Well, I guess it was ten years ago this week that Kurt Cobain made an unsuccessful attempt to ingest very quickly-moving lead for dinner. Not to exhaust the adage that “time flies,” but shit – time flies. In April of 1994 I was in my last year at Kent State and I had reached that point in college – you know, the 2-3 months before graduation that you’re just dying to finally get out of school. I was definitely broke, working part-time at a horrendous department store for $4.50 an hour. I remember specifically one phone call home to my parents when I was bitching up a storm about how little money I had. They sent me a nice package a few days later which got me through the next few weeks. At the time, it was like someone handed me one million dollars.
Anyway, I first heard about the Cobain business while stocking shelves at the department store. I’ve since forgotten the name of the store. At the time, I, much like a lot of other music fans in college, was really saddened, but not-so-shocked by the event. Ten years later (and probably twenty in maturity), I’m still saddened that we don’t have any more music from him than what he left us with, which wasn’t much, but with every growing day I feel less and less sympathetic. Suicide is weak, easy-way out and it does nothing but leave everyone else close to him crushed. It’s the ultimate cop-out and arguably the most egotistical thing one can do. Naturally, I feel more sad for his child than anyone else, left to deal with that beast Courntney Love. Not that the child would be any better off had her father lived.
Anyway, as a music fan, Nirvana was one of very few immensely popular bands that I really enjoyed listening to. I still yank out their records a few times a year because they have quite a bit of staying power, even if the whole “I hate myself” trend is over (thank god). So other than this post, I offer no wonderful memories of Kurt Cobain, only a little bit of contempt, some retrospective of my college days, some thanks for giving us some good music and a little sadness we couldn’t hear more. The “Unplugged” special remains one of the more compelling music moments of the ’90s, only because I was sure it was a sign of where Nirvana (or Cobain himself) was headed. Just listen to any Mark Lanegan solo record – and wonder what might have been if Kurt had gotten himself some help.
Of course, Nirvana/Cobain very well might have done a slow fade much like a lot of their contemporaries at the time. We can only speculate. Hell, Kurt himself said it best when he admitted they were simply the Cheap Trick of the ’90s and that they stole everything they ever knew from The Pixies. Ah well. Time marches on.
Song now playing: The Geraldine Fibbers – “You Do Right”