Kurt Cobain Day
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- mongolian
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Kurt Cobain Day
In California (and Seattle), April 5 has finally arrived. This makes the eighteenth anniversary of the passing of Kurt Donald Cobain -- Kurt Cobain Day.
When I first heard that Kurt Cobain had killed himself, I was in junior high and wasn't a fan. It seemed like just another crazy thing rock stars did.
It wasn't until a few years later than I learned Kurt Cobain was a Gen-X icon, and that the stereotypical Xer listened to Nirvana. I learned songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come as You Are" and "Lithium" from the radio.
When I was 19, I bought my first Nirvana cassette -- Nevermind. I now have MTV Unplugged in New York and Sliver as well.
The messages of Nirvana songs are easy to miss because Kurt sang so unclearly, making the lyrics indecipherable ("I'm so dire, lately I've become your pupil/You taught me everything about a poison apple"?) The lyrics are also very subtextual and metaphorical. "Polly", for instance, sounds like a song about torturing a parrot: clipping her wings, shooting a cracker off her head, and scorching her with a blowtorch. But it is actually a song about raping a girl named Polly. One boy who didn't understand the anti-rape message played it while raping his girlfriend.
You've got to credit Kurt for his progressive views. He asked homophobic people not to buy his CD's. What with his marriage to Courtney Love, many people are unaware that Kurt is actually bisexual.
During his 27-year stay on Earth, Kurt had a being-Jesus fetish, collecting Jesus figurines and remaking the Christian folk song "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".
Some say Kurt's surceasement was a suicide, while others say Courtney Love killed him. The "Courtney killed Kurt Cobain" (CKKC) folks argue that Kurt had too much heroin in his system to pull the trigger. The "it was a suicide" side points out that several of the Cobains had previously committed suicide. I remember reading an issue of Under 25 on teen suicide that interviewed Beverly Cobain and learning that Kurt wasn't the only Cobain to have (allegedly) killed himself. I'm undecided myself as to the suicide vs. CKKC debate.
Today marks the decade anniversary of another grunge death. For ten years, Layne Staley has lain stalely in his grave. These two fellows, both born in 1967, succumbed to heroin on the same day of the year spaced eight years apart. There is something poetic about this commorient relationship between two grunge musicians. The Layne Staley death occurred on the first Kurt Cobain Day after the 9/11 attacks, when Baby Boomers and Generation Jones were rallying around Bush and shouting, "My country, right or wrong!" and a new youth culture renaissance touched Generation Y as a rebellion against the lock-step jingoism of older generations. This renaissance included Avril Lavigne, Jimmy Eat World, Good Charlotte, American Idol, Eight Mile and the album The Eminem Show. Could it be that the death of Layne Staley occurred as a replay of April 5, 1994, as a message from the cosmos of the immortality of American youth culture, that said youth culture would not perish and the American spirit would live on after 9/11?
Generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss predicted in their book Millennials Rising that Gen-X genres of music like alternative, new wave and hip-hop would survive when the next generation was creating music, but would change to reflect a Gen-Y sensibility. And alternative has changed. Today's alternative songs have lyrics like: "When she was just a girl/She expected the world/But it fell away from her reach/So she ran away in her sleep/She dreamed of para-para-paradise . . . Every time she closed her eyes". Very Generation Me. Or the new Fun. song "We Are Young" that's topping the charts now. Did young Xers wear their youth on the sleeve as a mark of pride the way today's teens and twentysomethings do? And then there's the political radicalism in such Muse songs as "The Uprising" and "Resistance", aimed at one of the most radical youth generations ever. Nirvana, conversely, was often hailed as quintessentially Gen-X in its outlook. Xers were often unfairly stereotyped as apathetic.
I never knew Kurt Cobain, but I will miss him for as long as I live. I do my hair like him too. 8)
R.I.P. Kurt Cobain
February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994
When I first heard that Kurt Cobain had killed himself, I was in junior high and wasn't a fan. It seemed like just another crazy thing rock stars did.
It wasn't until a few years later than I learned Kurt Cobain was a Gen-X icon, and that the stereotypical Xer listened to Nirvana. I learned songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come as You Are" and "Lithium" from the radio.
