Kurt CobainThe life of a rock star starts out with just a few lyrics scribbled on a piece of paper. With the added help of a good voice, sound, hard work, and determination, someone can become very successful in the competitive rock industry. Among the successful, hardworking artists in this industry are Little Richard, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Sex Pistols. Kurt Cobain also can be included with these rock legends.
Kurt Cobain’s life in music is supported by great talent, hardship, and tragedy. Kurt Cobain was born on the 20th of Febuary 1967 in Abertine, Washington. When Kurt was only seven years old his mother and father divorced. Following the divorce, Kurt was moved between various family members and friends. As this constant moving got to be unbearable, he started to spend the nights sleeping below a bridge (immortalized in the song “Something in the Way”) at the end of his road. Here, Kurt’s time was spent writing his earliest lyrics(“The Life”).
School life was not much easier on Kurt Cobain either. Unlike most boys, Kurt had little interest in such things as football and other sports. Instead, he enjoyed painting and Puhek 2singing. Therefore, much of his time at school was spent with the girls(“Biography”).
For this, Kurt did not have many friends at school. Many thought he was either strange or bisexual, so he alienated himself from other people(“The Life”). Kurt Cobain was not always alone though. Before he was famous, Kurt lived with Tracy Merander (immortalized in the song “About a Girl”) for three years in Seattle.
During this time, most of Kurt’s talents, such as painting and sculpting, were created for her. Tracy was said to be Kurt’s “only true love”(“The Life”). Then Kurt met Courtney Love, who quickly became an important part of Cobain’s life. They married 24 January 1992 in Wakiki, Hawaii. Six months later their daughter Frances Bean was born (“Biography”). Their relationship seemed to be great, but people who where much closer to them said the relationship was troublesome.
It was obvious to them that Courtney was “playing on his Kurt’s sensitvity” (“The Life”). Another important aspect of Kurt Cobain’s life is his music. Kurt showed an interest in the arts at a very early age. He received his first guitar on his fourteenth birthday, and by the time he reachred fifteen, Kurt knew how to play.
His musical influences were from bands like the Beatles and the Monkees to bands like Led Zepplin, Black Sabbeth, and AC/DC. Kurt’s music was a mixture of heavy metal and 80’s punk. It would later be known as grunge. Puhek 3Kurt Cobain’s first band, which was not very successful, held the name Fecal Matter. With his friend Chris (Krist) Novaselic, Kurt formed the band Nirvana in 1986. In 1988 Kurt, Krist, and drummer Dave Grohl went to Seattle to make a demo at Reciprical Recording Studios.
This demo later led to a record deal with Sub Pop records. On 11 June 1988 they released their first album Bleach, produced under the Sub Pop record label (DiPerna 74). After the release of their first album, Nirvana toured the United States. Eventually, they performed their first European concert in Newcastle. The next year Kurt Cobain and Nirvana decided to change record companies from Sub Pop to Geffen Records. In 1991 Nirvana signed a contract and started another album titled Nevermind (“Biography”).
As Nirvana became more famous the stress increased on Kurt. Cobain was constantly being protected by guards, so he had little contact with his close friends and family. It even got to the point were they were unable to talk to Kurt on the phone. His music was the only thing that kept him from cracking under all the pressure of fame. This was slowly wearing away though (“The Life”). In 1993 Nirvana recorded In Utero, which was their last album recorded in studio.
Because of the title of the song “I Hate Myself and I Want to Die,” later removed, it took six months to release this album. Puhek 4″In the beginning of 1994 Nirvana played an MTV unpluged concert, and they played what was to be their final concert in Munich 29th Mars 1994. ” After Kurt’s death, Nirvana released their Unplugged in N. Y. album (“Biography”). The next aspect of Kurt Cobain’s life was his struggle with drugs.
Kurt had become addicted to heroin and morphine. Cobain tried to get his friends and family to believe he was going to get some help and that his drug use was under control. This was not true, but with Nirvana’s success many of Kurt’s lawyers, agents, and friends were scared to try to help him (Jones, Fleming, and Rossi 68). While at a seminar in July of 1993, Kurt overdosed on heroin. Courtney tried to save him by injecting him with some illegal drug. Later that day Kurt played at a concert without any problems (“Biography”).
Then while touring, Kurt had an “accidental” overdose in Rome of March 1994. Just prior to that event, Cobain had entered a drug-rehabilitation program in California (O’Reilly 373). Kurt soon left, thinking he did not belong there (“Biography”). He went back to Seattle where he then shot himself (O’Reilly 373). Kurt Cobain was found dead on the morning of 8 April 1994(“Biography”), when an electrician came to install a security system in Kurt’s home.
When no one answered the door, the electrician then tried to find someone by looking through the windows. What he found was a man lyiny on the floor (Handy 70). Puhek 5The police found Kurt on his back on the floor of his house. The gun’s position and the head trauma made it clear that the gun was fired upward into Cobain’s mouth (“The Death”).
Also, lying on a nearby table was Kurt’s suicide note (Handy 70). The suicide note, written moments before Kurt’s death, portrays Kurt’s feelings moments before he pulled the trigger (“The Death”). In the note Kurt writes:Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach for your letters and concern during the past years. I’m too much of an erratic, moody baby! I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away (qtd.
in “The Death”). Though Kurt Cobain did not reach the age of thirty, he became known as a legend like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morris. All were twenty-seven when they died (“Biography”). On the announcement of Kurt Cobain’s death, the world sat in disbelief. For days the media reported on Kurt’s suicide. On the 9th of April 1994 CNN reported:The music world stood still today, in disbelief, as news of the horrific death of rock star Kurt Cobain eco’d around the world.
The 27 year old front man of the band Nirvana was discovered dead yesterday at his luxurious Seattle residence, after a self inflicted gun wound to the head. Cobain’s wife Courtney Love, who is Puhek 6currently in Paris, is said to be devistated at the news of her husbands death (qtd. in “The Death”). Kurt’s fans held a candlelight vigil to morn his death. Afterwards, a twenty-eight year old man shot himself in what appeared to be a copycat suicide.
Cobain’s fans did not support the fact that Kurt commited suicide, but still supported him as a rock legend. “Some spoke predictably of having lost their voice, their poet of disenfranchisement. ” There were a few fans who did not want to accept ” their idol twisted into a generational icon, a kind of hip destiny” (Jones, Fleming, and Rossi 68). The president of Geffen Records spoke out to comfort Cobain’s supporters. ” The world has lost a great artist and we’ve lost a great friend.
It leaves a huge void in our hearts. ” This statement was true for all of Kurt’s fans. If only someone had heard the “rambling” at Kurt’s home. “Long before there was a void in our hearts, there was a void in Kurt Cobain’s” (Giles et al. 67). To many of his fans Kurt was a hero.
His music led him to be called “the voice of a generation” (O’Reilly 373). Kurt Cobain will never be forgotten. His music will always live on, and hopefully, others will learn from Kurt’s tragic end.
