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NIRVANA
Kurt Donald Cobain was born on the 20th of
February, 1967 in Hoquaim, a small town 140 km from Seatlle. Soon, his father
Donald and his mother Wendy moved with hin to Aberdeen. His father worked at
the local lumber mill while his mother stayed at home to look after the children.
When Kurt was 2 years old,
he was first interested in music. He couldnīt attend the guitar lessons because
he couldnīt stay still for a while. [He was given a drug called Ritalin which
sometimes kept him awake till 4 am]. So Kurtīs parents bought him a drumset.
Every day he played it after school till one day it broke.
Kurtīs mum always looked
after him and his sister Kim. Cobainss home was in the slums, but it was the
nicest house of all. At the age of 7 he wanted to be a stuntman like Evel Knievel.
He often jumped out of the window into a pile of pillows and blankets [Once
he hurt himself with firecrackers. From that time he didnīt want to be a stuntman
anymore]. When Kurt was 8, his parents got devorced, it touched him so hard
that he hated his parents afterwards.
"I
tried hard to have a father, but instead I had a dad."
He bacame a shy and depressive guy. Both of his parents got married
again. During his youth he always had to move from one relativeīs house to another.
He got into a lot of trouble at that time [vandalism, spray-painting "God
is gay" at the side of a truck]. During his high-school career he bacame
a stoner. Two weeks before the final exam he dropped out of school, bacause
he missed too many lessons. Because he didnīt get a job he had to leave. He
sometimes stayed over an unoccupied apartment over Krist Novoselicīs mumīs hair
studio [but he also had to stay under a bridge that looked over the Wishkah].
In 1983, he worked
briefly as a lifeguard at the local YMCA. That year, Kurt met the 18-year old
Krist Novoselic born in Compton, CAL, on the 16th of May. His parents,
Krist and Maria, moved from Croatia to California in 1963. He and his little
brother Robert always did vandalism in their preteen years, like throwing stones
on cars. When he was 14 years old they moved to Aberdeen. Krist stayed a year
in Croatia when he was 15. He started drinking ans smoking pot heavily. He said
about it:
"It's
a different reality and a different world of consciousness."
In his last year in high-school he took guitar
lessons with the same teacher as Kurt had had. He always listened to punk rock
albums from the Sex Pistols. After graduation in 1983 his parents got divorced.
Thatīs about the time when Kurt and Krist started playing in their own band.
They moved to Olympia and played in several bands, including the Stiff
Woods, the Sellouts (CCR cover band) and Skid Row. 1986 Krist and his girlfriend
Shelly moved to Kurtīs birthtown, Hoquaim. In the next yearīs summer they took
an apartment together with Kurt and his girlfriend Tracy. Later Kurt and Krist
formed Nirvana and decided to keep the band together, and by the beginning of
the next year, they had a ten-song demo fully in place with Dale Crover on drums.
They always practiced in the front-room of Kristīs house. Kurt and NIRVANA (Kurt[lead
guitar-vocals], Krist Novoselic[bassist], Chad Channing[drums]) became known
through their album Bleach, released in June 89. One of the songs was "About
a girl", which was written for Kurtīs girlfriend Tracy.
"Punk
rock should mean freedom, liking and accepting everything that you like and
playing whatever you
want,
as sloppy as you want, as long as it's good and has passion."
On the 30th
of December 1989 Krist marries Shelly. For the first US tour they hired another
guitar player, Jason Everett. Shelly sold the bandīs T-Shirts. After that tour,
they found the perfect drummer: Dave Grohl, born on the 14th of January
in Ohio, joined the legendary band. He grew up in a Washington DC suburb called
Springfield. He learned playing the drums on chairs in his room. He played in
many bands during high-school, including Mission Impossible, Freak Baby and
Dain Bramage. Later he played with Scream and dropped out of school to go on
tour with the band. When they broke up in 1990 he moved to Seattle. Kurt and
Dave made friends immediately. They found out that they had a very similar childhood.
