Remembering The Music:NIRVANA

[Any007]

One of the greatest rock bands according to me.

http://www.plainviewne.com/nirvana_002.jpg

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990.
In the late 1980s Nirvana established itself as part of the Seattle grunge scene, releasing its first album Bleach for the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. The band eventually came to develop a sound that relied on dynamic contrasts, often between quiet verses and loud, heavy choruses. After signing to major label DGC Records, Nirvana found unexpected success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the first single from the band's second album Nevermind (1991). Nirvana's sudden success widely popularized alternative rock as a whole, and as the band's frontman Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a generation", with Nirvana being considered the "flagship band" of Generation X.Nirvana's third studio album In Utero (1993), challenged the group's audience, featuring an abrasive, less-mainstream sound.
Nirvana's brief run ended following the death of Cobain in 1994, but various posthumous releases have been issued since, overseen by Novoselic, Grohl, and Cobain's widow Courtney Love. Since its debut, the band has sold over 25 million albums in the United States alone, and over 50 million worldwide.In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Nirvana number 30 on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

SO what you think of the band?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I think Nirvana are one of the most important bands of all time, but also overrated, and that is coming from a fan.

When you look at it, Nirvana wrote one classic album- ONE. Nevermind is one of the albums that changed rock music, and brought grunge music into the public eye. It really is one of the best albums ever made, knocking Michael Jackson off the Number 1 position in the album charts and giving us classic songs such as "Lithium", "Come As You Are" and of course the iconic "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which is one of the most overplayed songs of all time.

Apart from that one album, there is not really that many other great Nirvana tracks. "Bleach" is not that good, albeit with a few decent tracks, and same with "In Utero" where Kurt tried to move back away from the commercial sound of "Nevermind". The Unplugged album is good though. The lyrics may mean something, but the music itself is not that impressive in alot of Nirvana's work. Plus, Kurt was a decent singer- as shown on much of Nevermind, but there were better around.

When I was in high-school, Nirvana were one of the bands that all the "rock" kids liked, and I got into them at that point too, and Nevermind became, and remains, one of my favourite albums. I never tire of it.

I do feel that Nirvana's influence is exxagerated due to the tragic way Kurt died. Had he lived, his status would have have been raised to "God-like" status. He would not be as iconic as he is now, and Nirvana would be remembered as good with 1 great album, rather than one of the greatest bands of all time.

I would say my favourite Nirvana songs are

1. Come As You Are
2. Lithium
3. In Bloom
4. Pennyroyal Tea
5. Heart Shaped Box
6. You Know Your Right

 

[WWWYKI777]

I like them , I own the Nevermind album. I know a few of the songs from the other albums

They were good , shame bout Kurt yadda yadda , but I got tired of their music faster than most , maybe cause I had passivley heard them on the radio a zillion times for years and years before actually buying their album one day

But yeah like Naitch said if Kurt didn't die then he wouldn't have been elevated to such status and quite possibly the band would have like he said been remembered as a pretty good band with 1 really great album.

(Linkin Park comes to mind) Can you imagine if Chester Bennington up and killed himself after Hybrid Theory & Meteora and the band ended on the high note instead of tarnishing their legacy? Would they be more remembered?

I do find it to be true that when a famous musician dies they are elevated for some reason. Like before Michael Jackson died nobody ever talked about his music or seemed to care anymore... his fame from musical reasons was in the past... then he died and everyone up and loves the guy and won't shut up about him?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I do find it to be true that when a famous musician dies they are elevated for some reason. Like before Michael Jackson died nobody ever talked about his music or seemed to care anymore... his fame from musical reasons was in the past... then he died and everyone up and loves the guy and won't shut up about him?

True.

While all the people I am about to mention are incredibly talented, dying young does seem to mean you become a GOD when it comes to music. Many genres have their own versions of this.

Rap- 2Pac, Biggie

Grunge- Kurt Cobain

Rock- Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison,

Pop- John Lennon

And there are plenty more. I think just the fact that they die, which is such a big story, means they become more famous and iconic that had they lived. Noone knows how far they could have gone, and what they could have achieved with their huge talent, and people can speculate as to where they would have ended up, and claim that they would have changed musical history/made the best album ever/made world peace etc. The death just adds to their legend, as its such a shocking way to go out. (2Pac, Lennon murders, Kur's suicide, others with drugs etc)

 

[Sinister Shadows]

I've always felt that Nirvana was one of the most overrated bands... ever. They have always sounded really generic to me, and I just can't take Kurt seriously as a singer when I hear their songs. Growing up, most of my friends was really into them, I still to this day cannot see any appeal to them at all.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Nirvana was one of the best bands ever. Nevermind and In Utero are both great cd's. Nevermind in particular is one of my all time favorites. Every single track on it is good. In Utero is not far behind it in quality. Even their other album Bleach had a few decent tracks. It's a shame that Cobain died because there is no telling how much more material the band could have released, and I would have liked to see their time at the top of the music world continue. Nevermind will live on forever as a legendary album.

