Kurt Cobain and THE Riff That Killed Glam Metal

Nirvana: The Band That Changed My Life Forever

Join PJ Pat as he dives into the 90s rock scene, highlighting the massive impact Nirvana had on his life. From high school influences to learning guitar, PJ shares anecdotes about his musical journey and reads an excerpt from a Rolling Stone interview with Kurt Cobain. 

Article from The Rolling Stone book entitled 90s: The Inside Stories from the Decade that Rocked. Written by David Fricke. Printed on January 27, 1994. 

Relive the iconic moments of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and discover how the Seattle grunge scene forever transformed rock and roll. Tune in for a nostalgic trip down memory lane with your favourite rock and roll freak.

00:00 Welcome to the It's One Ladder Podcast
00:24 Nirvana's Impact on a High Schooler
01:44 Learning Guitar with Nirvana
03:27 The 90s: A Golden Era of Music
04:22 Reading Kurt Cobain's Rolling Stone Interview
04:42 The Story Behind 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
08:37 Kurt Cobain's Legacy
08:52 Closing Remarks and Thank You

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, rock and roll fan. My name is PJ Pat, your fellow rock and roll freak and welcome to the It's 1 Louder podcast. I appreciate you joining today. I just dusted this off my library shelf and it's a Rolling Stone book about the decade that changed my life. The nineties. Nirvana broke out when I was in high school.

[00:00:27] So just think about that. Think of the impact that Nirvana had. And I was at the peak of musical absorption and musical influence. And it was a perfect timing for me to get into this groundbreaking band. One of two bands that changed my life, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Now one thing that I love and really appreciate about Nirvana, you have to think about the context when they broke out.

[00:00:55] So we're talking glam metal days, but not even the heyday of glam metal. We're talking like. late 80s and even 90s where glam metal was starting to get really watered down and you got all the imitators trying to create hits and when Nirvana broke it was such a breath of fresh air and at the time not only was in high school open to musical influences we all get into pop right I was into Michael Jackson in the 80s late 80s Madonna I went through the pop stage and I was ready to get heavy with the hormones kicking in and getting angry at my parents and girls and just understanding.

[00:01:35] Hey, what the hell is going on with me? You're very, very open to a musical shift, and Nirvana couldn't come at a better time. And at the time, I was learning how to play guitar as well. Although I loved Van Halen, I loved all those shredders. One of my favorite bands pre Nirvana was White Lion. And Vito Brato was my hero.

[00:01:57] He's the one that actually got me into wanting to play guitar. Well, he was a tapper, he was a shredder, very melodic solos. He was like Eddie Van Halen, but he definitely had his own style. And I really looked up to Vito Brato from White Lion and really wanted to. play like him, but really couldn't really reach that level.

[00:02:16] And so as a guitar player, especially a beginner guitar player, Nirvana couldn't have come at a better time because finally I was able to play songs that I heard on the radio pretty damn well, pretty much like the song itself in terms of the sound and everything. And I was just blown away that I could finally Play songs that I loved hearing on the radio in my room along with them soloing with them.

[00:02:41] And Nirvana was really the first band that allowed me to do that. Pre Nirvana, Van Halen, ACDC, GNR, freaking Aerosmith. Freaking amazing bands, right? Poundcake, I remember, was huge from Van Halen at the time that I loved, but I couldn't really play them. Especially when you're just first starting off, but Nirvana with just very basic power chords.

[00:03:06] And they had this kind of punk energy to them. Man, I got sucked right in and Kurt Cobain, his voice forever will haunt us all. And that started my journey to discover Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and all the grunge related heavy music at the time. Now the 90s was I think the last era of Truly great freaking heavy guitar oriented mainstream music because back then if you were to turn on a radio You would hear these heavy bands smashing pumpkins Chili peppers blood sugar sex magic really funky heavy stuff on there Metallica's black album came out at that time and that was like the mainstream in radio anyways I don't want to criticize music of today.

[00:03:58] I'm not going to go there. This Pro Tools, auto tuned, playing right on the grid. It was different. It's different now than back then. I definitely can relate and really gravitated still to this day to this kind of music in the 90s. So there's an article here that I'm going to bring to you and hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I will.

