How would you rate Nirvana?

[Che1990]

I have to say 10. They are my favourite band of all time and I absolutely worship them, especially Kurt (now you're all thinking "Oh shit, another Cobain fanatic" well I don't care!)

[Clarksist]

I voted 9 because so many people have copied the Nirvana style of grunge and bastardized it. So if it wasn't for Nirvana I would have had to hear them. But I love Nirvana, so a 9.

[Urban Rubble]

I don't know, my feeling are conflicted.

Growing up in Seattle, it was kind of mandatory to have a phase where you were obsessed with Nirvana, mine lasted about 5 years. It started when I saw them live, I was 9 at the time and didn't know that there were other kinds of music aside from Christian, Country Pop or Hip Hop. I thought that Onyx's hit single "Slam" was about as good as music got. But the things I saw that night changed me forever. Hearing that sound, seeing Kurt Cobain so high on heroin he could barely speak, the atmosphere in that room turned me into a 9 year old rocker, and for that I owe Nirvana quite a hefty fee.

The next few years were spent obsessing over that band, buying every bootleg CD, magazine and poster I could get. I cried when Kurt killed himself, to a 12 year old seeing someone you respect so much go out like that was both cool and infuriating at the same time.

But when I was 14 I began to explore the world of punk rock a little deeper and from then on my love of Nirvana began to dwindle. I still have a lot of respect for that band and even for the individuals within it. But I don't think they were particularly "great". For a band to be great in my opinion, they have offer more than just good music, and unfortunately Nirvana offered little else. The lyrics are (for the most part) abstract to the point of incoherence, which I used to think was genius art but now realize it was simply the ramblings of an insane heroin junkie. They had no message, they had nothing to say and nothing to offer aside from some very good and original tunes.

Good band, great music, great look, very inspiring to a 12 year old Seattlite. Unfortunately they had nothing to say and thus they will never be what a band like the Clash is to me.

[Anarcho-Communist]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 05:04 AM
I absolutely worship them, especially Kurt (now you're all thinking "Oh shit, another Cobain fanatic" well I don't care!)
How can you absolutely worship someone that was a coward. He couldn't stand up to life itself so he took his own. He was an extremely talented musician, but as I said he did the weakest thing anyone could. :D I rated "Nirvana" a 10, not singling out any one of them.

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

They are way overrated. I had this nirvana nut once as a friend of mine, that was a pretty cool yet scary guy. Anyway rated them 7, they are musically not that great, but they do have "groove" or whatever you call it.

[bolshevik butcher]

9, they are the best grunge band ever, and probably the best 90's abnd although ratm are great as well.

[Invader Zim]

6 they weren't a bad band, but so hyped, and the certainly didn't invent anything truly origional.

[The Grey Blur]

I gave a 9 because although were brilliant they just never came up with THE album. Nevermind was a classic but the 'bounce-back' album could have been out of this world.Potenial wasted.

[coda]

Interesting story, Urban Rubble!!!


to be fair in rating them.. I got out my Nirvana cds that i haven't listened to for a good few years. i give them a 7 for opening up grunge to a wider public. Their most original album is Bleach followed by Incesticide, ---the other more commerical studio produced albums, "In utero", and "Nevermind" sound like one very long song.... with one stand-out.. "Breed."

They're often hailed for changing the face of music and defining the decade, but I remember it as a few years earlier, namely with three bands which were getting LOTS of airplay around 89-90, and that was Metallica "Enter Sandman", Red Hot Chili Peppers "Give it Away" and Faith No More "Epic", and when I heard those bands, I knew there was something going on... and something good going on with the music scene --- Thank the musical Gods.. because the 80's, especially mid to late, was a very lackluster time for music with bland derivitive hair bands dominating the scene such as Def Leppard and later Guns-n-Roses. Grunge spelt the swan song for them... and it couldn't have been welcomed any less sooner. So, just for breaking the monotony and playing some interesting stuff, I think they are worthy of their place in music history.

[Rastafari]

7 out of 10.
I think they were about look a lot more than they should have been.

Not much of a grunge guy, but Soundgarden is much better.

Or, going further back than that, you could do the father of grunge, Mr. Neil Young.

