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I was an acquaitance for a short time ,of one of the leaders of the " grunge scene " Layne Staley, and at the time I was into Ozzy , Kings X , Extreme , Megadeath hard rock / metal. I did not have the heart to tell him I was unfamiliar with his music and did not " get it " . He was an amazing man gifted , brilliant and troubled . But he was not able to get away from his demons and dope. I suppose all the fame success and adulation is not able to change who you are inside . I am very glad and lucky to be alive to tell the tale . I am still not a big fan of the genre but when an Alice in Chains song comes on the radio I think " Layne Dude ! " and I wish he had been able to get clean and not sink like Kurt did into the grip of whatever demons were troubling them . VBM \m/
 
I dosed my kids with heavy Zappa rotation when they were little (their minds are indeed like sponges!), especially the instrumental tunes on Roxy, Uncle Meat, Apostrophe, and because I think it's one of the greatest guitar solos of all time, I played Inca Roads so many times, they probably still hear it in their dreams, in their mid-twenties. Of course I turned 'em on to lots of other rock, blues, classical (Brahms Clarinet Quintet!), and world music. I can still remember my daughter, at age 3, discovering the joy of dancing to the 'ketjak' (gamelon monkey chant).
DukeOfPrunes said:
Sorry, I disagree. At the ages my kids are, their brains are like sponges...and even if they don't like the music on the spot, they will remember it when they are older as resonating sounds and feelings stored away in their long term memory. Same as I experienced hearing late 60's early 70's music which I didn't get when I was younger, which made sense to me later in life.

Mostly spin the guitar vamp stuff: Guitar, Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar series and Peaches, King Kong on AHOTT, Inca Roads on OSFA, Chunga's Revenge, mostly instrumental stuff...I do stay away from the vulgar and political stuff as well as the synclavier stuf like Civilization Phaze III, Everything Is Healing Nicely, Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger, Francesco Zappa, Thing-Fish, etc...The Synclavier period is just too much for them, actually, probably a bit too much for a lot of people!
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funny-polymath: Speaking sense as always.

I was in secondary school when the guy did himself in. He was due to play Dublin that day and the old tickets are worth a small fortune. I was into metal at the time, but liked Nirvana as they were putting heavier music in the dismal British and Irish charts. I didn't really feel anything when he died, but then again the only celebrity death I truly went 'Awwww shit!" over was Jeff Hanneman.

"Walk a mile in a man's shoes...." and all of that.

I get why people don't regard his music as intelligent. It wasn't flashy like Malmsteen, heavy like Death or Sepultura, but it did provide a bridge between pop and metal, at least where I'm from. People reading his lyrics as raw words just don't seem to get it, in the same way as some folks don't understand poetry. But the ability to take chords everyone had been using and do something very different (more compositional than most guitar-centric writers and composers) was a gift. Plus, he had a damn fine screaming voice.

I was more of an Alice In Chains guy though I always respected Nirvana. It's crazy to think 20 years have passed. That's the true shock for me.
 
I don't understand this "intelligence" perspective either - seems an elitist comment. This is rock, right?

I was a great fan of Nirvana and had tickets for the London shows that April - strangely, I was more annoyed than upset that he killed himself and therefore I would never see them play. The British music scene was not particularly interesting at this time and here came a band packed full of raw, almost uncontrolled energy (and anger), like the best of punk/new wave in the late seventies UK, but with cooler guitar ideas, a heavier sound and better hooks - and possibly the best 4-note solo everrrrrrr (Come As You Are). I took a lot of inspiration from Nirvana. Like others have said, it's scarey that 20 years have passed since. Where have those years gone? Clearly, I'm getting old...

Final thoughts: if I look back and list the bands that inspired me to learn the guitar in the first place, or write songs, or just thrash the bejesus out of it with everything on 11, Nirvana is in that relatively small and select group.

RIP Kurt.
 
Swedish Chef said:
I don't get these "I like this, that's why I can't like that" comments...
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Chef,

Sorry for taking the conversation in a different direction. It's about music and art, and I guess one can be pretty passionate about it. Please forgive my de-railing.
 
Cobain was the master of the hook. Sing songy - almost nursery rhyme - type melodies that had a great crunchy sound. I thought he was brilliant and was very saddened to hear he died.
Now it just reminds me of how old I am getting :-(


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This is a weird coincidence, but I just bought my very first copy of Nevermind a few days ago. I completely forgot that the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death just passed. I saw the CD in the store and I thought I should check out the whole thing, start to finish. I think its a great record. I was 21 when it was released and I remember reading the local music circulations and how local bands being interviewed, when asked which new artists they were really into, kept mentioning this new band called Nirvana. First I thought it was a cool name. It definitely suggested something different than Poison, White Snake, Motley Crue, etc, etc. Also what was interesting was that the bands being interviewed were all very different. Some metal, glam rock, punk. 1989-1990 was definitely a period of transition.

Then Christmas of '91 I heard 'Teen Spirit on the radio. Before I knew who it was, I thought, "I bet it's that new band everyone's talking about." Because to me, the sound matched the cool name and the images it invoked. It was very different from what was on the radio or MTV at the time. Also, there was definitely a suffering in Kurt's vocal delivery of that melody, that even then he was lost. That's what drew me, that and the drums. But who knows what a person goes through, what's in their heads. I didn't predict what eventually happened to him, but I think it was there. I thought his playing was excellent, especially for his songs. I think it was brilliant that he played the verse's vocal line as his solo and goes through the whole verse!! I don't know if it was intentional, but if you were going slap the 80's guitar style and the guys playing it in the face, what a way to do it. And I loved a lot of those guys, as a lot of us did and still do. The tones were perfect for his songs. I don't recall a stronger shift in music, attitude, and culture in my lifetime than when that song came out. Everything changed after that. Blaming Kurt Cobain and Nirvana for ruining music is like blaming Edward Van Halen for influencing a lot of bad guitar playing.
 
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