Kurt Cobain is dead?

Sam Quentin

Please forgive and I'm not ripping the píss... But can someone please explain the fascination with the death of Kurt Cobain..ok ok I know you think I'm being an áss-hole to even ask such a question, I know that's what some/a lot of you are thinking,but I'm deadly serious, it's been annoying me for a long time now.. I compare it to if Paul Weller or Suggs had died when I was 'out & about' the difference being I can't imagine any of us dwelling on it for so long and maybe not even crying, because I was Ska kinda Mod loved them all... Anyway enough about me. So what is the fascination. Honestly please explain. Thank You.

PsychoPete

Yes he is

StupidLikeAFox

Alan Partridge : So, who's your favourite singer, then?

Ben : Oh, uh, anything really, you know... Frank Sinatra. Kurt Cobain.

Alan Partridge : Who's he?

Ben : Nirvana. Blew his head off with a gun.

Alan Partridge : Why?

Ben : He was depressed.

Alan Partridge : Why, were they not very good?

Ben : No, they were great.

Alan Partridge : Someone should have told him

Temptamperu

Probably cause he brought grunge rock into popularity.

Sam Quentin

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Alan Partridge : So, who's your favourite singer, then?

Ben : Oh, uh, anything really, you know... Frank Sinatra. Kurt Cobain.

Alan Partridge : Who's he?

Ben : Nirvana. Blew his head off with a gun.

Alan Partridge : Why?

Ben : He was depressed.

Alan Partridge : Why, were they not very good?

Ben : No, they were great.

Alan Partridge : Someone should have told him

Ok ok but why do they talk about his death so much..

27 Club, frozen in youth, adonis forever, etc...

punisher5112

Aviici is dead too.... It happens more then one would think and you would wonder.... They had it all fame, money and whatever they wanted.... Won't say friends because they seem to come out of the woodwork when one has money.

splashuum

He once gigged in a small pub in Cork

Notdeco

Cos his gf killed him and framed it like a suicide...

Sam Quentin

Did he take drugs?

Sam Quentin

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Ok ok but why do they talk about his death so much..

Same reason why people talk about other influential musicians.

People still talk about Rory Gallagher.

I find his music infinitely less enjoyable than Nirvana's.

Music is subjective though. So you won't get a definitive answer.

As with all art.

Sam Quentin

Notdeco wrote: »

Cos his gf killed him and framed it like a suicide...

Right ok fair enough...but why the fascination?

Sam Quentin

I want to make it clear once again. I'm not extracting the Michael

Joeseph Balls

splashuum wrote: »

He once gigged in a small pub in Cork

Ancestors were from Cork I believe, which he took an interest in. The display from his family in Newbridge Silverware was lovely. They kept a lot of stuff belonging to him.

MoonUnit75

I think it’s partly because he was such an anti-hero at a time when ‘rock stars’ of the late 80s and early 90s thought they were gods, because they were treated like that. All big production with a slick, polished image and a kind of mystique like they weren’t like normal people. Kurt was like that odd kid in school who listened to 70s Norwegian punk and didn’t make a big deal about going out of their way to be a misfit.

It was also a time when pop music culture was dominated by hip-hop and rave. Nirvana were like a direct kick in the balls on behalf of everyone that hated that scene. Nirvana gave those people a cultural scene to call their own. Then there’s the tragic ‘romantic poet’ thing with this quiet and intense guy who never felt comfortable with all the fame and then died young.

FintanMcluskey

punisher5112 wrote: »

Aviici is dead too.... It happens more then one would think and you would wonder.... They had it all fame, money and whatever they wanted.... Won't say friends because they seem to come out of the woodwork when one has money.

Lack of distraction I think, if I left the hamster wheel of daily life and my thoughts took over **** knows what I'd do

screamer

He captured angst and turmoil in his music that teenagers just identified with. The music was just something totally different. Nirvana were massive, everyone everywhere knew their music, and they were at the pinnacle of their career when out of the blue he killed himself. It’s one of those moments in your life, that if you were around for you’ll never forget. I remember people in school being absolutely devastated by his death. But to this day, to my generation at least, you turn on that music and you are back to those teenage years again. He had so much talent and so much promise, and just like that it was gone but the music lives on and it’s as good today as it was almost 30 years ago.

