Monday, May 15, 2023

The Second Coming - Nirvana's Late-1990s Albums

In the early 1990s, Nirvana was one of the biggest bands in the world thanks to their most well-known hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", bringing the grunge genre to the forefront in the music world. Amongst their contemporaries like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana have had the shortest active life, lasting only seven years and putting out three albums in that timeframe, due to Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994. Yet, their influence has been felt, with Cobain being called "the John Lennon of the swinging Northwest" according to Time, and many fans have been left wondering what might've been had Cobain not died so soon.

I actually have plans for Nirvana for Strawberry Peppers: The Second Coming, even though they don't come in until the end of the 1980s; Kurt never gets addicted to heroin, and instead takes on marijuana. Nirvana (and by extension, grunge) catches the interest of the one and only John Lennon, impressed with what he's hearing, who has the group signed up onto Apple Records in 1991, following the failed sessions for Sheep; just as well, since Sub Pop Records were having financial problems at the time. (As an aside, Kurt never runs into Courtney Love, for she ends up fading to irrelevance.) Lennon helps to produce Nevermind, and Nirvana become superstars, and in 1994, they headline Lollapalooza, their first performance with Pat Smear as their fourth member.

So, what comes next for Nirvana? Well, consider the following:

From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (April 14, 1995)
1. You Know You're Right - 3:38 (Nirvana 2002)
2. She Only Lies - 2:45 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
3. Big Me - 2:12 (Foo Fighters 1995)
4. Alone + Easy Target - 4:06 (Foo Fighters 1995)
5. What More Can I Say? - 3:14 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
6. Poison's Gone - 2:09 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
7. Do Re Mi - 4:18 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
8. Marigold - 2:33 (Heart-Shaped Box single)
9. The Yodel Song - 2:35 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
10. Desire - 2:29 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
11. Clean Up Before She Comes - 3:05 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
12. Exhausted - 5:45 (Foo Fighters 1995)
13. Opinion - 1:33 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
Total length: 40:22

With the Lights Out and the solo Montage of Heck showcase that Nirvana had as many three albums' worth of material, if not more so. But because of Kurt's death, we may never know what he would have written for Nirvana's fourth album, although "You Know You're Right" - eventually released in 2002 on a compilation album - gives us a glimpse of what might have been. A possibility here is that Dave Grohl could have some of his own songs being recorded as Nirvana songs, like "Marigold", released as a B-side. This could've helped to take some of the songwriting weight off of Kurt's shoulders, and maybe they'd become the Lennon-McCartney of grunge.

For this album and the next two, I've utilized fan remixes of some of Kurt's tracks; otherwise, they would've clashed heavily with the more polished production of Dave's. Thank goodness for YouTube being a source for the remixes. The title comes from the live album that was released in 1996, two years after Kurt's death.

The Color and the Shape (May 20, 1997)
1. Burn My Britches - 2:44 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
2. Monkey Wrench - 3:51 (The Color and the Shape)
3. Talk to Me - 3:02 [studio mockup by Riot Earth]
4. Sappy - 3:26 (With the Lights Out)
5. Friend of a Friend - 3:13 (In Your Honor)
6. Ivy League - 2:20 [studio mockup by If Kurt Cobain Lived]
7. My Hero - 4:20 (The Color and the Shape)
8. Come on Death - 3:30 [studio mockup by TheBeginningOfMusic]
9. Moist Vagina - 3:33 (In Utero - 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
10. Dogs - 3:34 (Sweet 75)
11. Everlong - 4:10 (The Color and the Shape)
12. Weirdo - 4:16 [studio mockup by Silaserrad]
Total length: 41:59

With Dave Grohl having more prominence in songwriting and recording (with "Friend of a Friend" going all the way back to 1990), it becomes clear to Nirvana that they'll need a second drummer to supplement Dave whenever he sings live. Enter buddy Taylor Hawkins, and Nirvana now becomes a five-piece band, and it would stay that way for over twenty years. Dave and Taylor aren't constrained to Nirvana, however, for the former has his own side project, the Foo Fighters, also including Nate Mendel on bass guitar, and they're eventually joined by Chris Shiflett on guitar.

Dave explains in an interview upon the album's release, "I love playing with Kurt, Krist and Pat, but the Foo Fighters was done so that I could express myself more. We've heard stories from John [Lennon] about how George [Harrison] would get frustrated when the Beatles wouldn't play one of his songs, so this was something Kurt and I had agreed upon from the start. We've not fallen out or anything; we're still really good friends."

Honestly, The Color and the Shape is such a good album title that there was no way I couldn't use it for Nirvana's fifth album. This is where the band really shows how much they'd evolved over the past few albums, to the point where Krist Novoselic even writes a song ("Dogs") for it! (Let's imagine that it was either given to Kurt to sing or Krist sings it himself.) This would definitely be Nirvana at their most collaborative, and maybe it's just me, but I can almost picture it being ranked even higher than Nevermind.

(As an aside, I'd imagine that while Nirvana continues to evolve their sound and grow in popularity, Oasis loses favor with listeners following Be Here Now, and the band breaks up before their fourth album is even released.)

Montage of Heck (November 2, 1999)
1. Stacked Actors - 4:16 (There is Nothing Left to Lose)
2. Old Age - 4:20 (With the Lights Out)
3. Learn to Fly - 3:55 (There is Nothing Left to Lose)
4. Burn the Rain - 3:44 [studio mockup by Harmonova]
5. Generator - 3:48 (There is Nothing Left to Lose)
6. Montage of Heck - 6:35 [studio mockup by jone; Breathe the Lie]
7. Token Eastern Song - 3:21 (With the Lights Out)
8. Next Year - 4:36 (There is Nothing Left to Lose)
9. Horrified - 6:47 [unknown song #2]
10. Rehash - 2:35 (Montage of Heck)
11. M.I.A. - 4:03 (There is Nothing Left to Lose)
Total length: 48:00

As the millennium drew to a close, and with Dave Grohl having released the first Foo Fighters album earlier that year, Nirvana got back in the studio together to record their sixth album, declining an invitation to Woodstock '99 due to scheduling conflicts. (In retrospect, this turned out to be a wise move on their part.) Montage of Heck once again showcased Grohl's songwriting ability, to the point where he opens and closes the album. Still, Kurt Cobain's songwriting was nothing to sneeze at either, and Nirvana had ended the decade, century and millennium on a high note. Where could they go next as the 2000s dawned? Only time will tell...

The last Nirvana album I can realistically make as I was running low on Kurt Cobain material to utilize. I'm amazed I was even able to find material for three albums' worth, and I feel that if I tried going any further, I'd just be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Of course, if Kurt had lived, some of the songs he'd write from 1994 onward would probably be more innovative than what we got leftover. He's an enigma in the world of music history, and we'll probably never know what else he could've done...

What happens from 2000 onward?
Nirvana would likely to continue as a five-piece band, perhaps on a trajectory akin to the Foo Fighters in OTL, but with Kurt and Krist along for the ride. They do take on side projects, though, like Kurt and Dave helping George Harrison record for Portrait of a Leg End, released on the ex-Beatle's 59th birthday. In 2001, Nirvana is interviewed for a documentary about themselves and the impact they left behind in the 90s, with Jools Holland directing, titled With the Lights Out. A box set is released in conjunction with the documentary, which sells in high numbers. Nirvana would inevitably go through a creative slump in the decade, but over time, their albums from that period gradually become critical favorites. One of their biggest post-90s albums is 2011's Actually, serving as a sequel to Nevermind twenty years later, down to Spencer Elden reprising his role for the cover, this time swimming away from the dollar bill.

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