[Phalanx]

My story is similar to Urban Rubbles.
I was heavily into Nirvana for like 4 or 5 years and Cobain inspired me to pick up a guitar (i've since turned to bass, mainly because I was hearing the Clash and the Ramones and I loved the bass on all of their tracks).
Yeah he was stupid for taking his life, but I'd say life isn't the best when you're on heroin 24/7.

[Urban Rubble]

Well, I think anyone who uses him taking his life as a reason to criticize the band (or even Cobain as an individual) is out of his or her mind.

The guy had some very serious issues, physical and mental. From what I've read of him he seemed to be a fairly level headed guy, but when he got famous he didn't like it and couldn't handle it. He had an incredibly tough childhood, initially being passed around between his father, mother and various relatives, then as a teenager lived with friends until he ended up living under a bridge in Aberdeen (which is a horrible, horrible town, believe me). Aside from all his other issues, he had some kind of lingering stomach ulcer that doctors couldn't find a cure for and his heroin use seemed to be mostly a result of trying to numb phsyical pain.

I mean, I'm not making excuses for the guy, but at the same time I'm not going to be arrogant enough to condemn him for something I don't have a clue about. None of us know what having that kind of fame dropped on you at once feels like. He was raised to the level of some kind of international rock God over the course of a couple months, and for a fucked up kid like him that had to be pretty hard to deal with.

Consider all his depression issues (prior to becoming famous), then having the entire world's attention on you, all while battling this crippling thing in his stomach and being strung out on heroin. It's easy to look at it and think, "He had it all, all the money and fame, how could he possibly have any worries", but I think these kind of people deal with things someone like me just can't understand.

[Shogun]

I gave them an 8 I like Nirvana quite a lot but even then when i bought there records i couldn't reely sit down through it all. I liked their singles and those were the ones i always played but it was too repetitive maybe their best song for me is, marijuana but ya they were good stuff.

[Thomas]

I hated them and still do. 3/10, found most their lyrics random babblings that barely made sense, and Kurt Cobain was an ass.

[Roses in the Hospital]

Very overrated. One or two really good songs, but, generally I can't see what all the fuss was about, maybe you had to be there...

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2005, 09:44 PM
7 out of 10.
I think they were about look a lot more than they should have been.

Not much of a grunge guy, but Soundgarden is much better.

Or, going further back than that, you could do the father of grunge, Mr. Neil Young.
agreed
except I said 6

[NoLabelsPlease13]

I gave them a 5 as they were ok as a band. I think Nirvana owes much to MTV for pushing the Smells Like Teen Spirit video so much. However, I would have to say the best grunge band from that era was/is Pearl Jam. Ten is a superior album compared to Never Mind.

[Malone]

9, they are the best grunge band ever, and probably the best 90's abnd although ratm are great as well.

Please don't use a term capitalists attached to a mode of individual expression to make a commodity out of an invented genre.

[dark fairy]

it's like this i like nirvana but after a certain amount of time it just gets old... so i don't know what rating to give it. i guess a 7... i should listen to them it has been a long time...

[Rockfan]

Dave groul yeah can't get enough of that guy, i said ten but only cos i felt bad sayin anything else and cos of dave, extreamly telented guy but not as good of a song writer as kurt.

[Redvolution]

Around a 7. I grew up with the band, but I view them like the Sex Pistols. At the right place and right time all the while kicking the shit out of the then modern and pretentious rock n roll, but not bad music.

I just really dislike all the 14 year olds running around with nirvana shirts. I don't know it, it just really fucking gets under my skin. That's probably why they didn't get an 8, and it certainly isn't their fault, but UGH.

Oh, and Dave Grohl is fucking amazing. The best thing to come out of Nirvana.

[SupportTheALF]

Ehh, crap, haha sorry folks.

[rise_up]

1- i think that Nirvana are crap. Cobain was a rubbish singer and his guitar skills are embarrasingly pathetic

[dietrite]

Rise up must we all gang rape you like baboon frenzy mantra pigs to make you understand that you must never post on issues above the requirement s of the ....ok, i can tcontinue

too much xanax in my abilitie sto reply/typr writ enow

[Floyd.]