Sam Quentin

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Right ok fair enough...but why the fascination?

What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery? - Chief Wiggam

Probably because he was one of the most inspirational and genre defining artists of his time.

It's more intriguing as to why you can't figure it out for yourself.

Rothko

splashuum wrote: »

He once gigged in a small pub in Cork

Sir Henry's

Played there as a support act to Sonic Youth. Oh, if I had a time machine that would surely be one of the gigs I'd like to go back to and visit.

Rothko

The fascination with his death has to do with the fact that he died so young and that his death is surrounded in mystery. A lot of people think that he was murdered and that Courtney Love had something to do with it. Not me, though. I think it was a straightforward case of suicide.

o1s1n

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Right ok fair enough...but why the fascination?

Why the fascination with anything?

Sam Quentin

MoonUnit75 wrote: »

I think it’s partly because he was such an anti-hero at a time when ‘rock stars’ of the late 80s and early 90s thought they were gods, because they were treated like that. All big production with a slick, polished image and a kind of mystique like they weren’t like normal people. Kurt was like that odd kid in school who listened to 70s Norwegian punk and didn’t make a big deal about going out of their way to be a misfit.

It was also a time when pop music culture was dominated by hip-hop and rave. Nirvana were like a direct kick in the balls on behalf of everyone that hated that scene. Nirvana gave those people a cultural scene to call their own. Then there’s the tragic ‘romantic poet’ thing with this quiet and intense guy who never felt comfortable with all the fame and then died young.

Well I suppose that explains it. But rave and pop and even Ska/Mod were a million times better than that stuff in the 80s early 90s.. so basically it was kinda crap
emmmm not popular or not as popular!?

Gregor Samsa

Probably difficult to understand it now, looking back on an event that happened 26 years ago, but I remember the day after he died, there were crowds of Nirvana fans gathered at the plaza around the Central Bank on Dame St. I certainly wasn’t one of them, but there aren’t many cultural figures that can invoke that kind of spontaneous reaction.

punisher5112

FintanMcluskey wrote: »

Lack of distraction I think, if I left the hamster wheel of daily life and my thoughts took over **** knows what I'd do

Tough one alright but seriously you could get up to anything you'd have that much money....

screamer

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Well I suppose that explains it. But rave and pop and even Ska/Mod were a million times better than that stuff in the 80s early 90s.. so basically it was kinda crap
emmmm not popular or not as popular!?

Says you, there’s a helluva lot of people who’d disagree. To each their own, Kurt was an icon in his day to a lot of people.

MoonUnit75

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Well I suppose that explains it. But rave and pop and even Ska/Mod were a million times better than that stuff in the 80s early 90s.. so basically it was kinda crap
emmmm not popular or not as popular!?

Yeah I think some ska/mod stuff was great, but it had a very distinct ‘working class’ ethos whereas even disaffected middle class and rich kids could directly relate to Kurt Cobain/Nirvana’s focus on personal angst and alienation. So grunge had a kind of universal appeal that other genres didn’t.

dasdog

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Did he take drugs?

You've go to be trolling. He was a full on smack head.

Church on Tuesday

Deleted User wrote: »

27 Club, frozen in youth, adonis forever, etc...

And supremely talented and a counter culture figurehead.

I once had an interesting discussion about Nirvana with some randomner on here who reckoned they were not all that, very odd; give Nevermind a spin right now and if you are not moving to it then frankly you are dead inside.

Thou

Difficult to sum this up, are you talking about fans of his music or people who might be talking about it when referencing something in popular culture, some context might help.
Nirvana were already massive before he killed himself but his fame and their music went into a different stratosphere after he committed suicide. His music resonated with a generation of music fans. Nirvana were the epitome of the 90s he was the voice of a disaffected youth people related to Nirvanas music on a deep level, suicide is shocking, a gun to the head when you had the world at your feet even moreso. It affected me at the time as a huge fan of the band and as a teenager of that era who had a relatively difficult upbringing. Cobain for many was a representation of the struggles that life could throw at you at that time, people really loved the music, without it life would have been alot duller, Cobain was a huge loss.

