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Gone longer than he was alive, Cobain is still hailed as a timeless voice for all generations (and he would have hated it)

Somewhat happy yet tumultuous childhood, teenage years spent “sleeping” ** under bridges and dabbling with drugs, adulthood cut short in its prime; Kurt Cobain is, without the doubt, one of the most influential members of the 27-club.

** The word sleeping is used between brackets, as it was later debunked by Krist Novoselic that Cobain never actually slept under the bridge over the Wishkah River (which inspired “Something in the Way” (Nevermind, 1991) – given that the ever-rising tides would have made it impossible.**

Although never comfortable with the title, one can’t deny that Cobain’s voice resonated with his generation — and some might agree that it continues to do so to this day.

Musically inclined from a young age, the late musician was offered a choice by his uncle on his fourteenth birthday: a bike or a used guitar. As fate would have it, Cobain chose the latter. “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV) was the first song he tried to play, continuing on to cover a number of old classics like “Another One Bites the Dust” (Queen, The Game),and “Louie Louie” (Richard Berry and the Pharaohs, Love that Louie: The Louie Louie Files). He later began writing his own music and lyrics. In spite of being forced to write with his right hand, Cobain played the guitar left-handed.

Prior to Nirvana’s formation, Cobain was in a band called Fecal Matter (formed in 1985, dismembered in 1986)— where he sang and played the guitar alongside bassist Dale Crover and drummer Greg Hokanson. Original material was played, as well as numerous covers from bands like Led Zeppelin, the Ramones, and artists like Jimi Hendrix.

Fecal Matter was one of the bands that arose from The Melvins, a rock band formed in 1983, of which Crover was already and still is a member of.

Hanging around The Melvins was how Cobain came to meet who would soon be Nirvana’s bassist, Krist Novoselic.

The band name “Nirvana” was coined by Cobain, who at the time was artistically influenced by religion, mainly Jainism (one of the world’s oldest religions, originating in India. Its spiritual goal is to become liberated from the endless cycle of rebirth, to achieve an all-knowing state called moksha), Christian imagery and Buddhism — from which the term “Nirvana” is from ( a freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, as Cobain described.)

After going through a number of drummers, in 1990 Dave Grohl was recruited, officially completing the familiar trio Nirvana is known for.

Nirvana skyrocketed to fame once their (to this day, most popular) single came out:

With that, came a lot of unwarranted success that Cobain grew to resent. An avid speaker against racism, sexism, and homophobia, the Nirvana singer was against all form of support coming from fans who loved his music, but ignored the band’s political and social views. One of his most famous quotes would be when he called out intolerant fans at one of his concerts:

I would like to get rid of the homophobes, sexists and racists in our audience. I know they’re out there and it really bothers me.

Kurt Cobain.

He wrote a number of songs calling out sexual assault and rape, i.e: “Polly” (Nevermind, 1991) and “About a Girl (Bleach, 1989) that were at times misinterpreted, with the intended message completely ignored.

Enter a very graphic and straight-to-the point song titled “Rape Me” (In Utero, 1993), sang to a somewhat slowed-down beat of the band’s most famous single “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

“Having to resort to writing something like that is almost embarrassing,” Cobain once said in an interview with Much Music (Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media). “Because people didn’t understand when we wrote a song like “About a Girl” or “Polly.” And having to explain that and having misunderstandings about it, I decided to write “Rape Me” in a way that is just so blunt and obvious that it’s like no one can deny it, no one can read into it any other way.”

Forever 27, and on this day, Kurt Cobain’s has officially been gone from this earth longer than he was present.

Rest easy, Angel.

Busybee’s favourite Nirvana songs:

• Heart-Shaped Box (In Utero, 1993)

• Drain You (Nevermind, 1991)

• Breed (Nevermind, 1991)

• The Man Who Sold the World (Unplugged in New York, David Bowie cover, 1994)

• Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam (Unplugged in New York, The Vaselines cover, 1994)