>>>>>>See? I told you we could be related. We are of a mind on Cobain. Talk about creating a god out of nothing!
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>>>>>He died for his music and in anguish. In the entertainment world dying can be an art-form.
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>>>>Of course, that assumes he killed himself. But I thought there was some controversy over how he died. If he was murdered, then the art form belongs to somebody else. I still agree with Charles though. His passing did not diminish the talent pool.
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>>>I don't know how much controversy there was outside conspiracy theorists on the internet.
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>>Possibly. I thought it was more realistic than that, but then Kurt Cobain is not much on my radar, so maybe not.
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>I was not part of the cult of Cobain, as so many teenagers were at the time Nirvana happened. And as others were after his death. I just thought Nirvana was a great band that left behind some great songs. There was something about his songs that connected with that generation in particular, the kids who were in high school in the early 1990s. There was a young guy named Mike Iannuci (sp.?) who used to work for MicroMega in its heyday and was a regular on the Compuserve FoxForum. This same discussion came up way back then, not long after Cobain's death, and he said the reason Nirvana connected was Kurt really understood what we've grown up with. We're the generation after the boomers, the generation that isn't good enough. You're lazy, you're aimless, your SAT scores suck. We've been told that our whole lives, he said. Hence songs like "Dumb".
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>Some of those kids have turned out pretty well indeed, I mention only in passing.
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>I know you have great musical taste and may permanently object to Nirvana on purely musically grounds. But if you have an ounce of open mindedness, check out a video of Nirvana live, their true element. The best one I have seen is "Nirvana: Live Tonight". If you watch it you will see another side of Kurt Cobain -- calm, cerebral, thought provoking. And impossible to take your eyes off on stage.
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>It is a tragedy what happened to him after Nirvana hit the big time and put the word "grunge" in the dictionary. But they had their moment. I still listen to their CDs with fair regularity. I wouldn't be surprised if they still sell pretty well.

I have to admit that my musical tastes are probably becoming more narrow as I get older. These days I listen to almost nothing but Jazz. As far as objecting on purely musical grounds... well, see, that's the real problem. I've come to the point where I absolutely require music in my music. The fact that somebody plays the guitar fast doesn't impress me. The fact that a guitarist can make the guitar screech doesn't impress me. The singer sticking his mouth on the mike and yelling doesn't impress me. If you want to see what sort of guitar impresses me, check out Ed Bickert. Listen to what he does with a guitar and compare it to Cobain. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Randy Bachman come to mind as guitar players in the popular medium that I can take. Not many others.

See? I told you my musical tastes are narrowing as I get older. Maybe it's a question of time. If I'm going to listen to music, it's going to be something I really like, and not something I see as mediochre. Even charisma doesn't much interest me. Most of my listening is just listening anyway, so I want to hear music. Maybe Cobain has stage presence, but that doesn't really mean much to me when I'm just listening.