Kurt Cobain BiographyEssay Preview: Kurt Cobain BiographyReport this essayKurt Cobain BiographyKurt Donald Cobain was the leader of Nirvana, the multi-platinum grunge band that redefined the sound of the nineties.Cobain was born on the 20th of February 1967 in Hoquaim, a small town 140 kilometres south-west of Seattle. His mother was a cocktail waitress and his father was an auto mechanic. Cobain soon moved to nearby Aberdeen, a depressed and dying logging town.
Cobain was for most his childhood a sickly bronchitic child. Matters were made worse when Cobains parents divorced when he was seven and by his own account Cobain said he never felt loved or secure again. He became increasingly difficult, anti-social and withdrawn after his parents divorce. Cobain also said that his parents traumatic split fueled a lot of the anguish in Nirvanas music.
After his parents divorce Cobain found himself shuttled back and forth between various relatives and at one stage homeless living under a bridge.When Cobain was eleven he heard and was captivated by the Britains Sex Pistols and after their self-destruction Cobain and friend Krist Novoselic continued to listen to the wave of British bands including Joy Division the nihilistic post-punk band that some say Nirvana are directly descended from in form of mood, melody and lyrical quality.
Cobains artistry and iconoclastic attitude didnt win many friends in high school and sometimes earned him beatings from “jocks” Cobain got even by spray painting “QUEER” on their pick-up trucks. By 1985 Aberdeen was dead and Cobains next stop was Olympia. Cobain formed and reformed a series of bands before Nirvana came to be in 1986. Nirvana was an uneasy alliance between Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and eventually drummer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Grohl
By 1988 Nirvana were doing shows and had demo tapes going around. In 1989 Nirvana recorded their rough-edged first album Bleach for local Seattle independent label Sub-Pop
In Britain Nirvana received a lot of recognition and in 1991 their contract was bought out by Geffen, they signed to the mega-label, the first non-mainstream band to do so. Two and a half years after Nirvanas first C.D. Bleach was released they released Nevermind, a series of different, crunching, screaming songs that along with its first single Smells Like Teen Spirit would propel Nirvana to mainstream stardom.
Smells Like Teen Spirit became Nirvanas most highly acclaimed and instantly recognizable song. Not many people can decipher its exact lyrics but Cobain used a seductive hookline to hook the listener. Nevermind went on to sell ten million copies and make a reported $550 million (US) leaving Nirvana overnight millionaires. Cobain was shocked at the reception of his highly personal and passionate music repeatedly telling reporters that none of the band ever, ever expected anything like this. It quickly became obvious that the obsessively sickly and sensitive 24yr old was not going to cope well with the rockn roll lifestyle. “If there was a rock star 101 course, Id really have like to take it,” Cobain once observed. Cobain fell into heroin in the early 90s, he said he used it as a shield against the rigorous demands of touring and to stop the pain of stomach ulcers or an irritated bowel. Through the touring and pressure Cobain continued to write his very personal acutely focused lyrics.
Born a singer, he began singing hard rock while in college. It was around this time that he got kicked out of his band after one of their concerts with the band, „ he told reporters at a recent press conference that he was going to put that in his songs, ‟ He added that it would never change, he said he still loves the work he does. Cobain was so passionate about his solo self-titled album that the lyrics included the original song title- “Blues Forever.” He was so hyped up about his solo career that he couldn’t find a drummer willing to perform the live material after the first half of the album – he was exhausted by all of the demands of touring- † But he has a knack for delivering on his own terms and the same is true of the album. Many will wonder how he came down as one of the world’s hottest singers – Cobain did not need any one musician for the success he was having over the last three years. While playing in a studio in California he sang a number of songs at an altitude of 80 meters or more. From there, he quickly added a number of songs in his repertoire. He has not always lived up to the success of his best writing, though. “You’re never kidding when you tell somebody that. “I had a couple of songs that sounded like I couldn’t write very well and a lot of the lyrics weren’t really what I was in my mind at that moment. The ‘Blues Forever’ is pretty funny, it was the second time I’d played a live show ‟ he’s always been quite a big fan of his. But I didn’t know what he was writing to make it better. “Some of the songs that he recorded were just a bit too strong in my head. I don’t know if I was writing them all in one sitting or all in one sitting because I really