Nirvana - Nevermind

[coop41]

I know haters gonna hate but quite truthfully, this was an amazing time in my musical life 20 years ago this month. To this day, one of my all time favorite albums. Never really into the grunge scene, Pearl Jam is not even comparable in my opinion and I can act like I'm cool and say I liked In Utero more but I bought this album never ever hearing them before and was blown away, a watershed moment for me. 1991 saw a ton of great music released but this is still my highlight.

[q89747]

I remember hearing 'SLTS' on the radio for the very first time, twenty years ago now. I guess it's like the previous generation hearing the Beatles for the first time: you knew the world would never be the same. I still think 'SLTS' is a great song on its own... but Nevermind revealed what hacks Nirvana were. A for effort, guys, but not the masterpiece it's supposed to be. I just read a review of the latest Nevermind re-release, in which the reviewer compared Nirvana to the Doors, except that Morrison was a cliche-prone hack while Cobain was a gifted songwriter. Sorry, reviewer, you were more right than you knew-- they BOTH were cliche-prone hacks, brilliant in their own way perhaps. More indications of hackiness: the 'SLTS' video, in which the kids in the audience start off all subdued but end up totally rockin' out, dude; also the pic on the inner sleeve of Nevermind in which Cobain is totally givin' the camera the middle finger, whoah...
In the intro to Our Band Could Be Your Life is some reference to Nevermind and how it was an indication punk 'won'. My ass. Basically they were taking rebellion, repackaging it for cretins and making a zillion dollars.

[ghosty]

I can agree with parts of what q89747 wrote but not all of it.

My enduring memory of SLTS was being at the Limelight in Manhattan during the winter of 1991. Around that time many electronic music fans drifted into Techno (glow sticks, Dr. Seuss hats, and girls in babydoll dresses carrying replica 70's lunchboxes for purses). I was making my way across the dance floor when SLTS came on the soundsystem. Not being familiar with the song, the chorus crashed in and the crowd around me formed one gigantic mosh pit, knocking the beer I was carrying out of my hand and sailing into the melee. I made a sheepish retreat and waited to get punched out by someone who had been hit with my sudsy projectile but it never happened.

The comparison of Kurt Cobain to Jim Morrison by that rock journalist seems misguided at best and downright moronic at it's worst. Morrison's dyonisus/William Blake ramblings would be more embarrassing if he didn't actually live that philosophy to the fullest, making him a casualty of his literary hero worship. To Morrison's credit, he had a good sense of humor about it and truth be told guitarist Robbie Krieger actually wrote most of The Doors well-known hits.
Cobain never attempted anything as lofty or as literate (pretentious) as Morrison and seemed permanently stuck in a "high school" mentality of "this is cool, this is not cool, etc". He never gave himself the chance to grow up and realize that none of it is actually "cool" and besides"cool' is something for kiddies to worry about. One of his most cringe-worthy moments was when he made a point of holding up the WFMU Record Fair poster during the taping of MTV UNplugged. Yeah, we get it, Kurt. You're a hipster. That said, I like the guy for the most part. I cut him some slack because he was only in his 20's and pretty much everyone is an idiot until they hit about 35.

I like the majority of Nevermind. It was hilarious to see Hair Metal seem wimpy and flaccid to rock fans seemingly overnight. Anyone who thinks the "Grunge" of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden sounds anything like Nirvana clearly has their head up their ass. Cobain said Nirvana was closer to a Pixies tribute band and he was right.

As for repackaging rebellion and selling it to cretins, well...if you wanna get technical about it the only artists who lived up to the punk aesthetic were the guys who cut early rock-n-roll in the 50's and had everything to lose. By the time Punk rolled around in the 70's the hard work had already been done 20 years ago and bands like the Clash got pretty-radio friendly after a few albums and attracted their fair share of knuckleheads. Geffen promoted the hell out of Nevermind but no one had any clue that the public was really THAT tired of Bell Biv Devoe and Skid Row.

[bpdp3]

Hate to admit it, but it took me awhile to warm up to these guys. I was the same age as Cobain and had always loved offbeat rock, but this seemed a bit orchestrated at the time...flannel shirts and Doc Martins on every pretty boy on 90210, etc.

That was just me being closed-minded. I know now that it was a great collection of songs by a talented band. They had no control of the impending media blitz. This could have wallowed in obscurity. (My own fault for not having them on my radar when they were still unknowns).

But, as a new wave snob, I couldn't help but point out to everyone how "Come as you are" totally ripped off the guitar hook of Killing Joke's "Eighties".

[KYYX4ever]

I had lived in Olympia, WA, right before Nirvana hit it big, and Cobain (who was from Aberdeen, only came to Oly later to play around with his band) personified that whole grungy, Pacific Northwest, rainy, moody, depressed shtick. I got to see them in a couple of coffeeshop/arthouse-type performances where there were only like 6 people. One time the cops showed up, saying it was too loud and trying to shut it down--so they moved outside and played out of the back of their van. Anyway, to me, they were punk--"grunge" wasn't really in the lexicon yet--and no-one knew they would hit it so big. Their early label, SubPop, firmly supported this nascent grungy-punky thing, along with Mother Love Bone, Green River, Mudhoney, L7, Tad, Love Battery, Screaming Trees, & The Afghan Whigs, etc. (some these breaking up and forming other bands later on like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, etc.). Those early days were were much DIY, very different-sounding than what had come before, like what you'd imagine punk would morph into. That was what Nirvana represented to me.
I lived overseas (in the Peace Corps) when they got huge and also for Cobain's death. Being out of the U.S. for a bit, that whole rise of grunge seemed so strange--anti-establishment bands hitting it big, who woulda thunk.

Geez, I can't believe it's been 20 years !

[q89747]

[quote][i]Originally posted by bpdp3[/i]
But, as a new wave snob, I couldn't help but point out to everyone how "Come as you are" totally ripped off the guitar hook of Killing Joke's "Eighties".
[/quote]
Yes didn't Killing Joke sue them (and lost, I believe) for that?

[ghosty]

[quote][i]Originally posted by q89747[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by bpdp3[/i]
But, as a new wave snob, I couldn't help but point out to everyone how "Come as you are" totally ripped off the guitar hook of Killing Joke's "Eighties".
[/quote]
Yes didn't Killing Joke sue them (and lost, I believe) for that?
[/quote]

As far as I know Killing Joke never filed a lawsuit but they were aware of it and complained at the time. Whatever the case, Dave Grohl played with them a few years ago so there must be no hard feelings.

[harleytexas]

I worked at Sam The Record Man when this came out. The record label guy gave me a play copy of the album, I took it home, listened to it and sold it about a month or so later. Then and now....meh at best.

[tileboy]

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