When I was 19, I bought my first Nirvana cassette -- Nevermind. I now have MTV Unplugged in New York and Sliver as well.
The messages of Nirvana songs are easy to miss because Kurt sang so unclearly, making the lyrics indecipherable ("I'm so dire, lately I've become your pupil/You taught me everything about a poison apple"?) The lyrics are also very subtextual and metaphorical. "Polly", for instance, sounds like a song about torturing a parrot: clipping her wings, shooting a cracker off her head, and scorching her with a blowtorch. But it is actually a song about raping a girl named Polly. One boy who didn't understand the anti-rape message played it while raping his girlfriend.
You've got to credit Kurt for his progressive views. He asked homophobic people not to buy his CD's. What with his marriage to Courtney Love, many people are unaware that Kurt is actually bisexual.
During his 27-year stay on Earth, Kurt had a being-Jesus fetish, collecting Jesus figurines and remaking the Christian folk song "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".
Some say Kurt's surceasement was a suicide, while others say Courtney Love killed him. The "Courtney killed Kurt Cobain" (CKKC) folks argue that Kurt had too much heroin in his system to pull the trigger. The "it was a suicide" side points out that several of the Cobains had previously committed suicide. I remember reading an issue of Under 25 on teen suicide that interviewed Beverly Cobain and learning that Kurt wasn't the only Cobain to have (allegedly) killed himself. I'm undecided myself as to the suicide vs. CKKC debate.
Today marks the decade anniversary of another grunge death. For ten years, Layne Staley has lain stalely in his grave. These two fellows, both born in 1967, succumbed to heroin on the same day of the year spaced eight years apart. There is something poetic about this commorient relationship between two grunge musicians. The Layne Staley death occurred on the first Kurt Cobain Day after the 9/11 attacks, when Baby Boomers and Generation Jones were rallying around Bush and shouting, "My country, right or wrong!" and a new youth culture renaissance touched Generation Y as a rebellion against the lock-step jingoism of older generations. This renaissance included Avril Lavigne, Jimmy Eat World, Good Charlotte, American Idol, Eight Mile and the album The Eminem Show. Could it be that the death of Layne Staley occurred as a replay of April 5, 1994, as a message from the cosmos of the immortality of American youth culture, that said youth culture would not perish and the American spirit would live on after 9/11?
Generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss predicted in their book Millennials Rising that Gen-X genres of music like alternative, new wave and hip-hop would survive when the next generation was creating music, but would change to reflect a Gen-Y sensibility. And alternative has changed. Today's alternative songs have lyrics like: "When she was just a girl/She expected the world/But it fell away from her reach/So she ran away in her sleep/She dreamed of para-para-paradise . . . Every time she closed her eyes". Very Generation Me. Or the new Fun. song "We Are Young" that's topping the charts now. Did young Xers wear their youth on the sleeve as a mark of pride the way today's teens and twentysomethings do? And then there's the political radicalism in such Muse songs as "The Uprising" and "Resistance", aimed at one of the most radical youth generations ever. Nirvana, conversely, was often hailed as quintessentially Gen-X in its outlook. Xers were often unfairly stereotyped as apathetic.
I never knew Kurt Cobain, but I will miss him for as long as I live. I do my hair like him too. 8)
R.I.P. Kurt Cobain
February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Well, I remember seeing that album with the toddler in the water offered in a mall where I used to buy CDs some years ago, but ignored it as the band name was Nirwana, which lets you expect some east asian psychodelic music.
Some weeks ago, I skimmed through a pdf which isn't allowed to post here, and also found Kurt Cobain. Didn't know that he had something to do with Nirwana, before. Sometimes, while listening to youtube, said album shows up, so I listened to ''Smells Like Teen Spirit'', which surprisingly sounded differently than I expected. (Actually quite ''tame'' compared to the music I usually listen to, and I didn't try to understand what he actually sings.) I maybe heard that song before, not knowing that it was Nirwana.
