Kurt Cobain’s six most significant musical inspirations
Nirvana’s influence on the bands that proceeded their short career is undeniable. Without Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, we would have been unlikely to hear the likes of Weezer or Biffy Clyro under the sonic artistry that we know them today.
But what about the artists that inspired Kurt Cobain’s songwriting? After all, as many have pointed out over the years, Nirvana songs were defined by their simplicity, as effortless as much of the Beatles’ output only delivered with the ferocity of the sound of 1980s punk.
Whilst Grohl had been heavily influenced by the hardcore punk scene; the fact remains that some of Cobain’s biggest influences were older in years and expressed their art through a subtler sonic texture. He’d regularly expressed admiration for the folk and blues masters of yore, after all.
So from Leadbelly to R.E.M., let’s take a quick look a some of the undoubted inspirations of Kurt Cobain. Here we go.
Kurt Cobain’s most significant musical inspirations:
Leadbelly
Cobain famously covered the blues legend’s song ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ for Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged Session. Cobain had perhaps discovered Leadbelly when he read an interview by the author William S. Burroughs in which he said: “These new rock’n’roll kids should just throw away their guitars and listen to something with real soul, like Leadbelly.”
After diving into Leadbelly’s oeuvre, he actually formed a short-lived covers band with Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees in 1989 by the name The Jury. The project recorded four of Leadbelly’s tracks, including ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ and the bluesman would be an influence on Cobain’s songwriting for the rest of his life.
The Beatles
Cobain’s songwriting undoubtedly took a generous dose of inspiration from the most influential band of the 20th Century. It was the fact that many Nirvana tracks were so glorious in their simplicity that made it so evident that Cobain was inspired by the writing of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Discussing who his favourite of the Fab Four was, Cobain once said: “John Lennon was definitely my favourite Beatle, hands down. I don’t know who wrote what parts of what Beatles songs, but Paul McCartney embarrasses me. Lennon was obviously disturbed. So I could relate to that.” Cobain once covered The Beatles’ ‘And I Love Her’ from A Hard Day’s Night, and was shown in the 2015 documentary Montage of Heck.
Pixies
Nirvana’s ubiquitous track is, undoubtedly, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. By the Cobain had come to write the songs for Nevermind, he had wanted to try to write at least one “ultimate pop song”. Fortunately for him and the band, he succeeded, but it was not without the inspiration from ‘loud-quiet-loud’ pioneers Pixies.
Discussing their influence on the track, Cobain once said: “I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. 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 used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”
Melvins
Cobain regularly mentioned Buzz Osbourne’s band in interviews and claimed that they were his favourite band. Melvins had been an early progenitor of the wave of grunge music that would come out of the late 1980s and early 1990s and were certainly an influence on Nirvana.
However, Melvins were not subject to the same popularity as Nirvana, and Buzz Osbourne once explained he was honoured to be mentioned in the same breath as them. “Our music, in a way, to them especially, had an impact on a global level,” he said. “We changed music on a global level because without us, those bands wouldn’t have thought the way that they did. And I was very happy about that.”
Neil Young
Neil Young’s influence is far-reaching, but nowhere is it more evident in the world of alternative rock. Known as the ‘Godfather of Grunge’, it was Young’s guitar tone that would influence the likes of Nirvana and Pixies. Sadly, the connection between Young and Cobain was furthered by Cobain writing lyrics from Young’s ‘Hey Hey, My My’ in his suicide note.
Young said of the incident: “When he died and left that note, it struck a deep chord inside of me. It fucked with me. I, coincidentally, had been trying to reach him. I wanted to talk to him. Tell him only to play when he felt like it.” It must have been hard for Young to read that note with his word in it, but he must have simultaneously been proud of having inspired Cobain in the first place.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. preceded Nirvana in many ways, but the most notable was that Michael Stipe’s outfit had also transitioned from an underground college-radio band to becoming global mega-stars. Stipe became close friends with Cobain and was always on hand to advise on rock stardom’s pressures.
However, of course, it was difficult for Stipe to accept that he could not help his friend from his tragic end. Stipe wrote the R.E.M. song ‘Let Me In’ for Cobain and said of his passing: “There were a lot of phone calls before that imagined one. [I was] really trying to pull him out of a very, very dark place. We all knew it, and we were doing everything we could to help – but it wasn’t enough. I wrote the lyrics in five minutes and recorded it in as much time. It was our – my – plea to Kurt. Too bad.”
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