As I write this, the skies outside are cloudy and lots of wind. I've
noticed this year that we have lots of windy days and that's fine with
me. Last year we had lots of snow and lots of rain to go with that wind
and the snow and rain made me hate not so much the snow but the rain
that continued for weeks on end. We're in an Winter Storm Warning but
have yet to see the snow come. But had I known that the weather
wouldn't be this bad yesterday, I could have gone to Madison and be all
the happy for it. But all I need is two days to go and will once
things settled down. But not this week, since I would like to go Sue
Halvorsen's wake tomorrow to pay last respects to our former co worker
who lost her live fighting cancer for a year and half.
She lived
59 years and if you really think about it 59 years isn't a long time on
this planet. Sometimes in life I get so caught up in my ire at stupid
drivers, longstanding delayed red lights that I rarely take stock in
what I have become in this life and my contributions to it. But I'm
sure Sue would wanted to live longer in her life and all that she
touched.
It also got me to thinking about Kurt Cobain, the
leader of the last major important band Nirvana and how he took a
shotgun and ended his 27 years on this planet. I didn't think Nirvana
changed all the music that much but the way that they performed it did
strike a chord with the generation back then. I think back then Kurt
played it for fun with a eye toward being rich and famous some day and
once he got it, couldn't handle it and then blew out his face thus
ending a five year period that if anything good came out of it, was that
Nirvana made the hair spray pop metal obsolete. Yep, Bret Michaels won
the lottery and came back with his crapfest Rock Of Love shite on VH1
and Poison still does the casino circuit once in a while but for a time,
the grunge movement almost buried Poison and Warrant alive in the
dirt.
Even back then, when I first heard Nevermind and hearing
Jerry Scott saying that these guys are going to get big I kinda brushed
them off. But once I found a pawnshop copy of Nevermind, I got to hear
the twists and turns of poetry that Kurt would sing/scream and found it
that he could rhyme it with the best of them. I did buy In Utero when
it came out and the first reaction that I got from it was that Kurt
wasn't going to live very long and within a year he'd be gone. I
usually don't get that from the first listen but In Utero turned out to
be his suicide note to the world. An on April 5th, 1994, after
surviving a overdose and wanting to be alone in the worst way, Kurt took
the only way out he knew to get that. And left a million fans
wondering what happened and why.
Perhaps Kurt had a vision of
radio being played full of Nirvana wannabes and neverwas. Perhaps he
heard Nickleback or Hoobastank in his dreams. In some ways his suicide
may have started the death of rock and roll. It did get Dave Grohl from
behind the drumset to start up the Foo Fighters, a more pop rock driven
band but after the second record the Foos have yet to come up anything
closer to the power and rage of Kurt. Had Kurt lived on Nirvana would
have still made albums but if rage and anger was all that Kurt was good
for, then he would have died anyway at any time. It's a shame really
but maybe Cobain thought this was as far as he could go.
But
going out with half your face blown to bits shouldn't have been that
way. Still, as he went, so did Nirvana and modern rock as we know it.
The music today isn't as memorable and plays it too safe or goes deep
into the cliche of I hate myself and I hate this and that. If Kurt and
Nirvana came around today, there'll be no radio for them. The other
bullet that killed off rock and roll was the Telecom act of 1996 which
began centralization of radio and the major label. Cobain was such an
outsider and wanted to be that way, he didn't want to be the center of
attention. Sure he wanted the band to be BIG, but with fame and fortune
and good reviews come the photohogs who invade L.A, the groupies, the
hangerons and the low lifes and perhaps being corner and not be able to
go to the local record store without being mugged or groped, he lost his
privacy to enjoy the things he used to do and he ended it.
In
1994, MTV was still showing videos and VH1 before they decided it was
cheaper to put together crappy reality shows and bring back hair metal
freaks to find and keep on the one night stands that he used to enjoy.
To celebrate the passing, Universal wil reissue the Nirvana albums on
vinyl. No big deal to those who got the cd, it still blares out the
intentions of Nirvana with Smells Like Teen Spirit, a song that defined
and destroyed Cobain at the same time. But it also defined to the
modern rock bands of today that they could never dupilcate the song's
intensity. Today's bands are only worried about the next tattoo they
get or lip ring. Good music will remain timeless, crap music will be
forgotten the next day.
Entertain Us!
And also another
trainwreck, Joe Meek, the eccentric producer who was the Phil Spector of
Britain who also died under bizarre circumstances, he would have turned
80 years old today. A strange way to end this strange blog.
