I don’t think I had ever heard punk rock music up to that point and if I had, it was nothing like this. I was listening to a lot of Guns and Roses in those days and this music felt like the opposite of that.
I had not seen Kurt Cobain yet, but something about the gritty nature of the music made it feel a lot more real and authentic that anything else that was on the radio or MTV.
I barely understood the lyrics, but I found the chorus very singable.
Years later and 1000’s of listens later, three lines really stand out:
It's fun to lose and to pretendNow that I have learned so much about Kurt’s depression and eventual suicide, these lines feel like warning signs of a soul in crisis, or maybe he was just giving voice to the angst we all feel when we are not feeling our best.
I feel stupid and contagious
I'm worse at what I do best
When the video finally came out, it all made sense. His look, the way he held the guitar, that iconic sweater all matched the angst of the lyrics and the power of this song. These knew even in the early days that they would change rock culture forever. And that is exactly what they did.
In your post you mentioned "the singer" a few times. His name was Kurt Cobain, that is somehting you need to know for your musical education:
I would recommend you take a look at some more details about the song here and see if anything else stands out. You can leave any interesting insights in the comments below.
I haven't thought about his depression/suicide and I think that it is a very interesting point to bring up as, this song could very well have been a warning sign. Is this the first song that they made or the first you heard? if it's the first song you hear, did you listen to the others after? Lastly, how do you think your life would be different if you hadn't discovered nirvana?
ReplyDeleteThis is the first song I heard, as it was their first commercially successful single. They had another EP called Bleach that came out first, but I didn't know about it. I immediately went out and bought the album.
DeleteAll though in the early 90's there was this weird competition between the bands from Seattle and I was more in the Pearl Jam camp.
Years, later I have gone back to Nirvana and find new things in their music all the time. There is a mood of anger and angst and boredom that they capture so well. Niravana has affected my life because they are more than music...they are a mood, a culture, a vibe, a way of living.
Nirvana tells the world that they don't care. They want to dig deep inside and find all the ugly feelings and turn them into poppy punk anthems.