Nirvana - Nevermind 

We're doing things a bit differently this month for Classics. Instead of posting several reviews at the same time, we're posting them individually throughout the month.  Paul Rutherford starts us off. 

Welcome to this month's Classics: this time we will journey back to the early '90s, one hell of a seriously weak time for mainstream American music. Got your earplugs handy? Good, because it's time to put on the MTV. Wow, all these guys look like chicks! Warrant, Poison - oh wait, that is a chick, it's little Debbie Gibson. Those New Kids On The Block sure rock hard, and who can ever get enough Jon Bon Jovi? And it doesn't matter if you're "Black Or White", because Michael Jackson bleached himself white, and there's no escape from his videos. Sammy Hagar's fronting Van Halen, Randy Rhoads is still dead, and you can just smell the AquaNet wafting from the stereo speakers as yet another guitarist delivers yet another standard wank tap solo in the middle of yet another generic MTV-friendly "pop-metal" ditty. Man, I told you this would be a bleak journey. Who would step up to the plate and deliver some good music?

It turns out that salvation came from a very unlikely source - rural, redneck Aberdeen, Washington. Self-taught guitarist Kurt Cobain never learned how to play flashy shred metal solos, he wanted to be a punk rocker, but deep in his soul he loved good pop music like the Beatles and the Smithereens. Along with his trusty bassist Krist Novoselic and enough drummers to rival Spinal Tap, Kurt's band Nirvana crafted some very good pop/punk music that made some waves in the underground, but pretty much flew under the mainstream radar. (Check out Bleach and Incesticide.) At that time, there was actually a vital underground thing going on with great music being made but remaining unknown to the masses. Yet no band could manage to leap from the underground and grab massive success on a mainstream scale. And then came September 24, 1991, and the release of Nevermind.

Some songs are just so good that they stick in your head like napalm and just won't stop burning. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is one of those tunes. From the opening stuttering chord progression to the thundering intrusion of the drums, it hit the ears of 1991 like "what the hell is this?!?" Shades of metal, shades of punk, a pure pop melody at the heart of it, and damn, that guy sounds seriously pissed off! And then comes the solo - instead of the generic wank du jour, Kurt simply follows his vocal line with the guitar. If you were around then, you must remember how fresh this song sounded. In fact, unlike "Stairway To Heaven" for example, I think this song still kicks ass and it's not stale to me.

If Kurt and company had done nothing more than "Smells Like Teen Spirit" they would have been the greatest one hit wonder ever, but that is just the first track on the CD, and there's plenty more just as great. The greatest thing about Nevermind is that there is no filler on this record. Every song is a good song and there's no need to skip anything. The first 3 tracks are still huge on radio today. "In Bloom" has brutal drumming, a sweet bass line, and a guitar solo from Kurt that is way cooler than any of that tapping wank. "Come As You Are" has a sound all its own, murky-sounding with heavy chorus effects, and then it breaks into the now classic Nirvana heavy bridge. "Breed" is like metal, but still very punk. "Lithium" is definitely a classic. Then they take it down a bit for "Polly", an acoustic tune. It's about a true-life story of a girl who got raped and tricked the scumbag into letting her escape. Yeah, Jon, Debbie, and Marky Mark were singing songs deep like this back then, eh? "Territorial Pissings" is the true punk song on the record, Dave Grohl beats the shite out of the drums and Kurt's voice goes to pieces at the end. This is no candy-ass glossy corporate shite. "Drain You" is Kurt's idea of a love song, but it's twisted and the lyrics are really cool. There's a cool instrumental interlude in the middle too. Whenever I hear anyone tell me that Krist Novoselic sucks on bass (idiots!), I feed them "Lounge Act". This bass line is killer, and of course it's a good song too. "Stay Away" is a good punky tune with wicked screams. "On A Plain" is a great yet obscure tune, it sounds like a great long-lost Who song. Then they close it out with another acoustic tune that sounds like Beatles, "Something In The Way". Nice vocal harmonies, and it's autobiographical - Kurt used to sleep under a bridge when his folks would kick him out.

I can't really express in words just how great this record is, you just have to experience it. It's not metal, it's not punk, it's not pop - but yet it's all of these and then more. Nirvana produced a genuine masterpiece with this one. Cobain's lyrics are much different from the usual high school girls and Satan songs of the day, the guitars are loud and heavy yet never echo the diet metal crap that Nirvana conquered, the bass lines are strikingly original, and the drums hammer relentlessly throughout. 

Another reason this is classic is because of its influence. There was a band from Seattle that released their debut album a month before Nevermind dropped, and it was going nowhere. Some dude Ed Vedder sings for them, you might know that band. Thanks to this CD, other great bands got the recognition they deserved (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, AIC, Melvins, etc.) and Kurt never failed to give props to the indie bands he loved like the Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Vaselines, Flipper, and others. This record actually spawned a sort of indie renaissance and helped to make radio listenable for a brief time in the early to mid '90s. OK, that glory is long gone, but this album is still a bona fide classic, and an essential part of any true music lover's library. 

Classics: Nirvana - Nevermind
Label: 1991  DGC Records

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