 

[SorgFamily]

Nirvana was probably the first rock band I ever got into. Before that (when I was roughly 13) I mostly listened to rap. I definitely don't listen to rap anymore and I'd say it's thanks to Nirvana. Nevermind was the first album I bought and then I got Bleach on a recommendation from a friend. Then I picked up In Utero and even got a copy of their b-sides, Incestiside. I'm pretty sure their Unplugged album was the last one I got but it's the only one I listen to today without skipping tracks. Actually it's pretty much the only thing from Nirvana that I listen to at all now. Nirvana opened the grunge floodgates for me.

On a sadder note, I was cleaning my bedroom the other day and I found disc 2 from the "With the Lights Out" box set cracked in half. Bummer.

 

[poppycock]

I can't get across enough just how important Nirvana and Kurt Cobain have been on me as a person and how much influence on the direction I took in my life. I picked up a guitar in the first place because I wanted to make music like Nirvana. Anyway that's all boring and relevant to me so about the band...

When I first heard Nirvana I was in secondary school. The first song I heard was a live MTV performance of Drain You, to say I was blown away is an understatement..they had the energy and attitude of the sex pistols which drew me in straight away seeing as I love the Pistols. I checked out more.. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As you are, In Bloom, Heart Shaped Box and Lithium (The big hits) were what I came across first... mainly through waiting for the videos on TV. I was hooked and I went out and bought Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide and In Utero all at once (leaving me with no money for a long time). I would listen and listen over and over again..in my room, at school, on my walkman whilst walking... I wanted to make noise with this much energy,volume, angst and truthfulness yet melodic, beautiful and poppy at the same time. Nirvana to me are perfect and the praise they get has nothing to do with Kurt Cobains death... when he was alive they were the biggest band in the world at one point. Yes his death may bring attention to the band for reasons other than music but if Kurt were still alive today I am almost certain Nirvana would still be talked about in the same light.

Bleach is fucking brilliant..it's raw, dark, punky and dirty with huge metal elements and melvins inspired noise. It almost sounds like a live album (probably down to how cheaply it was put together for). It lacks the polish of Nevermind which is definitely a good thing for me as I like it rough, but I can see how sombody who prefers something shiney, clean and well produced may favour Nevermind. Negative Creep, Mr Moustache, Paper Cuts etc... all dirty and addictive, and then you have the beautiful 'About a Girl' which was an early example of Kurts Beatle inspired song writing that would make up Nevermind. Nevermind is pure pop rock indulgence. The perfect example of nursery rhyme melody meets angst, self doubt and all done with beautiful emotion. In Utero is by far my favourite album..the perfect mix of the first two albums. Milk It is as good as anything I ever heard in my life. I can't praise Nirvana enough without cominga cross as boring and an obsessive dick so I will stop.

I listend to Moist Vagina until it broke and my ears broke.

 

[UFOcalling]

I was a HUGE Nirvana fan in middle school, and Kurt died when I was in 9th grade. A good friend of mine was also a big fan of Nirvana, we ended up starting a band (just like the above poster mentioned) almost for the sole reason of being able to play Nirvana covers. He definitely wanted to be Dave Grohl (hard-hitting drummer), & I wished I could have been as cool as Kurt (...but I was chubby, and looked like a girl with long hair!).

Nirvana & Pearl Jam were kind of like The Beatles/Rolling Stones of my generation (probably more for the generation a little older than mine, but I still count it, dammit!). I'll never forget the impact that Nevermind had on me (even though I was only 11 when it was first released), I think that could have been one of the first albums I really appreciated. I liked music before that, but I was at an age where I was just beginning to really understand music...and Nevermind really spoke to me (lyrics-wise, and musically). I remember in 10th grade I got a copy of the book "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana". I read that book from cover-to-cover so many times that the spine fell apart! Haha!

Here was a group of guys that weren't the best at what they did, but they were able to take these simple songs and make them sound like masterpieces. Kurt was an AMAZINGLY talented song-writer, Dave Grohl was a phenomenal drummer/bg vocalist, and Kris...well, Chris was kind of the "Ringo" of the group! LOL! ...he was essential, don't get me wrong. Nirvana just wouldn't have been Nirvana without a HUGE guy there playing bass in his bare feet and dancing around. He was a decent bassist as well.

