Deep Dive: The Legacy Of Kurt Cobain
Cobain performs on MTV’s Unplugged November 18, 1993 (Frank Micelotta Archive/Getty Images)
Nevermind - Nirvana’s second, yet first commercially successful album, was released on September 24, 1991.
928 days later, frontman Kurt Cobain would be found dead inside his Seattle home from an apparent suicide.
Despite their debut album Bleach dropping in the summer of ‘89, it wasn’t until Nevermind’s first single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” released in fall of ‘91 that Nirvana became a household name.
That means that the reign of one of America’s most iconic rock bands and one of the biggest, most influential bands in history lasted all of 30 months, and spanned across a whopping two commercially successful studio albums. Nevermind in ‘91, and 1993’s followup, In Utero.
The combined number of songs for those two albums is 24. 25 if you count “Endless, Nameless,” which was added to the end of Nevermind in later pressings.
When given that scope, it’s hard to believe they’re in the pantheon with the greats. They’re in the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame alongside acts like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles. And much like the world stopped when news of John Lennon’s murder made waves, sending thousands to Central Park for a silent vigil - Kurt Cobain’s vigil in Seattle, held a few days after his death, saw an attendance of some 7,000 people.
Rollingstone has them ranked as the 30th greatest artist of all time, in between Johnny Cash and The Who. Acts that spanned decades, and had “eras” of different sounds. Nirvana didn’t last long enough to have different eras. They came and went as fast as a one hit wonder.
But despite little output in the way of studio albums, and a minuscule window of time actually spent in the spotlight, Nirvana, and more specifically, Kurt Cobain, made a huge impact on the world.
As we approach what would’ve been his 52nd birthday on February 20th, I thought it would be a good time to explore his legacy. One that feels as strong today as it did when the band was at the height of their fame almost 30 years ago.
The Voice Of A Generation
Every so often, a piece of art enters into the cultural orbit that captures the collective mood of society so accurately, it becomes a phenomenon.
The most recent example being Black Panther. At a time when diversity in Hollywood is severely lacking, and we’re living in a political climate largely divided along racial lines - to see a critically and commercially successful film showcasing black people in a positive light, one that embraces African roots and culture, and is released during Black History Month? It was the perfect storm. Right place, right time.
For many artists and projects that were lucky enough to be part of such a storm, it’s more about timing than anything else. The Beatles were huge when they were because that’s what their era was looking for at the time.
Nirvana wouldn’t have made it to radio period during that era, let alone have the cultural impact that they did.
But against a backdrop of hair metal fatigue, cheesy, emotionless, generic radio singles, and a generation angry at corporate America for shafting the middle class as well as their productization of essentially every facet of American life - Nirvana was given the conditions necessary to thrive.
Nirvana, led by Cobain, captured the angst, frustration, and cynicism of Generation X.
Cobain’s nihilistic, sarcastic, clever, rage-filled lyrics were a complete 180 from the fluff lyrics of most 80s rock bands, who sung predominately about fast women, parties, and drugs - save for the occasional ballad that often felt out of place and campy as opposed to legitimately emotional.
Cobain was authentic. He was angry. He was conflicted. He was tortured. He made listeners feel things. These weren’t positive songs about love, togetherness, and the celebration of life itself - though the tunes were just as catchy as those. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the new “Hello Goodbye.”
Nirvana had a unique skill. They could push raw, dark, punk-inspired content in a way that was easily digestible and commercially viable. The choruses had rhythm. There was legitimate musicianship behind the songs. It wasn’t out-of-tune screeching and nonrhythmic instrumentation. The songs were enthralling, pleasing to the ear, and they quenched a thirst 90s youths didn’t know they had.
It’s for that reason that their music still holds up today, and they’re still popular among today’s youth, many of whom weren’t even alive at the time of Nirvana’s meteoric rise.
This generation is angry and fearful about the future. They, too, are feeling the effects of late stage capitalism and a music culture that largely churns out generic singles that blur together after a while.
Nirvana continues to sound refreshing, and because they didn’t last long enough to put out anything objectively bad, they’re still cool to listen to. A short lifespan only adds to someone or something’s legendary status. A morbid reality that I’ll explore in detail now.
The Man, The Myth, The Legend
Let me be perfectly frank - a big reason why Kurt Cobain is still a pop culture icon is because of his death. It’s an uncomfortable fact, but a fact nonetheless.
But that doesn’t take away from another fact - that he was supremely talented; and that Nirvana could conceivably be as big today as they were then, had he still been alive. It wasn’t his death and subsequent postmortem success that made them big. They were big while he was alive. But the truth is; when people die young, it often adds to their legacy, for two main reasons.
Firstly - young people don’t typically die of natural causes - they die tragically. Car accidents, suicides, overdoses, murders. As dark as it sounds, a lot of people are fascinated by such deaths. The narratives usually involve some semblance of a fast lifestyle gone out of control. They lived life to the fullest, and as a result, were too wild to see old age. Other narratives get into the darker psychology of drug abuse or suicide, and what was going on in their minds when they decided to take their own lives. Either way, they add to the mystique of a person.
