Why Kurt Cobain thought The Clash’s “music was terrible”
Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain sits among the biggest names in rock history thanks to his innovative work over the late 1980s and ’90s that brought grunge music to the fore of the rock world. Upon listening to Nirvana’s impressive catalogue spanning three progressive albums, Cobain’s biggest influences are immediately apparent.
Nirvana’s sound was often compared to the 1970s electric work of Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, the “Godfather of Grunge”. The overdriven guitar style pioneered by Young can be heard throughout much of Cobain’s material, but while Nirvana’s music was progressive, it took a few pointers from some latter stepping stones of the punk and post-punk waves.
Nirvana were particularly intrigued by the 1980s post-punk and noise rock movement and cited Pixies, Sonic Youth and The Vaselines as pivotal influences. Famously, referring to their 1991 album Nevermind and its lead single, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic agreed: “This really sounds like the Pixies. People are really going to nail us for this.” In their assessment, they weren’t far wrong; anyone could draw these striking similarities, but they managed to pull it off without galvanising too many fans or critics.
That said, during an interview in 2013, nearly two decades after Cobain’s death, frontman Francis Black discussed the Pixies’ legacy. Asked what his contribution to rock was, Francis replied sarcastically: “Being original, influencing Nirvana so they could rip a song. I’ll admit it — if Kurt Cobain’ fessed up to it, fuck it, I’ll agree with it, you ripped us off.”
Before post-punk and the Pixies, though, came the raw origins of punk that spewed from the heavy rock of the early 1970s. After American bands like Ramones, The Stooges and The New York Dolls trailblazed what would later be coined “punk”, a second British invasion came with Sex Pistols and The Clash, who pioneered the burgeoning British punk scene in the latter half of the ‘70s.
While both bands brought fear to parents across the nation with their raw, angry and politically charged music, Sex Pistols took an early poll position thanks to the intensity of their anarchist agenda and the imposing personalities of the band members. It seems that Cobain also identified with the more boisterous half of this early punk rivalry, and in a Melody Maker feature published back in 1992, he explained why.
In the feature, which was titled ‘10 Albums That Changed My Life’, Cobain picked out the Sex Pistols’ first and only studio album, Nevermind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, as one of his selections. Describing the album’s dominance, Cobain asserted that the Sex Pistols were “a million times more important than The Clash.”
“How do I explain that?” he continued. “Hmm, Both were the original punk bands, but The Clash were always a bad imitation of The Rolling Stones, in love with America. But at least they took their girlfriends on tour with them [The Slits]. Their music was terrible, though,”
“The Pistols album has the best production of any rock record I’ve ever heard,” Cobain added. “It’s totally in-your-face and compressed. All the hype the Sex Pistols had was totally deserved … they deserved everything that they got. Johnny Rotten was the one I identified with, he was the sensitive one.”
Watch Nirvana discuss the influence of punk rock on their music in a 1991 interview below.
