Born 20th of February 1967 in Hoquaim near Seattle, Kurt Cobain lived a happy childhood. His mother a cocktail waitress and his father a car mechanic. He was born a care free child, always smiling and cheerful to the end. At age six, he and the family soon moved to the slowly decaying town of Aberdeen in search of work. It was here where Kurt’s life started to go down hill for the first time. Life in the area was hard on his parents, and the strain started to show, fights broke out between them and ultimately divorce was just around the corner. Kurt found the immense instability too hard to handle and started retreating into his own private world as his life collapsed around him. The family couldn’t find a permanent home for him at times, and so Kurt was sent constantly back and forth between relative’s houses, at times turning to the streets as he found nowhere else to go.
In seeking escapism from what was happening around him, Kurt discovered his love for music. By eleven years old Krist Novoselic and himself had found The Sex Pistols for the first time and became hugely inspired by the sheer devastation of their musical quality.
He soon moved into High School at age eleven and found it hard to fit the conformities the enclosed society demanded. He wasn’t a genius, he didn’t like football and he didn’t especially enjoy getting the shit kicked out of him by the neighbourhood jocks. And so as Aberdeen proved dead in the water he was pleased to head for Olympia. Here Kurt formed a number of
bands before finding the equilibrium of Nirvana in 1986 along side school friend Krist and the later discovered drumming master Dave Grohl who was to make it in time for Nevermind.
By 1988 the band had demo tapes lined up and were playing small time local venues. They presented their material to Sub Pop records and by early 89 got a recording contract which led to the raw energy of their debut album “Bleach”. They received a good response in their home town as well as in the depths of Britain. The most commercial track “About A Girl” pointed to a future mainstream success and “Negative Creep” was so powerfully full of angst that it reached a fan base willing to accept his talents.
By 1991 their recognition had reached sufficient enthusiasm for major record label Geffen to buy the rights to their future music, and inevitably second album “Nevermind”. At the time of Nevermind’s release, no one could have foreseen how huge it was going to be. From the dollar chasing water baby, to the phenomenally popular and Earth scaling “Smells Like Teen Spirit” the album was utterly, utterly huge. The mainstream embraced the “do it yourself” attitude of Kurt and his music, as Nirvana became the band to tell America how “fucked up it’s children were”.
Nevermind gained phenomenal overnight success and the band became instant millionaires. Kurt had never planned for this kind of fame or riches and was astounded when his music appealed to people in the way it did. He was a born introvert by nature and only liked taking the stage when hiding behind the screen of his music. He didn’t like the constant media attention or the critic’s constant evaluation of his character and mindset, continually playing down the role of his parents divorce in his music. It was clear he’d never imagined what Nevermind would lead to, and that he’d never enjoy the ride of his fame.
Kurt looked at what he’d achieved and doubted the validity of his achievements, claiming his lyrics meaningless and his stardom absurd. He became painfully aware of his fan base being miles away from what he’d hoped for, and came to see them as the shallow minded kids he’d hated at school. He was shattered to hear anti rape song “Polly” had being sung over a girl by two men, as they repeatedly raped her, and he began to look down on the fans he was supposed to love. Later writing on the Insesticide foot notes "If any of you don't like gays or women or blacks, please leave us the fuck alone." Incessant accusations of “selling out” through Nevermind, broke him further, and he set out to segregate his fan base towards the people he could relate to. In 1992 he quickly married rock slut, Courtney Love for the painfully shallow reasons of her being “the best fuck ever.” He found treatment for his media hyped heroin abuse shortly before Nirvana released In Utero. Kurt was ready for a new start.
In Utero was always going to deeper then Nevermind and it had a much supreme “raw” quality to it that appealed to the critics. Written during Nirvana’s rise to fame it chronicled much of their lives in facing up to their popularity . “Rape Me” for instance was looking at the media’s attitude to the group and the intense scrutiny endured by Kurt and the rest of the band. But again he felt unhappy with his achievements. He saw his music as too self facing, and his references to his life and childhood made him feel mindlessly shallow once again. Kurt thought he didn’t have much left in him musically, and found it hard to get the same buzz of escapism anymore from singing live.
On the fourth of March 1994, Kurt was taken to hospital after an attempted suicide with over fifty painkillers. He found the attention he received suffocating, and started his self analysis of his choice of suicide method. He decided he was cowardly, relying on his being found and never really wanting to carry his suicide bid through. Recent songs at the MTV Unplugged show drew on his mind all the more. “All Apologies” and “Lake Of Fire” brought new significance to him as he realised what he’d nearly done.
Courtney and the band decided the whole situation had gotten too dangerous, and forced his to start a new rehab programme having him admitted into a drug clinic. Only a few days later he ran off leaving the hospital and was sighted in Seattle with a shotgun. He ran to his garage, wrote a suicide note and put his gun to his head. He was found a few days later, and as the news became public, thousands of fans went into mourning. The band wouldn’t perform again.
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You could not have written a more perfect script if you tried, i LOVE Nirvana, the music industry isnt the same without them as no one has ever reached their standards since that fateful day that the most talented man ive heard of in this musical genre decided to end it all, truly beautiful review
Advantages: The digitally-remastered sound of Cobain's Grunge-Coda Is pure Nirvana Disadvantages: The Demons Cobain Left Behind Maintain His Estate, But Not His Vision.
29th_Candidate 06.01.2003 (07.01.2003)
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Review of Nirvana
Advantages: To suggest that "advantages" or "disadvantages" can exist for a particular band is inappropriate Disadvantages: To suggest that "advantages" or "disadvantages" can exist for a particular band is inappropriate
Ragnarok96 18.08.2004 (18.08.2004)
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Review of Nirvana
Advantages: From Savage Garden, to nirvana, a look at some of the most difinative work of our times. Somthing for everyoe here. From powerfull meaning to blaitent comedy, if you don't like at least one of these albums, then what can i do?! Disadvantages: Dispite the difinity of the work, many of the bands have had little recognition, i guess they are destined for the closet, either that or commit suicide like Nirvana's Curt Cobain.
Desolate_Cash 10.10.2002 ·
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Dec 16th, 2001
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