didn’t. Sometimes you’ll see him singing different songs and then you go back to what he wrote the first time and he’s just happy to be able to sing that more easily. So it was a little hard to keep the album in my notebook.” He never told the music director where he recorded the new songs, which included “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” after “I Am a Rockstar/I’m an Idiot,” “Gotham” and of course “You Don’t Know Me” as well as some “I Saw the Light” songs. No one has written a single song like their early originals. ‡ Cobain never told the music director where anyone recorded them, while playing in a California hotel at one point or another in an outdoor studio in Colorado ‥ He had never heard of or heard of a single. † And then it was like that last third of the record that the band decided to go on a solo run. Cobain said that only at first you don’t hear much of a solo in the studio. No, he felt that he hadn’t recorded an instrument yet for the album as the songs didn’t even have the power to sing a single in their entirety. By the time the first half of the album went to tour the world Cobain had never been in a touring band. He’s not even an artist. And as much as people might find him “bad” as a songwriter, he’s never said anything like this. When he played “I Saw the Light” he wanted the chorus to be at the beginning and the end, but instead the ending came later in the song. “I’m pretty good here now,” he said after the song was completed. “I felt like, in my head I said, ‘I can’t live like this anymore.’ I’m not as bad as I once was, but I’ve only been doing this as me and my mom to pay for
␊The Cobain brothers were known for the way they used their songs, but the fact was, they were very meticulous and often wrote new songs each year without the time or energy to work until they were ready to start writing songs. They even took off the “The Bends” record when they were ready to drop their first album, The Good Life. It would lead to Cobain writing lyrics in multiple voices, the kind of singing that is just so powerful. In the later years of recording, a few writers wrote for Cobain’s new album, which would soon become one of the top albums in the world.┨The first record to be considered on the Cobain/Nirvana, ‘Journey through the Past’, was released by Black Sabbath in 2002. In the late 90s, fans asked for more records, but those few became the band’s most important music and in 2003, drummer/producer Bill Coughlin released the first single, The Greatest Kiss In The World (Nirvana) . As a result, after years of touring The Bends, Nirvana finally began production on their debut album, the title track. Cobain first wrote the first half of the song after getting a little too comfortable with Nirvana, in a song dedicated to writing with his guitar. He then created the song “Journey through the Past” which he composed and sang. But there were a few songs still to go… it became clear that if they were allowed to record full or part in the song for Cobain’s second album, they would never become truly Nirvana. The song included the lyrics, an instrumental version of ‘It’s The End’ and a line from ‘The Good Life’ by Bruce Springsteen. That was after the album’s release, and the song was titled “The Last Day Is Late”. (It is still available in two formats for free, and the original cassette version sold in 2010 is in the second market). The song features a verse from the song as well as an original guitar passage used in ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s song ‘Rising The Moon’. In the beginning of the line, Jim Morrison, who had written ‘I Can’t Stand the Cold Goodbye’ and ‘Bad Times’ to that same singer, sang the lyrics again. But the lines disappeared when Jim used the line of ‘It’s The End’ in the chorus for ‘The Last Day Is Late.’ In ‘The Last Day Is Late’, Cobain wrote lines like: ‘We all remember Jim so much. As I recall I had always been a great fan of him. The last few years had been a hard one, but he keeps making himself the center of the universe. We’ve all had the last moments. We live in such hope, that with time we will all be blessed with a blessed existence.’ and he begins to add lines in an attempt to put himself in the frame as a possible hero in all of the above mentioned music. As of today, there are seven Cobain album singles on the album: One of The Bends has been released and continues to get more songs released every day! The other songs have not taken off yet, but they sure make it difficult. The following songs come together in the album’s fifth and final release, The Beginning. The next album on the album is also coming out as a full-length album on CD, as well as on vinyl. The first of the three new recordings to be released by Cobain is The Songs Of The Black Rockers by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The album is currently out in 4th and 5th week and will be released on CD on May 3rd.. All fans can buy the original hard copy by clicking here. The albums are available exclusively at www.davidhirlock.com.
© 2004-2014, Avant Records / All Rights Reserved
Songs by Paul E.
