Kurt Cobain Appreciation Thread

Do you like Kurt Cobain

  • Total voters
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it's funny how similar early grunge bands sound to early noise rock bands sometimes. off course you won't necessarily mistake big black for grunge, but there are definitive similarities. but while grunge got more accessible as time went on, noise rock never did and even though a few bands got signed to major labels, very few of them had any success. the only band i can think of that had some success is helmet, with the first two albums being absolute classics, the next album being good, the next being sort of okay... then came that godawful reunion, which still makes me cringe with disgust.
 
muvolution said:
I would be really dissapointed also if my career was a long, slow slide into mediocrity following Everlong.
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I actually enjoyed a few tracks from the last foo fighters album, which was definitely a departure from the crappy pop-rock that had started to make after the colour and the shape. its not great but its better than anything else theyve made since 1997
 
Never got into them before the media, or cultural furore calmed down a bit. Always found it difficult to make up my mind on what I like/what makes sense; when there is too much extraneous hype around it.(like whats done on this vid, of an otherwise great performance)
I can/could relate to alot of their music.<3


Nirvana|You know you're Right
 
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He wasn't a very good guitarist, nor was he a Baudelaire. However, he was quite a lot like some friends I have/had, and he responded to his success much in the same way a couple of my friends possibly could. He was also quite humble, which is something I greatly admire. I don't think I've ever noticed a speck of arrogance in any of the taped conversations/interviews he is in. He's one of the few truly famous people (dead/alive) that do not irritate me.
 
cobain? overrated? bollocks.

who else has written such rock'n'roll songs since then? rock and roll practically breathed its last breath with nirvana.
young'ns might not understand, but shit changed when nirvana broke out of the 'underground' and into top 40. suddenly the whole punk rock/"grunge" (whatever the fuck that is) thing was big business and totally co-opted. in the 80s it was unknown, unspoilt, ignored by the corporate world. purity and integrity was a really important thing to that era of bands; the indie, DIY, punk ethos was something worn as a badge of honour and pride; anti-commercialism.
it wasn't kurt's fault that his band was the one that caught the attention of the masses/mass media, making them extremely famous and outselling michael jackson etc, but it took an enormous toll on him.
he hated the attention, the vultures, the paparazzi. he didn't ask for that - he just wrote great songs and wanted to get that out there. he wasn't interested in becoming a star, but became the biggest rock star of his time without playing all the showbiz games.
it fucked him up, he had drug problems, mental and physical health problems, and he took a really bad way out. it's fucked and it's tragic, but the media lap it up, and people feel the need to make cheap remarks.
i think people idealise celebrity as this wonderful perfect thing that everyone wants, but not everybody can play that game. not everybody would want to. i can understand how shit it would feel seeing people that you despised (homophobic rednecks, for example) coming to your shows and digging your music - and that would only be a part of it.

say what you like about nirvana's music, but have a little respect, please. since when do people snigger about suicide on bluelight?
 
One of my favorite by them was their cover of The Man Who Sold The World. I like the bass in that song, and Kurt played it well on guitar as well.

I remember when I was a young kid my family would always go to this cafe/diner that had a good kids menu and I would either get a kids pizza for myself and try to eat the whole thing, or their chicken fingers that came in a basket shaped like a chicken. Anyway, this was back when diners had smoking/non-smoking sections (I realize that in some other states these were still around until recently, and maybe some still have them, but NY did away with them a while ago) so we would usually have to wait a little while for a table in the non-smoking section since my parents didn't smoke and they didn't want me and my siblings around it. Other than those few things, my only other memory of the place was the Nevermind album cover that we would come across on the juke box while waiting for a table, and being a bunch of 8-12 yr olds we always got a kick out of it and then my parents would yell at us to change it.
NSFW:
220px-NirvanaNevermindalbumcover.jpg


Back on topic though, I don't appreciate Kurt to the point of giving him praise in an appreciation thread, and I never would have started one myself. I do give him credit for playing lead guitar while singing, instead of having a 4th band member play lead so Kurt could concentrate on singing and just playing rhythm guitar. But that's also why the guitar was more simple in their songs, and a lot of people learning guitar will usually learn to play a few Nirvana songs. I know I have, and I barely play. Part of the reason why I like 'The Man Who Sold The World' is because it shows that he can play the guitar pretty well.

