Another ludicrous Cobain panegyric...

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Published in the Culture supplement of Britain's Sunday Times, it is unbelievably tiresome. Hand me that revolver, Hermann.

A few choice excerpts:

"... what makes him still matter so much is the power of his songs. It’s a simple enough formula: match the power of punk to the melodic sensibility of the Beatles. But Cobain is the only man who has managed it."

Ferchrissake, even my grandma knows better than that. Has this buffoon never heard of Husker Du? Not to mention that Cobain himself stated that a primary wellspring of inspiration was the Pixies, wherein the blend of guitar noise with melody reached its apotheosis - an achievement yet to be repeated, and certainly not by any of Nirvana's creations.

"... an intensity that led Cobain’s biographer, Charles Cross, to claim that the sentiment of his songs “is clear ... even to someone who doesn’t understand English”."

Actually, his intent is often unclear even to somebody who does understand English. Even in life, Cobain was notorious for the opacity of his lyrics. But wait, here's where it gets funny:

"[Cobain was] I would argue, perhaps the only artist in any medium who has addressed one of the vital issues of the modern Western world: the fact that we can now get what we want so quickly that we no longer have any idea what we need or what our purpose might be."

Half a century's worth of philosophy, thought and commentary swept away in one fell swoop. This paragraph is so, so foolish that I won't even begin to pick it apart. I can't resist mentioning however that one of the very many musical acts who have addressed that same issue enscapsulated it much more succinctly and pointedly than Cobain, and about ten years earlier: "Freedom of choice is what you've got; freedom from choice is what you want."

What's most depressing is the fact that we'll be subjected to nonsense like this at periodic intervals for the next forty years, until the generation of hacks who had their tiny minds blown by Nevermind during their impressionable adolescence finally retire. The only protection for the rest of us may be to try to forget how to read.

― Palomino (Palomino), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 12:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Unbold!

― Palomino (Palomino), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

"it is unbelievably tiresome"

[quotes whole unbelievably tiresome thing]

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Who wrote this?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

> [quotes whole unbelievably tiresome thing]

Actually, there's lots more where that came from.

> Who wrote this?

Mark Edwards

― Palomino (Palomino), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

"... an intensity that led Cobain’s biographer, Charles Cross, to claim that the sentiment of his songs “is clear ... even to someone who doesn’t understand English”."

Actually, his intent is often unclear even to somebody who does understand English.

Re-read the excerpt: you don't need to understand the words to know what Cobain is conveying. I can understand you don't agree, but that excerpt was not wrong in my opinion.

― jesus nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I can actually tolerate the hyperbole -- but not the exclusivity ... the dumbest thing in there is "Cobain is the ONLY man who has managed [to blend punk with pop]". If he'd said that Cobain did it better than anyone else, well, OK, that can be sensibly argued (although not by me). But to say that he was the only person EVER to do this (ignoring Husker, Pixies, Blondie, Smashing Pumpkins, JAMC, a trillion others) is completely ludicrous and I have no idea where this Edwards guy gets off writing about music in a high school newspaper, let alone a major British paper.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Writing on pop musick in thee british broadsheets can be quite terrible sometimes. That said, I had a look @ that comic book bio ov kurdt cobain that they're selling in hmv, and compared to that (which is awful beyond yr wildest imaginings) thee extract posted above is actually not that bad!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Who's his audience, though? They don't have Husker Du records.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, but poor writing is poor writing. Nobody expects him to preface his story with an overview of Husker Du and the Raincoats, but oversimplifying Cobain's place in music history like that doesn't do anybody any good. This article is supposed to be a piece of non-fiction.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah that was an awful article

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I read a bit of that graphic novel in Fopp the other day. I felt pretty soiled

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

It would've been better if it had been a Ludacris Cobain panegyric.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

When will the world move on?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

NEVER! GRUNGE 4-EVA!!!

flyin' the flannel,
M@tt

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"When will the world move on?"

Whenever another rock star who is propelled by timing and good luck (and maybe, just maybe, talent?) to the height of influence for a while dies tragically. Then they'll move on to him/her (who am I kidding, him).

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

This article has more to do with the writer's clearly parameterless idiocy and less to do with Kurt Cobain. But still....get a fucking grip.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"...get a fucking grip."