R.I.P. Kurt Cobain
Some weeks ago, I skimmed through a pdf which isn't allowed to post here, and also found Kurt Cobain. Didn't know that he had something to do with Nirwana, before. Sometimes, while listening to youtube, said album shows up, so I listened to ''Smells Like Teen Spirit'', which surprisingly sounded differently than I expected. (Actually quite ''tame'' compared to the music I usually listen to, and I didn't try to understand what he actually sings.) I maybe heard that song before, not knowing that it was Nirwana.
R.I.P. Kurt Cobain
My neurochemistry has fucked my impulse control, now I'm diagnosed OOD = oppositional opinion disorder, one of the most deadly diseases in totalitarian states, but can be cured in the free world.
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Makes it almost poetic that Jim Marshall died. I'm fairly sure Kurt smashed a fair number of the guy's legacy. :P
Sin ar Pàrras agus nì sinne mar a thogras sinn. Choisinn sinn e agus ’s urrainn dhuinn ga loisgeadh.
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Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Oh yes, the Nevermind cover. Considering you could see Eldon Spencer's penis, I'm surprised I didn't hear about anyone in an uproar about the cover art being child pornography.Tanni wrote:Well, I remember seeing that album with the toddler in the water offered in a mall where I used to buy CDs some years ago,
Do they transliterate the Sanskrit /v/ as W in your language?but ignored it as the band name was Nirwana, which lets you expect some east asian psychodelic music.
Fun fact: There was actually a band in the 60's that was also named Nirvana.
I got your PM. 8)Some weeks ago, I skimmed through a pdf which isn't allowed to post here, and also found Kurt Cobain. Didn't know that he had something to do with Nirwana, before.
Well, from what I've read, the lyrics in the chorus are: "A mulatto/An albino/A mosquito/My libido". I misheard the "A mosquito" line as "I'm a skater", and I thought to myself, "I think grunge is more like it, Kurt".Sometimes, while listening to youtube, said album shows up, so I listened to ''Smells Like Teen Spirit'', which surprisingly sounded differently than I expected. (Actually quite ''tame'' compared to the music I usually listen to, and I didn't try to understand what he actually sings.) I maybe heard that song before, not knowing that it was Nirwana.
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
This is probably because of the added banknote. It makes it art, because then, there's a deeper message in the picture: the whole world is just a combination of sex and money. I somewhat miss the rubber duck.Khemehekis wrote:Oh yes, the Nevermind cover. Considering you could see Eldon Spencer's penis, I'm surprised I didn't hear about anyone in an uproar about the cover art being child pornography.Tanni wrote:Well, I remember seeing that album with the toddler in the water offered in a mall where I used to buy CDs some years ago,
Have you read the material it points to? If yes, did it provide you some new insights?Khemehekis wrote:I got your PM.
My neurochemistry has fucked my impulse control, now I'm diagnosed OOD = oppositional opinion disorder, one of the most deadly diseases in totalitarian states, but can be cured in the free world.
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Re: Kurt Cobain Day
That makes sense. Too many Americans think that any picture of a naked person is automatically pornography.Tanni wrote:This is probably because of the added banknote. It makes it art, because then, there's a deeper message in the picture: the whole world is just a combination of sex and money. I somewhat miss the rubber duck.Khemehekis wrote:Oh yes, the Nevermind cover. Considering you could see Eldon Spencer's penis, I'm surprised I didn't hear about anyone in an uproar about the cover art being child pornography.Tanni wrote:Well, I remember seeing that album with the toddler in the water offered in a mall where I used to buy CDs some years ago,
Yes, I read it. The list of celebrities who died from drug use reminds me of the Conservapedia article on Hollywood values. As I read before, Kurt was diagnosed with ADD as a child and put on Ritalin, and then diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a twentysomething.Tanni wrote:Have you read the material it points to? If yes, did it provide you some new insights?Khemehekis wrote:I got your PM.
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
It came to my mind that additionally to my despice of the supposed eastern psychodelic style of Nirvana, I didn't buy that CD as I also didn't like one of the other song titles, besides ''Smells like teen spirit''. I also wouldn't buy a song called like this just because of the name. Ok, now I know that the work is ok, but the title is also important if you decide on buying and not know the content/genre. As I'm not American, I didn't have any information on Kurt/Nirvana back then, so why buying that CD?Tanni wrote:but ignored it as the band name was Nirwana, which lets you expect some east asian psychodelic music.
