Kurt Cobain: Still Dead (And Other Observations)

Intellectual Conservative ^ | 06 April 2004 | Brian S. Wise

[presidio9]

Spin magazine was the first by my observation to put the very dead Kurt Cobain on its April cover to mark the tenth anniversary of his suicide, on 05 April 1994 (his body was found on 08 April). Though he’s nearly twenty-five in this picture, he looks all of seventeen and decidedly sober, one of those rarities. It’s hard to say how often Cobain was photographed sober, but since his death very few publications have thought to publish a decent photo of the man, for fear of not portraying him as a tragic figure.

But at least we have tragic texts. “Kurt Cobain was many things while he was alive – punk, pop star, hero, victim, junkie, feminist, geek avenger, wiseass. But ten years after his death, he’s something else entirely. He’s a ghost [emphasis original] …. [The] bitter finality of Cobain’s end became an indelible part of his story …. No other chapter in pop music history has so much darkness at its center. And no other artist still haunts us in such a powerful, subliminal way.” And so forth.

Chris Norris, who wrote “The Ghost of Saint Kurt” for Spin, may or may not be a fine writer in everyday life, but the article goes on as though beehived old blue hairs are lining up outside Cobain’s house to see his furniture. Easy, Norris. We understand that some journalistic liberties are taken when it comes to writing tribute pieces about popular figures, but come on. If you’re going to say no other chapter in pop music history has so much darkness at its center (and in doing so, at least ignoring the likes of Syd Barrett, the former Pink Floyd lead singer who went crazy and stayed there, a different consideration from being addicted, depressed and ending it all), you’re implying that since “Rock Around the Clock” there has been nothing worse, which is more than a little silly.

But Kurt Cobain was what he was, and a decade later we are left to consider the question (“Was Cobain a performer of real significance or an over-hyped flash in the pan?”) with the full benefit of retrospect. Helpful to remember that what makes a performer unique isn’t just his abilities but the moment in time in which he is “discovered.” Consequently, what made Cobain special wasn’t necessarily his ability to write and perform the catchiest hooks in popular music (which he certainly did), but the confluence of musical events that made him palatable to very large, young audiences.

If released either five years before or after the actual release dates in 1991, both the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the album Nevermind would have come and gone without one-twentieth the fanfare. In 1986, bubblegum pop was still big enough to overwhelm anything different; in 1996, Nirvana would have been thought of as just another band arriving too late to the party, in the way we today consider some of the other capable bands that surrounded Nirvana, such as Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.

Instead, what happened was that Nirvana signed with Geffen (from a fine little label called Sub Pop; for its loss, Sub Pop negotiated what proved to be a tremendously profitable percentage deal against Nirvana sales, after a certain number of units), a company that had so little faith in the band it printed only fifty thousand copies of Nevermind for its initial release, and didn’t hurt itself in promotion. That was, until MTV got hold of the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the rest being history.

Nearly lost in the Norris article is the fact that a radio station in San Diego, KBZT, now plays “all your favorite grunge hits,” meaning that it has switched to an alternative music format; also meaning that Nirvana has once again taken center stage. Is anyone surprised that Cobain has found a new audience? The dynamics that made his music so fashionable thirteen years ago are in place again today, just as they were then.

Modern popular music is a repetitive, plastic, tedious wasteland directed primarily at teenage babysitters and their babysitting money; an industry in desperate need of several shots in the arm from something large, intrusive and different. And while there are bands making large, original strides forward – Queens of the Stone Age comes to mind, as does Slipknot – they aren’t striking the sort of nerve Nirvana struck, most likely because not enough people aren’t fed up, yet. Hopefully they will be very soon.

[Houmatt]

You forgot to make a point.

[discostu]

Out of their ashes rose the Foo Fighters, a much better band. Not sure if that makes them important, but it definitely made Nirvana useful. They were one of the first bands from the Seattle grunge scene to get signed, though they were by no means innovators within that scene.

The most important band in RnR history will always be the Yardbirds.

[presidio9]

You forgot to make a point.

I'd say the point is self-evident. Do you have resspect for van Gogh? Hemmingway?

What about Merriweather Lewis?

[presidio9]

All bands that represent a major change in the direction of the genre are highly important.

[MJM59]

Okay. Let me rephrase. Whatever Gen-X,Y,Z...ad nauseum teenagers of the last thirty plus years for the most part do not know what it is like to live without. Teenage angst is overated.

As far as grandparents go, my grandfather on my mothers side ran a family farm when he was not working in a foundry. My paternal grandfather worked in a mill. Both of my grand mothers raised eleven kids between them, neither worked outside of the home.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Hank Williams is still dead too, but his records are still hotter than Junior's.

