kleph
23-03-2006, 02:58 AM
It is really hard to overstate the importance of Nirvana’s Nevermind but so much absolute dreck followed in its wake that it’s tough to look at it without the haze of mediocrity that gets in the way. In one sense there is nothing new here. Wild flailing guitars have been around for decades, grunge, as a movement, had already had it’s glorious day in the indie sun and suburban teen angst has been fueling Rock n' Roll since the 50's at least.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/nirvanadave_bananas_1991_thumb.jpgBut in another sense, there is nothing here like anything that had gone before. There is a strange cataclysmic glory in the self-hatred, nihilistic, fuck-it-all fury Nirvana found a way to tap into. Not only did that include all those other folks wearing flannel and sipping dark beer in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s but everyone.
Despite the attraction of the chaos, the heart and soul of Nevermind is in the songwriting. Cobain once proclaimed he didn’t want Nirvana to be anything more than a Cheap Trick for the 90s. This is actually sort of prophetic. Cheap Trick made a long career of three-chord and a blaze of glory music that was bankable because they knew the heart and soul of it all was a decently written pop song – no matter what kind of guitar pyrotechnics or sexy lead singer you got to look good on the cover.
While his frantic guitar work mustered a barely contained fury that set the teenyboppers into a frenzy it was matched lick for lick by bassist Chris Novoselic. The one-two power punch Cobain could structure a song around was electrifying due to Novoselic’s right hook of a bass that struck like thunder.
Dave Grohl was the missing piece to the Nirvana puzzle in the same way Ringo proved to be for the Beatles. He provided rock solid base and damn near perfect time for the rest of the fury to blaze around. When you are dealing with forces as powerful as this, its damn easy to tip off the lip of the precipice into chaos. Grohl insured that never happened – musically, at least.
A lot has been made of the lyrics themselves but it is my contention this is much ado about nothing. Cobain always was smart enough to keep himself from being pinned down because he understood the personal nature of the music to the listener. How you interpret the song is what is important and he wrote lyrics that are almost infinitely interpretable. Only early R.E.M. is more lyrically difficult to pin down and that’s because you can’t understand what the hell Michael Stipe is saying.
What really put the meat in the seat with Nevermind was Cobain's otherworldly sense for a hook and an intuitive sense of how to compose a lingering lull followed by a punch-in-the-face attack that never failed to snap you completely to attention. Face it, when you strip away the exegisis and idol worship this is power-chord rock and a damn good take on it to boot. And producer Butch Vig knew instinctively how to set the proceedings for maximum effect.
This was a great album. No question. But nobody expected it to be the first shot of the revolution. Particularly since it really wasn't that revolutionary. Ever since the implosion of punk in the late 1970s there had been an alternative scene out there cared for by local live venues, college radio and independent record labels. The big boys didn’t see it as worth messing with and that was fine by us.
Nirvana, which emerged from that glorious indie gumbo, ended all that. The cover art for Nevermind was originally an in-joke but it turned out to be, first, prophetic and then iconic. The Trouser Press notes that, “Nevermind turned the '90s — for better and much worse — into the "alternative" decade, a time when no musical exponent was presumed too outlandish for commercial consideration.”
Which, for many like myself - weaned on the fertile and unrecognized glory of alternative music for so long we assumed it would always be there - it was the beginning and the end. Suddenly all the bands I loved and held dear for so long were making it big. And just as suddenly they were all falling apart. Suddenly going to shows where that immediacy of smelling the guitarists BO while taking a stage dive was forever lost to being mushed to death in a crowd while fratboys played their testosterone-fueled reindeer games in the mosh pits.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/dallas_jpg_589191.jpgI saw Nirvana in Dallas a few months after this record came out in a little club called Trees. It was a usual gig. A couple hundred people, too much bar smoke and a lot of folks who just were looking for something to do on a weekday night for $8. The band gave a rip roaring good show and even capped it with Cobain smashing his guitar into the head of one of the bouncers. It was definately worth the hangover I had in class the next day but it wasn't the pivot point for my life musically or otherwise.
But, two months later, ever seeing the band – or any band like them – in that type of situation was gone. Nirvana tickets went for $40 at least and you might be able to make out the band on the big screen. Spots up close were reserved for important folks who got the gratis tickets from the label. The industry had swallowed them whole. And they were only the first.