Originally posted by Urban [email protected] 4 2005, 04:58 AM
1. But when I was 14 I began to explore the world of punk rock a little deeper and from then on my love of Nirvana began to dwindle.

2.The lyrics are (for the most part) abstract to the point of incoherence, which I used to think was genius art but now realize it was simply the ramblings of an insane heroin junkie. They had no message, they had nothing to say and nothing to offer aside from some very good and original tunes.

3. Good band, great music, great look, very inspiring to a 12 year old Seattlite. Unfortunately they had nothing to say and thus they will never be what a band like the Clash is to me.
1. Territorial Pissings is punk as fuck so is In Utero... all of it. Punk is just being hard and unrelenting really for the most part, when Punk got fat we got Hardcore, when hardcore got fat we got grunge. You can't really get harder unless you listen to metal. They were all just trying to outpunk the past I see grunge as 80's DC Hardcore passing the baton personally.

2. Wrong... listen to Scentless Apprentice it's an entire novel compressed into one 16 short lines it's the book Perfume by Patrick Suskind. Polly? Heart Shaped Box? Most of them are all about something deeper and they aren't mumbo jumbo so much as coded the same kind of way Cedric Bixler used to write for ATDI.

3. I see The Clash as more tokenistic with what they were saying for some reason... anyway where The Clash were obviously political Nirvana were more introspective and psychological in ewhat they said.

[Floyd.]

Originally posted by Urban [email protected] 6 2005, 02:18 PM
1. Well, I think anyone who uses him taking his life as a reason to criticize the band (or even Cobain as an individual) is out of his or her mind.

2. ...then as a teenager lived with friends until he ended up living under a bridge in Aberdeen (which is a horrible, horrible town, believe me).

3. Aside from all his other issues, he had some kind of lingering stomach ulcer that doctors couldn't find a cure for and his heroin use seemed to be mostly a result of trying to numb phsyical pain.


4. It's easy to look at it and think, "He had it all, all the money and fame, how could he possibly have any worries", but I think these kind of people deal with things someone like me just can't understand.
1. ...and a total fuckhead who clearly has no sensitivity on the issue of suicide.

2. He never actually lived under the bridge heaps of people including Krist have confirmed this he just hung out there when the water was low it's meant to be impossible to spend much time there due to raising water covering all of the bank.

3. Irritable Bowel Syndrome wasn't it?

4. Do you mean his life complaints or why he wasn't content with fame and money? He was just a down to earth guy that had a high opinion of art and what it should be which is didn't really include being a commodity.

5. I'm not arguing just correcting from what I know and asking stuff. :D

[Don't Change Your Name]

I couldn't care less about them.

[Urban Rubble]

1. Territorial Pissings is punk as fuck so is In Utero... all of it. Punk is just being hard and unrelenting really for the most part, when Punk got fat we got Hardcore, when hardcore got fat we got grunge. You can't really get harder unless you listen to metal. They were all just trying to outpunk the past I see grunge as 80's DC Hardcore passing the baton personally.

What is your point? I never said Nirvana didn't have any punk influences or even that they weren't a punk band. I said when I got more into punk I got less into Nirvana.

Musically, Nirvana was rarely "punk". Bleach was slowed down metal, Insecticide was kind of weird New Wave/Art Rock, In Utero was the same. Their music occasionally sounded like punk rock, but to call Nirvana a punk band doesn't make any sense at all.


2. Wrong... listen to Scentless Apprentice it's an entire novel compressed into one 16 short lines it's the book Perfume by Patrick Suskind. Polly? Heart Shaped Box? Most of them are all about something deeper and they aren't mumbo jumbo so much as coded the same kind of way Cedric Bixler used to write for ATDI.

Actually, I'd say you're wrong.

Obviously there were songs that meant something. At points Cobain wrote great lyrics. But two thirds of them were total nonsense. Call it "coded" if you wish, but I could throw a bunch of random words together, assign them meanings and say it was "code" too if I wanted, it doesn't make me a great lyricist.


2. He never actually lived under the bridge heaps of people including Krist have confirmed this he just hung out there when the water was low it's meant to be impossible to spend much time there due to raising water covering all of the bank.

