Kurt

I’m still in awe of what he pulled off as a songwriter. Probably more now than ever. He was able to take the most non-logical chord progressions and add undeniable hooks and catchy melodies on top of them. For the non-musos, that’s the musical equivalent of successfully banging a square peg into a round hole without breaking anything. Kinda impossible.

‘Lithium’ is probably the most impressive example. It moves along in ways that are jarring and discordant , yet the vocal melody is pure candy. We’re taught that certain chords don’t work together, yet over and over again Kurt proved that wrong (‘About A Girl’ is another example- those chords aren’t ‘supposed’ to work together, yet Kurt made them flow seamlessly, seemingly effortlessly).

Music theory bound folks would say ‘go to C#m’ for the bridge (‘I’ll take admatage when…’), but Kurt goes to C# major which builds tension… then he does the unthinkable and goes to F# major! Defying music theory, it works. Beautifully.

It also doesn’t surprise me that Nirvana has crossed generations (and cultures) more than just about every other rock band/ artist and has endured so strongly. It’s incredible how many hip hop artists cite them as an influence.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard them- it was ‘Spank Thru’ via the Sub Pop 200 comp, summer of 1989. Took a while (probably a year) to get a copy of Bleach. For as much ‘zine buzz as there was, it wasn’t really in stores. Now we know that it kept selling out pressings and Sub Pop had a hard time paying for repressings!

When I started working at a record store in August 1991, the excitement around the release of ‘Nevermind’ was throbbing. Our store was sent a few advance cassettes in early September, and I was allowed to borrow it. It was overwhelming to listen to this album, and that cassette dub I made got played in my car every day to and from school. I couldn’t stop listening to it, and when I tried to figure out how to play the songs on guitar it was very challenging (I’d gotten really good at figuring stuff out by this point). It’s been (along with every other piece of their discography) on heavy rotation ever since.

Interestingly enough, I listened to the new Taylor Swift album this morning and a few songs have Kurt-lite chord progressions! Brought a big smile to my face, and I bet Kurt would get a kick out of it too, yet have something humorously caustic and cynical to say about it.