According to Wikipedia, Kurt did not sell that much in his living years.
As evil people like me will go to Hell for sure, I needn't bother about the spelling of Nirvana.Khemehekis wrote:Do they transliterate the Sanskrit /v/ as W in your language?
My neurochemistry has fucked my impulse control, now I'm diagnosed OOD = oppositional opinion disorder, one of the most deadly diseases in totalitarian states, but can be cured in the free world.
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
I absolutely hated Kurt Cobain/Nirvana when I first heard it aeons ago, in college. I thought,
"What a bunch of poseurs". But some younger classmates turned me on in grad-school.
Of all the lyrics and infectuous songs, these lyrics haunt me for some reason:
Where do bad folks go when they die
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
Go to a lake of fire and fry
See them again 'till the Fourth of July
I think of Lucifer from Dante's Inferno holding Sparklers standing on a lush, verdant lawn- whoa!
Gone too soon.
"What a bunch of poseurs". But some younger classmates turned me on in grad-school.
Of all the lyrics and infectuous songs, these lyrics haunt me for some reason:
Where do bad folks go when they die
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
Go to a lake of fire and fry
See them again 'till the Fourth of July
I think of Lucifer from Dante's Inferno holding Sparklers standing on a lush, verdant lawn- whoa!
Gone too soon.
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
With eyes so dilated, I have become your pupil.Khemehekis wrote:("I'm so dire, lately I've become your pupil/You taught me everything about a poison apple"?)
You taught me everything about a poison apple.
The water is so yellow, I'm a healthy student.
Indebted and so grateful, vacuum out the fluids.
I am a conlanger, a guitarist, a liar, a songwriter, a marijuana smoker, and a reader. Who are you?
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Re: Kurt Cobain Day
I thought it was:C.J. wrote:With eyes so dilated, I have become your pupil.Khemehekis wrote:("I'm so dire, lately I've become your pupil/You taught me everything about a poison apple"?)
You taught me everything about a poison apple.
The water is so yellow, I'm a healthy student.
Indebted and so grateful, vacuum out the fluids.
I'm so dire, lately I've become your pupil
You taught me everything about a poison apple
The water is so yellow I'm a health/hostage to it
Indeed it is a grateful fact you never flew it
May Kurt Cobain be resting in Heaven today. Nineteen years!
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
-
- mongolian
- Posts: 3884
- Joined: 14 Aug 2010 09:36
- Location: California über alles
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
For Kurt Cobain's forty-ninth birthday, I thought I'd write this post.
I've been a Cobainiac since I was 19. I also have Hole's album Celebrity Skin, and am no doubt familiar with the "Courtney killed Kurt Cobain" (CKKC) conspiracy theory. I've read the evidence for and against the conspiracy theory, yadda yadda yadda. But when I focused on the lyrics to Hole's song "Boys on the Radio", I noticed something: the lyrics seem to be about killing Kurt Cobain.
"Do what you want
'Cause I'll do anything
And I'll take the blame"
Courtney Love is saying that's she's not afraid to do anything to Cobain. And no doubt she took the blame for it: just look at the popularity of the CKKC conspiracy theory.
"What's mine is yours
You can't have all of it
And I'll learn to beg"
Here, Love expresses a jealousy of Cobain and Nirvana's success: she is telling Cobain that he can't have all the fame and glory; Love wants Hole to be successful too. I have heard people insist that Love murdered Cobain in order for her band to become more famous and successful, and it worked: Hole were propelled to popularity as soon as Cobain died.
"All the boys on the radio
They crash and burn
They fold and fade so slow"
Boys on the radio = young male rock stars who get played on the radio: Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, in addition to other grungers who were young at the time of Cobain's death (Eddie Vedder, Layne Staley, etc.) Many of them had "crash and burn" lifestyles, including Cobain himself, and Shannon Hoon. Also the guy who has "lain stalely" in his grave since 2002, although that was four years after this song came out, so Love couldn't have been talking about him.
