On February 20th, 1967, Kurt D. Cobain was born into this world.
Then he became one of the most legendary figures in rock history. Kurt Cobain popularized grunge, busted down the door for alternative rock (and the punk revival of the 90s), and, more importantly, fronted one of my favorite bands of all time, Nirvana. I love Nirvana. I think they are amazing and they are the greatest grunge band. Not to say there aren't other grunge bands that are good, but Nirvana is the best grunge band, mostly because singer-songwriter-guitarist Cobain's lyrics were amazing, easy to relate to, completely unintelligible most of the time, nonsensical at others, and above all else, catchy as hell.
Kurt Cobain might be one of the most famous and influential figures of the past half a century, let alone his impact in rock history.
But let's rewind a second: As a kid growing up in the 70s, Kurt's life was, well, not the greatest. His parents were divorced, and while he was living with his father (who had remarried), he found himself the witness to some favoring of the new wife's kids.
A paraphrased quote from Cobain's grandfather says, "One his wife's kids could take a bite out of an apple on the counter, and he'd do nothing. Kurt could take a bite and get a slap upside the head." Kurt became dissatisfied with his life with his father, and his life with his mother was no better. Her boyfriend was abusive and at one point sent her to the hospital with a broken arm.
After a stint of bullying and insolence towards adults (as well as his first song, which expressed his distaste of police), Kurt's mom granted his father full custody.
Unfortunately for his dad, Kurt was a rebel and became to much for Daddy Dearest to handle, and he soon gave Kurt up to family and friends.
Kurt rejected the Christianity of his friend Jesse Reed, had no interest in sports, and befriended a gay student, making him the target of the homophobic student body (Kurt later said that he was "gay in spirit," and his Journals say that he wasn't gay, but wished he was to piss off the homophobes at school).
Kurt was an artistic kid, and received awards at school for his amazing works of art. On the flipside of his artistic tendencies, Kurt was also arrested for spray-painting the phrases "God Is Gay" and "Ain't got no how whatchamacallit."
Kurt was also got into music at an early age; he got a guitar for his fourteenth birthday, and as a teenager, he found solace in the Pacific Northwest punk rock scene; he soon became a patron of sorts of the practice space of local sludge-punkers the Melvins, of whom he was a huge fan. Cobain also later championed his artists (often of the obscure variety) when Nirvana achieved fame. His signature Chuck Taylors have the saying "PUNK ROCK MEANS FREEDOM" scribbled on them.
By the time Kurt was a sophomore, he realized he didn't have enough credits to graduate, so he dropped out and moved in with his mom, who gave him a choice: Get a job or get out. Next week, Kurt found all his stuff packed up for him.
After this banishment, he slept at friends' houses, occasionally sneaked back into his mom's basement, and during a few periods, hung out under the bride at the Wishkah River, although Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic later said that it was impossible to sleep there, so we can assume Kurt would have just hung out there.
In 1986, he got a job at a Polynesian resort, got an apartment, and formed a relationship with Tracy Marander (whom I personally think he would have been better off marrying), about whom he wrote the song "About a Girl", featured on the albums
Bleach and
Unplugged.After Marander broke off with him, he began dating Tobi Vail, whom he was deeply infatuated with, but she found the maternal comfort of a normal relationship sexist in the counter-cultural punk fantasy world they inhabited. Hanging out with Vail and her friend Kathleen Hanna, Vail spray-painted the phrase "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" (actually a reference to a deodorant that Hanna joked Kurt smelled like), which Kurt took as having a revolutionary meaning, inspiring the title to the legendary teen angst song,
Smells Like Teen Spirit. Most of Kurt's political and philosophical discussions with Vail inspired much of the lyrical content on Nirvana's breakthrough second album
Nevermind.
In 1985, Kurt formed the band Fecal Matter, which recorded just one demo,
Illiteracy Will Prevail, before their breakup in 1986. However, the song
Spank Thru convinced Kurt's longtime friend and fellow punk rock devotee Krist Novoselic to form a band with him. In 1987, the band Nirvana gelled.
Host to a three-ring circus of drummers before finally settling on Chad Channing, as well as briefly adding second guitarist Jason Everman in February 1989 (whom Kurt lists as second guitarist on their first album
Bleach, although he wasn't actually
on any of the tracks-- Kurt had included it as a tribute for Everman contributing $606.17 to record the album. Everman left the band in July 1989 on friendly terms).
In June 1989, Nirvana released their debut
Bleach, which Cobain named for an anti-AIDS ad he saw advising heroin addicts to bleach their needles.
Most of the lyrics on
Bleach were written just a couple minutes before recording, as Kurt adamantly supported his melody over what he was actually singing.
After this album, Kurt promptly fired Chad Channing and settled on new drummer Dave Grohl, with whom they recorded their major-label release, 1991's
Nevermind.Ho-ly SHIT. I cannot even begin to describe the impact this album had on mainstream music. It busted alternative rock and even some of the poppier punk bands out of the underground and into the dominant form of music on radio and music television.
This was followed up by 1992's compilation album
Incesticide, containing B-sides and rarities that were being heavily bootlegged at the time. The liner notes of
Incesticide read: "If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us- Leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records."
They also released the grungier, filthier, raunchier album
In Utero in 1993.
By this time, however, Kurt felt persecuted by the media, and was having a hard time conciling Nirvana's, well, mammoth success with his underground roots.
He also hated people who claimed to be fans of the band, yet were ignorant of the political and social views that Nirvana held: opposition of homophobia, racism, and sexism.
With Kurt throughout these troubled times was his wife Courtney Love, whom he had met in 1990 when both still were members of strictly underground bands.
Love began pursuing Kurt and the two often were seen together, and bonded through their mutual drug use.
In 1992, Love discovered she was pregnant with Kurt's child. On February 24th of that year, they got married Waikiki Beach, against the advice of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, who warned Love that marrying Kurt would destroy her life.
Their child, Frances Bean Cobain, was briefly taken away from them because of reports the couple allegedly used heroin while Love was pregnant with her.
Heroin was found in Kurt's body at the time of his death.
Kurt officially died on April 5th, 1994, and was found dead in his greenhouse on April 8th, at the age of 27 (making him the youngest member of the inner circle of the 27 Club).
People say that he was the victim of a shotgun suicide. I believe that he was murdered by Courtney Love... but that's a story for another article.
The legacy that Kurt left behind was enormous. We can't comprehend just how important he was to alternative rock and rock music in general. In fact, we could probably say he is one of the most important figures in music history, and I have to say, without Kurt, I probably would have an amazingly shitty taste in music.
So thanks, Kurt, and I'll see you sometime, wherever you are.
