Saturday, 5 April 2014

Cobain 20th Anniversary

Just as we can't stop people stupidly killing themselves, we also can't stop the steady march of time and it is now 20 years since Kurt Cobain put a gun to his head and bought his pitifully young life to an end.
The late 80s and early nineties was a barren spell in music, Guns 'N' Roses being the only highlight and they had morphed into a stadium band and by then were turning out rock ballads with full orchestra accompaniment such as November Rain so Nirvana and the Grunge scene they introduced arrived just at the right time.
He wasn't the best guitarist and his voice could never be described as velvety but the Nevermind album was immense, 'Smells like Teen Spirit' was one of those songs that is always turned up when it comes on the radio.
By the time Cobain took his own life Nirvana were past their prime, the Unplugged album was a disappointment and the edge had gone and they had even added another guitarist as Cobain's drug ravaged brain was apparently forgetting the chords of his own songs.
Cobain's bands contribution only lasted seven years, the last few seemingly to go through the motions as Cobain spiralled downwards towards his demise, but their efforts in the history of music cannot be underestimated, Nevermind especially, Bleach and In Utero to a lesser extent and the Unplugged album is best forgotten.
Like all the best bands, Nirvana exploded out of nowhere and then just as quickly went away again but unfortunately Cobain is not around to see his legacy and teenagers who were not even born when he died, wearing t-shirts remembering the band that he fronted.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A rebel without a cause

Q

Lucy said...

That's strange, i was talking about James Dean on Friday and this film inparticular. Haven't watched it for years, always found his accent a bit hard work to listen to.