"In your endless summer night
I'll be on the other side"
The "endless summer night" is Heaven, where it's always summer (they'll never get cold!) Love is now "on the other side" (on Earth while Cobain is in Heaven), although this could also mean at the other end of his death (i.e. causing it).
"When you're beautiful and dying
All the world that you've denied"
Cobain was obviously "dying", and he died young so he could have a "beautiful" corpse.
"When the water is too deep
You can close your eyes and really sleep tonight
Tonight"
Water appears to be a stand-in for another liquid here: heroin. Cobain was so deep in heroin, many CKKC proponents insist, that he couldn't have managed to pull the trigger competently. And of course, sleep is often a euphemism for death.
"I want what's yours
Oh I'd give anything
And I'll take the pain
I wait alone
For what will never come
And I'll throw it all away"
More about Love's envy of Nirvana's success: she would "do anything", even killing her beloved husband, to gain it. She also took the pain of Kurt's lifelong angst away by a quick-and-painless gunshot. (Or so she says in this song.) Said success would never come (unless, of course, her husband were to die, and Love knew how to expedite that). "I'll throw it all away" may have meant throwing away the talent of Cobain with quick death, so no more songs could come out of the Nirvana factory.
"I let you in under my skin
And risen every angel slain"
"Under my skin" may be a reference to Love becoming a heroin addict around the same time Cobain did. Not murder-related, but seems to be yet another suggestion this song is about Cobain. Cobain, who was "slain" according to this lyrics, was angelic in many ways: he had a Jesus fetish, including a collection of Jesus figurines, and covered the song "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".
"He said he'd never, ever, ever go
And heavens, heavens, heavens no
And never, ever, ever go away
Baby, I've gone away"
This part is puzzling. The lyrics state "He said he'd never, ever, ever go", but Cobain had hinted at death many times: he joked about joining the 27 Club, and said, "I hate myself and I want to die". Maybe what Love is getting at is that it was she, not he, who wanted Cobain to die, which would suggest murder rather than suicide.
"I know what you are running to
Please come back
Oh, come back again
I hear the truth
It's coming from you
Oh, come back
Won't come back again"
"Come back" often means to be resurrected from death, so "won't come back again" means Cobain is dead. "I hear the truth, it's coming from you" means that the spirit of Kurt Cobain knows the truth about how his body died: that the CKKC people were right, and it was a murder, not a suicide as officially ruled.
"When the water is too deep
I will ease your suffering"
Love, as the conspiracy theory goes, eased Cobain's suffering by offing him, putting an end to his angsty life.
"When the glitter fades in morning
Turn away and you will find my empty eyes"
The "glitter" here was the nineties-era hype surrounding bands like Nirvana and Hole. It faded as artists like Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Eminem, Good Charlotte, Puddle of Mudd, Moby and Avril Lavigne took over the musical stage, but at the time the song was written, Hole were at their strongest and at their most successful album. Love was saying that when the glitter would fade, she would be left, now with an empty look in her face since the youth of Generation X would be over.
"I know that you are rotten to the core
I know that you don't love me anymore
I know that you are rotten to the core"
In Heaven, Cobain can no longer love Love, as he witnessed her murdering him.
What do all of you think? Is this song a disguised memoir Love wrote about offing Cobain?
I've been a Cobainiac since I was 19. I also have Hole's album Celebrity Skin, and am no doubt familiar with the "Courtney killed Kurt Cobain" (CKKC) conspiracy theory. I've read the evidence for and against the conspiracy theory, yadda yadda yadda. But when I focused on the lyrics to Hole's song "Boys on the Radio", I noticed something: the lyrics seem to be about killing Kurt Cobain.
"Do what you want
'Cause I'll do anything
And I'll take the blame"
Courtney Love is saying that's she's not afraid to do anything to Cobain. And no doubt she took the blame for it: just look at the popularity of the CKKC conspiracy theory.
"What's mine is yours
You can't have all of it
And I'll learn to beg"
Here, Love expresses a jealousy of Cobain and Nirvana's success: she is telling Cobain that he can't have all the fame and glory; Love wants Hole to be successful too. I have heard people insist that Love murdered Cobain in order for her band to become more famous and successful, and it worked: Hole were propelled to popularity as soon as Cobain died.
