In memoriam of Kurt Cobain, the father of grunge

Even after two decades; his tragic death was one that was unforgotten. He left behind a guilt-stricken wife, an adorable 2-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, a celebrated punk rock band called Nirvana and millions of anguished fans.

Just when the anniversary of Cobain’s suicide is around the corner, on Monday, The Seattle Police Department publicly released previously undeveloped photos taken by a detective at the suicide scene of Nirvana’s lead singer during the April 8, 1994 investigation.

The photos that were undeveloped until recently, did not change the fact that Kurt Donald Cobain died of self-inflicted gun shot wound on his head.

Pictures of his suicide note pinned on a stem of a plant in his greenhouse of his mansion in Seattle were also exposed. The never seen before pictures have set a pandemonium all over the globe especially among his generation-X followers.

This comes to show that both Cobain’s life and death are somewhat ‘cherished’, that the 'golden ages' of punk rock that Cobain revived in the early 90’s stay fresh in most of their memories.

Like his life, all wild and euphoric outside, yet dark and morbid inside, it is such an irony that Cobain’s death, despite having had only three years, parading his musical success in the eyes of the mass, has carved a vital cultural yardstick for those influenced and entertained by his transitory career.

Those three years was when his band, Nirvana, dropped Chad Channing, to a newfound eye-candy drummer, Dave Grohl.

That was when Nirvana found their greatest success through their 1991 major-label debut, "Nevermind", which has sold over 30 million copies in 1991 alone. That was also the point when Nirvana went through a major transformation.

From indie record label, Sub Pop, since the band’s existence in 1987 to the unveiling of the new Nirvana, which comprised of Cobain, Grohl and Krist Novoselic, under the label DGC Record or Geffen Records, Nirvana successfully popularized a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge.

The infamous image of a naked underwater baby floating across the cover of Nirvana’s ground-breaking album, “Nevermind” was to date, the most eye catching album cover ever produced in the history of music. And with the breakthrough success of the album’s lead single, “Smells like Teen Spirit”, Nirvana entered the gateway of mainstream music.

“In Utero”, released in 1993 was Nirvana’s third and final album. This album released the single “Heart Shaped Box” - another raw, uncompromising and full of angst single that garnered commercial success.

However, the album contains songs that were less-mainstream and defied the band’s followers. "In Utero" did not quite match the sales figures of “Nevermind”.

Despite the drop in record sales, Nirvana made it to the list of chart-toppers, with over 75 million records sold worldwide, soaring them to the peak of the best-selling music artist in history.

Rolling Stone magazine at that time, described Nirvana's influence as having "kicked in" the 1990's as a musical era, adding that their music "guaranteed the nineties would not suck”, and claimed that the band "transformed rock for a generation."

We spoke to two music local musicians about their reminiscences of Kurt Cobain as the anniversary of his suicide approached, this April 8, 2014. From afar, yet close to their hearts, both were touched in some insightful and unforgettable way.

Azreen, the vocalist of Malaysia’s own punk rock band in the early 90’s - Subculture, which received an exceptional breakthrough in 1993, when they were head hunted for the 1st Malaysian Alternative Music Compilation along with other celebrated alternative acts like Spiral Kinetik Circus, Flop Poppy, ART , Soulwound and many more, said that there can never be another Kurt Cobain no matter how much Dave Grohl tried to revived Nirvana’s “glory-hood” today.

“Kurt Cobain gave birth to grunge which is rooted from punk rock. He had revived the glorious era of punk rock when in the 90’s, punk rock has slowly eased away from the general music scene (then). Before Nirvana it was Mudhoney but they never gotten as big and as good as Nirvana,” said Azreen.

Azreen added, “Of course the demised of Kurt Cobain has caused a lot of pain to the world of music. That such brilliance and geniality of punk rock that was once embedded in the minds of grunge music lovers all over the world was tragically short-lived, has come to its end and never to return”.

“I have seen a lot of punk shows, growing up in the 80’s and 90’s where the gigs are very aggressive and most of the times confrontational, but there was something very unique about Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. I can’t really grasp what it really was but really, his music and his flare was just mesmerizing, until today,” said Azreen.

For Syed Al-Habsyi, the guitarist and founder of the soulful yet understated local band, Nitrus, (which bagged the Most Promising Artiste of the Year award at the AIM 2002) he feels that although Cobain’s demised did not give that great impact in his music, however, as a human being, Cobain’s death proved to show that no matter how greatly fame and money contributed to the success in one’s life, we are after all human beings with vulnerability and fragility.

“I remember vividly the day my roommate in ITM stormed into the room and animatedly said, ‘Hey you must listen to this… you must listen to this! – this will change your life forever.’…It was a "Nevermind" cassette, it was the year 1992 and yes, it did change my life. I got hooked on Kurt Cobain’s undeniably ‘God sent’ talent in creating new genre of music – the grunge music. When the world was hungry for some sort of music transformation in punk rock especially, at that time, Nirvana jumped to this circumstance and saved us all,” said Syed.

Syed who also has over 10 years in producing music said, “It was sad that life came and hit you on the face as hard as it did with Kurt Cobain's, but one thing major that I learnt from his death is that life is not at all and always be bubblegum yummy (like the mainstream pop music) or bed of roses for all.

"Success isn’t measured by the digits in your bank account and number of groupies you have following you around. It is all about how you read in between the lines, it is how you gave impact onto the lives of the people you care. And I guess that was what Kurt Cobain’s trying to do with his waking days. And that's what exactly he did. And that is the one thing that all of us could learnt from.”

The harsh reality is that Kurt Cobain’s mental strength and his outstanding music ability and creativity did not outlive his illness. His depression out ruled his success when his addiction to numerous kind of drugs especially heroin, won the battle of coping with his fame and his image to the public, also what seemed to be a lifelong professional and personal pressures that enveloped himself and his wife, Courtney Love.

His suicide was his act of salvage to preventing further pain that he inflicted towards the well-being of his daughter. At least, that was what he insinuated in his letter before he pulled the trigger.