In the end you can’t blame the band for this. You can only judge them on the music they produced. Who they married, what follow-up band they formed, what political cause they joined – none of that matters. What matters is the 12 songs on the album and how they stand up on their own. . .
Well, sixteen years later, I have to say they are doing just fucking fine, thank you very much.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/nirvanadave_bananas_1991_thumb.jpgBut in another sense, there is nothing here like anything that had gone before. There is a strange cataclysmic glory in the self-hatred, nihilistic, fuck-it-all fury Nirvana found a way to tap into. Not only did that include all those other folks wearing flannel and sipping dark beer in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s but everyone.
Despite the attraction of the chaos, the heart and soul of Nevermind is in the songwriting. Cobain once proclaimed he didn’t want Nirvana to be anything more than a Cheap Trick for the 90s. This is actually sort of prophetic. Cheap Trick made a long career of three-chord and a blaze of glory music that was bankable because they knew the heart and soul of it all was a decently written pop song – no matter what kind of guitar pyrotechnics or sexy lead singer you got to look good on the cover.
While his frantic guitar work mustered a barely contained fury that set the teenyboppers into a frenzy it was matched lick for lick by bassist Chris Novoselic. The one-two power punch Cobain could structure a song around was electrifying due to Novoselic’s right hook of a bass that struck like thunder.
Dave Grohl was the missing piece to the Nirvana puzzle in the same way Ringo proved to be for the Beatles. He provided rock solid base and damn near perfect time for the rest of the fury to blaze around. When you are dealing with forces as powerful as this, its damn easy to tip off the lip of the precipice into chaos. Grohl insured that never happened – musically, at least.
A lot has been made of the lyrics themselves but it is my contention this is much ado about nothing. Cobain always was smart enough to keep himself from being pinned down because he understood the personal nature of the music to the listener. How you interpret the song is what is important and he wrote lyrics that are almost infinitely interpretable. Only early R.E.M. is more lyrically difficult to pin down and that’s because you can’t understand what the hell Michael Stipe is saying.
What really put the meat in the seat with Nevermind was Cobain's otherworldly sense for a hook and an intuitive sense of how to compose a lingering lull followed by a punch-in-the-face attack that never failed to snap you completely to attention. Face it, when you strip away the exegisis and idol worship this is power-chord rock and a damn good take on it to boot. And producer Butch Vig knew instinctively how to set the proceedings for maximum effect.
This was a great album. No question. But nobody expected it to be the first shot of the revolution. Particularly since it really wasn't that revolutionary. Ever since the implosion of punk in the late 1970s there had been an alternative scene out there cared for by local live venues, college radio and independent record labels. The big boys didn’t see it as worth messing with and that was fine by us.
Nirvana, which emerged from that glorious indie gumbo, ended all that. The cover art for Nevermind was originally an in-joke but it turned out to be, first, prophetic and then iconic. The Trouser Press notes that, “Nevermind turned the '90s — for better and much worse — into the "alternative" decade, a time when no musical exponent was presumed too outlandish for commercial consideration.”
Which, for many like myself - weaned on the fertile and unrecognized glory of alternative music for so long we assumed it would always be there - it was the beginning and the end. Suddenly all the bands I loved and held dear for so long were making it big. And just as suddenly they were all falling apart. Suddenly going to shows where that immediacy of smelling the guitarists BO while taking a stage dive was forever lost to being mushed to death in a crowd while fratboys played their testosterone-fueled reindeer games in the mosh pits.
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/2/0/1/dallas_jpg_589191.jpgI saw Nirvana in Dallas a few months after this record came out in a little club called Trees. It was a usual gig. A couple hundred people, too much bar smoke and a lot of folks who just were looking for something to do on a weekday night for $8. The band gave a rip roaring good show and even capped it with Cobain smashing his guitar into the head of one of the bouncers. It was definately worth the hangover I had in class the next day but it wasn't the pivot point for my life musically or otherwise.
But, two months later, ever seeing the band – or any band like them – in that type of situation was gone. Nirvana tickets went for $40 at least and you might be able to make out the band on the big screen. Spots up close were reserved for important folks who got the gratis tickets from the label. The industry had swallowed them whole. And they were only the first.
In the end you can’t blame the band for this. You can only judge them on the music they produced. Who they married, what follow-up band they formed, what political cause they joined – none of that matters. What matters is the 12 songs on the album and how they stand up on their own. . .
Well, sixteen years later, I have to say they are doing just fucking fine, thank you very much.