"All the boys on the radio
They crash and burn
They fold and fade so slow"
Boys on the radio = young male rock stars who get played on the radio: Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, in addition to other grungers who were young at the time of Cobain's death (Eddie Vedder, Layne Staley, etc.) Many of them had "crash and burn" lifestyles, including Cobain himself, and Shannon Hoon. Also the guy who has "lain stalely" in his grave since 2002, although that was four years after this song came out, so Love couldn't have been talking about him.
"In your endless summer night
I'll be on the other side"
The "endless summer night" is Heaven, where it's always summer (they'll never get cold!) Love is now "on the other side" (on Earth while Cobain is in Heaven), although this could also mean at the other end of his death (i.e. causing it).
"When you're beautiful and dying
All the world that you've denied"
Cobain was obviously "dying", and he died young so he could have a "beautiful" corpse.
"When the water is too deep
You can close your eyes and really sleep tonight
Tonight"
Water appears to be a stand-in for another liquid here: heroin. Cobain was so deep in heroin, many CKKC proponents insist, that he couldn't have managed to pull the trigger competently. And of course, sleep is often a euphemism for death.
"I want what's yours
Oh I'd give anything
And I'll take the pain
I wait alone
For what will never come
And I'll throw it all away"
More about Love's envy of Nirvana's success: she would "do anything", even killing her beloved husband, to gain it. She also took the pain of Kurt's lifelong angst away by a quick-and-painless gunshot. (Or so she says in this song.) Said success would never come (unless, of course, her husband were to die, and Love knew how to expedite that). "I'll throw it all away" may have meant throwing away the talent of Cobain with quick death, so no more songs could come out of the Nirvana factory.
"I let you in under my skin
And risen every angel slain"
"Under my skin" may be a reference to Love becoming a heroin addict around the same time Cobain did. Not murder-related, but seems to be yet another suggestion this song is about Cobain. Cobain, who was "slain" according to this lyrics, was angelic in many ways: he had a Jesus fetish, including a collection of Jesus figurines, and covered the song "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".
"He said he'd never, ever, ever go
And heavens, heavens, heavens no
And never, ever, ever go away
Baby, I've gone away"
This part is puzzling. The lyrics state "He said he'd never, ever, ever go", but Cobain had hinted at death many times: he joked about joining the 27 Club, and said, "I hate myself and I want to die". Maybe what Love is getting at is that it was she, not he, who wanted Cobain to die, which would suggest murder rather than suicide.
"I know what you are running to
Please come back
Oh, come back again
I hear the truth
It's coming from you
Oh, come back
Won't come back again"
"Come back" often means to be resurrected from death, so "won't come back again" means Cobain is dead. "I hear the truth, it's coming from you" means that the spirit of Kurt Cobain knows the truth about how his body died: that the CKKC people were right, and it was a murder, not a suicide as officially ruled.
"When the water is too deep
I will ease your suffering"
Love, as the conspiracy theory goes, eased Cobain's suffering by offing him, putting an end to his angsty life.
"When the glitter fades in morning
Turn away and you will find my empty eyes"
The "glitter" here was the nineties-era hype surrounding bands like Nirvana and Hole. It faded as artists like Ricky Martin, Britney Spears, Eminem, Good Charlotte, Puddle of Mudd, Moby and Avril Lavigne took over the musical stage, but at the time the song was written, Hole were at their strongest and at their most successful album. Love was saying that when the glitter would fade, she would be left, now with an empty look in her face since the youth of Generation X would be over.
"I know that you are rotten to the core
I know that you don't love me anymore
I know that you are rotten to the core"
In Heaven, Cobain can no longer love Love, as he witnessed her murdering him.
What do all of you think? Is this song a disguised memoir Love wrote about offing Cobain?
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
- Thrice Xandvii
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Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Seems exceedingly far-fetched.
Those lyrical interpretations seem not like you are interpreting lyrics for their inner meaning, but instead forcing a meaning you are looking for ONTO the lyrics that are there. Using that strategy, the song can literally be about anything.
