"I wish Kurt Cobain was still around to make music and confront George Bush. Can you imagine the song he would have written about reality TV?"

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Vernon Reed on Kurt Cobain in the newest rolling stone.

reactions?

― JD from CDepot, Monday, 18 April 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

Vernon Reid is a neat guitar player, but ...

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 18 April 2005 23:51 (twenty years ago)

But have you heard what Krist Novaselic has to say about Corey Glover in the new Spin?

― Waking Up Onstage at Jumbo's (Bent Over at the Arclight), Monday, 18 April 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

I'd wager that,were he still alive, he'd be on the next Season of Surreal Life.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Monday, 18 April 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

Kurdt's reaction to Chyna would have been worth seeing....

― kingfish, Monday, 18 April 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

I prefer it if Bill Hicks were still alive. I'd guess he'd be doing Lewis Black's part on The Daily Show. Either that or he'd have found another way to kill himself.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Monday, 18 April 2005 23:56 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I can imagine: it'd be as muddled, obscure, and catchy as any Nirvana tune you care to name. Anyone who thinks Cobain was, I dunno, Gang of Four or Linton Kwesi Johnson is a scentless apprentice.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 18 April 2005 23:59 (twenty years ago)

i think what really strikes me is that i think he already wrote a song about reality TV, and its called "Smells like Teen Spirit".

― JD from CDepot, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

And all this time I thought Vernon Reid was a pretty sharp guy......oh well.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:01 (twenty years ago)

hell I am curious what kind of role Kurt Cobain would have played in music culture, whether he would have pulled a Vedder or what, but um...songs about reality TV...umm...

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

As little respect as I have for dear, departed Kurt -- I'd like to think that EVEN HE wouldn't have wasted his time singing about the lamentable stain on the underwear of pop culture that is reality tv.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:07 (twenty years ago)

Sleater-Kinney does on the new album. One of the best tracks is tainted by some line like "Reality is now your TV set" or whatever. Love it when Sleater-Kinney sings to the people who don't listen to Sleater-Kinney.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

hahaha OTM miccio and Alex, as usual

― JD from CDepot, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

he would've faded away (in my eyes at least).

― Rocker For Light (on a Bad Brains kick) (Eleventy-Twelve), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:42 (twenty years ago)

Probably more metaphors about babies and guns.

But, you know, about reality TV

― Christopher R. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:43 (twenty years ago)

I'd imagine Kurdt'd be a little more miffed at the whoring of every piece of looseleaf paper he ever wiped his ass with than at Nanny: 911 if he were to Lazarize...

― PB, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

I'd wager that,were he still alive, he'd be on the next Season of Surreal Life.

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 03:08 (twenty years ago)

Actually, by now Kurt would be getting produced by Jon Brion and singing uncredited backup on "Leaving New York."

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

Kurt Cobain attempting to "confront George Bush" through music would be kind of like me trying to confront Shaquille O'Neal by playing NBA Live.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 03:19 (twenty years ago)

what about NBA Jam? Would that work?

"HE'S ON FIRE!"

― kingfish maximum overdrunk (Kingfish), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 03:41 (twenty years ago)

Only if I got to be big-head Kurt.

Actually, you really could play that game as Clinton and Gore.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 03:50 (twenty years ago)

If Kurt was still around we'd have two more albums about how he wants to kill himself.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

If Kurt was all around we wouldn't be having these inane debates, which is probably the biggest tragedy of them all.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 05:33 (twenty years ago)

Bush and Reality TV: Cobain had a legendary sense of proportion.

― N_RQ, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

kurt would have gotten out of the spotlight and formed a noizy pigfuck band with other embittered male rockers.

― brody the country girl dalle (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 11:15 (twenty years ago)

doesn't really make sense...its not like he confronted the first Bush..though he commented on politics, this was limited to interviews, and it was more cynical apathy than anything...definetely not the type of artist to write a politically charged anthem

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

I'd wager that,were he still alive, he'd be on the next Season of Surreal Life

oh that's bullshit and you know it.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:44 (twenty years ago)

Actually, by now Kurt would be getting produced by Jon Brion and singing uncredited backup on "Leaving New York."

This seems the most plausible of what's listed, actually. Rumors abound that he was about to divorce Love and start making music on a pipe organ or something.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:46 (twenty years ago)

He was talking about how much he loved recent REM and all that. (Isn't that why Scott Litt remixed the two In Utero singles?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:48 (twenty years ago)

yeah I could see that...either that or him just deciding to retreat into indie land again, making quirky little Sebadoh type stuff at home or something...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:50 (twenty years ago)

If he was alive today he'd been Evan Dando.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

He was talking about how much he loved recent REM and all that. (Isn't that why Scott Litt remixed the two In Utero singles?)
-- Ned Raggett (ne...), April 19th, 2005.

Automatic for the People was the last album he listened to before he shot himself in the head.

― PB, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

If he was alive today he'd been Axl Rose.

fixed.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

i DO wish GG Allen was around to confront Bush. That would be just fantastic.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

GG was probably a republican though.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

first i thought this thread was about kurt cobain confronting the band Bush.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

I've never thought that Kurt Cobain was a topical sort of writer like that. He never seemed to address the various plagues-of-the-moment, nor did he seem particularly outspoken in his political views, at least as far as soapboxing goes. That was more Krist Novoselic's approach. Sure Kurt Cobain talked about racism, sexism, homophobia, and narrow-mindedness, but his approach never seemed to be as overt as Vernon Reid is making it sound.

― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

Other topics that would have whipped Cobain into a songwriting frenzy:

1) Blogs
2) Globalization
3) The "Clear Skies" act and the "Healthy Forest" initiative.
4) Terri Schiavo

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

5) What the fuck does someone have to do to get a waitress around here?

