SONG: "All Apologies"I have often thought that Seattle, the city I grew up in and around, lacks real artistic identity. If every township and metropolis has soul then surely it is the duty of resident creative types to identify and expose what it is that makes a city hum. And certainly every world-class town must have at least one great artistic statement made in its honor. Yet Seattle boasts not a single classic film, nor one indisputably great novel. Sure, the houseboat from Sleepless in Seattle still drums up a few tourists every season, but is the tired remake of a movie that wasn’t that great to begin with something we want to be known for?
As far as the music scene goes, our northwestern-most corner of the Great Northwest has produced a couple of giants over the years. Bing Crosby hailed from Tacoma, Seattle’s southern cousin. And James Marshall Hendrix spent his formative years in Seattle’s offbeat Central District. But great as these native sons were their art was never particularly representative of Washingtonian roots. Hendrix belonged as much to London as to any part of his native country and at the height of Crosby’s fame Seattle was little more than a slimy backwater.
All in all, Washington State has only ever produced one artist whose body of work owes as much to the location of his birth as to his obvious brilliance. Kurt Donald Cobain, born in Aberdeen, WA in 1967, was the greatest of a musicians’ enclave who stubbornly refused to abandon Seattle in favor of traditional entertainment hubs like Los Angeles or New York City. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden and their be-flanneled cohorts became synonymous with the Grunge movement, which, in spite of the genre’s near-extinction, remains an integral element of Seattle’s public image. Cobain and Nirvana, rounded out by Krist Novoselic (bass) and Dave Grohl (drums), rose to the top of the ranks in 1991 with Nevermind. Buoyed by the runaway success of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and subsequent singles Nirvana launched into sold-out world tours and met with near-universal critical acclaim. And 1993’s In Utero solidified the group’s claim to the rock crown. Nirvana’s potential was limitless. Then of course it all came to a sudden end in 1994. Cobain died at the age of 27 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Nirvana’s place in musical history is assured, though some, the jaded and inattentive, say it was the fatal blast of Cobain’s shotgun that secured his enduring fame. Indeed, it is fashionable these days to say, “Nirvana wasn’t so great.” or “Cobain was overrated.” and it is especially trendy here in their hometown. Every Seattleite teenager goes through a period of open indifference to the group’s music. But in the end most come around and admit what they have known all along in their hearts – that Nirvana is one of the all time greats.
No. It is not the tragedy of Cobain’s demise, nor the faded hype of grunge music that keeps Nirvana fresh in our collective memories. It is the quality of the songs. Like his hero, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain was an angry young man with things to say and his love of the Fab Four is evident in the ingenious pop-craft of his work. Cobain took cues from Lennon’s darkly humorous kaleidoscope visions and his lyrics are cut from the same matter-of-fact confessional cloth. It is a style that lent itself well to the confusion and apathy of Generation X and its successors. Cobain himself came from a broken and abusive home – an evermore common situation in the Love Generation’s wake. His work spoke directly to the young disillusioned, to those left derelict by the deflated ideals of free love and the crass plundering of Reaganomics. His was a fresh voice rallying against postmodern severity and crying out for understanding, for genuine affection.
“All Apologies” stands as Kurt Cobain’s seminal work. The words, full of hurt and disappointment, speak for themselves. But, if I may lead this little piece full circle, I have one thing to say about them. Since I began college, and for first time met people en masse from outside my home state, I have been telling my friend’s that this song is the artistic statement of Seattle made in just under four minutes. I stand by that statement. One need only hear this song to feel what it is like living under the broad gray skies and to suffer their depressive fallout. Its author, who now belongs to the world and to history, is Seattle’s one great poet. Our bard. The embodiment of our ever-living spirit.
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ALL APOLOGIES
-Kurt Cobain
What else should I be?
All apologies
What else could I say?
Everyone is gay
What else could I write?
I don’t have the right
What else should I be?
All apologies
In the sun,
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun,
In the sun
Married!
Buried!
I wish I was like you,
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything’s my fault
I’ll take all the blame
Aqua sea foam shame
Sunburn, freezer burn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy
In the sun,
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun,
In the sun
Married!
Married!
Married!
Burried!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
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The epitaph of a genius:
Great song, and excellent point about Nirvana being of the northwest unlike any other band. The rain and the gray infuse their sound.
ReplyDeleteI gotta disagree Killian. It's very doubtful that anyone is going to be playing Nirvana tunes in the coming decades. There just isn't enough musical value and substance there. When I listen I hear a young man whining and grumbling in an unpleasant voice over two chords. The best indicator of a quality tune is whether or not the jazz players pick up on it-- those guys have an uncanny ear for good structure and harmony and melody, and I'm betting that no jazz player is going to go anywhere near the music of Nirvana. Perhaps Nirvana's stuff should be viewed as socio-political commentary, rather than taken as music. I'd be OK with that. Sorry to be a bummer, but that's how I see it...
ReplyDelete"When I listen I hear a young man whining and grumbling in an unpleasant voice over two chords. "
ReplyDeleteI dunno....seems to me like you've just described rock-and-roll! I believe that The Bad Plus have covered Nirvana.
@jehovah
ReplyDeleteIf jazz tributes are to be the measure of a song's worth -
I was window-shopping through the local Crate and Barrel a little while ago when, to my great surprise, a mellow jazz cover of this very song came on through the P.A. I have no idea who played it, it was not particularly good, but it does exist notwithstanding.