Also, let's pretend Courtney is smart enough to have avoided being charged/put on trial for Kurt's death for all these years (which I really doubt)... could she be simultaneously stupid enough to make the lyrics of a song all about the event? I doubt it. But, as I said, I don't believe for a second that that's what the song is about.
Those lyrical interpretations seem not like you are interpreting lyrics for their inner meaning, but instead forcing a meaning you are looking for ONTO the lyrics that are there. Using that strategy, the song can literally be about anything.
Also, let's pretend Courtney is smart enough to have avoided being charged/put on trial for Kurt's death for all these years (which I really doubt)... could she be simultaneously stupid enough to make the lyrics of a song all about the event? I doubt it. But, as I said, I don't believe for a second that that's what the song is about.
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Those aren't really Nirvana lyrics though...Lambuzhao wrote:Where do bad folks go when they die
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
Go to a lake of fire and fry
See them again 'till the Fourth of July
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_Fire_%28song%29
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Re: Kurt Cobain Day
In that particular case, I don't think Kurt minded that much.
I believe we can forgive him.
I believe we can forgive him.
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
I seem to have forgotten that bullets can travel from Los Angeles* to Seattle. /s
*Courtney Love was in rehab in Los Angeles when Kurt killed himself.
*Courtney Love was in rehab in Los Angeles when Kurt killed himself.
Spoiler:
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
*cough*paidassassin*cough*qwed117 wrote:I seem to have forgotten that bullets can travel from Los Angeles* to Seattle. /s
*Courtney Love was in rehab in Los Angeles when Kurt killed himself.
No, I don't believe the conspiracy. Suicide is the explanation I believe.
You can tell the same lie a thousand times,
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
But it never gets any more true,
So close your eyes once more and once more believe
That they all still believe in you.
Just one time.
- Thrice Xandvii
- runic
- Posts: 2698
- Joined: 25 Nov 2012 10:13
- Location: Carnassus
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
The closest to conspiracy or such that I'll go is believing the fact that Courtney had a role in Kurt's death, thusly: she was a crazed bitch who was hard to live with and aided him in his self-destructive habits as he aided her in hers.
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Exact opposite: It's about her regrets about Cobain's suicide
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
Yea...no.What do all of you think? Is this song a disguised memoir Love wrote about offing Cobain?
For one, I interpreted this lyric:
"I let you in under my skin
And risen every angel slain"
As meaning that she fell for him (she let him in under her skin) and he brought the good out in her (every angel that was slain before has risen again).
I know almost nothing about the life of Kurt Cobain or Courtney Love, but I know that that doesn't suggest anything about her killing Cobain.
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- mongolian
- Posts: 3884
- Joined: 14 Aug 2010 09:36
- Location: California über alles
Re: Kurt Cobain Day
I didn't get the preconceived notion that a song ought to be about "Courtney killed Kurt". Rather, I was listening one day and it struck me how much the lyrics sounded as if they were about Kurt Cobain dying and the whole CKKC thing. The next time I listened to "Boys on the Radio", I went through it and tried out that interpretation and it "worked" for almost all the lyrics. (The fact that a few of the lyrics don't fit, however, would suggest that that's not the right interpretation.) Sort of like when I was listening to "Stay Away" by Nirvana and the line "pull the skin" brought to mind circumcision . . . and then I realized the whole song was about circumcision. It all jost came together as all the lyrics fit.Thrice Xandvii wrote: Those lyrical interpretations seem not like you are interpreting lyrics for their inner meaning, but instead forcing a meaning you are looking for ONTO the lyrics that are there. Using that strategy, the song can literally be about anything.
However, this is a good point:
Also, let's pretend Courtney is smart enough to have avoided being charged/put on trial for Kurt's death for all these years (which I really doubt)... could she be simultaneously stupid enough to make the lyrics of a song all about the event? I doubt it. But, as I said, I don't believe for a second that that's what the song is about.
♂♥♂♀
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!
Squirrels chase koi . . . chase squirrels
My Kankonian-English dictionary: 86,336 words and counting
31,416: The number of the conlanging beast!