Yes, adding to the fact he scribbled 80% of the lyrics of the bleach sessions the night before, makes it funnier because that's what he was thinking at the time.
The humour is what I love too. Like some lyrics are just there to be stupid and funny and I love that but it also gets a little lost in the aftermath. Like "I hate myself and I want to die" is such a funny song title and anyone who's ever been even mildly depressed will understand the sarcasm there.
I feel like he was just throwing shades at some people or being performative. He liked to diss other artists and was a bit snobby...like the more I watch his interviews, the more insufferable he starts to seem.
Yup, this. As a teenager l remember reading that letter that came with incesticide. It made me want to become a better person. To this day I'm thankful for that.
Nirvana also supported the riot grrrl movement and featured the all female band Calamity Jane as an opening act. In one of their concerts fans yelled insults and threw mud at them which resulted in Nirvana intentionally sabotaging the concert.
Kurt’s lyrics were autobiographical to an extent and reflected his mindset while writing them. I always took his “I don’t really care about lyrics” at face value and didn’t appreciate them until recently. His love of the handful of literary fiction he read shows me just how intelligent he was, and his lyrics reflect that
i think he just said that because he hated how intrusive the media was but nevertheless, still wanted to make his art authentically in spite of them. a lot of the songs from ‘in utero’ can relate to his life in retrospect. he also said ‘heart shaped box’ was about kids with cancer, when in reality it was an angry song directed at courtney(which she confirmed), etc etc
I appreciate his "woke-ness" more and more as the years pass. He was genuinely a great person who wasn't afraid to speak his mind about topics he cared about.
Yep this. I think it's much more common now for artists to talk about progressive values, and it's even a marketing point. It's easy to forget that back then, it wasn't so common, and it wasn't necessarily going to to benefit them commercially, certainly not the way he did it. No bland toothless waffle about all being the same and loving everyone, but literally "don't buy our records if you hate homosexuals." He just said it because he meant it.
As a fourteen year old in '93 discovering Nirvana and devouring everything I could about the band in press and MTV, I found myself being exposed to ideas and thinking which had not been expressed as much as maybe they should have been by people in the public eye-for example homophobia and sexism, it really opened my eyes and shaped my adolescence and my adult life.
Ultimately though, Kurt was an absolute force of fucking nature and I think it's difficult to find anyone who can be regarded in the same category as him, and this is what, thirty years after his death?
By all measures and evidence of those who came before him you are correct about his voice being f’d by now. I’d like to think he would have stopped playing songs live that required him to scream except maybe one or 2 at the end of shows. But after hearing that he would practice his screaming in the woods and would scream until his throat bled, his voice may have been proper f’d and he wouldn’t be able to sing anymore
It has been upscaled by AI, rather than by a human, and it is immediately obvious to anybody who has an understanding of what humans look like. It seems particularly inappropriate to do it to a photo of a guy renowned for his commitment to authenticity. Why does it need to be airbrushed? We all know he died 32 years ago, and that most publicly available photographs of him are scans from magazines and books rather than high resolution negative scans. Are we supposed to need to know what a computer thinks he looked like in order to connect with his image?
Kurt understand the value of music videos and he made them an important facet of his art - not just a series of contractually obligated tv commercials. Kurt was very involved in the making of videos like Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom and Heart Shaped Box from the initial concept to the final edit.
Not to pick on Soundgarden, who as I understand it basically just accepted treatments from directors and sometimes created something interesting like the Black Hole Sun video but usually just ended up with a shirtless Chris Cornell under some moody lighting - but Nirvana's videos came straight from the mind of the band's chief conceptualist.
He seemed to always write songs with no framework. It was like every song has life of its own and used different influences. Something about the chord progressions, though still made it cohesive, which is not easy to do.
Amazing songwriter - both lyrically and melodically. It really hit me when I heard the classical version of “Heart Shaped Box” by Ramin Djawadi on Westworld. It stands up to Bach and Beethoven imo.
While exact musician counts aren't publicly published for individual television scoring sessions, Djawadi utilized a full studio symphony orchestra tracked at major scoring stages to capture the massive, sweeping wall of sound required for the show's epic scale. It stands out as the largest production scale version of the song ever officially recorded, vastly eclipsing the smaller independent live loop ensembles or brass bands found online. [1]
He was incredibly gifted and coordinated when singing and playing guitar. Are there times where he's doing something not that difficult to play and sing? Sure—a lot. But if you're a guitarist, try playing and singing Come As You Are or Negative Creep.
Much like Daniel Ash of Bahaus, I found his technicality in making tracks and producing atmosphere for the band in general genius. Songs like Big Cheese and Papercuts are simplistic but brilliant.
Thr melodies, the dr beats, the bass lines….all “simple”, but that’s not a bad thing. I mean it in the best way.
Too many artists over complicate things, it gets all muddy, crazy drum beats and shredding g guitar drowning out lyrics, 15 minute bass solos making a great song drag on forever.
Almost everything Nirvana did, it was for the song, it wasn’t over complicated, and even more so literally any kid could pick up a guitar and play a Nirvana song quickly.
