I had been playing guitar for only about 1-2 years at the time Nevermind was released. I was getting frustrated with my lack of progress. I was really into metal (Maiden, Metallica) and Classic Rock (Hendrix, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd), and was trying to learn the guitar parts from those bands.
When Cobain came along, I realized that I didn’t need to be a virtuoso in order to play guitar. No slight to Cobain intended, but it allowed me to realize that guitar playing could be whatever you want it to be. Forever grateful, and forever a Nirvana fan.
One of the biggest things I have learned is from Nirvana and that was "perfection is not necessary and shouldn't even be sought sometimes" what a great group those cats were
Nirvana to me just shows it's almost always songwriting > everything else. It's such fun music to play with a band even if it's way under your technical proficiency. It's old school punk rock on steroids.
I was assistant engineer for their paramount live album and we were losing it in the truck when Novoselic’s track was soloed and he was just randomly hitting notes about 50% of the time. But in the house you couldn’t tell through the wall of noise. Good times!
I’ve been watching them play “Blew” and “School” live recently. Nirvana really nailed their live performances and those songs from Bleach are sooo underappreciated compared to their other tunes
Cobain described Nirvana as “The Knack and Bay City Rollers getting molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath.” (He was also a massive Beatles fan). You got those pop sensibilities with the discordant elements of metal. It’s the ultimate fusion and is extremely cathartic music which, combined with a name like “Nirvana”, reached a pinnacle that will never be seen again. It was a fantastic example of free expression.
I was 23 years old when I was lucky enough to have a cousin who was not into Nirvana...But he knew that I was. And he had just called into our local rock radio station, and won two tickets to Nirvana's In Utero concert tour that was happening that same night here in Southern California. He traded me both tickets for a case of beer. Me and my buddy rushed to go see Nirvana live in concert. We missed the opening band...But arrived just in time to see Kurt take the stage. Best concert ever. It was magical. Best time of my life. Oh yeah...the year was 1993. When Kurt Cobain was found dead I was devastated. It was like losing your newest best friend in the world. Like you I was among the millions of die hard fans who mourned Kurt Cobain's passing, like he was close family. A sad time that was...
Incesticide was probably my favorite album. The crazy avant garde tracks like Aero Zeppelin, Big Long Now, Hairspray Queen, & Mexican Seafood stand out for me.
"Somethin' about just being young, not being afraid, making a tremendous amount of noise with your friends and just not giving a shit" Best quote you've ever had....