Regardless of whether he actually called the place home, the point stands, he had a shitty childhood and at one point he was homeless in the town of Aberdeen.

And yes, you can stay under that bridge. I had a friend who lived in a tent under there for 3 days.


3. Irritable Bowel Syndrome wasn't it?

I don't think they ever figured it out. Up to the day he died doctors still didn't know what was wrong with him.

[Jesus Christ!]

I gave them a 3, I was going to give them a 1 but I thought that was a little too harsh. I never liked them I didn't see the big talent in them. I guess the lyrcis were decent but nothing to drool all over kurt cobain about.

[FriedFrog]

Changed the face of modern rock. Some very good songs, some obvious anthems for a disillusioned generation.

They embodied (and still embody) the angry teen.

8/10 - Cos theyre not perfect

[dietrite]

But two thirds of them were total nonsense.

Can you give me an example?

[Invader Zim]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14 2005, 09:38 AM

But two thirds of them were total nonsense.

Can you give me an example?
"Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together,
try to love one another right now..."

When I was an alien, cultures weren't opinions


Gotta find a way to find a way when I'm there
Gotta find a way - a better way -
I had better wait

Never met a wise man, if so it's a woman

"Just because you're paranoid
Don't mean they're not after you."

While I'm all for finding obscure meaning from lyrics, this is just too much. But then again I love the manic street preachers, who are kind of similar, with some lyrics which are incomprehensable and others which are genius.

I can get songs like Polly but songs like Terratorial Pissing I don't get, and if I have to be told how to get it, then its way too vaugue.

[Anarchist Freedom]

Nirvana sucks sorry guys.

[Floyd.]

Originally posted by Enigma+Jul 15 2005, 07:45 AM--> (Enigma @ Jul 15 2005, 07:45 AM)
[email protected] 14 2005, 09:38 AM

But two thirds of them were total nonsense.

Can you give me an example?
"Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together,
try to love one another right now..." [/b]
Okay that part is a snatch from The Youngbloods hippy song Get Together which was added on Butch Vigs suggestion. Krist sings it as Kurt asked "joyously terrible." Kurt is quoted as saying "Maybe somy baby boomers will hear that and wonder what happened to those ideals." The song deals with being an outsider, feminism and paranoia though it is one of the hardest songs to understand and makes the least sense. You picked a bad one because it isn't indicative of the whole catalogue; most of the sings are about more than this song. But being as it was originally called "The Punk Song" it's just a send up within a basic punk template it's Kurt moving on from the Black Flag (My War era) imitation of parts of Bleach and Incesticide and now mocking it and bullshit macho posing. He's lashing out at the stupid, senseless and aggressive and venting pure frustration. The title really says the most. I find it strange that you need to understand the lyrics for Territorial Pissings really as I think the name coupled with the sound of the song say the most it's total mockery of dumb macho ****s.

[dietrite]

"Just because you're paranoid
Don't mean they're not after you."

This is also a throwback to a Delmore Scwhartz quote that even paranoids have enemies.

If you dont know who Schwartz is you're probably going to need to look him up on google, look up TS Eliot and Pound's reaction to him, and his relationship with Lou Reed.

Please dont post anymore "examples" unless you know what the fuck you're talking about.

[dietrite]

I can get songs like Polly but songs like Terratorial Pissing I don't get, and if I have to be told how to get it, then its way too vaugue.


You also have a very backwards view of art, where it has to be "Straightforward" for you to like it...a very capitalist, simplistic type idea of it.

Finnegans wake would displease you.

[Hegemonicretribution]

I gave them 7.

Similar story to many, got me into rock and opened up a new world. First song I played at a gig was a smells like cover. I have fond memories, and whilst they aren't the most technically stunning band, I can see why it worked. Complicated melodies and guitar solos are cool, but would most people rate Malmsteen, or Satch, or Vai, or Petrucci as better guitarists than Hendrix, Clapton , May and Gilmour? There is something about some songs/bands you can't put your finger on. You don't know why they work but they do, Nirvana was like this for me.

I know there have been people comparing them to Sex Pistols and others, but I would put them closer to the pixies.

