I chose to write about him today because I feel like he is the face of rock and roll, grunge, and alternative rock. Kurt Cobain was reserved and had some sort of a mysterious aspect about him but at the same time was all up in your face which really personifies the 1990's. He was the face of the rock scene in the 90's.
Cobain lived a troubled life, his parents divorced when was just 9 years old, he spent a lot of time moving about and at one time was homeless and lived under a bridge. When his father remarried, Cobain resented his stepmother Jenny and her two children. But these unlucky situations fired his desire to make music. A quote from Cobain himself "Thanks for the tragedy I need it for my art". At age 14 he was gifted a guitar from his uncle which gave him a way to express his great unhappiness with his life. As he got older Cobain began experimenting with drugs in his mid-teens, and he pushed himself farther away from his father.
Cobain fell in love with punk rock. While hanging out at the Melvins' practice space, he met Krist Novoselic, a fellow devotee of punk rock. Cobain tried to convince Novoselic to form a band with him by lending him a copy of a home demo recorded by Cobain's earlier band, Fecal Matter. After months of asking, Novoselic finally agreed to join Cobain, forming the beginnings of Nirvana. (Wikipedia).
Courtney Love and Cobain met on January 12, 1990, in Portland's Satyricon nightclub, when they both still led ardent underground rock bands. Love made advances, but Cobain was evasive. Around the time of Nirvana's 1992 performance on Saturday Night Live, Love discovered that she was pregnant with Cobain's child. On February 24, 1992, a few days after the conclusion of Nirvana's Pacific Rim tour, Cobain and Love were married on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Love wore a satin and lace dress once owned by the actress Frances Farmer, and Cobain wore green pajamas, because he had been "too lazy to put on a tux". On August 18, 1992, the couple's daughter Frances Bean Cobain was born. (Wikipedia)
His first drug experience was with marijuana in 1980, at age 13. He regularly used the drug during adulthood. Cobain also had a period of consuming "notable" amounts of LSD, as observed by Tracy Marander, and was "really into getting fucked up: drugs, acid, any kind of drug", observed Krist Novoselic; Cobain was also prone to alcoholism and solvent abuse. Cobain's cousin Beverly, a nurse, claimed Cobain was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as a child, and bipolar disorder as an adult. She also brought attention to the history of suicide, mental illness and alcoholism in the Cobain family, noting two of her uncles who had committed suicide with guns. (Wikipedia)
On April 8, 1994, Cobain's body was discovered at his Lake Washington home by an electrician named Gary Smith who had arrived to install a security system. Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain's ear, the electrician reported seeing no visible signs of trauma, and initially believed that Cobain was asleep until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A note was found, addressed to Cobain's childhood imaginary friend "Boddah", that stated that Cobain had not "felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now". A high concentration of heroin and traces of diazepam were also found in his body. Cobain's body had been lying there for days; the coroner's report estimated Cobain to have died on April 5, 1994. A public vigil was held for Cobain on April 10, 1994, at a park at Seattle Center drawing approximately seven thousand mourners. (Wikipedia) Click here to access Cobain's suicide letter.
I feel like the reason why a lot of people liked Kurt was because he kept a lot private, he wasn't a fan of the media and never felt the need to explain himself. Unlike a lot of other rock stars who adore the media and lights that come with being famous. Kurt was a free spirit who was haunted by many demons inside of him. To many he was a beautiful person who left something for society to enjoy. He was sensitive and very creative and unique. He was an artist both visually and musically. His death left so many in devastation, but his legend lives on as he is the face of rock and roll. "Cobain's death was equated by many who cared most deeply about what he represented as the death of possible cultural alternative that embraced a group of outcasts and perceived losers who didn't really have a voice," said Michael Lewis Goldberg, an associate professor at the University of Washington who teaches a course on pop culture that includes a segment on the Seattle scene. (SeattlePi). I hope this article gives you an insight to Kurt Cobain's life and I hope you find him as strange, interesting, beautiful, and inspiring as I do. Even I was not alive during his golden years during "Nirvana" or death but obviously his legacy he left is so immense it leaves an impact on the younger generations after his time. A person like him does not just reside in the 90's but their spirit lives on forever and continues to intrigue many generations.Video of Nirvana's most popular song: Smells Like Teen Spirit
Kurt Cobain's interview in Seattle 1993
"Kurt Cobain." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
Stout, Gene. "Ten Years Later: Kurt Cobain's Legacy Endures." Seattlepi.com. N.p., 1 Apr. 2004. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.
Kurt Cobain. N.d. Photograph. Biography. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
Smells Like Teen Spirit. By Kurt Cobain. Perf. Nirvana. Youtube. N.p., 16 June 2006. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
Kurt Cobain, Seattle 1993 Complete Interview. Perf. Kurt Cobain. Youtube. N.p., 8 Aug. 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2014.
Cobain, Kurt. "Kurt Cobain's Suicide Letter." Letter to Boddah. 8 Apr. 1994. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
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