Zaph

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Well I suppose that explains it. But rave and pop and even Ska/Mod were a million times better than that stuff in the 80s early 90s.. so basically it was kinda crap
emmmm not popular or not as popular!?

It's a bit of a stretch to describe Nirvana as not popular - they were the defining band of grunge, in the same way that Madness were the defining band of the late 70s ska revival. The difference being that Nirvana had a worldwide following, unlike Madness who were mainly popular in the UK and Europe, so the death of the lead singer at such an early age is going to be much bigger news than if Suggs died.

But really you could ask the question about any celebrity death. For example, why was the death of Michael Jackson such a big deal? Personally I wouldn't have crossed the road to see him for free, but he had a massive fanbase, so it was inevitable that it would be a big deal. Kurt Cobain was simply the King of Grunge, his genre's equivalent of MJ, so that's why his death, particularly given his young age and the circumstances, continues to fascinate people.

Hotblack Desiato

Rothko wrote: »

Sir Henry's

Played there as a support act to Sonic Youth. Oh, if I had a time machine that would surely be one of the gigs I'd like to go back to and visit.

I saw them both the following night in the Top Hat if that's any good to ya

Almost stole the show... and I was and still am a massive SY fan.

s1ippy

https://liveforlivemusic.com/features/kurt-cobain-20th-anniversary-death-l4lm/

100% Courtney Love murdered him.

-obviously forged "suicide" note
-x3 the lethal amount of heroin in his system
-nitrates not concentrated on his hands after firing shotgun
-the biggest reason: the prenuptial agreement they signed meant that Love stood to lose a fortune if they got divorced because when they got married it looked like Hole was going to be huge but she was unremarkable trash whereas he was a visionary who revolutionised music

It was investigated as a suicide from the jump instead of presumed murder because she rang the police pretending to be his mom when he went "missing" and told them he was "suicidal" and had a shotgun.

The door to the room he was found in was locked with a latch that would close behind the person exiting

Sam Quentin

I kinda get it now. Thanks for all the replies.
Everyone to their own I suppose, Everyone to their own.

Hotblack Desiato

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

And supremely talented and a counter culture figurehead.

I once had an interesting discussion about Nirvana with some randomner on here who reckoned they were not all that, very odd; give Nevermind a spin right now and if you are not moving to it then frankly you are dead inside.

Bleach is better though. Both in terms of its rawness and the songwriting.

I mean, I loved Nevermind at the time but it's just too overproduced and some lyrics or indeed entire songs are trite filler.

Church on Tuesday

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Bleach is better though. Both in terms of its rawness and the songwriting.

I mean, I loved Nevermind at the time but it's just too overproduced and some lyrics or indeed entire songs are trite filler.

In Utero is prob better than both

mistersifter

Deleted User wrote: »

What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery? - Chief Wiggam..

thank you for reminding me of this! :D:D:D:D

Sam Quentin

Sam Quentin wrote: »

Well I suppose that explains it. But rave and pop and even Ska/Mod were a million times better than that stuff in the 80s early 90s.. so basically it was kinda crap
emmmm not popular or not as popular!?

Yuu are taking the Michael

Gentleman Off The Pitch

MoonUnit75 wrote: »

...

It was also a time when pop music culture was dominated by hip-hop and rave..

What??

El Tarangu

Some bands/musicians capture the zeitgeist in a way that is out of all proportion to the quality of their output; it helps when the frontman is a romantic, tortured soul, who conveniently dies young and is as such preserved forever after as an icon, without their legacy being sullied by any decline in the quality of their music, or their growing old and becoming boring and conventional (like the rest of us).

The Doors/Jim Morrison is another example of this.

(btw, I enjoy the music of Nirvana, but despise The Doors)

Hotblack Desiato

Unfortunately I don't regard his death as either a mystery or a surprise. The '92 Point Depot show was phoned in, an utter disappointment. No surprise that it was revealed later in Michael Azzerad's book about his massive drug use at the time.

I went from being enthralled in 1991, to not bothering to look for tickets for the 1994 gig here (cancelled obviously).

