It was 15 years ago today that Kurt Cobain took his own life with a shotgun blast to the head. His body and suicide note would be found three days later at his Seattle home.
A very polarizing individual, everyone has their own opinions about the quality of his music, his status as a celebrity, and the appropriateness of memorializing his death because of its “ugly” qualities– the fact that it was a suicide and that Kurt’s continuous struggle with drug addiction was probably an influencing factor. But for a lot of people, Nirvana’s music and Kurt’s death constitute defining moments in their adolescence, and are therefore worth memorializing.
The truth is that we depend upon artists to be the whipping boys for all our inner demons– to feel intensely and confront directly the emotions and frightening parts of the human psyche that the rest of us struggle daily to keep under control or to ignore, and to somehow encapsulate those battles in four minutes and thirty seconds worth of commercially viable radio catharsis. Sometimes they lose those battles–casualties of an unseen war whose only manifestations are the writing, the acting, the painting, or the music the rest of us so enjoy.
When those battles are lost, the rest of us remain the beneficiaries of their wills, inheriting a legacy of life experiences described vibrantly and succinctly through a lens of concentrated emotion that is at once both out of control and carefully contained in an artistic format– be that literary, visual, or aural.
So I don’t feel at all inappropriate or pandering in memorializing his passing and recognizing his own unique contribution to the rock music canon.
Rest in peace, Kurt. And thanks for the music.
wow kelly [:
that was a beautiful and IMHO very spot on entry.
kudos <3
and rip kurt
keep on rockin’, Kurt
R.I.P.
Holly cow, 15 years ago, this definately makes me feel old :-(
great tribute kelly. rip kurt. side note, layne staley from alice in chains was also pronounced dead on this date, i believe.
Unplugged in NY reminds me of being young and in love, and also of feeling really let down about this time 15 years ago.
it doesn’t even seem possible that this happened 15 years ago.
nice tribute, thanks!
Great tribute Kelly. But, you couldn’t have picked a worse vid/song for this occcasion.
RIP
Thanks for this. Great post.
RIP KC
Great post! Exactly how I feel. RIP Kurt, you are missed.
I spent some of the day watching Gus Van Sant’s “Last Days”, followed by Acoustic MTV – Nirvana. The first was not worth as a tribute.
RIP Kurt.
Maybe it’s because I was born in 1988, but I never connected with Nirvana and this tragedy never impacted me the way it seems to have impacted everyone else.
ditto for me. i can appreciate the music, but i don’t think it transcends past that.
um it’s exactly because you were born in ’88. You were what, 6, when it happened? I don’t think 6 year olds listen to grunge or understand suicide.
And that’s probably the biggest part of it, but there are people my age who feel very strongly about Nirvana and are also sad about Kurt’s suicide. Also, I feel very strongly about John Lennon’s death in 1980, and that was an entire 8 years before I was even born!
Different strokes for different folks
eh….I was born in 1993..i’m 15 years old.But i’m OBSESSED with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain.
Age doesn’t matter when it comes to music or understanding of certain things.
I’ve been thinking about him all day long, and listening to some songs. Thanks for the post, Kelly. I was born in ’87, and even though I was like 7 when he died, his music and his person meant so much to me when I entered the “no one understands me” phase of young adolescence. I think that his significance is going to be relevant and special to me forever.
An unplugged video clip could have been better to post, but thanks for posting just the same.
I know a lot of people dislike that that song because, although it was arguably the most popular, they feel it doesn’t represent the oeuvre or the spirit of the band very well (it’s too commercial, was a satirical “Pixies rip-off” that Kurt hated playing,etc). But it’s the song with the most powerful nostalgic impact for me– that’s why I chose it. Maybe that was a little irresponsible and selfish for a tribute post? I’d be happy to see what others would have posted.
‘Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam’ might have been a good obit clip or ‘In the Pines (where did you sleep last night)’. In the latter, I remember a bit where Kurt pauses to take a breath for the last time before the end of the song and looks into the camera in a really piercing way. I felt like he was looking right into my soul. (Of course being an atheist I know there is no such thing as a soul but pilled up bigtime and listening to Nirvana I felt for a moment there was).
