Nirvana
Nevermind
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NATN Recommended
Nirvana
Nevermind
Geffen, 1991
RiYL: The Pixies, Jimi Hendrix Experience |
The decade's popular music can be divided into pre- and post "Teen Spirit": When the first staccato guitar chords hit the airwaves, it was clear that something different was invading your radio. Repeated listens made it equally understood that a revolution was happening right before your very ears. Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, was the catalyst. Everything that's happened on the radio this decade is the result.
Naysayers (Cobain himself among them), claim "Teen Spirit" was nothing but a Pixies rip-off. But they're missing the point. The Pixies were great. But Mom and Dad and Aunt Sally have never heard of Black Francis.
They know Cobain.
No matter what he would say later in life, the tortured singer had the determination and talent to get his message to the mainstream. Where the Pixies were clever, Cobain was brilliant. By comparison, the Pixies sounded small and hollow. Nirvana was like the biggest thing to come along in decades.
But if Nirvana was only about "Teen Spirit," Cobain would nothing more than Bill Haley, a sizeable footnote in rock's storied history. The rest of Nevermind heralds the arrival of a rock and roll genius, more in line with the Elvis camp than the Bill Haley one.
Cobain's shy, sensitive Pisces, violently lashing out at a world that ravaged him mentally and physically, is the latest great persona in rock and roll. As much as he wanted to mean it when he repeated "I'm not gonna crack" like a mantra in the middle of "Lithium," it was clear from the very beginning just how unstable he was. "In Bloom" and "Come As You Are" have disturbing gun references.
Barely out of the cruel '80s, Cobain's oppression was liberating for a generation of geeks and misfits riding out the storm in their room with the stereo turned up loud enough to drown out the rest of the world. But the underground weren't the only ones listening. Nevermind's pumped up sound and Cobain's own misinterpreted irony made Nirvana huge.
It still cracks me up to think of a locker room full of jocks singing along to the chorus of "In Bloom:" "He's the one / who likes all our pretty songs / and he likes to sing along / and he likes to shoot his gun/ but he knows not what it means."
Now get out there and knock each other's brains out, boys!
Though Cobain first expressed his angst through scathing rock on the band's debut, Bleach, it was Nevermind that kicked the music world's ass. New drummer Dave Grohl's prodigious drum pounding, Butch Vig's on-the-money tight production and mixer Andy Wallace's heavy metal polish refined the raw power behind Nirvana's music into accessible pop nuggets that still retain their caustic verve. Nary has an album before or after hit upon such a perfect mix of radio friendliness and pure garage angst (the closest contender being follow-up In Utero).
Nevermind righted a lot of what went wrong with music in the '80s. Cobain was clearly making music for creative expression and release, not to get rich and go live happily ever after in the Riviera. In doing so, he found himself more popular than anybody could have expected. His chronic stomach pain became a metaphor for the natural angst of disenfranchised youth around the world. And the rock anthems of Nevermind became the lasting impression of rock in the '90s, merely a year into the decade. This is primarily because of the countless imitators who sprung up in its footsteps.
Influence. Benchmark. Pure rock and roll. Nevermind created a lasting impression on the face of music and won't be soon forgotten.
PATRICK KASTNER | Affectionately known as Cousin Patty (yes, it's a "Throw Momma From The Train" reference), Patrick Kastner is a designer for the Columbus Post-Dispatch.