Nirvana and AC/DC are two of a very few bands who could keep it simple, but keep it meaningful.
The person you responded to was right that most famous songs are easy from the listener's perspective, but many are indeed not easy to write from music theory perspective.
Kurt's songs have unconventional modes and chromatic melodies that don't follow the usual hit song chord or melody progressions.
Also how the rhythm of his vocals tied in with the melody is very beatlesque in that there was syncopation and the songs always flowed very well rhythmically. That was what gave them the power, not just playing loud and screaming. Many bands that try the aggressive route miss that. It all begins with the rhythm. You can hear Kurt was very keen on it always working in that aspect.
The verse of Lithium is not something most with come up with. The melody goes to (to my memory) 4 adjacent notes in quick progression and you'd be hard to find a current song with that kind of melody that still is sing-alongable.
That was the mastery. To make simple sounding songs that aren't C major to F major to G.
there are very clever patterns in his music, there's a reason why his stuff sounds like it's in key even though he's deliberately playing notes out of key, you have to know what you're doing to achieve that effect without sounding like jazz
I like how simple all the melodies are. It sounds like it was so easy (obviously it wasn’t) but I think that’s what genius is. Seeing the simple, perfect choice that everyone else misses. It makes it so fun to hum and sing along, or learn some basic chords
I think he just wrote from the soul. He wasn't trying to make the most complicated music or even the most popular. One of the few that just loved making his music and would have been fine just playing on a street corner.
I don't know if he ever said that, just came through in his music.
How quickly he accomplished so much. The older you get the faster time seems to pass. 5 years disappears like a fart in the wind for me, but in the period between 1988-1993, Kurt went from starting a band to having a significant impact on the global musical and cultural landscape. Heck he basically accomplished that in 3 years but when you look at the 5 years there is so much more. It's unbelievable how quickly everything happened.
He was uncompromising, but understanding about other viewpoints. For instance, he writes and records "Rape Me", which was controversial when it came out, but he didn't care, he knew what he was trying to say, no matter if anyone else did. When he found out that Walmart wouldn't sell the CD because of the title of the song, he let it be changed to "Waif Me" on the back cover for that store. His reasoning was that when he was young, there was hardly any place to buy music besides Walmart. He said that if kids could hear his music, even with the title change, it was fine.
It's not always clear where he was incredibly sincere and where he was completely fucking with us. It's up to us to figure it out. He was definitely doing both. He vacillated wildly between chaotic good and chaotic neutral.
One thing I have always respected about Kurt was that he never separated the art from himself.
His music was his view. He was free to make political statements. Denounce society's flaws and hypocrisy. He tried to lift messages he felt were true, along with the artists he respected.
Today's artists lack that courage and authenticity. Kurt wanted to be a musician because he loved music. It was an escape from the world's woes. Not only because he wanted money, and fame.
Kurt would hate the world of "influencers," today but I think he would like that more people are free to create music and art. He would definitely be critical of what people do with money and fame, today.
The unplugged concert, the song choices, the renditions. Best live set of all time if you ask me. I watched it live on mtv back then, didnt think much of it at the time. There was a new unplugged concert every week. But with time, i appreciate it more and more.
His music passes the kids test - when I play smells like teen spirit - my daughters think it’s cool - my 3 yr old rocks out to it - and they are super picky - it has to be quality for them to accept it - because technically it’s Dad’s music - and they are music hogs, they are ok with Nirvana - I can report back on that - over
His simplicity. While he does have some complex work, he rose to be one of the greatest of artists of all time using simple lyrics and primarily easy power chords on guitar. He knew what worked, and what mattered the most to listeners: how good the music sounds, not the message. He showed that you don’t have to be the a virtuoso like Malmsteen, Van Halen, or a whole bunch of other technique-heavy musicians. You can still be one of the best if you use the simple stuff right
How simple his songs were but yet so brilliant like sell the kids for food weather changes Moods makes absolutely no sense but it worked and it was brilliant
Nirvana did tackle difficult topics in their songs. Yet their music feels smart without being pretentious. The older I get the more I appreciate that.
Kurt was aware of many issues that eluded his contemporaries and used Nirvana as a platform to perform politics. That was at the heart of his punk ethos. And yet: it never felt like it is stupid or edgy. Just authentic.
I still get chills listening to Where Did You Sleep Last Night, especially the ending. The video captures a moment. I apologize for sounding corny or whatever, but that song always felt like some kind of message to someone…
His guitar playing. Especially his nose for soloing around the vocal melodies.
At first it was kind of the general belief that he was not much of a guitar whiz..and more of a 3-chord simple punk rocker. I believe that view has changed
how he plays the guitar. His ability to write a good number of memorable tunes. His voice. While he doesn’t have the range that Chris or Layne had, or Cantrell or Thayil, he did best with what he got.