By then he'd been on a serious downward spiral for months if not longer, which must have been very obvious to everyone around him, but nobody intervened in a meaningful way. Was he worth more to Courtney Love dead than alive? - absolutely. Did she bring about or encourage his death? - I don't believe she needed to do that as it was going to happen anyway.

Hotblack Desiato

El Tarangu wrote: »

Some bands/musicians capture the zeitgeist in a way that is out of all proportion to the quality of their output; it helps when the frontman is a romantic, tortured soul, who conveniently dies young and is as such preserved forever after as an icon, without their legacy being sullied by any decline in the quality of their music, or their growing old and becoming boring an conventional (like the rest of us).

The Doors/Jim Morrison is another example of this.

(btw, I enjoy the music of Nirvana, but despise The Doors)

The Doors is the perfect example of that.

That comedian guy who used to do links on MTV Europe ~30(!) years ago summed up the three phases of Morrison's career perfectly -

- You're drunk, you're nobody
- You're drunk, you're famous
- You're drunk, you're dead.

Still unaccountably popular among Northside wannabe hard-men though :pac:

Rothko

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I saw them both the following night in the Top Hat if that's any good to ya

Almost stole the show... and I was and still am a massive SY fan.

I will always be insanely jealous of you dear sir.

Vestiapx

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

The Doors is the perfect example of that.

That comedian guy who used to do links on MTV Europe ~30(!) years ago summed up the three phases of Morrison's career perfectly -

- You're drunk, you're nobody
- You're drunk, you're famous
- You're drunk, you're dead.

Still unaccountably popular among Northside wannabe hard-men though :pac:

Big fat guy in a bathtub

Gretas Gonna Get Ya!

He was a disaffected youth, which many youth could (and still can) identify with... and he just so happened to be talented at something.

I think people could see that he was real... he didn't try to be something for the cameras. Some of his interviews are great to watch. No BS, just honesty.

Sadly his problems were real and they got the better of him - which sort of makes him even more appealing because despite his talent and popularity, he was just like many people trying to keep their sh!t together but didn't quite succeed. Nirvana's music displays this too - when they got it right, it was incredible... when they got it wrong, sometimes it barely sounded like music. They were just kids experimenting with different sounds...

I also liked that he didn't try to be macho like so many of us males think we have to be... he was brave in many ways, but not that boring macho type that is so common. He seemed to reject so many of the stereotypes that society pushes onto us. He hated the whole fame thing too - which unfortunately made some people worship him even more.

Basically he just seemed like a cool normal flawed human being. The guy next door playing guitar in his garage, who became a superstar.

The fact Dave Grohl did so much and is still going adds to it as well. Younger people get exposed to his music and then learn the backstory.

Guy:Incognito

punisher5112 wrote: »

Aviici is dead too.... It happens more then one would think and you would wonder.... .

It sure does. In fact , it happens to most of us.

igCorcaigh

Rothko wrote: »

The fascination with his death has to do with the fact that he died so young and that his death is surrounded in mystery. A lot of people think that he was murdered and that Courtney Love had something to do with it. Not me, though. I think it was a straightforward case of suicide.

Yeah I think you're right.
The guy was obviously in a lot of mental pain. Which is why his music had such an effect.

Courtney made really bad music and dissed Kurt on air. Doesn't mean she killed him.

irishguitarlad

People generally have a fascination with famous singers/musicians dying, especially if it's tragic. For me with Kurt Cobain and others I rarely focus on his death and celebrate the fact he was alive at all and i got to listen to his music. The same with Marvin Gaye, the last day me and the gf were listening to him and i was going to say "do you know he was killed by his father" but then I was like what the fúck is the point? We should celebrate these peoples lives and art, not focus on their deaths.

Wanderer78

An incredible tragedy, mental health issues are a serious matter, even great wealth and fame cannot prevent this pain

Montage of Feck

There is no band that has matched the raw dark edged, manic intensity of Nirvana.

Badly Drunk Boy

Notdeco wrote: »

Cos his gf killed him and framed it like a suicide...

I think the CIA also killed him.

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

I saw them both the following night in the Top Hat if that's any good to ya

Almost stole the show... and I was and still am a massive SY fan.

I was there too. Great gig! I remember nearly losing my watch when the strap broke in the moshpit. I still prefer Sonic Youth to Nirvana.