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20 Feb 2013
Wow! It’s been some time since I’ve made a post personally, but something caught my eye on Facebook today that I just couldn’t shake. It is, in fact, the day of Kurt Cobain‘s birth. Now, I know, I’m treading on some seriously sensitive subject matter here. There are those that love him, and those that don’t get what the big deal is about Nirvana. I am the former. But to put things in perspective, I started high school September 3rd, 1991. Twenty-one days before Nevermind was released. That album changed our whole musical landscape. Smells Like Teen Spirit was already in heavy rotation and was actually supposed to be the lead up to Come As You Are, which was supposed to be the hit. My peers and I latched on to it, and the rest is history. Up to that point my favourite song was the collaboration between Public Enemy and Anthrax doing Bring the Noise, and my favourite album was Appetite For Destruction by Guns & Roses (you’d have to pay me a pretty penny, like millions, to never listen to that album, start to finish, again. I have it on vinyl, original pressing, no big deal). I can’t believe how hard it would have been to find Sonic Youth tapes pre-Nevermind.
So here is our conversation copy & paste style. You should all check out Dallas’ Blog and follow him on Twitter. It doesn’t really matter if you agree with either of our points. Opinions and arguments about music are what makes some of us tick. Dallas has spent the entirety of our friendship working with youth, the mentally unwell and volunteering for St. John’s Ambulance. Dallas cares about people and about Guelph. However, he is, in fact, a Flyers fan. Nobody’s perfect.
And my rant continues….
And then I said…
I was in the worst news ever category….Here is the full article.
For the most part though, I feel Nirvana and Kurt Cobain‘s suicide is still fresh in a lot of ACTUAL music lovers minds. I think the band’s legacy will be either diminished or become greater over time. Jimi Hendrix changed things and influenced many a guitarist to be loud and distorted. He influenced the Heavy Metal sound for sure. John Bohnam changed drumming. Janis Joplin changed our impression of what a female vocalist should sound like (listen to Joss Stone for example). Elvis, I’ll love him until the day I die, never wrote a song, but was a great performer. I wonder though, were any of them white noise in their time? What did Jim Morrison actually change in the genre of what is now known as Classic Rock? All of these artists have been gone for 30 years or more, but they are revered as having this profound importance in music history. I think only some of them deserve it.
This list can continue with people we’ve lost over the last 20 years. What about Shannon Hoon, he had something to do with the song No Rain? No one talks about Layne Staley, of Alice In Chains, and his legacy. What about Cliff Burton, know his name? The singer from Drowning Pool. The drummer from Avenged Sevenfold….
What’s great about music is that it affects us all differently, and all rock heroes are our own. If you attach yourself to a song or album or band, that relationship is important to you, and you alone. It means something in a certain time and place. No one can take that memory or feeling away from you. Rock Stars do dumb things. Overdose, suicide, drown, die in plane, car or bus crashes….Let’s be honest though, some of these things have happened to someone you love. Someone you actually knew. That you talked to. That mattered to you on a personal level. We only actually love the musician and music that are presented to us through whatever means they, or their “people” deem appropriate.
I’ll always be glad that Nirvana‘s Nevermind came out when I was 14 years old, no matter what anybody says.
What do you mean, no one talks about Layne Staley???
You and I are the same age. Cobain hit me at the same time. He means much more to me than he means to other people who were older or younger when the album came out…coincidence? Who knows?