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

6) the Taco Bell value menu

Given how awkwardly & painfully topical a good chunk of Living Colour's ouevre is (from what I remember - set my ass straight if I'm straying from the flock), I'm not that surprised that VR is pining for the lucid and socially significant songcraft of KC. But, geez, mang, stop living in the past & write the damn songs yrself, if you think something needs to be said about El Bushido or the lack of worthwhile sitcoms on network television.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

Can you imagine the song he would have written about reality TV?

This will be ringing in my head for years to come

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 19 April 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

"I Hate Jerri and Want Her to Die"

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

The Goons- Walking Backwards For Christ~~mas~~

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

(wrong thread)

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Kurt Cobain attempting to "confront George Bush" through music would be kind of like me trying to confront Shaquille O'Neal by playing NBA Live.
-- Hurting (Hurtingchie...), April 19th, 2005.

I had coffee in my mouth when I read this, and I laughed/coughed/choked so hard that people actually came over and asked if I was all right.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

That's because you're a embittered Pitchfork relic.

― maria b (maria b), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure I get what you mean by that.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

LET THE BEEF COOK!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 21:36 (twenty years ago)

http://www.beefyandlamby.co.uk/images/roadshow/manchester_roadshow.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

That's what I meant.

― maria b (maria b), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

i am sure that kurt would have cheerily supported bush. who wouldn't want to be seen as an american patriot?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/sexymollusk/kurtpark.jpg

― latebloomer: strawman knockdowner (latebloomer), Tuesday, 19 April 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

I sometimes imagine what would've happened if Damon Albarn had killed himself after the release of Parklife and Cobain had not killed himself. Would we be sitting her today talking about grunge as being the bedwetting saga that it was and would we be reading about how Albarn spoke for a generation of lost British kids?

― Cunga (Cunga), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 05:51 (twenty years ago)

bill hicks would have cornholed kurt.

― kacka thompson (kacka), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 05:52 (twenty years ago)

kurt would never sing about sunshine again, nope.

― kacka thompson (kacka), Wednesday, 20 April 2005 05:53 (twenty years ago)

In Utero was one of those records you can't really follow up. All his talk about collaborating with REM or wanting to become a Great American Songwriter ala Johnny Cash indicate that he was going to follow the same path as the Manics after the Holy Bible and "go rubbish".

Cunga's on the money. There's actually an old story - probably put about by the guitarist himself - that when Noel Gallagher went AWOL on tour in Germany during the mania of '96 he found himself perched on the edge of a bridge debating whether to end it all.

Fast forward to the alternative present where Oasis burned out after two albums and Cobain pulled through what would surely be hundreds of suicide attempts by now...It's depressing, but we'd just be stuck with a cult of Doomsday Mods and an increasingly-ignored singer songwriter. One whose hair had fallen out from a decade of peroxide torture.

― DG Jones (D.G. Jones), Thursday, 21 April 2005 09:39 (twenty years ago)

Didn't Kurt already write about feeding tubes?

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Thursday, 21 April 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

maybe in Britain, but Albarn didn't mean shit in the U.S....he would have been like Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon or something like that in terms of being remembered....Maybe grunge meant alot more here than in Britain, I dunno....Oasis here are just another alt rock 90s band with a couple of hits that people remember...Gin Blossoms UK.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 21 April 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

but Albarn didn't mean shit in the U.S....and continues not to.

I don't think people would've been that upset, as Albarn's lyrics weren't really the stuff of teenage deification like Kurt's were. Kurt's melodramatic suicide was almost an inevitable and fittingly cliched end to his cylce. Unlike Kurt, Damon seems to genuinely handle and enjoy fame, so his suicide would've been rather out of character

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 April 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

That South Park picture annoys me on a very geeky level--that's a right-handed guitar, and Cobain famously "played it left-hand."

Stuff like that quote reminds me how much death is a good career move: John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Hendrix, Janis, Marley--would you really want these people around being old, fat, bald, etc., and going downhill? No. I think we want them frozen in glory with potential still ahead of them.

(And in the cases of Jim Morrison and Elvis P., you could argue that they died late, having already begun to jump the shark.)

― The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 21 April 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

Is it ever really at all effective when a pop star, especially one whose appeal is obviously mainly lefties, "confronts" George Bush? I mean at least when the Dixie Chicks did it, albeit in a very indirect way, they were taking a risk.

At the recent Robyn Hitchcock show at Southpaw, Robyn came up with some reasonably witty lines about the neo-cons, but it was still obviously pandering to the crowd and going for an easy cheer.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 22 April 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

Obviousness is despicable, but not as despicable as conservatism.

― Failin Huxley (noodle vague), Friday, 22 April 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

I never said it was despicable, just ineffectual.

― Hurting (Hurting), Friday, 22 April 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

Conor Oberst evidently said something to a Texan crowd recently about how most Texans would rather be out "roping cattle and raping Indians" than be at a Bright Eyes show.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 22 April 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

Who wouldn't?

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 22 April 2005 07:18 (twenty years ago)

(actually, i kind of like some of the songs on those 2 latest conor discs. he's found his way around a hook. his words are still very silly and serious, but i don't hate the kid.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 22 April 2005 07:25 (twenty years ago)

i think what really strikes me is that i think he already wrote a song about reality TV, and its called "Smells like Teen Spirit".

I thought this was about Kathleen Hanna's deodorant?

― Jimmy Mod Knows You Eat Your Own Farts (ModJ), Friday, 22 April 2005 10:07 (twenty years ago)

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