Nevermind - Nirvana
A while before Nirvana hit it big, I remember seeing an
interview on MTV's late night alternative music show "120 minutes"
where they were speaking with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. Well, they were
speaking to Krist, anyhow - Kurt was silent throughout the interview and showed
no reaction to any of what appeared to be going on around him. Moreover, he was
wearing what looked like a bright yellow vinyl rain parka which completely
encased him below the neck, and a pair of huge, Elton John-style sunglasses with
pink lenses. Not only did he look ridiculous, he really did resemble a large
flying insect.
Krist, of course, was dressed quite normally (in a grungy
kind of way), and so the two of them are sitting there on the couch, and
the interviewer and Krist are having a normal conversation, both of them
seemingly unconcerned about Kurt's odd behavior.
I didn't know who Nirvana were at the time, but the image
stuck in my mind and a few years later when Smells Like Teen Spirit was all the
rage, I thought about it again.
A fitting image indeed - here was a guy who cared so
little about what anyone else could possibly think that, ironically, he was able
to express himself in a such a way that millions could relate to.
For me, despite a lifetime of listening to music, and of
analyzing it with musical aspirations, the melodies and chord progressions on
Nevermind, along with the very feelings expressed in the music, were
completely novel to me, and yet it seemed as if I had always known them.
Distorted guitars, screeching vocals... and yet, it wasn't
heavy metal, although that was the closest thing it came to something I was
familiar with. But there were no power chords, no long hair ballads. No love
songs or claims of virility. No preening for the camera and no vain rock star
pretensions trying to sound mature to a I-IV-V rhythm section.
Just one strange skinny kid who didn't seem to give a
shit, and was trying his best to make sure everyone knew it.
There are no lyrics on Nevermind. Just sentence fragments,
if that. Free association, mainly. Basically unintelligible but somehow they
made sense in a personal way. Perfect for the album as it stood, and for the
statement it made... as were all of the other elements of this record.
After the success of the album, Kurt Cobain was often seen
and heard denouncing success as a corporate evil, and publicly disavowed the
idea that Nirvana would 'sell out' to the masses.
Success and fame, however, proved irresistable even for
that strange skinny kid, and by the time of the second Nirvana album, "In
Utero," it was clear that the proverbial feeling was already gone.
Without it, lyrics about nothing and senseless chord
progessions became a chore to produce and to listen to. The very presence of a
lyric sheet seemed to be a self-undermining endeavor - why do we need to know
the exact words when they didn't make sense to begin with?
The urgency of the music was replaced by a sadly obvious
and mechanical attempt to repeat what "Nevermind" had been, and Kurt
Cobain, gifted and intelligent as he was, apparently decided that, unlike 95% of
musicians who make it big, a lifetime searching for the hunger again was not for
him.
Would we have like to have saved him, other than to ensure
that we might be a party to any future greatness?
It's true what they say about pain being the driving force
behind art; it is when pain overcomes fear and inhibition that the most
beautiful art is possible. But things we are unaware of frighten us, and things
we cannot see or know push us away from beauty, and from art.
They prevent the expression of our pain, and keep it
locked within us.
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