Re-listening to some of the old Nirvana tracks on the anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s suicide, it’s not as bad as I remember it, but it wasn’t great either.
With the caveat that I know this is a maximally douchey statement, Kurt Cobain’s death was the best thing that ever happened to Dave Grohl’s career. Seriously. (No, that’s not Everlong. Here’s Everlong.) Dave Grohl has created so much amazing material post-Nirvana it is a little bit disturbing to think that he might have been stuck drumming in the background as Kurt Cobain would have eventually turned himself into, well, Axl Rose — a creatively moribund shell of his former self.
I bring this up because I see some folks on twitter reminiscing on where they were when they heard the news. Well, I was a freshman in high school, and I didn’t give a crap. I really didn’t care for the material. Then suddenly, Cobain became some sort of musical martyr by his own hand, and the rest of us were subjected to a never-ending parade of poseurs with Nirvana T-shirts and nascent heroin addictions who felt put-upon by The Man, or something.
I guess Nirvana was better than a lot of the crap that usually passes for popular music, but frankly if I had a time machine and the choice of seeing a performance by Nirvana or, say, Soundgarden, or even Guns & Roses (before Axl completely lost his bleedin’ mind), … let’s just say my choice wouldn’t be Nirvana. Shit, the Screaming Trees were better than Nirvana. I confess that I did own the Unplugged CD, though most of the best tracks were covers. But I can’t pretend for a second that April 5th, 1994 was the day the music died, or any such similar rubbish. He wasn’t the Jesus of Gen-X. He was a modestly above average musician with some peroxide and a drug problem.
Of all the prematurely dead musicians who have graced this earth, Kurt Cobain was the voice of a generation? (Ostensibly my generation?) Oh, hell no.
Long live Dave Grohl.
Are you allowed to post this without making note of Dave Grohl telling the creator of Glee to fuck off?
Since I’m already well into “pissing people off” territory, I thought that was pretty awesome.
I did like Nirvana, but, I have to agree with you. I was thinking about it today and the thought did cross my mind that Kurt Cobain would’ve imploded at some point.
It’s funny that you mention Screaming Trees. It’s a damned dirty shame that they never covered House of the Rising Sun.
It’s a damned dirty shame that they never covered House of the Rising Sun.
That would have been absolutely amazing. I can almost hear it now.
Now, you’ll be wishing for it for the rest of your life, like me!
I still love Screaming Trees and listen to them all the time. They were highly underrated.
Oh, and holy CRAP you’re younger than me.
Curt Cobain pissed me off royally. He had a KID and he ate a shotgun because “he couldn’t handle the fame”? FUCK that guy. If you can’t handle the fame, STOP RECORDING FUCKING MUSIC! The public will forget you within two years! Does anyone harrass the dudes from Devo? FUCK no. Does fame haunt the Flock of Seagulls guys? Not once they changed their hair.
Others have said it was Courtney Love and the heroin that drove him to do it. While I can have some sympathy for the former, he COULD have just divorced that hag. And for the heroin, studs like James Taylor and Steven Tyler kicked it, and rehab is there to help you kick horse. Leaving your kid without a dad is the most selfish asshole move possible. That ratfucker was no martyr, he was a fucking coward who was so self-centered that he allowed his temporary unhappiness and depression to fuck up his kid’s life. Fuck him.
Mike, I find your views intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I don’t remember when I heard about his death but I know for certain that I said “Who is Kurt Cobain?”
I always thought Eric Cartman was the voice of my generation.
With the caveat that I know this is a maximally douchey statement, Kurt Cobain’s death was the best thing that ever happened to Dave Grohl’s career.
Truth hurts.
Wait, is he related to Kurt Kaboom?
[...] Kurt Cobain Was Not the Voice of Me (doubleplusundead.com) [...]
That last trackback has a bunch of posts all supportive of Kurt.
I wonder what will happen if they click through to here.
It’ll probably be as funny as if we had trashed Roger Waters.
Wait, Roger Waters fans actually exist? *confused look*
There used to be a blog called “Mean Mr. Mustard”, he was a conservative going to Berkeley (Pissing into the wind)
He would occasionally bash Waters the way FrnakJ bashes Ron Paul for some high comment count posts.
It was funny.