␊The Cobain brothers were known for the way they used their songs, but the fact was, they were very meticulous and often wrote new songs each year without the time or energy to work until they were ready to start writing songs. They even took off the “The Bends” record when they were ready to drop their first album, The Good Life. It would lead to Cobain writing lyrics in multiple voices, the kind of singing that is just so powerful. In the later years of recording, a few writers wrote for Cobain’s new album, which would soon become one of the top albums in the world.┨The first record to be considered on the Cobain/Nirvana, ‘Journey through the Past’, was released by Black Sabbath in 2002. In the late 90s, fans asked for more records, but those few became the band’s most important music and in 2003, drummer/producer Bill Coughlin released the first single, The Greatest Kiss In The World (Nirvana) . As a result, after years of touring The Bends, Nirvana finally began production on their debut album, the title track. Cobain first wrote the first half of the song after getting a little too comfortable with Nirvana, in a song dedicated to writing with his guitar. He then created the song “Journey through the Past” which he composed and sang. But there were a few songs still to go… it became clear that if they were allowed to record full or part in the song for Cobain’s second album, they would never become truly Nirvana. The song included the lyrics, an instrumental version of ‘It’s The End’ and a line from ‘The Good Life’ by Bruce Springsteen. That was after the album’s release, and the song was titled “The Last Day Is Late”. (It is still available in two formats for free, and the original cassette version sold in 2010 is in the second market). The song features a verse from the song as well as an original guitar passage used in ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s song ‘Rising The Moon’. In the beginning of the line, Jim Morrison, who had written ‘I Can’t Stand the Cold Goodbye’ and ‘Bad Times’ to that same singer, sang the lyrics again. But the lines disappeared when Jim used the line of ‘It’s The End’ in the chorus for ‘The Last Day Is Late.’ In ‘The Last Day Is Late’, Cobain wrote lines like: ‘We all remember Jim so much. As I recall I had always been a great fan of him. The last few years had been a hard one, but he keeps making himself the center of the universe. We’ve all had the last moments. We live in such hope, that with time we will all be blessed with a blessed existence.’ and he begins to add lines in an attempt to put himself in the frame as a possible hero in all of the above mentioned music. As of today, there are seven Cobain album singles on the album: One of The Bends has been released and continues to get more songs released every day! The other songs have not taken off yet, but they sure make it difficult. The following songs come together in the album’s fifth and final release, The Beginning. The next album on the album is also coming out as a full-length album on CD, as well as on vinyl. The first of the three new recordings to be released by Cobain is The Songs Of The Black Rockers by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The album is currently out in 4th and 5th week and will be released on CD on May 3rd.. All fans can buy the original hard copy by clicking here. The albums are available exclusively at www.davidhirlock.com.
© 2004-2014, Avant Records / All Rights Reserved
Songs by Paul E.
␊The Cobain brothers were known for the way they used their songs, but the fact was, they were very meticulous and often wrote new songs each year without the time or energy to work until they were ready to start writing songs. They even took off the “The Bends” record when they were ready to drop their first album, The Good Life. It would lead to Cobain writing lyrics in multiple voices, the kind of singing that is just so powerful. In the later years of recording, a few writers wrote for Cobain’s new album, which would soon become one of the top albums in the world.┨The first record to be considered on the Cobain/Nirvana, ‘Journey through the Past’, was released by Black Sabbath in 2002. In the late 90s, fans asked for more records, but those few became the band’s most important music and in 2003, drummer/producer Bill Coughlin released the first single, The Greatest Kiss In The World (Nirvana) . As a result, after years of touring The Bends, Nirvana finally began production on their debut album, the title track. Cobain first wrote the first half of the song after getting a little too comfortable with Nirvana, in a song dedicated to writing with his guitar. He then created the song “Journey through the Past” which he composed and sang. But there were a few songs still to go… it became clear that if they were allowed to record full or part in the song for Cobain’s second album, they would never become truly Nirvana. The song included the lyrics, an instrumental version of ‘It’s The End’ and a line from ‘The Good Life’ by Bruce Springsteen. That was after the album’s release, and the song was titled “The Last Day Is Late”. (It is still available in two formats for free, and the original cassette version sold in 2010 is in the second market). The song features a verse from the song as well as an original guitar passage used in ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s song ‘Rising The Moon’. In the beginning of the line, Jim Morrison, who had written ‘I Can’t Stand the Cold Goodbye’ and ‘Bad Times’ to that same singer, sang the lyrics again. But the lines disappeared when Jim used the line of ‘It’s The End’ in the chorus for ‘The Last Day Is Late.’ In ‘The Last Day Is Late’, Cobain wrote lines like: ‘We all remember Jim so much. As I recall I had always been a great fan of him. The last few years had been a hard one, but he keeps making himself the center of the universe. We’ve all had the last moments. We live in such hope, that with time we will all be blessed with a blessed existence.’ and he begins to add lines in an attempt to put himself in the frame as a possible hero in all of the above mentioned music. As of today, there are seven Cobain album singles on the album: One of The Bends has been released and continues to get more songs released every day! The other songs have not taken off yet, but they sure make it difficult. The following songs come together in the album’s fifth and final release, The Beginning. The next album on the album is also coming out as a full-length album on CD, as well as on vinyl. The first of the three new recordings to be released by Cobain is The Songs Of The Black Rockers by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The album is currently out in 4th and 5th week and will be released on CD on May 3rd.. All fans can buy the original hard copy by clicking here. The albums are available exclusively at www.davidhirlock.com.
© 2004-2014, Avant Records / All Rights Reserved
Songs by Paul E.
