Nick Statham's feature on the Nirvina album that became a global phenonenom

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Freelance journalism course article by Nick Statham
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NIRVANA- ‘NEVERMIND’ 20 YEARS ON
This month sees the twentieth anniversary of Nirvana’s seminal Nevermind album. A
record which - despite its meagre initial pressing of 46,251 copies - became a global
phenomenon, catapulting its unsuspecting creators to international superstardom and
redefining the rock scene of the early 1990s.
At the centre of this near-accidental revolution was Kurt Cobain, Nick Statham, looks
at how the troubled genius behind the nineties most incendiary rock ‘n’ roll band
brought about the extinction of the poodle haired ‘rawk’ bands of the era and
popularised an approach to the guitar that was entirely at odds with the predominant
‘shred rules’, technique fixated mentality of the time.
“We’re just musically and rhythmically retarded. We play so hard that we can’t
tune our guitars fast enough. People can relate to that.” – Kurt Cobain, 1991.
Anyone who was a fan of hard rock / heavy metal back in the late eighties could
probably predict with some accuracy which names would appear in the ‘best guitarist’
category in mags like Kerrang and Raw when the results of the annual readers polls
were published at the end of each year.
Richie Sambora, Eddie Van Halen and Slash represented perhaps the more
commerical end of the spectrum, Kirk Hammet, Marty Friedman, and Kerry King
invariably got the nod from the thrash and speed fraternity while the virtuoso
fetishists would vote for Vai, Satriani or Malmsteen.
Those names cover a lot of musical ground from the glossy anthemic rock of Bon Jovi
to the unrelenting thrash of Slayer, but rock fans of every stripe evidently revered
guitarists who could speed their way through a fiddly guitar solo.
The alternative scene had its own (anti) heroes of course, in the likes of Sonic Youth’s
Lee Ranaldo and the Pixies’ Joey Santiago, for example, but they remained relatively
‘underground’ concerns, and won few converts among the rather conservative ranks
of heavy rock fans.
At the turn of the nineties the two scenes were very much separate from – and
suspicious of- one another. Rockers viewed alternative acts as too fey, arty and
pretentious to deliver the visceral thrills they craved, while the alternative crowd
generally saw rockers as either embarrassing corporate poodles or metal meatheads.
Despite signing a major label deal and a building music industry buzz, the Nirvana of
early 1991 vintage saw themselves as firmly on the Pixies/Sonic Youth/ Mudhoney
side of the dividing line. Commercially they had no expectations beyond becoming –
at best – a moderately successful alternative rock outfit.
As Charles R Cross writes in his Cobain biog ‘Heavier Than Heaven’: ‘Nirvana were
signed to DGC, a smaller imprint of the Geffen label having only a few employees
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and just a couple of hit acts. In contrast Geffen had Guns N’ Roses, the most
successful rock group of the era’.
Kurt Cobain had made no secret of the fact that Nirvana’s first album on DCG would
focus more on their pop sensibilities than ‘Bleach’, their sludgy debut on (now)
legendary Seattle indie label Sub Pop. “I think it’s a fine mixture of radio-friendly
accessible crap and still reminding you of what our ‘Bleach’ album sounds like and
what we sound like live. It’s still heavy. In every interview over the last two years
we’ve been practically warning everyone that we’re writing more pop songs, so I
don’t think it’ll be a surprise to anyone when it’s released”. He commented of the
upcoming album, provisionally entitled ‘Sheep’, but eventually christened
‘Nevermind’.
The lead off single from the record was a song called ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’,
which Cobain would later describe as his “attempt to rip off the Pixies’. Krist
Novoselic rembers them both worrying that people were’ really going to nail us’ for
approximating the Boston alt.rock heroes somewhat too closely. Not that it sounds
like any particular Pixies song specifically, rather it was their oft used quiet verse
/loud chorus approach that Kurt was beginning to incorporate into Nirvana’s sound.
‘We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard’ he
told Rolling Stone.
The band had gone into the studio convinced that ‘Lithium’ was the potential hit. ‘I
thought ‘Teen Spirit’ was just another album cut but it soon became clear it would be
the special song on the record.” Dave Grohl told journalist Paul Brannigan.
‘Special’ or not though, alternative acts just didn’t have massive, chart eating singles
at that time. “There was no world domination ambition because that just didn’t
happen, that wasn’t alllowed to happen. I thought it might get on (MTV’S) 120
minutes and allow us to tour with Sonic Youth, but no one thought it was a hit single
as that was just unimaginable” Grohl continued.
Despite intial reticence MTV did begin to feature the Teen Spirit video on ‘120
Minutes’ and a couple of months after its release it went into regular rotation as one of
the channel’s first ‘Buzz Bin’ videos.
The snowballing success of ‘Teen Spirit’ and its ‘pep rally from hell’ video began to
fuel sales of Nevermind, which took two weeks to register in the Billboard Top 200,
but entered at No.144 when it did chart, rising to No.109 the following week, No.65
on the third week, then hitting No.35 on 2 November.
On January 11 1992, Nevermind hit the number one spot , dislodging Michael
Jackson’s ‘Dangerous’ album, having also overtaken Guns N Roses’ ‘Use Your
Illusion’ double set on the way.