[dr_who_2]

I didn't think much of him before he killed himself, I didn't think better of him when he killed himself, and I don't care for him now that he's been dead for a long long time. Another famous, wasted life.

[Houmatt]

And? So what? You think there is something brave, heroic, inspiring or charming about committing suicide? Why don't you say that to the people left behind?

And yes, there is a reason I pinged Kangaroo Jacqui. I want you to tell her, too.

[KangarooJacqui]

Right, I didn't ask to get brought into this argument but as Nirvana themselves once sang, "here we are now..."

Okay, for a start I don't believe Kurt Cobain was a suicide. Too many things don't add up, and Courney's been cagey on the subject for years. I reckon she had him bumped off. See the following pages for further info:
http://www.justiceforkurt.com/investigation/dmdpt/table4.shtml
http://www.cobaincase.com/

For another thing, the person I know most about who WAS a suicide - my late and beloved husband, Chris (known here as TrappedInLiberalHell) - wasn't trying to be brave, heroic, inspiring or charming. He was (I suspect, as he didn't leave a note explaining the reasons, just a note telling us he'd done it of his own free will and had used such-and-such to do so) trying to escape emotional pain which had been part of his life for a long time and eventually became too intense, and way too hard for him to seek help for alone (I was out of the country when it happened - something for which I shall never forgive myself, but which was unavoidable.)

You know how I know this? Chris had chronic depression. I know what that feels like, too - I suffer from bipolar disorder, and there (yes, into the great abyss) but for the grace of God go I. I know what it is to suffer weeks, months, years of the most hideous despair and self-loathing. I know what it is to come close to dying from that.

So to people who ping me to these kinds of arguments, I say leave me out of it please. I cannot and will not blame Chris for what he did. Because that wasn't Chris, not at the end. It was the illness which ate his soul and sucked out all hope from his spirit. And I reserve the right to hate his illness, and my own, while still loving the victims of it.

[Houmatt]

In addressing the Cobain suicide only, I can say only this:

You are aware Cobain had written a song for the album In Utero entitled (but thankfully never recorded), I Hate Myself And I Want To Die? Are you also aware Cobain attempted to kill himself with a drug overdose a few months before?

Sorry, hon, but if Cobain did not kill himself, then neither did Budd Dwyer.

[KangarooJacqui]

Read the links. Read the toxicology reports, and tell me how Kurt could have injected THAT MUCH HEROIN and then aimed a shotgun. It doesn't happen that way.

BTW, you have FReepmail... or soon will have.

[MarkL]

F***ing Barf! Cobain was a talentless hack who played rehashed 70's rock. The only thing that bothered me about him taking the easy way out was that I'd be forced to listed to that garbage 24/7 for awhile. Bah!

I don't know that I'd go this far, but I was never that impressed by Nirvana. They sounded way too much like the "garage bands" that I was playing in during high school. In some cases, I think my bands sounded better...

One note though... At least the band had a sense of humor... I really liked "Weird Al" Yankovick's video version of "Smell Like Teen Spirit." I even thought it was better than the original. And from the reports I've heard, Nirvanah really loved it too. So at least they weren't taking themselves too seriously.

Mark

[KangarooJacqui]

You're not only a stirrer, you can't even get your facts right.

You are aware Cobain had written a song for the album In Utero entitled (but thankfully never recorded), I Hate Myself And I Want To Die?

Actually, no, he didn't. A record company exec or journalist (I forget which) asked him for the title of the album and it was an off the cuff, black-humoured joke. Cobain making fun of the whole musical angst thing, if you like. Self-deprecating humour? Almost certainly. An announcement of his impending death? I doubt it.

Are you also aware Cobain attempted to kill himself with a drug overdose a few months before?

Horsehooey. He was admitted to hospital in Italy a couple of WEEKS before his death, and the media jumped on it as an "OD suicide attempt". A man with that much access to high-grade heroin would not take a couple of pissy aspirin or acetaminophen and expect to die from it. Get real.

By your posts on this thread you have revealed yourself as both insensitive (towards me) and ill-informed (on the topic at hand, which was Nirvana).

Whatever your bag is with people who commit suicide, don't drag me into it without having the basic decency to introduce yourself and your agenda first. As it is, I am now too angry at you to care what your problem is...

[bobjam]

Many in Generation X (people old enough to remember the Cold War but not old enough to remember the height of the Vietnam War) certainly didn't have to deal with economic hardships- most came of age during the greatest economic recovery in US history. They didn't have to deal with foreign threats- they saw America triumph in the Cold War. But there were two fundamental things many in Gen-X did have to do without: God and family. Gen-X was the first generation in a very long time to raised in an environment where God was ignored and family was non-existent.

