Nirvana’s late frontman, Kurt Cobain, holds an immortal legacy in the annals of rock history as the figurehead of grunge music. His innovative work over the late 1980s and ’90s brought the alt-rock genre to the broader global consciousness thanks to his ever-absorbing lyrics and provocative demeanour. Cobain’s tragic suicide in 1994 elevated Nirvana to new peaks of fame with sinister irony, given that fame was a significant factor in the troubled singer’s demise.
Cobain gained much of his songwriting ability from an insatiable thirst for literature, especially material that gave the therapeutic release of spiritual escapism. Like The Beatles, The Doors and Bob Dylan before him, Cobain was particularly enamoured with Beat Generation literature, which included the progressive, creative ideas of William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
On top of this, beard and butter literature and classic rock ethos were more direct, tangible influences, including Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Stooges, R.E.M. and Neil Young, ‘The Godfather of Grunge’. Cobain frequently praised such artists in his interviews and once noted some of their essential records when listing his 50 favourite albums of all time in the early 1990s.
Before his death in 1994, Cbain befriended some of his heroes and alienated others. Famously, he founded a warm connection with his R.E.M. counterpart, Michael Stipe. Towards the end, the Atlanta singer saw that his friend was in a tough spot and tried to help.
In 1994, he wrote the Monster cut ‘Let Me In’ about his vain attempt to help Cobain. “There were a lot of phone calls before that imagined one. [I was] really trying to pull him out of a very, very dark place. We all knew it, and we were doing everything we could to help – but it wasn’t enough. I wrote the lyrics in five minutes and recorded it in as much time. It was our – my – plea to Kurt. Too bad.”
On the other hand, Cobain rubbed Pixies’ frontman Black Francis up the wrong way by supposedly “ripping” off their sound. Following the success of 1991’s Nevermind and its lead single,’ Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Nirvana recalled fears that they had derived too much from Pixies’ associative loud-quiet-loud approach.
During an interview with Reuters in 2013, not long after Pixies had reformed, Francis was asked to pick out his greatest contribution to rock. Francis replied sarcastically: “Being original, influencing Nirvana so they could rip a song. I’ll admit it — if Kurt Cobain’ fessed up to it, fuck it, I’ll agree with it, you ripped us off.”
Of course, Francis’ irritations are somewhat justified, but his sarcasm likely had no malicious intent. Conversely, Cobain could get particularly heated when discussing the artists he didn’t like. As discussed earlier, Cobain was heavily inspired by Beat literature, but that didn’t mean he could get on board with all of his fellow disciples.
While the Nirvana frontman could get on board with The Doors and The Beatles, he had an issue with the hippie era’s strongest proponents, especially Jerry Garcia’s the Grateful Dead. During a photoshoot from which several iconic shots circulated, Cobain wore a personalised T-shirt that brandished the lines, “Punk’s not dead” and “Kill The Grateful Dead”.
In 1992, Cobain once again addressed his issue with hippie culture, landing punches on tie-dye T-shirts, the soft rock drummer Phil Collins and Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. “You know what I hate about rock? I hate tie-dyed T-shirts. I wouldn’t wear a tie-dyed T-shirt unless it was dyed with the urine of Phil Collins and the blood of Jerry Garcia,” the grunge icon quipped.
The only problem Cobain might have encountered in killing Jerry Garcia and his bandmates is that they’d probably be too grateful.
