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| Kurt Cobain |
Saturday 5th April 2014 marks the 20 year anniversary since the Nirvana frontman took his own life, blowing his brains out in the garage of his home, yet Kurt Cobain's songs and to a certain extent his image, more so than any other of the 27 Club , feel just as relevant today as they did back in 1994.
In all truth I wasn't exposed to a lot of Nirvana growing up. There's a period in life, somewhere between the ages of 11 and 14, where you start to discover a musical identity of your own, away from your parents record collection. When Nirvana released In Utero, their 3rd and final studio album, in September 1993, I had just turned 11 and was just getting into rock music. I had just started secondary school and I remember listening to a lot of Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, Guns N' Roses, Soundgarden and Jimi Hendrix on my walkman for the long bus rides (usually about 50 minutes) to and from school. I had also just started learning to play guitar and so rock music was the way forward for me.
My brother Tristan, 3 years my senior, had been listening to a lot of Nirvana since the release of Nevermind in 1991. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' had been a breakout hit for Nirvana in the UK and I remember hearing it a lot on the radio, but initially I found their sound a little too harsh. Kurt's nasal and guttural singing voice, layered on top of heavy guitar and drums was a little too progressive for my tender young ears, and while I happily listened to my brother's Nirvana albums, I never really connected with them at the time and only developed an appreciation for Cobain's songwriting as I expanded my musical tastes in my 20's and now 30's.
Bleach, the band's first studio album, failed to chart in the US on its initial release in 1989 and was subsequently re-released in 1992 after the success of Nevermind. I still don't care much for it as an album. The guitars are too heavy, many of the songs are devoid of the musicality which would come to fruition in later albums and Kurt's lyrics are pretty basic and unimaginative.
Nevermind is a brilliant album. Yes the guitars and drums are still heavy but it's much more balanced. Kurt still has a croaky wail in his voice but he also sings with more presence and the songs are crafted with more melody and harmonies. Punk rock need not be a tuneless dirge, a lesson that a lot of bands still haven't learned to this day. This album has a perfect ratio of grunge-rock numbers (Territorial Pissings, Stay Away) combined with more complete pop songs (Polly, Come As You Are, On A Plain). Pop can be a dirty word in music but it just means popular, and that's what Nirvana became. Whether Cobain wanted to or not is another matter.
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| Spencer Elden - the baby on the cover of Nevermind - is now 25 years old |
Noel Gallagher - 'Nevermind' Still Sounds Like The Future
Kurt Cobain's suicide essentially sounded the death knell on the popularity of US bands here in the UK for a while. Music was supposed to be fun wasn't it? Not about guys shooting themselves with shotguns. That was much too heavy, far too serious. Bands like Blur, Oasis, Supergrass would put the fun back into music until the end of the decade, however Kurt Cobain and Nirvana's influence remained, growing seed-like inside future generations of teenagers. Even today, I can't think of any other band that represents the disaffected youth quite like Nirvana, except for possibly The Smiths.
I often see kids wearing T-shirts with Kurt's face or the Nirvana 'Smiley' when I'm out shopping. Nirvana are still the template for a lot of bands who are just starting out and their legacy is ingrained in popular culture. For many Kurt Cobain remains a hero to those who value sensitivity more than machismo, me included.
