'Nevermind' Is The Most Important Rock Album of All Time

[Six Hits of Sunshine]

Furthermore, I'm IN the same generation -- or does being two years older than Cobain make me one of the hated baby boomers?

Well I am 11-12 years Cobain’s junior. It seems like you were 29 when he died – plenty of time for you to have gone out, had some experiences – see the world so to speak. Not so for me. I hadn’t heard of Black Flag or the Velvet Underground or William Burroughs. I got a real education and I have that band to thank for the syllabus.

[JackRiddler]

In 1987 or so Douglas Coupland wrote a pretty good novel that perfectly captured a certain time-spirit for a certain group of people around my age and called it Generation X. It wasn't supposed to be abused this way by marketers and self-absorbed critics, though that could have been predicted.

.

[JackRiddler]

Furthermore, I'm IN the same generation -- or does being two years older than Cobain make me one of the hated baby boomers?

Well I am 11-12 years Cobain’s junior. It seems like you were 29 when he died – plenty of time for you to have gone out, had some experiences – see the world so to speak. Not so for me. I hadn’t heard of Black Flag or the Velvet Underground or William Burroughs. I got a real education and I have that band to thank for the syllabus.

No doubt! Let's stop talking about the headline and just honor a great album.

[barracuda]

I was at this show in 1993:



I was really only there as a spectator, because my age, at 35, was a bit advanced to be a participant. Have you ever been to the Cow Palace? It's not really a great place to hear music, more like seeing a band in a high school fieldhouse. No matter who plays there*, the music sounds like, "kkkchchchchcrrrrrrwwwwwooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaa". And there weren't very many people there - the main floor was only about 2/5ths full, and constituted at the stage end by a perfectly servicable and active mosh pit which I declined to attack for fear of breaking a hip. The band and the audience were enthusiastic, though, which is really what you want in such a situation. And the end of their set was a highlight:



Regarding the greatness or importance of the Nevermind album, it seems as if only five** of the twelve songs on the album really have endured as standards. The rest of the album is only of fair to mediocre quality, and it's reputation seems to ride on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" more than anything else. Without "Teen Spirit" I don't think a song like "Polly" would have had much airplay at all. And "Teen Spirit" is a good song, no doubt, but some of what's good about it was accidental. The lyrics were basically placeholders written for rehearsal that were never replaced, the title came from grafitti regarding a deodorant brand.



All these things are positives, not negatives, mind you. That these accidents were embraced by the band and magnified into the status they achieved onstage exemplifies a fine punk DIY ethos. But five great songs on a record don't - for me - produce a record that is deserving of the all-around World Championship heavyweight title. For a real contender I would be looking for an album in which all of the songs rose to the level of greatness, or the overall album quality was such that every part of it synergistically magnified the rest for a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts effect. And anyway, picking and delivering sobriquets like "greatest" or "most important" in this arena is silly, and obviously derive from aspects of taste and generational placement and bias more than sheer unmitigated quality. For example, I would place the Ramones first album as "more important" than Nevermind, because, firstly, The Ramones album is of such quality and perfect conception throughout that it's nearly impossible to point to a single song on the record which isn't just right, and which doesn't contribute to the overall gestalt of the album, the band, the moment in time, etc. And secondly I'd say that without the Ramones, it's doubtful if Nirvana's sound would have been as widely embraced as it was. And thirdly, well, this was the music of my generation, so I consider it to be important to me.

All these remarks of mine are, of course, coming from a man who, as I said, was too old to be anything but a spectator of this scene, really. But I appreciated the activism of the band, and supported that activism in my own small way back then, my own small way being the throwing down of twenty-five bucks to go to the show.



* @ Hammer of Los, I had seen Yes play the Cow Palace almost twenty years earlier, and even their usually immaculate sound was reduced to a series of humming overtones and room noises.

** IMHO, those songs would be "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "In Bloom", "Come as You Are", "Lithium", and "Polly".

[vince]

Lat me ask this question, since I've never really heard this album:
Is "Nevermind" the LAST ALBUM to make an impact on culture and society?

Since, IMO, music has lost any chance of being the wide spread phenomenon it used to have.
Without a doubt, I can believe it being 'important', since it was the 'last one' in what was, at one time, a really exciting form of entertainment: MUSIC!