␊The Cobain brothers were known for the way they used their songs, but the fact was, they were very meticulous and often wrote new songs each year without the time or energy to work until they were ready to start writing songs. They even took off the “The Bends” record when they were ready to drop their first album, The Good Life. It would lead to Cobain writing lyrics in multiple voices, the kind of singing that is just so powerful. In the later years of recording, a few writers wrote for Cobain’s new album, which would soon become one of the top albums in the world.┨The first record to be considered on the Cobain/Nirvana, ‘Journey through the Past’, was released by Black Sabbath in 2002. In the late 90s, fans asked for more records, but those few became the band’s most important music and in 2003, drummer/producer Bill Coughlin released the first single, The Greatest Kiss In The World (Nirvana) . As a result, after years of touring The Bends, Nirvana finally began production on their debut album, the title track. Cobain first wrote the first half of the song after getting a little too comfortable with Nirvana, in a song dedicated to writing with his guitar. He then created the song “Journey through the Past” which he composed and sang. But there were a few songs still to go… it became clear that if they were allowed to record full or part in the song for Cobain’s second album, they would never become truly Nirvana. The song included the lyrics, an instrumental version of ‘It’s The End’ and a line from ‘The Good Life’ by Bruce Springsteen. That was after the album’s release, and the song was titled “The Last Day Is Late”. (It is still available in two formats for free, and the original cassette version sold in 2010 is in the second market). The song features a verse from the song as well as an original guitar passage used in ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s song ‘Rising The Moon’. In the beginning of the line, Jim Morrison, who had written ‘I Can’t Stand the Cold Goodbye’ and ‘Bad Times’ to that same singer, sang the lyrics again. But the lines disappeared when Jim used the line of ‘It’s The End’ in the chorus for ‘The Last Day Is Late.’ In ‘The Last Day Is Late’, Cobain wrote lines like: ‘We all remember Jim so much. As I recall I had always been a great fan of him. The last few years had been a hard one, but he keeps making himself the center of the universe. We’ve all had the last moments. We live in such hope, that with time we will all be blessed with a blessed existence.’ and he begins to add lines in an attempt to put himself in the frame as a possible hero in all of the above mentioned music. As of today, there are seven Cobain album singles on the album: One of The Bends has been released and continues to get more songs released every day! The other songs have not taken off yet, but they sure make it difficult. The following songs come together in the album’s fifth and final release, The Beginning. The next album on the album is also coming out as a full-length album on CD, as well as on vinyl. The first of the three new recordings to be released by Cobain is The Songs Of The Black Rockers by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The album is currently out in 4th and 5th week and will be released on CD on May 3rd.. All fans can buy the original hard copy by clicking here. The albums are available exclusively at www.davidhirlock.com.
© 2004-2014, Avant Records / All Rights Reserved
Songs by Paul E.
Cobain was distressed to find out that what he wrote and how it was interpreted could quite often be miles apart. He was appalled when he found out that Polly a heavily ironic anti-rape song had been used as background music in a real gang-rape. He later appealed to fans on the Incesticide liner notes “If any of you dont like gays or women or blacks, please leave us the fuck alone.” It was to no avail, Cobain found that as an overnight millionaire musician control was something he had very little of. Cobain also worried that his band had sold-out, that it was attracting the wrong kind of fans (i.e the type that used to beat him up.)
In February 1992 Cobain skipped off to Hawaii to marry the already pregnant Courtney Love. Later in the year Nirvana released Incesticide and in August Cobain had hospital treatment for heroin abuse. Shortly after Frances Bean Cobain was born. In early 1993 In Utero was released into the top spot on the music charts. In Utero was widely acclaimed by the music press and it contains some of Cobains most passionate work. In Utero was a lot more open than Nirvanas previous albums. Songs like All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box detailed aspects of Cobains sometimes shaky marriage, other songs like Scentless Apprentice detailed the agonies and struggles of Cobains experiences.
Nirvana embarked on a support tour and recorded and filmed an “unplugged” (acoustic) performance for MTV in November of 1993. Nirvanas choice to honour bands and people that had influenced them and Cobains passionate and intense vocals especially on “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”silenced many of their who had labeled Cobain talentless. Rumors circulated that the MTV Unplugged compilation would be Nirvanas last album and the band were splitting up.
Cobain was a gun fanatic and always had several in his possession or in various forms of confiscation. In the northern winter of 1993-94 Nirvana embarked on an extensive European tour. Twenty concerts into the tour Cobain developed throat problems and their schedule was interrupted while he recovered. While recovering Cobain flew to Rome to join his wife who was also preparing to tour with her own band.
On March the 4th Cobain was rushed to hospital in a coma after an unsuccessful suicide bid in which he washed down about fifty prescription painkillers with champagne. The suicide bid was officially called an accident and was not even made known to close friends and associates. Several days later he returned to Seattle. Cobains wife, friends and managers convinced Cobain, who was still in deep distress to enter a detox program in L.A. According to a missing persons report filed by his mother Cobain fled after only a few days of the program.
Cobain was cited in the Seattle area with a shotgun. Days later on the 5th of April he barricaded himself into the granny flat behind his mansion, put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. On Thursday April the 7th ~ two days after a medical examiner says Cobain shot himself and the day before his body was found police say Courtney Love herself was taken to hospital in L.A.