[Invader Zim]

Originally posted by [email protected] 15 2005, 01:48 AM

"Just because you're paranoid
Don't mean they're not after you."

This is also a throwback to a Delmore Scwhartz quote that even paranoids have enemies.

If you dont know who Schwartz is you're probably going to need to look him up on google, look up TS Eliot and Pound's reaction to him, and his relationship with Lou Reed.

Please dont post anymore "examples" unless you know what the fuck you're talking about.


You have missed the whole point of posting the song. It clearly has no one piece of subject matter, thus it has no over riding meaning. It is a collection of bold statements, which may, or may not, have meaning. But the obvious differences in the songs various themes suggest a lack of coherence, in other words nonsense. I never denied that it may have meaning. The point was it had no even remotely obvious single meaning.


Please dont post anymore "examples" unless you know what the fuck you're talking about.

Please don't post anymore, in general until you have garnered even some basic manners, especially in cases where you have totally missed the point of anothers post.



You also have a very backwards view of art, where it has to be "Straightforward" for you to like it...a very capitalist, simplistic type idea of it.

What the hell are you talking about? Where did I say I didn't like Nirvana, or that things have to be straight forward for me to like them? I said if a song needs to be explained in such a manner then it is too vaugue, that has nothing to do with taste.

I also love how you think that simplistic art and capitalism are comparable, it shows you have not only a very poor understanding of art, but also a very poor understanding of economics.

[Floyd.]

Originally posted by [email protected] 16 2005, 03:57 AM
The point was it had no even remotely obvious single meaning.
Once again song and title the fact that you need lyrics to understand otherwise obvious emotion is sad.

[Anti-establishment]

1 - Don't like grunge, in fact the only song that I can listen to is smells like teen spirit because of it's instrumental.

[dietrite]

You have missed the whole point of posting the song. It clearly has no one piece of subject matter, thus it has no over riding meaning. It is a collection of bold statements, which may, or may not, have meaning. But the obvious differences in the songs various themes suggest a lack of coherence, in other words nonsense. I never denied that it may have meaning. The point was it had no even remotely obvious single meaning.

Well fuck, if art doesnt have one straightforward "obvious single meaning" let's just say fuck that ***** and not even pay attention.

YOU FUCKING IDIOT

Ever read the language poets?

And i could argue against your suggestion that there is no one meaning, or your obvious lack of aesthetic understanding or interpretation.



Please don't post anymore, in general until you have garnered even some basic manners, especially in cases where you have totally missed the point of anothers post.

Suck my large penis, horse*****.





What the hell are you talking about? Where did I say I didn't like Nirvana, or that things have to be straight forward for me to like them? I said if a song needs to be explained in such a manner then it is too vaugue, that has nothing to do with taste.

I also love how you think that simplistic art and capitalism are comparable, it shows you have not only a very poor understanding of art, but also a very poor understanding of economics.

Simplistic art and capitalism are comparable?

What the hell are you talking about? I'm speaking of mainstream pop music mentality. That is what I am speaking of, there is no "comparison" but an observation of the popular music/art of an economic system.

[Invader Zim]

Well fuck, if art doesnt have one straightforward "obvious single meaning" let's just say fuck that ***** and not even pay attention.

Learn to read, then show me where I said anything resembling your semi-coherant statement.


YOU FUCKING IDIOT

Oww, the little kiddy wants to use big bad insults. I'm sure that if you show mommy the nasty mans post she will kiss you better.


And i could argue against your suggestion that there is no one meaning, or your obvious lack of aesthetic understanding or interpretation.

I take issue with that, if you could argue your point you would have, instead of crying about it.


Suck my large penis, horse*****.

Sorry son, I'm not a paedophile, maybe when you grow up.


Simplistic art and capitalism are comparable?

According to you.


What the hell are you talking about?



You also have a very backwards view of art, where it has to be "Straightforward" for you to like it...a very capitalist, simplistic type idea of it.

[MiniOswald]

happy peeps of the net ever.

I voted 8.

Heres the biggest reason to like them, grunge but a bloody big dent in pop, you wouldnt have liked some freaky giant pop monster to be all you had a choice in the 90s would you?