The song Kurt Cobain wrote after repeatedly listening to an album by The Beatles
Kurt Cobain was a devoted fan of The Beatles, and even if the influence was subconscious, the Fab Four had a significant impact on his songwriting. The Beatles were his musical education, and even as an adult with Nirvana, Cobain regularly returned to their work.
“I would say the biggest influence I’ve ever had would be The Beatles because I listened to The Beatles since I was five years old until I was in fourth grade,” Cobain once said. “The same records over and over every night! I sang the songs and I wanted to see The Beatles. It was about 1973 when I heard on the radio that they’d broken up for three years, I was totally devastated.”
According to the book, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azerrad, Cobain wrote ‘About A Girl’ after repeatedly listening to Meet The Beatles all day long, which bled into the song. The track made its way onto their debut album Bleach and was included on their MTV Unplugged in New York in 1994.
‘About A Girl’ is a red herring on Bleach and shows Cobain’s seldom seen poppier side. It makes complete sense he was going through a Beatles phase when he recorded the track, and although it doesn’t sound precisely like the Fab Four, it certainly contains the sensibilities of their songwriting.
Throughout his career, Cobain spoke about The Beatles profusely, and his favourite record by the group was Rubber Soul rather than Meet The Beatles. “Right now, even now, I’m starting to go back to listen to The Beatles,” he said in one interview. “My favourite period is the Rubber Soul period, the guitar and the simple melodies are my favourite.”
It was an obsession for Cobain, and The Beatles were with him every step of the way of his life. It was only right that ‘In My Life’ by the Fab Four was played during his funeral service, which was both fitting and tragic in equal measure.
For that reason, the song has taken on a new meaning for Dave Grohl. He once played it on BBC Radio and recalled the day Cobain was laid to rest: “That day, after everyone had said their piece, this next song came over the speakers and everyone got to celebrate Kurt’s love of The Beatles one last time together. Still to this day, when I hear it, it touches a place in me that no other song ever will.”
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