nirvana's takes real skill, and I'd always rather listen to Kurt's squall than any number of widdly metal mathematicians. Also, some of Dave Grohl's drumming circa In Utero is mindblowingly intense. He made me hate cymbal tickelers as much as Novoselic made me despise high slung bassists. Especially slap bassists. Urgh.

So, yeah, Nirvana were fucking ace. All else is revisionism.

[Shaki]

The third verse in Lounge Act is my favourite ever vocal. It's probably my favourite section of a song. It gives me an audio boner just thinking about it.

[TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH]

Like millions of people out there, I wouldn't play the guitar (until someone showed me how to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" I assumed you had to have God-like ability to play any song on guitar) or have the same passion for music, if it wasn't for listening to Nirvana all those years ago. Hearing their albums was certainly a watershed moment in my life, having found something that I connected with so strongly and enjoyed so much.

They were such a great gateway for me to find out about other bands; Pixies, Breeders, Sonic Youth, Vaselines, Mudhoney etc...

[Oedo 808]

are Nirvana good enough musically to be mentioned in the same breath as Led Zep, Beatles, Rolling Stones etc

I don't think that's the point. Nirvana were at the forefront of a musical revolution which propelled the idea of 'alternative' music into the mainstream (an oxymoron I know) and changed the face of music forever.

----------------------------

With regards to repetition: of all the great composers Mozart is probably the most repetitive of the classical period and he's still regarded by most (rightly or wrongly) as the greatest.

So the idea that Nirvana are repetitive or whatever just doesn't hold water with me. The point is that Nirvana took those building blocks and created great songs from them. The song is more important than its constituent elements, so while a technically brilliant musician might make you gasp in amazement at their sheer skill and ability a great song performed with integrity and emotion will capture your heart and fire your imagination.

That's what Nirvana did. I ask you; which is the greater legacy?

[Bigsby]

Not as gay as me: OMD are the reason I play music.

I am gayer than thou.

Dire Straits for me, so I don't know where we would end up in a gay-off.

Was round at my mate Phil Wood's house in Bieldside when it came on MTV News that he had died. We were all stunned.

Having been part of it and bought Nevermind when it came out etc it is quite amusing to see kids going round in Nirvana t-shirts etc. But then back in those days I had a Pink Floyd t-shirt which is kind of the same thing I guess.

Favourite Nirvana performances for me would be their debut on The Word and performing Lithium with a bit of Rape Me at the start of the 1992 MTV awards. Taped the whole show, still have the tape in fact.

YouTube - Nirvana - Lithium (VMA 1992)

[Lemonade]

Was round at my mate Phil Wood's house in Bieldside when it came on MTV News that he had died. We were all stunned.

I had really just discovered them at the time. Sat next to a guy in maths class in 3rd year at school who had a mullet and he had the lyrics from "Territorial Pissings" scribbled all over his maths jotter. He lent me Nevermind and In Utero on cassette, and I really got in to them. Must have only been a matter of months later that he died, I remember coming downstairs on that morning and it was front of the P&J, my mum pointed it out to me because she knew I liked them. I remember going into maths that morning and seeing mullet-boy and being all like "Fuck, the boy fae Nirvana's deed!"

[Bigsby]

I had really just discovered them at the time. Sat next to a guy in maths class in 3rd year at school who had a mullet and he had the lyrics from "Territorial Pissings" scribbled all over his maths jotter. He lent me Nevermind and In Utero on cassette, and I really got in to them. Must have only been a matter of months later that he died, I remember coming downstairs on that morning and it was front of the P&J, my mum pointed it out to me because she knew I liked them. I remember going into maths that morning and seeing mullet-boy and being all like "Fuck, the boy fae Nirvana's deed!"

They were pretty much everywhere when Nevermind took off in 91, it wasn't just some underground thing, they were having big hit singles and getting played on Radio 1 etc

Although this was pre-internet.

[Lemonade]

They were pretty much everywhere when Nevermind took off in 91, it wasn't just some underground thing, they were having big hit singles and getting played on Radio 1 etc

Although this was pre-internet.

Aye but I was 11 in 1991 and listening to Kylie Minogue, 2Unlimited and Erasure. They kinda passed me by at that time.

[Bigsby]

I heard you still listen to Erasure.

(Lame attempt at querying your sexuality, Erasure were good when they were good)

1991 was a great year. The Dire Straits album On Every Street was released and I became obsessed with them. Probably wouldn't be here on this forum otherwise...

[givemeasmile]

Marionettes used to be called Radio Friendly Unit Shifter when we were like 15. We used to play cover sets but half of it would be Nirvana because of how immediately fun it is to play these songs note perfect as a band. I think most bands will have covered a Nirvana song at some point.

Very Ape, Lounge Act, Sappy, Drain You and All Apologies are my top five today, although that list may be very different tomorrow. If anybody is aware of rare links or cool interviews that they think everyone else might not have seen you should get posting them in here.

This is my favourite Nirvana footage on youtube.

[Lemonade]

I heard you still listen to Erasure.

It's cool. I was going to the same to you with this:

Dire Straits for me, so I don't know where we would end up in a gay-off.

Probably in a 69.