Nirvana: Closure
TW: Suicide and cuss words
Listen to my playlist on Apple.
Listen to my playlist on Spotify.
It’s time to close the Nirvana chapter.
A month ago I decided I would have Keith randomly select an artist off of Rolling Stone’s Top 100, and present me with an envelope containing an artist’s name inside. I’d give myself two weeks to learn as little or as much about this artist as I wanted and I’d document my journey along the way.
If you want the total back story, read this post.
The first two weeks were full of so much joy and sorrow that I decided to give myself another two. Over the past month I’ve listened to three studio albums, two compilation albums, and one live album. I’ve read articles about Kurt Cobain, and also a book called Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad. I’ve watched several music videos. I bought a sweatshirt. I have nineteen pages of notes.
And I did as much of this as out of as context as possible, meaning, I didn’t start with created playlists or recommendations from friends. I researched, I started adding tracks to my own playlist as they hit my ears, and at the end of the timebox I compared them to Apple and Spotify.
It’s time to deliver the goods.
The Contrived “Top 5”
If you only have twenty minutes, here are the top five Nirvana songs I’d tell you to listen to. Think of them as wardrobe staples in a capsule. They’re all really solid choices alone, and together, fit a variety of moods. For any great artist, coming up with a Top 5 requires killing a lot of darlings, so take it for what it is.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Lithium
Heart Shaped Box
About a Girl
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Nirvana Picks
If you have more than 20 minutes to donate to the cause, here’s my full set.
Stay Away
Lithium
Heart-Shaped Box
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Dumb
About A Girl
Molly’s Lips
Rape Me
On a Plain
In Bloom
Paper Cuts
Negative Creep
Oh, Me (Live Acoustic)
Been a Son (Blew)
Been a Son (BBC)
Even In His Youth (B-Side)
Floyd the Barber
Token Eastern Song
New Wave Polly
Milk It
Aero Zeppelin
The Man Who Sold The World
All Apologies
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
When creating this playlist I had the pre-Nirvana version of me in mind. What songs would I have wanted to hear first that would have had me hooked? (Cue “Stay Away”)
Apple vs. Spotify
If you’re curious how this stacks up against Apple’s “Nirvana Essentials” and Spotify’s “This is Nirvana” playlists, here’s a snapshot.
Thoughts on Apple
13 tracks in common with mine!
Both playlists close out with “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”
Overall, Apple’s playlist seems to be the commercial vote. It’s the playlist you can share with your friends and it will be enjoyable.
Thoughts on Spotify
13 tracks in common with mine! And some of them are in similar order.
There’s overlap in some choices missing from Apple’s Essentials
Molly’s Lips
Floyd the Barber
Overall, Spotify’s approach seems more true to the artist. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle”, and “Floyd the Barber” are tracks that I learned to be relevant when reading Come As You Are.
“Floyd the Barber” had been on the setlist since the pre-Nirvana days when they were named “Skid Row”.
At the time of writing “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle”, Kurt Cobain and his pregnant wife, Courtney Love, were fielding a lot of negative press about their drug abuse and the health of their future child. Azerrad’s Come As You Are describes Frances Farmer, the notorious 1950s actress, as Kurt’s “patron martyr”. Frances had known issues with substance abuse and was institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital where she endured physical abuse. Rumors of a lobotomy (later revealed false) circulated and the press went crazy.
No doubt Kurt saw the parallels, although that connection wasn’t made in the naming of Love/Kobain’s daughter, Frances, who was actually named for Frances McKee of the Vaselines.
Paul Moon Comparison
Paul Moon wrote this book called 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. It’s a monstrous anthology I picked up in a bookstore and I had grand intentions of working my way through during the pandemic. Don’t ask me who Paul Moon is because I still don’t know, but I blindly trust his judgment and he recommends the following tracks.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Come as You Are
Breed
Lithium
Catalog choices: Unplugged in New York, In Utero
And I don’t disagree with these, although “Come as You Are” and “Breed” are not in my playlist. This is because “Stay Away” is the hype song I chose over “Breed” and had I chose to include “Come as You Are” I might as well have included the entire Nevermind album.
Conclusion
One of the last things you learn about Nirvana is that Kurt never expected the music to live on.
Kurt doubts the band will have any lasting influence, say, twenty years from now. “Fuck no,” he says. “It’s sad to think what the state of rock and roll will be in twenty years. It’s already so rehashed and so plagiarized that it’s barely alive now. It’s disgusting. I don’t think it will be important any more.
Azerrad, Michael. Come As You Are (p. 340). Crown. Kindle Edition.
But every generation has its fair share of things to scream about. Nirvana was singing songs about homophobia, sexism, broken homes, body autonomy, and other social justice issues. They were playing for charity events and inviting unknown female bands to headline. The band members, who were products of broken homes, desired to create their own families. That was over 30 years ago, and oh, the parallels to the world we are living in today.
I may not have the context of how revolutionary Nirvana was to the world of rock, because I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the world of rock (much less sound recording technology, music video culture, bias in interviews…).
I may not share the nostalgia with the folks who first experienced this either in the time of Nirvana’s activity or in an emo high school clique.
But I do know that the timing of Nirvana hitting my ears now at age 27, has been personally meaningful. And in perhaps the most un-Nirvana fashion, I bought a sweatshirt to commemorate the start of this journey. If Kurt were alive today he’d no doubt scream about fast fashion.
What’s on your Nirvana playlist?
Tell me in the comments.
What’s next?
If you’ve scrolled this far you’re probably one of my parents (hi Dad!) or you’re insanely curious as to where I’m headed to now.
Tell your brain to do a drum roll here…
53. The Allman Brothers Band
See you in two weeks!