Couldn’t agree more…’In the Pines..’ – so incredibly touching…and that breath. Blows you away…
RIP Kurdt Kobain – Peace, Love and Empathy.
Ms. Kelly…
You are CLEARLY the best writer on Evil Beet BY FAR. That shit’s not even close. It’s like…
#1. Kelly
2. Google Ads
3. Beet
4. Automated Spam Comments
5. GrandPa Sam reminding Beet to take her Centrum Silver
6. Wendy
Try to switch with Wendy and write the weekdays… Ahh fuck it… Just just take over the whole blog and let Beet and Wendy start another ‘panties for pansies’ blog… cus your milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.
Those couple of months that you didn’t comment here were awesome. What happened? Did your evil beet knock-off blog fail? Thought you’d come back here to spread your misery? Thanks for thinking of us.
I personally found this piece very beautiful, but somehow out of context. I felt like I was reading an essay written for a music class.
Exactly! Kelly didn’t put any personal emotion in to it, it was like she was dissociating herself from the topic.
It was just the(sorry Kelly) regular things that were said, something you can read anywhere else.
Lol, I think it’s funny.
I remember vividly. I was coming home from work when it came over the radio. I was so shocked that I had to pull over and listen. What a sad day for rock ‘n roll.
Thanks for an awesome post Kelly. I was 15 in ’94. I remember the exact moment when I heard the news. I was devastated. It makes me so sad to think of what could have been.
I, too wanted to leave a post discussing this as the “Where were you when?” moment of my generation. I was a senior in high school. My mom actually called the school office to tell me and they brought me in during lunch to take her call. (That’s how pop culture obsessed my upbringing was, and likely why I read blogs like this, incidentally).
The whole grunge movement was integral to my adolescence. Kurt’s death was a turning point in music, culture, society, and my life that I still can’t completely get my brain around. RIP, Kurt. RIP, Mom, too. I tell people this story all the time to help them understand what a cool lady she was.
Thanks Kelly.
RIP Kurt …as an old memory, sadly
Great post, Kelly!
This makes me very sad, but I’m glad Kurt is free now. I’m happy for him that he transcended.
Kelly I love how you described the task of the artist, spot on!
I was 14, 8th grade, and hanging out in front of my school with some friends when we heard the news. I still picture the exact moment when this date rolls around each year.
Nice post, Kelly.
that was a great post, kelly. really. fucking awesome.
Proof the appeal of this song is universal, here’s a great version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLQ2eh5LfZY
As one that does not believe that Kurt’s death was a suicide, I feel that it is very appropriate to commemorate his life and all that he, Krist and Dave contributed to music in the 90’s.
I do have to say I remember where I was when I heard, a real tragedy. However, last April 5th marked the anniversary of Layne Staly’s passing and it went by unnoticed which made me sad. He was a wonderful man, and is truly missed as well. Seattle produced some of the greatest music but there were casualties of the scene that’s for sure.
I always wondered if being around Courtney didn’t make him go mad too. She’s a… handful on the mind.
let’s not forget shannon hoon, bradley nowell and all the others who died too soon.
That was beautifully said. Thanks for that.
Really well put Kelly:)
God, 15 years ago?! I am really old. I will never forget, when I heard “Smells like teen spirit” for the very first time. My world changed in that very instant, it was never again like before. We all cried our asses of the day he died. We were 16 back then. Rest in peace dude, and thanks for that great piece of art.
15 years?? I know everybody has said it already, but damn, that makes me feel old. And sad.
I was 13 when he died and didn’t start to listen to the radio until a year later…so I don’t have a “I remember where I was” story. At 14, though, I turned Z100 on for the first time, and like plenty of teenagers, became enamoured with Kurt Cobain and Nirvana to the point of obsession.
Thanks for the nice tribute, Kelly.
Beautifully written, very well done. —
“The truth is that we depend upon artists to be the whipping boys for all our inner demons– to feel intensely and confront directly the emotions and frightening parts of the human psyche that the rest of us struggle daily to keep under control or to ignore…
When those battles are lost, the rest of us remain the beneficiaries of their wills, inheriting a legacy of life experiences described vibrantly and succinctly through a lens of concentrated emotion that is at once both out of control and carefully contained in an artistic format– be that literary, visual, or aural.”
Keep up the good work,
Gypsy