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MUSIC FEATURE

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NIRVANA NEVERMIND Bryget Chrisfield hits you with some juicy

nuggets of wisdom surrounding classic records; this month it’s the seminal ‘91 beast that is Nirvana’s Nevermind . Hit up JB Hi-Fi for multiple 30th anniversary reissue formats, out now via Universal.

Year 1991

Nirvana’s second album and first major-label release, Nevermind – which cost roughly 200 times more to make than the band’s debut (1989’s Bleach ) – sold over 30 million copies worldwide.This multi-platinum-selling, industry- shaping record dethroned Michael Jackson’s Dangerous from a month-long run atop the Billboard 200 album chart to catapult Nirvana – with their enigmatic-but-fame- shy frontman Kurt Cobain (RIP) and trademark quiet-loud-quiet dynamics – into the mainstream. Smells LikeTeen Spirit , Come As You Are , Lithium – Nirvana’s rage anthems for self-doubting outcasts sent shockwaves through the global music scene, driving a stake through glam-metal’s heart to formally demand a grunge takeover. Altogether now: “Here we are now, EN-TER-TAAAAAIIN UUUUUUUS!”

The original album cover plan was an actual water birth photo An underwater shoot was set up at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena, California – with multiple babies – after Kurt’s original plan to grace Nevermind ’s album cover with an actual photo of a water birth was deemed too graphic. The winning underwater shot of a four-month-old baby boy, tempted by a dollar bill on a fishhook, remains one of the most recognisable album covers of all time. Teen Spirit’s a deodorant brand Nirvana’s ultimate grunge anthem, Smells Like Teen Spirit , was inspired by the following phrase that Bikini Kill songwriter/vocalist Kathleen Hanna scrawled on Kurt Cobain’s bedroom wall during a wild party: “Kurt smells like teen spirit.” At the time, Kurt was dating Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail (who inspired another Nirvana

Come AsYou Are borrows from Eighties Before releasing Come As You Are as a single, Cobain flagged the fact that this Nirvana song shared some similarities with Killing Joke’s Eighties, to the band’s management company. Killing Joke did complain about it, but that’s as far as it went (quite possibly because Eighties sounds an awful lot like Life Goes On by The Damned). Kurt worked as a school janitor at the very same school he dropped out of Did you know that Kurt worked as a school janitor at Weatherwax High School for a short time, after he dropped out of the very same school? For those in the know, the dancing janitor in Smells Like Teen Spirit ’s ‘Pep Rally From Hell’-themed

song, Lounge Act ) and Teen Spirit was her deodorant of choice – geddit? Unaware of the deodorant connection, Kurt just liked the feeling of rebellion within this phrase ,and the rest, as they say, is history. Oh, and sales of Teen Spirit deodorant shot up when this song became a hit.

music video was an inside joke. Also, the extras in this film clip were recruited from Nirvana’s show at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip a coupla days prior when

flyers were distributed, reading: “Nirvana needs you to appear in their upcoming music video. You should be 18-25 years old and

adopt a high school persona, i.e. preppy, punk, nerd, jock. Be prepared to stay for several hours. Come support Nirvana and have a great time.”

Released on the same day as Nevermind :

A Tribe Called Quest Low End Theory

Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Nirvana in a promotional shot from 1991, L-R: Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic. Insert: the 30th anniversary superdeluxe vinyl release of the album, out now and also available on vinyl (1LP + 7”), deluxe CD and superdeluxe CD.

DECEMBER 2020

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