Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind, the epochal, out-of-nowhere album that changed the game forever.
MTV has been celebrating the anniversary all week, and I am partial to this piece, where they crunch the numbers, which really gives you a feel for the magnitude of the bomb that exploded with Nevermind.
Here’s a piece I wrote this year on the anniversary of lead singer Kurt Cobain’s death, and I would be totally remiss if I didn’t also point to one of my favorite pieces of writing ever written, my brother Brendan’s description of what happened when he first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and Brendan is really well-positioned to describe what that single really MEANT to a certain slice of Generation X. How important it was.
The imitators have been relentless ever since, but listening to Nevermind today, one is still struck by its freshness, and its sheer startling sound. Remember what was being played on the radio at the time. Nothing sounded like this. While “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is, of course, the most famous track, every single song on this album is its own journey. And they don’t linger around. Most of the tracks are quite short, adding to the incredible frenzied and diverse feel of the album. “Polly” is still shattering to listen to, “Stay Away”, “Breed” – incorporating the classic rock sound they grew up with, everyone grew up with, but with an overall MESS – the shrieks of the fingers on the guitar strings, the grunts and exhales … It is hard to remember a time when music sounded so fresh, so … itself. My favorite song on the album is “Lithium”, but it is still an album that, on occasion, I listen to beginning to end.
The album still has so much power, listened song to song to song. I listened to it when it first came out, of course, and it blew my mind. But I still get an almost baffled feeling when I listen to it now, in its entirety. My main feeling being: “Wow. It’s still there. It’s still there.” Time has not diminished its impact.
Here is the almost hand-made looking casting call for the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video, which of course would become one of the most memorable and iconic music videos in history. Video clip below that.
Happy birthday, Nevermind.
Still waiting for you to weigh in on Abu Graihb.
dying. hahahahahaha
I know. It’s been years. Too late to weigh in now!
: ) Seriously though, I loved this post. I feel old! Nirvana still feels fresh and exciting every time I hear it. I jogged tonight and listened to Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Damn it Kurt. Damn damn damn.
20 years???? That sounds so huge. I still feel like I’m 9 years old.
and yes. Damn.
But what a great album.
It is a perfect album. Literally every song on that album is a rock-out, don’t-touch-that-dial song.
He was an amazing talent. Thank God we still have David Grohl!
Yes Love Foo Fighters, too – very glad to have that connection, and FF have become really important to me as a group in and of themselves.
Isn’t it freaky how old we are, because we’re old enough to remember when it was the 20th anniversary of Woodstock et al and how OLD that all seemed then, and OUR music was never going to be like “Classic Rock” and now you push your cart in the shop to Altered Images because you’re like OLD and all your favorite albums are older than your kids and REM are the Stones of your generation. HTF did this happen!
Carrie – hahahahaha Totally.
I still can’t cope with the phrase ‘last decade’ not referring to the 1980s. Time sucks.
I know just what you mean. It is all very disorienting.
This is an album that I completely missed – at this point I was married for 3 years, had a kid, a job and bills – so I missed it and lazily I have never circled back to find out what was the fuss was about – I guess the moment passed by – . The sad thing about it – I grew up listening to classic rock but was always looking for my band that was going to change radio – so we didn’t have to listen to the same rock block of Genesis (yuck), Yes (double yuck) Boston, Aerosmith Stones/Who/Beatles etc etc over again – but Boomer tastes prevailed and the young bands I liked (lone justice, long ryders, del fugoes never broke out. Anyway – my oldest turns 21 in about 2 weeks, man that feels old –
Kevin – yeah, I know people who totally missed it too. It was such a specific slice of time, either you were on that bandwagon, or it skipped right over you. My love for Nirvana has just grown over the years. Their second album, for which they got so much shit for being a sell-out, is almost better than Nevermind. Not better, but almost. I love the early stuff, too. Bleach.
I bought the album years after grunge was no longer in the headlines, and years after Kurt Cobain’s suicide, after it was featured as the Number 2 album of all time behind The Beatles Revolver. Not sure if I think it should be that high, but it still kicks ass as an album, from beginning to end. And since they recently had an exhibit on Nirvana at the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum out here in Seattle, I could finally understand where this music came from, why it came from where it did (hair bands rarely toured around here, so local bands were influenced by other styles of music), and why it made such an impact.
I’m with you, Kevin. I was a newlywed, trying to have a baby, 20 years ago. In fact, I’ve bemoaned to Sheila that I missed ALL of ’92-’98 (when I got on the internet). Unless it was Power Rangers or Barney, it didn’t happen.
hahahaha Power Rangers or Barney!
Barney meant 22 minutes of peace and quiet – he was quite the purple god.
I think we still have the power ranger movie somewhere in my house. Its truly awful but in a good way
I didn’t discover Nirvana until my younger brother, (9 years younger), played it for me. I thought music was dead until then. The raw garage band sound fit perfectly with my generation – that was otherwise lost to disco.
On another note, my father always played Elvis for us, despite the fact that it was very uncool at the time. I do often wonder who decides which forms of art are the pinnacle of society and what art is to be discarded. — An essay worthy of your talent.