Music Legends #1: Nirvana

Hey there,
today i'll start with a Music-Legends-Introduction-Serie. Sounds crap, but let me tell how i'll do that shit:

Every week/month (depending on my free-time) i'll introduce some Music Legends. Artists or band that changed most-of-the-people-or-my-or-everybodys life. Their history, their best songs, their successes, their style and some facts. And today i'll start with this:


Music Legends (ML) #1: NIRVANA

Dave Grohl - Kurt Cobain - Krist Novoselic

 First let us know who they are: 

Biography:

The core of Nirvana was Kurt Cobain, lead guitarist and vocalist, and Krist Novoselic, bass player. After going through many many different name changes and member changes, Kurt and Krist met Chad Channing, who became their drummer for their debut album. Some of the other notable people that were in the band, or its earliest incarnations, were Buzz Osbourne and Dale Crover of the Melvins and Danny Peters of Mudhoney, among others.

Nirvana recorded their Bleach album for about $600, a dark, crunching album containing simple, guitar driven like Negative Creep and School as well as more sophisticated songs like About a Girl, and a modified version of Shocking Blue's Love Buzz. It was released in June of '89 by Sub Pop records. After recording, Nirvana went on tour after the addition of guitarist Jason Everman. Jason was added because Kurt wasn't sure he could handle singing and playing guitar at the same time. Jason also helped contribute quite a bit of the money to record the debut LP.

After touring and and looking for another label, Nirvana was bought out of their two year contract by DGC, David Geffen's record label. They recorded their Nevermind album in May of '91 at Sound City studios in Los Angeles, CA. It was released on September 13, 1991 and went platinum in about three weeks, mostly due to the song Smells Like Teen Spirit, which has been labeled as the anthem of generation X. It went number one on the Billboard 200 chart in January, 1992.

Album cover of Nevermind

After a massive tour in support of Nevermind, Nirvana came back to the states. A collection of B-sides and rarities, called Incesticide was released, and sold well despite very little fanfare. After touring constantly, Nirvana once again returned to the studios in March of 1993 to record their long-awaited new album, In Utero.

Originally, DGC was not pleased with the album at all. Their first comment upon hearing the recording was, "Nice demos. When can we expect to hear the finished album?" They thought that it had no commercial value at all, and would let Nirvana's fans down after the slick, radio friendly Nevermind album. A few of the songs were later remixed or rerecorded, but the majority of the album stayed the same. One of the reasons why it may not have sounded quite as sonic as Nevermind is that In Utero was recorded in two weeks. Most of the vocals were done in one day, with the help of a lot of cough syrup, and a lot of the songs were recorded in one take.

But, after working out their difficulties with their company, In Utero was released on September 14, 1993 in the United Kingdom. Due to an unforseen delay, it was released in the United States on September 21, 1993. The foreign version also contained a secret track, Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip. It was described as a "Deflated American Dollar Purchase Incentive Track," on a sticker.

Nirvana returned to the road, playing in the states and overseas. On January 8, 1994 Nirvana played their final American show in Seattle, Washington. They then toured Europe, playing their last show on March 1 in Munich, Germany.

After returning to the United States, Kurt Cobain dissapeared after jumping the wall at the Exodus rehabilitation clinic, where he was undergoing rehab for a heroin addiction. Several days later, on April 8, his body was found by an electrician at his house in Seattle, Washington. Kurt had been dead for several days, the victim of a self inflicted gunshot wound. He left a suicide note near his body, explaning why he had killed himself. Fans still didn't accept his death, and many haven't still.

Since Cobain's death, a number of albums have been released including "MTV Unplugged", "From The Muddy Banks of the Wishkah", "Nirvana" (best of), "With the lights out" (box set) and "Sliver: The best of the Box" in 2005.

 Here you can find the suicid note: IN ENGLISH and IN GERMAN


Another expample that there isn't always a "Happy End". 
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 Now let us go to their albums and songs.


Albums:

• 1989: Bleach
• 1991: Nevermind
• 1993: In Utero
   
• Live Albums:
  
  • 1994: MTV Unplugged in New York
  • 1996: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
  • 2009: Live at Reading
    
    
    

Compilations:

• 1992: Incesticide
• 1996 Singles
• 2002 Nirvana
• 2004 With the Lights Out
• 2005 Sliver: The Best of the Box
• 2010 Icon
  

In the year 1995 Nirvana won for the for the MTV UNPLUGGED in New York the Grammy Award for Best Alterntive Music Album.

* There are some fucking nice songs who have came out as singles,too.

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I think now we came to the best part, i'll share MY TOP10 of Nirvana songs. There are several other good ones,too.

*The fizy.com links are studio quality, the youtube ones are from live appearances.

1. SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT / NEVERMIND
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
    
   
   
    
   
2. WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT?/MTV UNPLUGGED NEW YORK
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
   
   where did you sleep last night - MyVideo
   
   
3. THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD - MTV UNPLUGGED  NEW YORK
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
   
   
   
4. COME AS YOU ARE / NEVERMIND
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
   
   
5. YOU KNOW YOU'R RIGHT / NIRVANA  
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ 
   
   
   
6. ABOUT A GIRL / MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ 
   
   
   
7. HEART-SHAPED BOX / IN UTERO
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
   
   
   
8. DUMB / MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
   
   Nirvana Live in New York Unplugged - Dumb - MyVideo
   
   
9. RAPE ME / IN UTERO
   Click here for Studio Version - HQ
   
   
    
10. ALL APOLOGIES / IN UTERO
    Click here for Studio Version - HQ
    
    
    

The order here is not important, all of them are just GREAT !

Well done, thats it with the first (Music-Legends-Introduction-Serie). Hope you like,found some interessting songs and enjoyed this post. I dont know wich music legend i'll introduce in the next post, but maybe you can make a suggestion right? ;)



Till then, GOOD(nirvana)BYE