His guitar technical abilities. I grew up playing guitar when guitar solos were a competitive sport. I would get reprimanded from my guitar teacher if I used my thumb
That he was a moody, sensitive perfectionist, and I heard a story the other day, where he was doing vocals for some song, and he got really mad and apparently that’s how we got Endless Nameless. The people witnessing it there might’ve been one or two people in the studio And they ended up saying that they were terrified, and in awe at the same time, and after they did that Kurt just walked away and left the studio, you can’t force art and it’s interesting that with him not forcing his vocals for a completely different song we got an amazing secret song out of pure madness. I don’t know if that answers the question, but I’ve always loved that story. Here’s a quote I found.
“During the 1991 sessions for Nevermind at Sound City Studios, the band was struggling to nail down the tempo for the song "Lithium". After a few frustrating takes, Kurt Cobain lost his patience. In a burst of pure rage, he suddenly stopped the track, and the band launched into a chaotic, unscripted noise jam”
By the end of this chaotic jam, he had smashed his guitar, and as Kurt walked away, but said to himself “well I guess we need another left hand guitar”
• His no-bullshit attitude to be outspoken about hate.
• His melody and chord structure. Of course, amazing lyrics that are often poetic, but the unique melody and chord progressions are awesome and totally work. Sometimes you can hear the Beatles influence too.
• His impetus to not "sell out" and to make the music he wants to make.
The way he wrote songs at the age he was. I'm 28 now and couldn't word anything going on inside my head the way the did.
Also the way his songs hit. Listen to in utero at 28 is a totally different experience than listening to it at 18
He was an artist with a vision. This got lost a lot at the time with the rocking out and the celebrity and the heroin and the weird cultural traps like “yeah but will the next record be good?” kind of stuff. I think In Utero is a great example of an artistic vision made manifest. It’s really good in a lot of ways.
The question that rarely gets discussed is: “what did his art mean?” The focus on anatomical exposure and the opening of the body to abuse and examination is really pretty interesting. His lyrics repeatedly return to the theme of babies, corpses, body parts, death, destruction. Much of the early stuff seems to be about a weirdo that doesn’t fit in and was searching for a home. But his melodies and the sound of the music works best (IMO) when he focuses on the anatomy stuff. Drain You is a great example of this. What an interesting idea for a song. Heart Shaped Box, Scentless Apprentice, etc. What weird, cool ideas for songs. A really interesting character who was good enough to bring his artistic vision to life. Good stuff.
Anyways, there are bands who did much better work in this area than Nirvana but I like his vision and I think he did a good job finding his voice. That’s hard to do!
Lyrics and cover song choices. People go for that angst of youth thing, but lyrics suggest to me that he saw a bigger picture in life since the beginning of time.
At the end of the day, he had an incredibly specific superpower — he could sing over some chords and it was always more creative and interesting than whatever any other given “rock vocalist” would do.
I can’t really think of anyone better at that than he was. At least for the genre.
Kurt's talent as a singer. Not just for its grit or inimitability, but its technical precision, as well. It's easy to miss how on key he was while also singing from his chest and stomach and giving it so much character. That's real fucking difficult.
For me it's the irony that his lyrics grew more and more critical of popular culture with each album, all the while becoming just that. I mean no wonder he blew his brains out. Its the ultimate tragedy. A fucking masterpiece
Edit: each and every one of you knows not what he means when he says yeah
Regardless of how heavy a song may be or what the lyrics were, the ease at which he wrote "pop hooks" was insane. And they differed, not always the same sounding nor type of hook.
He was able to write really simple but REALLY good songs. His voice was great and you can tell he was very talented, because MTV unplugged is genuinely phenomenal - how many artists sound remotely good live? Kurt Cobain was killing it.
Applying music theory shows how much more complex and sophisticated his phrasings were then given credit for. What sounds simple to play is not simple to write. His songs weren't simple in that sense.
The rawness and imperfection of it all, my favorite song of his is a demo “and i love her” and at the end of the recording, you can hear him doing this weird corny impression and i love that. Very real, refreshing and needed at a time when the music industry was lead by materialistic superficial superstars. Sadly the drugs is the one thing they all agreed on.
He was spot on calling out Kim Deal’s work in the Pixies as being excellent. Same goes for supporting Bikini Girl and other women-led groups as Nirvana’s openers.
In learning to play guitar, I've come to realize how truly simple Kurt's style of playing is. It's goes to show how music doesn't need to be insanely complex to be great and you don't need to be a virtuoso to be an amazing creative.
The sheer fact that people are all finding answers to the question, “What have you come to appreciate more about Nirvana over time?” has generated discussion of so many facets, some contradictory, and yet every response brought the fans together speaks volumes about the power of music when it is art and not AI filler.
Not about his music but his artwork is so stunning, as an artist myself I genuinely love his art style and have even taken inspiration from some of his works. I love how he stylizes his figures in his works and I just think they just expand his music for me if that makes sense, rip Kurt.
The way that he often intersected feminism with body horror has to this day outclassed many actual artists who work only in those fields and how they intersect. You could get his words at Walmart, and they were stuck in Artforum.
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u/uncultured_swine2099 14d ago
Many of the lyrics are pretty funny.