As for him as a person, I don't really have an opinion on that since I never really read into any of the interviews with him or the stories he wrote. I can see how some people don't like him though.
 
I like Nirvana, just not enough to call myself a Nirvana fan, if that makes sense
 
Tommyboy said:
One of my favorite by them was their cover of The Man Who Sold The World. I like the bass in that song, and Kurt played it well on guitar as well.

I remember when I was a young kid my family would always go to this cafe/diner that had a good kids menu and I would either get a kids pizza for myself and try to eat the whole thing, or their chicken fingers that came in a basket shaped like a chicken. Anyway, this was back when diners had smoking/non-smoking sections (I realize that in some other states these were still around until recently, and maybe some still have them, but NY did away with them a while ago) so we would usually have to wait a little while for a table in the non-smoking section since my parents didn't smoke and they didn't want me and my siblings around it. Other than those few things, my only other memory of the place was the Nevermind album cover that we would come across on the juke box while waiting for a table, and being a bunch of 8-12 yr olds we always got a kick out of it and then my parents would yell at us to change it.
NSFW:
220px-NirvanaNevermindalbumcover.jpg


Back on topic though, I don't appreciate Kurt to the point of giving him praise in an appreciation thread, and I never would have started one myself. I do give him credit for playing lead guitar while singing, instead of having a 4th band member play lead so Kurt could concentrate on singing and just playing rhythm guitar. But that's also why the guitar was more simple in their songs, and a lot of people learning guitar will usually learn to play a few Nirvana songs. I know I have, and I barely play. Part of the reason why I like 'The Man Who Sold The World' is because it shows that he can play the guitar pretty well.

As for him as a person, I don't really have an opinion on that since I never really read into any of the interviews with him or the stories he wrote. I can see how some people don't like him though.
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They actually did tour with a 4th member on there final tour dudes name was pat smear if im not mistaken. Anyway I grew up idolizing Kurt Cobain I had a room full of his posters all the albums read a couple biographies tried heroin if kurt did it then I wanted to try it. Then I grew up and realized that I was doing exactly what Kurt didnt want. Ill still sing along to there songs on the radio and very occasionally listen to there unplugged album but I dont feel like there music aged well. Then again I played it to death so I may be biased. But there is no doubt that Nirvana changed the course of rock n roll history maybe even hustory as a whole? Dude was a badass singer songwriter and a fellow junky so yea I appreciate Kurt.
 
Laika said:
Wait, what?

You can't be serious.
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absolutely serious.
name me some great "rock" songwriters post-1994 and i might agree with you. i may be wrong, but i really don't think rock and roll has been very interesting since then. there was a lot of post-nirvana bullshit, a lot of corny "pop punk" crap (that killed that style IMO) shit nu-metal, shit pseudo indie and a whole lot of other shallow bollocks - but seriously, nirvana were the last big rock band.
now, i know plenty of great songwriters nowadays, but none who have made such an impact, none who have written songs that have become part of a generation's universal memories like nirvana's music did for kids growing up in that time.

i'd love to be proven wrong, but i think the death of the music industry has meant that few of these songwriters/bands make it through to the ears of the average listener. i don't listen to nirvana anymore, but i can't think of any bands that have caused as much excitement, as much of a fuss, since nevermind was released.
i think people underestimate how good cobain's songs were.

in the last 10-15 years rock and roll has become this horribly derivative load of twaddle. i don't mean to offend anyone (hey, i play in rock bands) but i'm sick to death of this retro crap. all these kids playing music their parents (or grandparents) listened to.
if you are too young to remember nirvana, i can understand not fully appreciating the impact they had.
i probably should post on bluelight about music though, because i'm a fussy bastard who hates so much the shitty 'culture' that emanates from our ever-devolving society.
 
