Kurt, We Hardly Knew Ye

OpinionJournal.com ^ | November 20, 2002 | NANCY DEWOLF SMITH

[jjm2111]

If Kurt Cobain had looked less like a rent boy on the Lido and more like, say, Howdy Doody, would he be alive and well today? On the other hand, if Cobain hadn't found an outlet and an audience for his hostility by performing in the band Nirvana, would he have turned the shotgun he used to kill himself in 1994 on the rest of us instead?

[jjm2111]

What passes for literature these days. IMHO, Nirvana wasn't that great.

Cobain was a sad, twisted soul. I think what's worse is the people who hold him up in high regard and try to make a buck off his twisted ravings.

[NYC GOP Chick]

He dissed Pete Townshend. Screw Cobain.

[dfwgator]

Has there ever been a rock act that was more overrated than Nirvana?

[dfwgator]

He dissed Pete Townshend. Screw Cobain.

The Punk Disses the Godfather.

[MotleyGirl70]

There are sadistic fantasies about traditional figures, such as "the Virgin Mary Hooked thru her back on a meat hook." And then, of course, there is the brutalization imagined by Cobain against Kurt himself: "I can't speak, I can only feel. Maybe someday I'll turn myself into Hellen Keller by puncturing my ears with a knife."

Sick and twisted.

Nivana was waaaay over rated, IMHO. Then again I hated grunge music.

[MJM59]

He blew his own head off with a shotgun. What a loser. One less whiner on the planet.

[Dan from Michigan]

Nope.

All their stuff sounds the same.

[WaveThatFlag]

Um, I love the Who, but artistically speaking, Nirvana was a much more important band. Much more.

[2banana]

Who is Kurt Cobain? He has faded already

[CobaltBlue]

This is why I censor what goes into my own journals.

[KC_Conspirator]

Kurt Cobain was a talented musician in a very talented band. He and Nirvana did represent a good portion of the feelings of the Gen X generations, but by no means are they representational. (With the exception of their cynicism - "Teenage angst has paid off well")

However, he is still and effing loser with a drug habit and he offed himself and left family and friends behind. An act of selfishness.

Pop culture is always looking for something more deep in the actions and songs of rock stars since the Beatles. I have hint for you - don't. They are not role models and rarely have anything thoughtful or profound to contribute to the cultural discussion. Just enjoy their music.

[Dan from Michigan]

Um, I love the Who, but artistically speaking, Nirvana was a much more important band. Much more.

No way.
Tommy? Quadrophenia? Who's Next? My Generation? Won't Get Fooled Again? Baba O'Reilly? Who are You?
Or Smells like Teen Spirit and Come as you Are.

[jjm2111]

"'I hope I die before I become Pete Townshend'. So wrote Kurt Cobain in these so-called Journals in the middle of one of his rants against the rock press establishment. Why? Because I had become a bore? Because I had failed to die young? Because I had become conventional? Or, simply because I had become old? In fact, in 1993, by the time Kurt was struggling with himself over whether or not to do an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, I was not boring, neither old nor young, and I was not dead...."

"Nirvana, and its principle creative architect Kurt Cobain, are considered by many in the U.K. to be the most important band of all time in the history of rock. ... As a song-writer and rock architect myself, I was interested to look behind the creative process of Kurt Cobain. I am always excited to see how artists think, systemise or collate their ideas before and after making recordings or doing tours. Nirvana's first album Nevermind (after Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols perhaps?) was a breath of 'punk' fresh air in the musically stale early '90s. It defined what came to be known as 'grunge' (although other then new rock acts were major players - Pearl Jam have survived intact until today). ..."

I have before me a sober and distinguished hardback book. It is a coffee table item, heavy, impressive. The word 'Journals' is quietly inscribed under the author's name. The inner jacket is deep purple. ...What follows appear to be the scribblings and doodlings of a crazed and depressed drug-addict in the midst of what many in drug rehab are taught to describe as 'stinking thinking'. That is, the resentful, childish, petulant and selfish desire to accuse, blame and berate the world for all its wrongs, to wish to escape, or overcome (usually in fantasy), and finally to take no responsibility whatsoever for any part of the ultimate downfall. Me an expert? Of course. Been there, done that. Back to the academy."

excerpted from Pete Townshend's blog. Sorry, but I lost the link.

[Nouge]

No way. Tommy? Quadrophenia? Who's Next? My Generation? Won't Get Fooled Again? Baba O'Reilly? Who are You? Or Smells like Teen Spirit and Come as you Are. It's not about how many songs you can name... They did to music what very artists can do... they changed it. Weather you like their music or not, they did change the entire direction of mainstream music. The WHO just turned up the volume and broke stuff...

[mumbo]

Kurt Ca-blam!

Sung to the tune of You're so Vain

Ku-urt Cobain, I guess they'll sing the next one without you....

[monkey]

I'll turn myself into Hellen Keller by puncturing my ears with a knife

[habs4ever]

REM comes to mind, as does Oasis, and now Radiohead.

[jjm2111]

Some of their songs are ok, but I really don't see the historic significance of the music.I'm probably too young to really have any real appreciation for the Gen X b.s. that Nirvana purports to represent. (I was still in Grammar school when Nirvana first came out; and only a freshman in high school when "Smells like Teen Spirit" debued.)

Then again, I'm a hopeless optimist and I've never really been depressed for more than a couple of hours; a day max. I feel every day alive w/ all my talents and good fortune is a blessing and I'd rather not waste it. If cobain and I met; we wouldn't even come close to understanding one another.

[dfwgator]

Bullcrap!!!! The "hair bands" were going away one way or another. Nirvana just happened to come along at the right time. I will give Kurt Cobain credit for one thing, he was a big Smithereens fan.

[dfwgator]

50 years from now they will still be playing The Beatles, Stones, and the Who, and nobody will even remember any music that came out of the 90s.