the cobain/corgan correlation

Before I begin I need to explain my blogging absence for the past few months. For some reason blogspot has felt necessary to eliminate paragraph breaks in their posts. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you have a lengthy entry that meanders from one thought to another, it is sometimes helpful to allow your writer to organize a post into paragraphs. It helps keep the ideas organized, making life much easier on the reader. If my last few entries were a single long paragraph, please understand I didn’t write them that way. Blogspot did it. This entry will prove a test run for future entries, if any. Here goes with the first paragraph. I had a 90’s flashback this morning on my iTunes. The first album that popped up was Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged. I was a Nirvana latecomer, and by latecomer I mean I didn’t start listening to them until a few years ago when I broke down and bought In Utero and thinking after the first listen holy crap this is the best album I’ve ever heard! The Unplugged performance is so beautiful. Kurt Cobain sounds like a man caught on the edge, one foot over and one foot back, not quite sure if he should take the plunge. There’s such sorrow in his voice, especially on “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For a Sunbeam.” It’s as though he’s debating right then and there what he should do. It sent shivers down my spine while I trimmed my beard to the point that I had to jump in the shower before I heard much more of the track. Such a moving performance. You can even see the conflict in the set list. Nothing if anything is from Nevermind. Most of the songs are from Bleach and Incesticide, and they steer clear of the big In Utero hits. My only experience with this record before this year was in snippets on the radio, usually “The Man Who Sold the World” or “Polly.” This is a record that needs to be listened to from beginning to end. It’s one of the last imprints from one of the world’s greatest creators. Immediately after Nirvana came the Smashing Pumpkins with Disc One of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, “Dawn To Dusk.” This is arguably the best album from the 1990’s and it remains in my all-time top 10, maybe top 5. It’s a peaceful album about patience. It’s about understanding yourself and realizing you are not unlike anyone else, no matter how lost or afraid you feel. The opening instrumental title track sets the serene stage, grabbing the restless soul by the hand and soothing the heart, showing you to a seat and telling him to listen. “Tonight, Tonight” rolls in and the soul is taken on a journey. This album is a goldmine for great lyrics, and this track is the first gem. Billy Corgan knows how afraid you feel, how lonely, how depressed, and he tells you it’s okay. It’s okay to be afraid because everyone else is afraid. It’s what makes us human. But he wants you to understand one thing: no matter how lost you feel, no matter how hopeless and dire it all seems, he will be there with you. This record is for you. This song is for you. Each verse, each syllable, is written for you. “Believe in me as I believe in you tonight.” We’ll get through this life together if you just give me a chance. Every track that follows is an affirmation of that promise. Such a wonderful album. Everyone needs to listen to it at least once. There was something about the 90’s that brought out so much music like this. Maybe it’s just the decade where I came of age and so I associate the music with my youthful chemical imbalances. It just seems as though depression rock and shoe-gazer music reigned supreme throughout the 90’s. As with all eras there were three categories – the great acts, the so-so’s, and the forgettable and regrettable. Other great releases from the 90’s came from Helium (The Dirt of Luck) and Marilyn Manson (Antichrist Superstar), and Radiohead blew away the scene with OK Computer. Sleater-Kinney jumped on board with Dig Me Out and The Hot Rock. I could go on and on, but these two albums just seem to define the decade. On the one hand you have possibly the single greatest poet-musician who ever lived singing away his tormented soul while on the other you have a double-disc masterpiece that tells you it’s okay to be a depressed teenager. My morning ran the complete gamut of the 90’s, shifting from divine despair to hopeful rebirth. Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan – I’m sure people will disagree, but those two names just embody the 90’s.