[IanEye]

you know, i'd like to think somewhere out in the cosmos, Mr. Graeber is reading this particular thread to see what we at Rigorous Intuition think of his outlook on money and debt.

so, here is a summation of where we stand at this point in the discussion:

elihu seems to be taking a "Don't Tread On Me" approach:


and perhaps laying most of the troubles we face at the feet of a few "Damn Yankees"



while most other folks here at RI seem to be moved by a more non violent approach:


we don't mind stealing bread from the mouths of decadence, while at the same time we see no point in attempting to feed on the powerless as our cups are over filled already.


wait, this is the wrong thread isn't it? sigh, nevermind...

[norton ash]

Never Mind. Not the most important song to come out of Minnesota. Not even close. That's a toss-up between 'When Doves Cry', 'Blowin' in the Wind' or 'Don't Wanna Know if You are Lonely'




I'm told breakfast remains the most important meal of the day. I think late dinners are much more important, but that's only based on personal experience.

By the sound of things, I'd say Daft Punk Homework is the most important rock album of all time.

[Nordic]

I was standing about 20 feet to the left of this when it happened:




My girlfriend at the time was working the show and got me backstage vip passes. I was hanging out all over the place, and wanted to watch them perform. She told me they specifically told Kurt Cobain to NOT dive into the crowd. So guess what he did? It doesn't show it here, but at the end of the song he leaped face-first into the crowd. It was AWESOME. At the time I wasn't sure if the bassist was faking being hit in the head so hard, but he wasn't -- I saw him a little later, backstage, with an apple-sized bleeding bump on his forehead, holding an icepack to it. He looked pretty out of it, actually. He almost knocked himself out.

Great group, but greatest album of all time? No.

(guess it doesn't say if you just play the video, but it was the 1992 VMA awards.)

[Bruce Dazzling]

The best part of that, Nordic, is that Cobain nudges a staggering Novoselic out of the way with his guitar so that he can spear the amp with it.



Rock and roll.

[seemslikeadream]

Furthermore, I'm IN the same generation -- or does being two years older than Cobain make me one of the hated baby boomers?

Well I am 11-12 years Cobain’s junior. It seems like you were 29 when he died – plenty of time for you to have gone out, had some experiences – see the world so to speak. Not so for me. I hadn’t heard of Black Flag or the Velvet Underground or William Burroughs. I got a real education and I have that band to thank for the syllabus.

well there's a reason for the title...turning you on to the Underground

[crikkett]

Lat me ask this question, since I've never really heard this album:
Is "Nevermind" the LAST ALBUM to make an impact on culture and society?

Since, IMO, music has lost any chance of being the wide spread phenomenon it used to have.
Without a doubt, I can believe it being 'important', since it was the 'last one' in what was, at one time, a really exciting form of entertainment: MUSIC!

I think Sublime came out one or two years afterwards, and that truly was a work of art. The only music I've been that excited about since then is either Latin or African, or both.

[Nordic]

The best part of that, Nordic, is that Cobain nudges a staggering Novoselic out of the way with his guitar so that he can spear the amp with it.



Rock and roll.

You found the whole video of it, that's awesome! Yeah that was definitely the highlight of the whole show as I remember. Weird, my fuzzy, low-rez head is theoretically somewhere in that video.

Yeah, the producers were scared to death of these guys. IIRC they almost didn't want them to perform because they were worried what would happen.

[brekin]

In high school I had the chance to go see Nirvana in concert with The Butthole Surfers.
I didn't. Thought I'd catch them the next time.
I was so dumb, but that's ok- cause so are you.
We've broke our mirrors. Sunday morning is everyday
for all I care. I'm not scared.
Light my candles in a daze cause I found God.

[justdrew]

Never Mind. Not the most important song to come out of Minnesota. Not even close. That's a toss-up between 'When Doves Cry', 'Blowin' in the Wind' or 'Don't Wanna Know if You are Lonely'




I'm told breakfast remains the most important meal of the day. I think late dinners are much more important, but that's only based on personal experience.

By the sound of things, I'd say Daft Punk Homework is the most important rock album of all time.

agreement

but I'd go with...

and...

[Skunkboy]

norton ash said:

Never Mind. Not the most important song to come out of Minnesota. Not even close. That's a toss-up between 'When Doves Cry', 'Blowin' in the Wind' or 'Don't Wanna Know if You are Lonely'

If you would have asked me in 1987 what the most important rock album was, I would have told you "Pleased to Meet Me" by the Replacements. Of course we all know that's not true, it's just what someone feels at the time when the music was magic and it touched a part of your soul. Bands like the Replacements, Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr., The Meat Puppets and the Minutemen were the precursors of Nirvana and in some ways they were better. Nirvana was just in the right place at the right time, and they were great. Anyway... Godspeed Kurt... wherever you are.

On edit: Yeah just Drew, Celebrated Summer from Husker Du does kick some serious ass.