Thursday · April 06 2006
Kurt Cobain died 12 years ago today. I distinctly remember standing in the train station in Nimes, France with Dan and a girl named Laurie who was in his architecture class and travelling with us. I don't remember if we saw the news on the cover of newspaper or on the television, but I remember being more surprised to learn Cobain killed himself than I am to realize that was 12 whole years ago. I even remember the horde of French high school kids with their gigantic backpacks who were in the train station, presumably on some field trip.
Nirvana is like lemonade for the hot, muggy days of teen social angst.
I wonder if anyone else has thought this too, but I have always believed "Smells like teen spirit" was talking about a deoderent.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is about teenage angst, and apathy. It's about how teenagers were becoming lazy and non-chalant in the early 90's.
The name, however, does come from a brand of deodorant. Around the time that the song was written, Kurt Cobain was dating a girl that had a friend who wrote "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on a wall after he and his girlfriend had been fooling around. Kurt Cobain didn't know that this was reference to the common brand of young women's antiperspirant, but this comment stuck with him.
When Kurt Cobain later learned what "Teen Spirit" was (after the release and immense popularity of the song), he was angry that he had been oblivous to the fact that he'd put a commerical name in Nirvana's music.
True story ;).
I just stumbled onto this blogspot by chance, while I was checking out what people had to say about the 12th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. I don't visit it regularly... so... if you wanna chat it up anymore, you can email me at shopaholic_r@yahoo.ca
Honestly, I remember nothing about what I was doing the day he died, or found out he died. Guess it wasn't that big of deal to me!
Okay the weirdest part of this story is that I didn't know you then, Jason, but I was in France the day he died too. I thought it was in February. I was in Toulouse.
I remember the kid (whose name escapes me) who lived next door to me in the dorm came out of his room to tell me and my friend Eric (we were playing hockey in the hallway) that Kurt Cobain had shot himself. I'd run into that kid at the Nirvana show at W&M Hall a few months earlier, so he knew I liked Nirvana and might be interested.
When I heard the news I was pissed because I had just bought tickets to Lollapalooza, which Nirvana was supposed to headline. Can't remember who took their place. Primus? Beastie Boys?
Ahhh, that brings me back. I don't remember specifically what I was doing at that moment. But, I remember counting the days until Dan was home for good. And at this point, I believe it was one month. What a miserable year that was. It would have been much better if we had email (or even a phone would have been nice).
I was at Penn, at the offices of the school newspaper, when the news came across the "wire" (we didn't have access to the world wide web). Initially, we all thought it was a late April Fool's joke, played by some music-geek journalists with too much time on their hands (and a sick sense of humor). As numerous reports trickled in from all the major news sources, however, we realized it wasn't a joke.
When Kurt died, I was 7 yrs old. I remember that I was playing with my toys under a huge table! and as I was playing I was watching TV. It was about Kurt. It was probably a tributary or something. anyways, my mom n dad were kinda' upset about kurt's death . I remember asking them who's this guy and why he is dead? and my mom and dad explained to briefly. From that moment til' now I feel different about him. not in a bad way. I feel a connection. I dont know how to explain it to u guyz. it's crazy ...
Hey guys,
I was 10 when Kurt died, and I didnt know who he or Nirvana were back then. I discovered Nirvana at the age of 15, 7 years ago. I have just got home (England) from Seattle, where I visited Aberdeen, where Kurt grew up, I went "under the bridge" on the Wiskah River, and among other places, his house on Lake Washington where he died, I was there for the 12th anniversary and it was so moving.
Hey guys,
I was 10 when Kurt died, and I didnt know who he or Nirvana were back then. I discovered Nirvana at the age of 15, 7 years ago. I have just got home (England) from Seattle, where I visited Aberdeen, where Kurt grew up, I went "under the bridge" on the Wiskah River, and among other places, his house on Lake Washington where he died, I was there for the 12th anniversary and it was so moving.
Hey guys,
I was 10 when Kurt died, and I didnt know who he or Nirvana were back then. I discovered Nirvana at the age of 15, 7 years ago. I have just got home (England) from Seattle, where I visited Aberdeen, where Kurt grew up, I went "under the bridge" on the Wiskah River, and among other places, his house on Lake Washington where he died, I was there for the 12th anniversary and it was so moving.