Nirvana

mawk

Giblet wrote:

Ah now, at least say why...

i could say its because the guitaring is awful or too simple or because his voice makes me bleed inside but neither are quite the truth.

i mean there are amazing songs which are simple, woman driving man sleeping is ONE FRIGGIN CHORD!!!, and neither robert plant nor neil young are what most people call good singers but id definitely fight anyone who said **** about their music.

basically nirvana just arent a good band. its not easy to explain why but its really easy to notice how bad they are once you listen to more music.

and its true they werent even the best band in seattle(sp?) alice in chains and probably soundgarden both have them beat.

FTN!
dave grohl is aight and mr. novaselic seems to have fallen into a big pit of obscurity and bass lessons for kids, but as a whole, nirvana just dont cut it and being so overplayed simply doesnt help.

Earthhorse

Karl Hungus wrote:

Sure, he wrote some great catchy little songs, but they really just followed the tired old verse/chorus/verse/chorus/verse pop song formula.

And Cobain would be the first to admit this. Heck, he even wrote a song called Verse Chorus Verse. But songs such as "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip", and the many jams they indulged in on stage, give the lie to the idea that that was all he was capable of.

Nirvana brought a great deal of honesty to the table, something which was sadly lacking in much music at the time and which has been sorely lacking since as well. It's a testament to his talent that he could write a simple five chord song like "Polly" and cause Bob Dylan, a man whose knowledge of music is as broad as it is deep, to remark upon hearing it, "Kid's got heart".

He was also a great interpreter of other people's songs. Listen to the Meat Puppets' songs covered on unplugged. Then listen to the originals. Nirvana's versions (I'm aware the Kirkwood brothers are playing, but the versions are very much Nirvana's) bring a life to the songs that casts them in a totally different, brilliant way. Their cover of Bowie's "Man Who Sold the World" is nothing short of amazing.

For those reasons, and more (I won't go into them, I can tell you're getting bored), I think it's more than a little dismissive to say they simply wrote "catchy little song(s)".

Beastieboy

Earthhorse wrote:

And Cobain would be the first to admit this. Heck, he even wrote a song called Verse Chorus Verse. But songs such as "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip", and the many jams they indulged in on stage, give the lie to the idea that that was all he was capable of.

Nirvana brought a great deal of honesty to the table, something which was sadly lacking in much music at the time and which has been sorely lacking since as well. It's a testament to his talent that he could write a simple five chord song like "Polly" and cause Bob Dylan, a man whose knowledge of music is as broad as it is deep, to remark upon hearing it, "Kid's got heart".

He was also a great interpreter of other people's songs. Listen to the Meat Puppets' songs covered on unplugged. Then listen to the originals. Nirvana's versions (I'm aware the Kirkwood brothers are playing, but the versions are very much Nirvana's) bring a life to the songs that casts them in a totally different, brilliant way. Their cover of Bowie's "Man Who Sold the World" is nothing short of amazing.

For those reasons, and more (I won't go into them, I can tell you're getting bored), I think it's more than a little dismissive to say they simply wrote "catchy little song(s)".

Were the Meat puppets songs covers, after all he had Meat puppets on stage:D ... Cobain recorded a number of Leadbelly songs with Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stoen age) i think one or two are on the box set.... Nirvana are brilliant i always go back to them....

deaddonkey

to me, being a great musician is about playing with soul and really moving yourself and the audience in the process.

Whether it's done by kurt cobain or eric johnson is beside the point.

Nirvana moved me a lot with 5 power chords. Johnson does the same playing at breakneck speed.

brianthebard

Giblet wrote:

Was big into them, still have time for bleach when I'm drunk

I hate the whole "ugh he's a crap guitarist" stuff to the point of anger. He wasn't actually too bad, and he accomplished a lot with what he had. It's usually people who think they're ****ing Vai or something who would say that though

Agree absolutey. the point of playing guitar isn't to be the most technically proficent. that means nothing if you can't write a good hook. as mick thompson from slipknot said " I can shred at a million miles an hour and he probably couldn't, but he could write a riff like "smells like teen spirit" and I couldn't"

That's what important, making music thats memorable.

Mossy Monk

they recorded In Utero and Bleach. i will always have time for those albums

JC 2K3

Brought new life to Meat Puppets songs?? Very much Nirvana's?? Make no fúcking mistake, Meat Puppets 2 is one amazing album, a bit of an aquired taste perhaps, but a beautifully artistic masterpiece. The Kirkwoods played the songs exactly as they played them at any Unplugged Meat Puppets gig(although I doubt you've ever heard an Unplugged pups show), so the only difference was the vocals, which weren't too far removed from the way Curt Kirkwood sang them, although he(Cobain) disappoints on Oh Me, not putting the same emotion into it as Kirkwood, admittidly he does a good job on Plateau, nothing amazingly "different" but good enough for a cover. On Lake of Fire you can hear him trying to get the same type of growl as Kirkwood, and not really succeeding, but it is also a good cover.

Earthhorse

No, I haven't heard an unplugged Meat Puppet's show. I'm talking about the album versions, which I remember as being a bit flat and lifeless.

There's this great story, I'm not sure if it's true or not, regarding Kurt and this album. He kept playing it over and over again, ceaselessly, day and night in his Seattle home. Eventually Courtney lost the rag with hearing it so often. "Would you turn this piece of **** off?"

Kurt was taken aback. "You don't like it?" "No." So he turned off the CD, picked up his guitar and started to play the songs to her. And it was then that she heard what he'd been hearing all along.

I have to say I feel pretty much the same way. Perhaps I'm crediting Cobain with too much in this instance and the brothers had already reworked these songs to inject more life into them but I remember the album versions as being slightly plodding affairs.

JC 2K3

Earthhorse wrote:

No, I haven't heard an unplugged Meat Puppet's show. I'm talking about the album versions, which I remember as being a bit flat and lifeless.

There's this great story, I'm not sure if it's true or not, regarding Kurt and this album. He kept playing it over and over again, ceaselessly, day and night in his Seattle home. Eventually Courtney lost the rag with hearing it so often. "Would you turn this piece of **** off?"

Kurt was taken aback. "You don't like it?" "No." So he turned off the CD, picked up his guitar and started to play the songs to her. And it was then that she heard what he'd been hearing all along.

I have to say I feel pretty much the same way. Perhaps I'm crediting Cobain with too much in this instance and the brothers had already reworked these songs to inject more life into them but I remember the album versions as being slightly plodding affairs.

Heard that Courtney Love story too, as i said, the album is a bit of an aquired taste, but once you get into it you realise you've got one gem of an album, hell, Kurt realised it. His voice was more accessable than Curt Kirkwood's, but in the accessibility I feel it lost something.

Then again I am a hardcore pups fan, and owe Nirvana for introducing them to me, so it's not like I resent Kurt or anything