I really enjoyed all of Nirvana's studio-music. A lot of people only appreciate Nevermind (for it's impact on popular music), but I can still listen to Bleach, Incesticide & In Utero with a certain fondness. I also include their performance on Mtv's Unplugged, but not so much with "The Mighty Banks of the Wishka" (whatever that album was called)...at least to me, that live-album just seemed like a way to cash-in on Kurt's death. Plus it probably fulfilled the band's original contract with Geffen.

My friend (the one I mentioned earlier in this post) & I became obsessed with collecting all of Nirvana's singles as well, since they all included B-sides & live tracks. We would compile our collections onto homemade mix-tapes (remember tapes? haha!), and play them while cruising around in the car.

Luckily, there was a music store not too far from our suburban home(s) that sold bootlegged material. We were able to get a hold of the "Outcesticide" Albums there (at an outrageously inflated price). Most of the stuff on those albums (which were NOT endorsed by Geffen Records, OR Nirvana themselves) eventually ended up on the "With the Lights Out" collection. To this day, I still don't recognize a lot of the song titles on With The Lights Out, since the exact same songs had different names on the Outcesticide CDs.

Thinking about Nirvana takes me back to being a pre-teen, and my early days of High School. I remember wearing my only Nirvana T-Shirt at least three times a month for YEARS during High School...until my Mom finally threw it out (I was so pissed! LOL). I never got a chance to see Nirvana perform live, and I regret that to this day. Well, I was young...and I made up for it by seeing a lot of other bands perform live, that are no longer touring.

Hope I didn't bore anyone to sleep, with this long-ass post.

btw - if you're able to catch the episode of "Classic Albums" about Nirvana's Nevermind on Vh1 Classic, definitely watch it. It's a good retrospect; at least I found it compelling.

 

[RicoLen]

Well like a few other guys here, Nirvana was the band of my generation. I was a little young when Nevermind was first released, and I think I knew them more from Smells Like Nirvana (Weird Al) than I did from Smells Like Teen Spirit, at least for a year or so. And actually how I came to learn about Nirvana was through the release of Stone Temple Pilots' Core. I picked that up, loved it to death, and then was told by some classmates that Nirvana was better... and yup, they were right.

I don't agree that they would have faded out into obscurity, I think they would have hung around and had a career closer to that of Metallica's. First few albums are near perfect, idolized and placed on a pedestal, the next few demonized because they did something different, and finally brought back to mainstream again with an album that put it all together. I DO believe that Dave Grohl would have either left of his own accord to form Foo Fighters or have been kicked out and subsequently have formed foo fighters.

To me though, while I love the big singles, the ones that I appreciate the most are songs like:
In Bloom
Sappy
Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam
Sliver
Here She Comes Now

These songs simply have some of the most brilliantly written lyrics ever. The music is great and there's really nothing you can say bad about them if you're a fan.

The thing about Nirvana that most people misunderstand when they complain about how they dumbed down the entire music industry, is that while yes, that is a fairly valid argument, Nirvana's music itself was not dumbed down. It was highly intelligent and Kurt was trying to make a statement that James Hetfield & Metallica were also making around 1990. Music doesn't have to be incredibly fancy and highly embellished upon to be poignant, memorable and catchy. They could be simple and to the point and most important, succinct. Something most bands after that took to the extreme where it wasn't succinct anymore, it was just plain amateurish.

I think the best thing about Kurt Cobain & Nirvana, is yet another thing that most people these days bash them for. They played other people's songs. Kurt especially loved to plug other people's music at their concerts, he wasn't plagiarizing, like so many trolls seem to think, he was paying tributes to artists he loved. Just because those people were not well known didn't mean he was trying to steal their music, he was trying to help them become well known.

Kurt was a good guy, a great musician and one of the very best lyricists ever. I would still like to know what was going on with his stomach that was causing him so much pain he turned to heroin to ease it. Bad move on his part there eh?

 

[I_Am_Electro_Boy]

Nirvana are my favourite band ever. I own Bleach, Nevermind, In Utero, Nirvana (Best Of), Incesticide, Live at Reading, Nevermind DVD and the MTV Unplugged DVD. My favourite album is probably the Bleach album although a few of my favourite Nirvana songs are on Nevermind. I think I've listened to the Nevermind album too many times so I've got a little bored of it and started listening to Bleach more.

My 5 favourite songs are:
1) On A Plain
2) Dumb
3) Rape Me (not because of the name)
4) Blew
5) Lounge Act