Dude, I wasn't responding angrily to your "when will the world move on" question, I was trying to say that the reason the press focuses on Cobain's death all the time is he was popular musician who died at the height of his fame and influence. The press eats that shit up. He was probably the last major rock star to die that way, so until it happens to another guy like him they're gonna beat it into the ground. I mean, even I don't like all this crap either and I'm a huge Nirvana fan.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

But you're right about the article.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

i wasn't directing my "get a fucking grip" comment at you, but rather at the writer and the rest of the frothing nation of Kurt's graveside groupies.

Don't call me "dude", though. That gets my oft-gotten goat.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, du...I mean, yeah, cool.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

He was probably the last major rock star to die that way

Wrong.

http://members.aol.com/mstyle9/wow2.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex, do you really think the music you listen to is helping you with that anger management problem?

― ..., Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant "at the height of fame". No offense meant to Ms. Williams, but when she killed herself she was toiling in relative obscurity.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I manage my anger fine, thanks very much. Anger is an energy, after all. What's your excuse?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Try total obscurity.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant "at the height of fame"

Well, then, there's Hide Matsumoto of Japan.

http://www.geocities.com/hazerumisao/hide-chan/hide.jpg

Massively popular in his native Japan. Member of Saver Tiger, X, X Japan, hide with Spread Beaver, and Zilch (featuring Raven of Killing Joke). Found dead early on the morning of May 2, 1998, sitting up against the door to his apartment, with one end of a towel wrapped around his neck, and the other tied to the doorknob. Using the traces of alcohol that they found in his system, authorities concluded that he had died drunk. He was 33.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah I can't understand why he's not as lionized as Cobain by English speaking critics.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.hotshotdigital.com/WellAlwaysRemember.4/MichaelHutchence.Images/mike2.jpg

"WHERE'S MOI PARADE?"

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 08:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Suicide Brunette.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 08:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Elegantly wasted.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

English speaking critics should probably realize there's a world beyond the US and the UK.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 31 March 2004 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Those ethnocentric bastards, trying to define "US and UK pop culture" as things that are culturally popular in the US and UK!

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 31 March 2004 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Look, like it or not, hiDe was a major rock star who killed himself after ol' Kurt. Fly your ass over to Japan and the fallout from his demise will make Kurt's stunt seem insignificant

The New York Times ran the following obituary on May 18, 1998: DIED. HIDETO MATSUMOTO, 33, idolized, ultra-punk former lead guitarist of the defunct group X Japan, after hanging himself; in Tokyo. Following a decade of eclat with the rockers, who broke up in December, "hide" pursed a solo career to the rapture of fans, 25,000 of whom thronged to his funeral. The grieving swarm formed a line more than 2 km long to lay flowers. Though former band members pleaded with fans not to copy the suicide, by week's end, at least three had decided they could not live without him. -taken from: http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/ilyttb/hideinfo.html

http://www.geocities.com/ainodaisuke/artists/hide3.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 1 April 2004 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

English speaking critics should probably realize there's a world beyond the US and the UK.

OTM

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Thursday, 1 April 2004 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I hope there are ludicrous panegyrics to Aaliyah in 2011, but sadly, though she was a pop star who was propelled by timing and good luck (and maybe, just maybe, talent?) to the height of influence for a while and then died tragically, I can't see it happening.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 1 April 2004 04:54 (twenty-two years ago)

ha ha. fery vunny.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 1 April 2004 05:45 (twenty-two years ago)

SPEAK ENGLISH OR DIE!!!!

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 1 April 2004 05:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish I could raise Cobain from the dead, really I do, because maybe some of these people would just shut the fuck up about this asshole's suicide. Then again that would just confirm their belief that he's the Messiah, so forget that idea.

I don't even personally know anyone who still listens to Nirvana, why do these writers tell me to get all weepy and light a candle and wear black and wallow in how much music sucks because He killed Himself?

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 1 April 2004 05:47 (twenty-two years ago)

True enough (though I still like Nirvana), but this thread is getting old. Let's party! Woo-hoo! *strips naked and air guitars to "in Bloom"*

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 1 April 2004 05:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm a fan of Kurt's, but not of the industry around him. Anyway, what I don't understand is if so many rock journos loved and were inspired by Kurt, a) why were they writing his obit months in advance and trashing Nirvana as one album wonders and B) why weren't any of the copy cat suicides journos? Now then I'd believe in their dedication.

― queen G (nee Onassis), Thursday, 1 April 2004 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

English speaking critics should probably realize there's a world beyond the US and the UK.
Maybe you should include the fans, hence the underexposure of Hide. The critics are writing for fans/readers and I don't think both (a few excepting) know much about Hide.

― jesus nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 1 April 2004 12:35 (twenty-two years ago)

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