“He was a gem”: The icon Neil Young called one of the true rare performers
At 79 years old, there isn’t much that Neil Young hasn’t seen. From his youthful days at the heart of the counterculture movement back in the 1960s, Young has repeatedly reaffirmed himself among the world’s greatest songwriters, tackling a wealth of different styles and taking inspiration from all walks of life. Even in his old age, the songwriter continues to inspire the next generation of songwriters, just as he played a colossal role in inspiring the grunge revolution of the 1990s.
At first glance, the folk-rock leanings of the former Buffalo Springfield musician might seem an unlikely influence on the development of grunge. After all, the endearingly abrasive sound of groups like Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana largely arose from the inspiration of DIY punk and hardcore – a style more cloesly associated with acts like Black Flag, Minor Threat, or Dead Kennedys than Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Nevertheless, the pioneering guitar distortion employed by Young and his group Crazy Horse, formed a colossal impact on the architects of grunge. The 1989 album Freedom, for instance, is pretty reminiscent of the grunge sound emanating from Washington around the same time, so it is no surprise that Young’s work endeared itself towards the rising stars of grunge.
What’s more, Young’s songwriting has something of a universal appeal; he has so often spoken for the outcasts, underdogs, and dreamers of this Earth. That quality in particular made Young a firm favourite of grunge’s most profound son, Kurt Cobain. Nirvana were the group that broke the grassroots sounds of grunge into the mainstream, but Cobain’s record collection was far more expansive than many of his Washington peers.
Fostering a deep-rooted adoration for everybody from The Vaselines to The Raincoats, it was Cobain’s extensive musical taste which aided him in becoming one of the defining songwriters of the 20th century. Throughout it all, he remained a great admirer of Neil Young, and that appreciation seemingly went both ways, with Young once telling Mojo, “He [Cobain] really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me.”
Young’s appreciation for Cobain ran so deep that he wrote the 1994 anthem ‘Sleeps with Angles’ as a tribute to the Nirvana frontman. The song was written in the wake of Cobain’s suicide a few months prior, which was particularly impactful for Young both as a fan of Nirvana and because Cobain’s suicide note referenced the lyrics, “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away,” which Young had written for his track ‘My My, Hey Hey’ in 1978.
The following year, in 1995, Young spoke to SPIN Magazine about his appreciation of Cobain’s work, along with his admiration for Nirvana’s artistic integrity and emotion. “I really could hear his music,” Young shared. “There’s not that many absolutely real performers. In that sense, he was a gem.”
Giving an insight into the artistic mind of Cobain, the songwriter continued, “He was bothered by the fact that he would end up following schedules, have to go on when he didn’t feel like it, and be faking, and that would be very hard for him because of his commitment.” In Young’s mind, it was this disenfranchisement which likely led to Cobain’s ultimate demise.
Kurt Cobain stands in a league of his own when it comes the defining songwriters of the 1990s; he always marched to the beat of his own drum, and refused to conform to the wants and desires of the music industry. In that sense, he had a natural brother-in-arms in Neil Young, who has similarly spent much of his career doing things his own way.