James Dean only starred in three films. He’s still seen as the king of cool. Over 60 years past his death. Like Nirvana, he was able to market youthful angst in a way that captured his generation. He died in 1955, but most young people today know who he is. They know he starred in Rebel Without A Cause, and they know he died in a car accident. They know he wore white t-shirts and leather jackets, and they know he was sexually curious.
Secondly - we never got to see the Deans and the Cobains of the world age. We didn't get to see the aging process turn a bonafide sex symbol into a more human, more relatable person. They’re forever encapsulated in their youth. Fresh-faced, hip, charismatic - the epitome of cool.
Who knows what kind of man Kurt Cobain would’ve grown to be. Would he still be raging against the machine at 52? Would he have been as cynical about the world at large as he saw his daughter grow up into a woman? Or would it have softened his edge? We’ll never know.
Just like with River Phoenix at 23, James Dean at 24, everyone in the 27 club, and Heath Ledger, who died at 28, it’s only raised their name recognition and made their work all the more interesting to watch and listen to.
As much as Cobain’s legacy shouldn’t be impacted by how his life ended, it inevitably will forever be tied to it. Especially since his lyrics often reflected the very mood of someone depressed or suicidal; it’s hard to ignore. It makes his lyrics all the more raw. All the more real.
And to a larger extent, the same can be said for “grunge” music as a whole; a term the very artists labeled as such often despise. Nevertheless; addiction, pain, suffering, and suicide, are dark clouds that surround the genre, whatever it wants to be called.
Cobain? Suicide. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden? Suicide. Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots? Overdose. Layne Staley of Alice In Chains? Overdose. Mike Starr of Alice In Chains? Overdose. Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone? Overdose.
Those artists were coming from a place of real pain. They weren’t manufacturing their sound or their image. Many artists in the genre had demons they were fighting behind the scenes.
None of this fully explains why Cobain specifically has risen to an almost religious, cult-like figure in our culture. Why him? Why not the other artists I mentioned?
I suppose a big part of it was the fact that Nirvana was the first commercially successful band to come out of the Seattle grunge movement. To quote Cobain on In Utero’s “Very Ape”: I’ve seen it all, I was here first.
And the one who gets there first usually gets a larger share of the glory.
But to be honest, I don’t think it was the fact that they arrived on the scene before anyone else that handed them the crown. Nirvana just made objectively (as objective as something can be when discussing a topic as opinion-based as music) better music than most other bands in the genre at that time.
Seriously, put “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Come As You Are,” or “Breed” up against any other grunge song of that era. They’re gonna hold their own.
But the reality is, Cobain himself leaves behind a complicated legacy. One that sometimes glorifies him and props him up as being larger than life - something he’d probably hate seeing if he were alive today (I wonder how he’d feel about his face turning into a fashion statement for popular clothing companies to appear trendy, or how he’d feel about someone like me having the word “Nevermind” tattooed on my arm).
We shouldn’t glorify anyone, let alone someone who was struggling with addiction and depression to the point of taking their own life. They should serve as a cautionary tale, if anything.
But again, the sick irony is that without those demons, he probably wouldn’t have crafted the music he did, as authentically as he did.
Kurt Cobain was a gifted songwriter and singer. He could scream in a way that sounded enjoyable to listen to, and he could write lyrics that bounced back and forth between nonsensical and random, to cutting and witty.
He was accessible through his music, but still felt guarded and mysterious outside the studio, even though he sometimes gave painfully honest interviews. He was socially conscious (woke before “woke” was a thing), anticapitalist, political, sarcastic, self-aware, funny, smart, and despite the nihilistic attitude, seemed to care very much, about everything.
He was a complex person with real life problems.
Perhaps, if nothing else, that’s what propelled him to the cultural heights he continues to maintain even in death.
He was flawed. He was real. He was one of us.
The Music
I’m gonna list my 12 favorite Nirvana songs of all time. Songs that continue to speak to me no matter what mood I’m in. Songs I could never play out, even if I tried (and believe me, I’ve tried). These 12 songs are what’s made me a diehard fan of what I consider to be, the greatest American rock band of all time.
12.) About A Girl [Bleach]
The standout track on their debut album in my opinion. Where the rest of the album sounds predominantly like a mashup of punk and metal, this song stood out as a happy medium. A satisfying middle ground. The short guitar solo in the middle of the song is one of the better ones in Nirvana’s discography.
11.) All Apologies [In Utero]
What else could I write?
I don’t have the right
What else should I be?
All apologies.
The sarcasm and self-awareness is never more prevalent than on In Utero’s closing track. Cobain seems to address critics and concerned parents directly, and provides some snarky commentary on the state of popular music and entertainment as a whole.
I wish I was like you; easily amused
“All Apologies” is a fitting end to an album filled to the brim with tongue-in-cheek, witty, sarcastic lyricism.
10.) Lithium [Nevermind]
I’m so ugly
That’s okay, ‘cause so are you
We’ve broken our mirrors
The 5th track off Nevermind is a fan favorite, with too many quotables to list all of them here.