[bobjam]

Another famous, wasted life. No, that famous wasted life would be Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. At least Cobain made his own fortune. His wife is subsidizing her out-of-control adolescent lifestyle with his fortune and the trust fund her parents left her.

[philman_36]

Sung to the tune of "In Bloom" with the new title of "Goes Boom"
Hey - He's the one
Blew his head off with a gun
He's not having any fun
Won't write any more new songs
And the walls just won't come clean
Walls just won't come clean, when I say...

Hey - He's the one

Just for you MS! What a waste of a young life. I can understand the young man was in pain, but that was the wrong way to go about ending it.

[Houmatt]

Point one: What I was trying to show is how suicide affects those left behind to pick up the pieces and try to figure out why. Both myself and my brother had roommates who committed suicide. So as far as being insensitive, the answer is no. I still believe suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness, and will continue to believe so. There is nothing brave, heroic, or gallant about it, which is what someone else seemed to be implying. But you do not have to agree with me.

Point two: Kurt Cobain died from his own hand. Period. That's what the M.E. said, that's what his note said. I do not waste my time reading trash that the Enquirer wouldn't touch, written by people who believe wishing and thinking and hoping and praying will make it so. I have a tendency to read and believe what a reputable news source reveals, not some kook in a tin-foil hat with Nirvana posters spread out all over the walls of his attic bedroom. I hear there is some guy who has been stalking Courtney Love, accusing her of killing Cobain every chance he gets. She has already obtained a restraining order against the guy, he should pray she does not follow that with a lawsuit.

[KangarooJacqui]

Point one: You pinged me to a thread to prove your own selfish argument.

I don't think it's really relevant that both you and your brother lost roomies to suicide. That kind of lame-o excuse does NOT give you the right to add to my pain just so you can win an argument with presidio9.

Free Republic might be the internet equivalent of a medium-sized city, but I don't know you and had never heard of you until today when you tried to use my family's tragedy for a pointscoring exercise. And that's strange, because there's a lot of names here I DO know. But your name doesn't ring a bell, either from my husband's obit (which you must have read carefully) or the many FReepmails I've had since then... now, this might be my memory failing me, but I doubt it. Point being, I don't know you, you don't know me. But you feel the right to take one of the most painful events of my life and remind me of it because YOU choose to have an argument over a rock star who's been dead for ten years? Disgusting.

I wouldn't wish full-blown clinical depression on anyone, but I'll go as far as saying that I wish you could experience five minutes of it - if only so you'd think next time before reopening the wounds of someone who is barely clinging to life herself.

I repeat. Do not ping me to any threads whatsoever, do not contact me in any way, and DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT using the names of TrappedInLiberalHell or Kangaroo Jacqui in ANY of your posts in future, because you knew neither of us, and you still don't.

FWIW, I don't think there's anything brave, gallant, heroic or glorious in suicide. What I object to is you using me as a dog in your fight, when you don't know me and you didn't know my husband. Don't try and place yourself in my shoes just because someone you shared a house with, killed themselves. I LOST SOMEONE I HOPED TO SHARE A LIFE WITH, and instead of the decency shown by most FReepers, who've experessed their sympathy either either publicly or privately, you have the gall to try and use me as a bitch in your dogfight without even first introducing yourself.

I checked out your profile... yup, as I coulda guessed, a New Yorker - absolutely no manners. You'll excuse me if I no longer acknowledge ANYTHING you have to say to me, privately or publicly, because the only New Yorkers I deign to speak to are the POLITE ones.

Disgustedly,
KJ

[presidio9]

And? So what? You think there is something brave, heroic, inspiring or charming about committing suicide? Why don't you say that to the people left behind?

And yes, there is a reason I pinged Kangaroo Jacqui. I want you to tell her, too.

Hold on a second. Where did I ever say anything positive about suicide? Suicide is a terrible tragedy, of which I have felt the effects personally three times in my life.

I guess you really didn't get my point, which is that suicide may color your view of how a deeply troubled person led their life, but it shouldn't. Are van Gogh's paintings less beautiful? Are Hemmingway's novels less poignent? Was Lewis' expedition less heroic? Was Marilyn Monroe less desirable?

Nirvana's music isn't your taste? Fine. Using Cobain's suicide as part of your critique of that music? Not fine. The music was produced long before he pulled the trigger.

[KangarooJacqui]

Nirvana's music isn't your taste? Fine. Using Cobain's suicide as part of your critique of that music? Not fine. The music was produced long before he pulled the trigger.

Couldn't have said it better myself.