DeathDomokun said:
Kurt is highly overrated...
There are better grunge bands from before and after Nirvana, just not as "successful"
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see, i couldn't disagree with you more.
'grunge' is a shitty media construct. nirvana were a punk rock band.
i suppose the more 'obscure' bands are cooler because nobody's heard of them? the amount of people that like a band has nothing to do with how good they are.
as for post-nirvana 'grunge'...the less said about that, the better IMO. i don't know how old you were in 1991, if you were aware of music or not, but nirvana were an amazing breath of fresh air after the bleak yuppie 1980s. sure, nirvana aren't very relevant any more, but saying 'kurt is highly overrated' is kinda funny. so overrated that you're on a first name basis, huh?
nirvana evolved out of a culture of great (totally ignored) bands like half japanese, or people like daniel johnston. they were happy to be one of these indie bands (in a time when 'indie' meant something political) and it is silly to think of kurt cobain as a teen idol. he never intended that - he did everything he could to sabotage it.
 
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spacejunk said:
see, i couldn't disagree with you more.
'grunge' is a shitty media construct. nirvana were a punk rock band.
i suppose the more 'obscure' bands are cooler because nobody's heard of them? the amount of people that like a band has nothing to do with how good they are.
as for post-nirvana 'grunge'...the less said about that, the better IMO. i don't know how old you were in 1991, if you were aware of music or not, but nirvana were an amazing breath of fresh air after the bleak yuppie 1980s. sure, nirvana aren't very relevant any more, but saying 'kurt is highly overrated' is kinda funny. so overrated that you're on a first name basis, huh?
nirvana evolved out of a culture of great (totally ignored) bands like half japanese, or people like daniel johnston. they were happy to be one of these indie bands (in a time when 'indie' meant something political) and it is silly to think of kurt cobain as a teen idol. he never intended that - he did everything he could to sabotage it.
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+1...i thought this was great. :)

~token
 
spacejunk said:
absolutely serious.
name me some great "rock" songwriters post-1994 and i might agree with you. i may be wrong, but i really don't think rock and roll has been very interesting since then. there was a lot of post-nirvana bullshit, a lot of corny "pop punk" crap (that killed that style IMO) shit nu-metal, shit pseudo indie and a whole lot of other shallow bollocks - but seriously, nirvana were the last big rock band.
now, i know plenty of great songwriters nowadays, but none who have made such an impact, none who have written songs that have become part of a generation's universal memories like nirvana's music did for kids growing up in that time.

i'd love to be proven wrong, but i think the death of the music industry has meant that few of these songwriters/bands make it through to the ears of the average listener. i don't listen to nirvana anymore, but i can't think of any bands that have caused as much excitement, as much of a fuss, since nevermind was released.
i think people underestimate how good cobain's songs were.

in the last 10-15 years rock and roll has become this horribly derivative load of twaddle. i don't mean to offend anyone (hey, i play in rock bands) but i'm sick to death of this retro crap. all these kids playing music their parents (or grandparents) listened to.
if you are too young to remember nirvana, i can understand not fully appreciating the impact they had.
i probably should post on bluelight about music though, because i'm a fussy bastard who hates so much the shitty 'culture' that emanates from our ever-devolving society.
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I can already tell from your post that you are passionate about your viewpoint and probably won't budge even though you claim you would love to be proven wrong.
I can list plenty of artists that keep rock n roll alive and continue to experiment. The only problem is I can tell you will rebuttal back with the fact that they haven't gained enough media attention to be deemed worth. So this will obviously be a difference in opinions. I don't feel a rock band needs to gain the attention of billions of people to be considered good or groundbreaking at what they do.
You may not be looking hard enough , or you may not be looking in the right places.
 
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