Thus, Nirvana became a very close team and this was representes in their music.
They all had passion in playing. Dave fitted Nirvana perfectly. He just needed
a usual drum kit and he beat it up every single gig. His drumming was very important
for all the songs of Nirvana, some even say it became part of the melody. After
signing with the David Geffen Company, they made the album that would revolutionize
the music industry: "Nevermind". It was released in September 1991
and less than a month later it was sold 500,000 times. "Smells Like Teen
Spirit" would later become known as the anthem for all teenagers. It was
at least as important for music history as Joe Cockerīs Beatles cover "With
a little help from my friends". This song was the anthem for all the people
all over the world who believed in love and peace. SLTS was the anthem for all
the depressive, agressive, sensible, unsatisfied, but also for the fun loving,
freaking and happy ones. This hit went around the world and it is still moving.
"Just
because we make money doesn't mean we're sellouts."
It was thought as an attack
on the apathy of our generation, but it became so much more [Balloon covered
this hit (Monstersound), but I think he destroys the meaning of the song this
way. This song is not for disco, it is Grunge]. SLTS hit #1 for 14 weeks. But
there were other very important songs on this album: "Come As You Are"
[a song about how we act and how society thinks we should act] and "Lithium"
[an ode to disconnection]. But the following albums would be even more successful.
Kurt and Courtney Love got married in Waikiki, Hawaii on February 24, 1992 [Kurt
wearing pajamas and Courtney wearing an old dress once owned by the actor Frances
Farmer]. Krist and his wife refused the wedding invitation. On August 18, 1992,
Frances Bean Cobain is born. She is named after a member of the Vaselines.
"Music
is what I do, my family is what I am."
In September 1992, Nirvana won 2 MTV Music Awards. After coming back
from a massive tour, the B-Sides album "Incesticide" [the killing
of incestous people] with the songs "Sliver" [a semi-biographical
song about being deserted by your parents] and "Been A Son" [song
about a girl whose parents wanted a boy] was released in December 92. The next
album "In Utero", published in September 93 has many meaningful songs
on it. It was recorded in two weeks, thatīs why it didnīt sound as well as the
radiofriendly "Nevermind". "Heart-Shaped Box" was published
as single. On the B-side of that single Dave Grohl published one of his own
songs. it was called "Marigold". "Dumb" [ignorance is bliss]
and "Pennyroyal Tea" are songs with drug-related topics. In the same
month Nirvana won the Best Alternative Video award at MTV Video Awards.
In January 1994 MTV Unplugged
was first shown on MTV. Nirvana played many covers, including songs of the Vaselines
("Jesus donīt want me for a sunbeam"), the Meat Puppets ("Lake
of Fire") and Ledbelly ("Where did you sleep last night?"). The
Meat Puppets played the support to "Lake of Fire".
In April 1994, Kurt was admitted
into Exodus Rehabilitation Center for his heroin addiction. He couldnīt stay
there so he jumped the fence and went to his cottage at Lake Washington. On
April 8, 1994, an electrician found Kurt Cobain lying dead on the floor with
a shotgun next to him. That was the tragic ending to music history, but we can
keep NIRVANA alive by listening to their music and hearing what Kurt has to
say in his lyrics. There will never be any band that even comes close to NIRVANA.
In 1996 "From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah" was released. All the
songs of this album are live versions of their most popular songs, including
"Heart-shaped box" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
So what happened to the rest
of the band? Krist Novoselic founded Sweet 75, doing their first show in March
1995. Dave founded the "Foo Fighters" which became a well-known rock
band in America and even the concerts in Europe are always sold out. They hit
the road with songs like Breakout [soundtrack of "Me, Myself and Irene"]
and "Next Year". But although theyīre making good music they will
never be able to continue the legend of Nirvana. No band ever will. And so I
would like to finish my presentation with the last written words of Kurt Cobain:
"It's
better to burn out than fade away."
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