By eclipsing not just the biggest rock band of the time but also arguably the biggest
artist of all time it became clear that ‘Nevermind’ had become a phenomenon.
Freelance journalism course article by Nick Statham
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Accounting for their shock breakthrough into the mainstream in ‘The Rough Guide to
Rock’ Essi Berelian wrote “Nirvana and particularly Cobain, had unwittingly filled a
musical gulf. They took a hard-headed, punk influenced stance and fused it to a more
mainstream, hard rock sound. Suddenly it was not just alternative kids who were
tuning in, but everyone, including those they positively despised: jocks, misogynistic
metalheads, racist, homophobic rednecks.”
While, anticipating the coming sea change in rock music, Jon Parales of The New
York Times opined “Suddenly, all bets are off. No one has the inside track on which
of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ornery, obstreperous, unkempt bands might next
appeal to the mall-walking millions.”
Nevermind’s explosive, yet infectiously melodic sound had, at a stroke, rendered the
spandex clad, coiffured likes of Poison, Motley Crue and Warrant at once ridiculous
and irrelevant while opening the door for a plethora of underground and alternative
acts.
Seattle, not LA, was the new centre of the rock world and bands such as Alice in
Chains, Soundgarden , and Pearl Jam (whom Kurt openly disliked and branded
‘corporate alternative and cock-rock fusion’) sprang to prominence, while Cobain
endorsed acts such as (early influence and mentors) The Melvins and Tad began to
receive hitherto unprecedented levels of attention.
‘Both Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain influenced me to not get too caught up
seeking technical perfection. They realized you can just go crazy, make a bunch of
noise’ – Matt Bellamy of Muse.
“I was intimidated by professional musicians. Heavy metal guitarists were very anal
and technical and promoted the fact they could play good” Cobain had told French
television channel M6 in the aftermath of Nevermind’s success. But, although this
new generation of rock bands eschewed the typical shred guitarists arsenal of sweep
picking, tapping, lightning fast legato runs and lengthy solos, it would be an over
simplification to say technique no longer mattered.
Cobain may have at one time subscribed to the ‘Learn not to play your instrument’
teachings of Seattle scene figurehead Calvin Johnson, but a reference to him as an
‘elitist little fuck’ in an unsent letter to ex-girlfriend Tobi Vail, strongly suggests he’d
gone on to develop a different musical philosophy!
Budding guitarists may not need to devote endless hours diligently practising scalar
exercises in order to play passable renditions of Nirvana’s most famous songs, but
neither could a complete beginner pick up a guitar and begin belting out ‘Smell’s Like
Teen Spirit’ within the hour (OK, Negative Creep, maybe!).
Freelance journalism course article by Nick Statham
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Even Cobain’s simpler compositions like Polly require competent chord work, while
the likes of In Bloom and (Bleach’s) ‘Blew’ feature deceptively tricky solos. The ‘anti
solos’ of ‘Drain You’ and ‘In Utero’’s ‘Serve the Servants’ are also very difficult to
replicate convincingly.
Subtle nuances and variations on a riff or theme are another a feature of his playing as
you’ll find if you delve into anything from Bleach’s ‘About a Girl’ to In Utero’s
‘Dumb’.
Like all bands that hit the heights of critical and commercial success, Nirvana
inadvertently ‘inspired’ a slew of pale imitators and pointless copyists, unable to
grasp that four chords and some vaguely depressive lyrics do not a genius record
make - not without Cobain’s gift for melody, atmosphere, drama and texture with
those base musical materials, anyway.
But Nirvana’s influence is broader than sound-alike bands such as Bush and Puddle of
Mud. Speaking about his approach to the guitar, Matt Bellamy of Muse, whose sound
owes as much to Queen and prog rock as any punk-ish ‘alternative’ band, stated ‘both
Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain influenced me to not get too caught up seeking
technical perfection. They realized you can just go crazy, make a bunch of noise …’
While seventeen years on from Cobain’s suicide some of today’s most important and
acclaimed acts from The Arcade Fire to Animal Collective cite Nirvana as an
influence.
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan probably summed up the attitude Nirvana
brought to guitar music best in a 1995 Guitar World column: ‘Playing in and of itself,
does not mean a heck of a lot. But guitar playing within the context of great music and
great songs is a big deal. We appreciate the guitar playing skills of Eric Clapton, Jimi
Hendrix, Jimmy Page and others within the context of their songs. The downfall of
the Yngwie Malmsteen school of playing has occurred because, ultimately, no one
really gives two shits about guitar playing in and of itself, except maybe other guitar
players’.
Or as Kurt put it ‘People have opened up to an appreciation of hard rock in punk, and
it’s great that they’ve fused together.... Attitude is one thing. But a good song is the
most important thing. It’s the only way to really touch someone’.
We’ve found three examples of where we’ve detected Nirvana’s influence in the
songs of other bands who don’t fit the description of Nirvana copyists and whose
music has found acclaim in its own right. Hopefully this will help you develop a feel
for Kurt’s playing style and how you can adapt it to create riffs and guitar lines with
your own individual stamp on them.
Freelance journalism course article by Nick Statham
www.ctjt.biz
Forum House | Stirling Road | Chichester | PO19 7DN