[00:04:17] All right. Let me get my old man glasses on. Ah, that's what I'm talking about. Okay, Colt Cobain, The Rolling Stone Interview, by David Freak, F R I C K E, January 27th, 1994. Look at that, alright. So I'm not gonna read the entire article, I'm just gonna read you the Section where it talks about their smash hit Smells Like Teen Spirit.

[00:04:42] Kurt Cobain says, Yeah, everyone has focused on that song so much. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It's been pounded into their brains. But, there are so many songs that I've written that are as good, if not better, like Drain You. That's as good as Teen Spirit.

[00:05:00] I love the lyrics, and I never get tired of playing it. Maybe if it was as big as Teen Spirit, I wouldn't like it as much. I gotta say, that Teen Spirit video, say what you want about it, you may criticize it, it may be dated, but it is THE VIDEO. That video. Pretty much changed, I think, a lot of people's lives.

[00:05:23] The first time you ever saw that video on MTV or up here in Canada was MuchMusic. You were absolutely blown away. You'd never seen anything like it. Any videos previous to that, like I said, with the glam metal bands. It was all about partying, chicks, cars, motorcycles, whatever. But this video with the Anarchy and the students and especially being in high school I can relate to the people in that video just going crazy with emotion and anger and angst teenage angst as they call it that was Really a game changer and a life changer and I know i'm not the only one that reacted to that video So yeah, it might seem a little dated a little cheesy a little corny, but is it is the video and that's all that matters So the rolling stone says but you must have had a good time writing it I was trying to write an ultimate pop song.

[00:06:21] It was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it, Kurt Cobain smiles, when I heard the Pixies for the first time I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band or at least in a Pixies cover band. We use their sense of dynamics being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.

[00:06:41] Teen Spirit has such a cliched riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or a Louis. When I came up with the guitar part, Chris looked at me and said, That is so ridiculous. I made the band played for an hour and a half. Where did here we are now entertain us come from? The Rolling Stone asks. Kurt Cobain says, that came from something I used to say every time I used to walk into a party and break the ice.

[00:07:05] A lot of times when you're standing around with people in a room, it's really boring and uncomfortable. So it was, here we are, entertain us, you invited us here. How did it feel to watch something you'd written in fun, in homage to one of your favorite bands, become the grunge national anthem, not to mention a defining moment in youth marketing?

[00:07:27] Actually, we did have our own thing for a while. For a few years in Seattle, It was a summer of love and it was so great to be able to just jump out on top of a crowd with my guitar and be held up and pushed to the back of the room and then brought back in front with no harm done to me. It was a celebration of something that no one could put their finger on.

[00:07:47] But once it got into the mainstream, it was over. I'm just tired of being embarrassed by it. I'm beyond that. So, there you go, that's the bit about Smells Like Teen Spirit in the article. One of the stories that I read a long time ago about Smells Like Teen Spirit, the title of that song came from a, uh, tagline from a deodorant at the time.

[00:08:06] One of his friends wrote on his wall, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and when Kurt Cobain asked about it, what the hell that is, his friend said, yeah, that's, uh, the deodorant. And that line stuck with Kurt Cobain, and boom, the rest is history as we say. Check out this picture. Look at this iconic picture. This was actually taken at a gig in Vancouver, Canada back in 1991.

[00:08:28] You can tell it's a smaller club and a smaller stage. This is back before they really made it big. Wow, to be in that crowd that night. Whoo! Kurt Cobain, rest in peace and thank God your music Lives forever on and on and we cherish it. We cherish your voice. We cherish your songs and They will live forever.

[00:08:52] Well, thank you rock slash guitar fan for listening I hope that was the least bit enlightening for you and you learned a thing or two Please reach out to me on YouTube You can check me out on my channel rock with PJ Pat type that in or you can just type in hits one louder podcast on YouTube, but I'm sure It'll show up.

[00:09:11] I appreciate you listening until the very end. It means the world to me. Keep on coming. I'm going to keep on doing my best on these episodes. Thank you.