Including the mantra-worthy bridge which shows Cobain trying (and failing) to convince himself he in fact, won’t crack.
I like it, I’m not gonna crack
I miss you, I’m not gonna crack
I love you, I’m not gonna crack
I killed you, I’m not gonna crack
9.) Heart-Shaped Box [In Utero]
Hey, wait
I’ve got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Another popular song in most circles. The melody is dark and moody and the sarcastic lyrics compliment it well. I personally prefer the live version off their From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah album. The music video is…interesting…
8.) You Know You’re Right [Nirvana]
One of my favorite songs didn’t even make an official studio album. “You Know Your Right” was on a best-of compilation record. A previously unreleased track that was made during the band’s final recording session as a group.
7.) Rape Me [In Utero]
Without a doubt the most controversial song in the band’s discography, just off the title alone. But Kurt Cobain was a feminist, and the song wasn’t glorifying or encouraging rape. It was an ironic, twisted, dark song about…female empowerment.
It's like she's saying, 'Rape me, go ahead, rape me, beat me," Cobain said in 1993 of his controversial anti-rape anthem. "'You'll never kill me. I'll survive this and I'm gonna fucking rape you one of these days and you won't even know it.'"
Not to mention his thoughts on rape in general in a 1991 interview with NME:
“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth. And it happens every few minutes,” Kurt hisses. “The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.
“I was talking to a friend of mine who went to a rape crisis centre where women are taught judo and karate. She looked out the window and saw a football pitch full of boys, and thought those are the people that should really be in this class.”
The song itself is raw, haunting, and uncomfortable. Given the heavy subject matter, it’s understandable. It’s also one of the band’s most important songs period.
6.) Breed [Nevermind]
Because this article focuses on Cobain, I haven’t mentioned Dave Grohl (drums) or Krist Novoselic (bass) at all. That changes now.
Grohl’s drumming on this track sets the tone and creates a head-bashing classic of a track. If “Smells Like Teen Spirit” didn’t open Nevermind, this would’ve been my choice to replace it.
5.) Very Ape [In Utero]
A fitting title for this song. There’s a primal, simian feel to this one. It triggers something in my hindbrain, and the guitar riff is pure bliss. Especially about 32 seconds into the song. Clocking in at under 2 minutes, the track serves as an appropriate symbol for their career trajectory as a whole. Gone too soon. It also features one of my favorite lines of all time:
If you ever need anything please don’t…hesitate to ask someone else first
4.) Serve The Servants [In Utero]
Teenage angst has paid off well
Now I’m bored and old
There’s no better opening line to an album than this gem from In Utero’s first track.
The line works two ways. The angst he had as a teen helped propel him to superstardom, but more to the point, the success of Nevermind was largely off the backs of suburban teenagers, and yes, it certainly did pay off well.
3.) Come As You Are [Nevermind]
And I swear that I don’t have a gun…
That line now has a darker meaning, given the fact that Cobain died from a self-inflicted shotgun blast, but it still remains one of Nirvana’s catchiest, most accessible songs. Maybe more so than “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
The music video is a nod to the theme and cover of Nevermind, and has its share of clever lyrics.
Take your time
Hurry up
Choice is yours, don’t be late
2.) Smells Like Teen Spirit [Nevermind]
“It was the musical Kennedy assassination of our time. Everybody who was alive then can tell you the moment they heard that song - because nothing like that existed to that point. It was really transcendent.”
-Jessica Hopper, music critic and author (CNN’s The Nineties)
What can be said about “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that hasn’t already been said by any and every music journalist and publication? It’s up there with “Stairway To Heaven” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” as far as iconic songs that people of today have probably heard about before they’ve even listened to it. It’s that big. You think of Nirvana, you think of that song. It’s the song of the 90s. The song of a generation. One of the greatest songs of all time.
The music video, and eventual album, blew up in large part thanks to Amy Finnerty; a 21 year old staffer at MTV who told execs at the time to give “Smells Like Teen Spirit” a chance and put their music video in rotation, convincing them to roll the dice on a little known band from Seattle. The rest, as they say, is history.
We didn’t know it then, but we do now - the song ends in true Cobain fashion. A seemingly throwaway line that holds a deeper meaning the more you examine it.
I found it hard
It’s hard to find
Oh well, whatever, never mind
1.) Where Did You Sleep Last Night [MTV Unplugged In New York]
Okay so I cheated a little. This isn’t actually a Nirvana song. It’s a cover of a classic American folk song. One that goes so far back, there’s no attributed author. The closest we come to someone owning the song is Leadbelly, whose version is the most well known. Well, until Nirvana covered his cover.
The performance that November night in New York City, and the song itself, are part of Nirvana lore.
It’s quite possibly Cobain’s rawest, darkest, most vulnerable performance, and it came at a time where him and wife Courtney Love were allegedly going through some problems.
The performance is made even more haunting with the fact that Cobain would go on to take his own life less than five months later.
Even the way he opens his eyes for a split second towards the end of the song has grown into its own phenomenon, with the bone chilling move being viewed as foreshadowing for what was to come.