The 1960s legend Kurt Cobain never wanted to become: “I don’t want to change”
Being a part of one of the greatest bands in the world was an extremely mixed blessing for Kurt Cobain.
Anyone would have killed to have the kind of hits that he did when Nirvana made it big, but when you start looking at the details of his personal life, there was no way that he was ready with all the baggage that came with being in a huge rock and roll band. He never anticipated the band becoming one of the greatest forces in rock and roll, but Cobain at least had a good idea of what he didn’t want the band to turn into years down the road.
In fact, a lot of Cobain’s actions were dictated by the way that some of his punk rock heroes were approaching their music. He still loved the idea of going along with the slacker attitude and claiming that his own record wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but even when he was writing some of the greatest melodies of all time, he wasn’t above messing them up and making them sound a little bit harsh whenever he performed.
That’s half the reason why ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ pissed him off so much whenever he had to play it, but there was no way around playing their signature tune. That song captured what teenage angst felt like in only a few minutes, and while Cobain was happy to get rid of all of the other hair metal bands that were making a mockery of rock and roll, he didn’t necessarily think that grunge needed to take over, either. He wanted to make underground music the same way R.E.M. did, but he didn’t really have a choice once Nevermind blew up.
So when you look at what the band did immediately afterwards, it makes sense that Cobain would have wanted to scale things back. He didn’t want to make a name for himself as someone who made glossy rock and roll records, and while In Utero is the definition of abrasive in some respects, Cobain was still focusing on writing the best songs that he could rather than just experimenting with random noises.
He still had a vision for what his songs were supposed to sound like, and Unplugged was the first time that people got to hear the songwriting side of him. He wasn’t above reinterpreting some of his songs every single time that he played, but considering that the entire series was founded on what Eric Clapton had done with a song like ‘Layla’, Cobain felt that wasn’t the kind of format that he wanted to be working in.
‘Slowhand’ did have another hit on his hand when reinterpreting his Derek and the Dominos classic, but Cobain didn’t want to turn into that kind of songwriter, saying, “It’s impossible for me to look into the future and say that I’m going to be playing Nirvana songs in 10 years. I don’t want to have to resort to doing the Eric Clapton thing. Not to put him down whatsoever; I have immense respect for him. But I don’t want to have to change my songs to fit my age.”
Which probably explains why so many of the songs from Unplugged weren’t exactly the big hits. The idea of him changing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ sound like an acoustic affair would have been terrible, but when you look at that one night, you can definitely hear what Cobain could have sounded like if he had stuck around for a little longer.
He was making music that felt timeless and was reintroducing himself as a songwriter rather than just a grunge rocker, and maybe if he had kept going, we could have heard what Cobain’s singer-songwriter record would have sounded like decades later. It’s only fantasy at this point, but regardless of what Cobain would have done next, there’s no doubt that what he already gave us was going to live on forever.
