| Nirvana THE GOOD LIFE Hit Parader April 1994, 25 Years of Metal. By Jodi Summers Some new albums arrive to thunderous applause, others, like Nirvana�s In Utero, come hurling through plate glass windows. Nirvana�s follow-up to the stupefyingly successful Nevermind is a moshed-up melange of mixed metaphors quelling from the mass acceptance of Kurt Cobain�s personal angst. Pop on In Utero, and you�re attacked by the turmoil of pleasure, pain, power chords and primal yelping. On disc, the sonic chaos is courtesy of Kurt, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl; behind the scenes, the ranting and raging come from Nirvana�s record company When Geffen Records received the rough mixes of the follow-up to the great, irate Nevermind, they supposedly howled that in no way, shape or form was this album acceptable. There was nothing that sounded even vaguely like the melodic antiperspirant anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit. And without a hit single or three, how could they possibly sell another seven million copies? Geffen apparently screamed that In Utero was a platter of virtually unmarketable music. Producer Steve Albini even claimed that Geffen pushed Nirvana into polishing the tracks. Being musical purists, underground punk mavens in the truest sense of the concept, Nirvana was incensed that anyone would even imply that they were corporate whores. Feeling the need to set the record straight without causing a major media onslaught criticizing their unruly behavior, Nirvana took out a full page ad in Billboard in order to defend their unadulterated position. "I made it clear from the beginning that we�d put out the record regardless," defended Kurt. Nirvana shrugged and said that if the record company didn�t like it, they�d get someone else to put it out. Nirvana weren�t buffoons of big business, they were musicians, and wanted free expression far more than another million dollars. Geffen tripped over themselves to apologize. A & R Executive Gary Gersh denied that he had given Nirvana any kind of musical ultimatum. He claimed that all he did was give his opinion on the album, as he did with Guns N� Roses, Coverdale/Page, Aerosmith and virtually every other Geffen act. Chaos controlled, when all was said and done, Nirvana did go in and remix a couple of tracks with Scott Litt. It wasn�t like the material was that far off base to begin with. As everyone knows, Cobain can write a great melody. And although the music may not always be MTV friendly because of his scathing, screaming delivery, they are notable lyrical statements with a very piqued image of society. Tunes like Serve The Servants and Penny Royal Tea sadistically and hysterically stab at the drones that have jumped in the grunge pit and reaped lucrative financial profits�as opposed to merely acquiring lost teeth and a bruised skull. Anarchy swirls around Nirvana as if they were in the eye of a hurricane. Nirvana�s turmoil is, in great part, caused by Cobain� Nirvana�s reluctant superstar. Not since John Lennon has anyone so despised the attention and glamour that comes with making relevant social statements and selling five million albums. Kurt�s hatred of the spotlight is notorious and there are times that he has publicly wished that he could remain just another subpop demon playing music to antisocial anarchists in dingy clubs. But that all changed with the 1991 release Smells Like Teen Spirit. Suddenly, with that one tune, Nirvana were megastars. "We couldn�t comprehend what was happening, and we didn�t handle things very well. We had grown up admiring punk bands and thinking all those groups on the pop charts were embarrassing...and suddenly we were one of those bands," observed Cobain. "So we thought we�d better screw this up and tried for a while." The radical angst and melodic grace of Nevermind was applauded, and Kurt was crowned the pied piper of Generation X, a title and responsibility he quickly tried to deny. Not wanted success? The guy must be out of his mind, they figured. Rumors of heroin abuse, mental breakdown, and knockdown, drag-out fights with wife and grunge queen Courtney Love, became hot rock dirt, not to mention a couple of hair pulling matches with AxI Rose. Cobain turned down six-figure business offers. Mass marketers questioned whether or not he was mentally deranged, either naturally or artificially. The frenzy escalated into an overstressed mess when Courtney allegedly told Vanity Fair magazine that she was taking heroin while she was pregnant with daughter Frances. The subsequent media hype sent Kurt into a frenzy which concluded with him publicly admitting the only thing wrong with him was an ulcer. "My body won�t allow me to take drugs if I wanted to, because I�m so weak all the time," he insisted. As quickly as Nirvana had become the center of attention, Cobain wanted out. There was talk of the family retreating from the high profile life and moving to a small town in Oregon, where Kurt could work in a gas station. They would supposedly augment their income with food stamps. But that was gibberish from a reluctant superstar. There�s that old cliche that says, "Time wounds all heels" and time out of the public eye, and parenthood, have given Kurt a new perspective. "I have become a lot more optimistic," Kurt admitted. "Once something like marriage and a baby happens to a person, you find a lot of strength that you didn�t know you had." Instead of becoming a misanthrope on top of a mountain, Kurt, along with Dave and Krist retreated to the solitary sanctuary of a Minneapolis studio with producer Albini and churned out tunes like Milk It and Francis Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle which combine tunefulness of a Top 40 staple with the antichrist sloppiness of the best punk bands, and some of the most bitter lyrics east of Use Your Illusions. As the tune Very Ape proclaims: "If you ever need anything don�t hesitate to ask someone else first" In Utero is riddled with similar nasty jabs at the industry, but that only increases the poignancy of Nirvana�s sardonic chuckle at everything on the face of the planet. "I want our fans to know that I�m proud of this record," Kurt noted. "It�s not some kind of joke. Music is too important to me to do that." The yin and yang of In Utero is par for Kurt�s relationship with music. To follow his heart or lead a normal life has been a constant battle. There was a time, way back when Kurt was just out of high school, when he was trying to figure out what to do with his life. He had left his mother in the trailer park he grew up in and was spending some time with his father, trying to figure it all out. Dad, being the dominant influence, coerced Kurt into pawning his guitar and taking the navy entrance examination. "I guess I scored pretty high," admitted Kurt, "because two nights in a row this recruiter came over and tried to get me to sign up. I remember trying to decide what to do with my life, and I came to the realization that I�d better go back and get my guitar. To them I was just wasting my life. To me, I was fighting for it." |