Johan Stovin

3A

 

Nirvana is a band, which formed in 1987, and it has become popular over the last decade or so.  The band unfortunately broke up in 1994 due to the suicide of the lead singer, Kurt Cobain.  Although Kurt has been dead for just over a decade, the memory of him lives on, as does the music he wrote.  In the project on Kurt and Nirvana, I am going to tell you about the life of Kurt, the band; Nirvana, and the meanings behind the songs which were written.

Nirvana with their friend Andy who did the dancing in the video for Nevermind

Kurt Donald Cobain was born on the 20th February 1967 to Donald and Wendy Cobain.  His mother was a cocktail waitress and his father a mechanic. They lived in a small town 140 Km south of Seattle called Hoquaim.  They soon moved to a town called Aberdeen, a much nicer place.  This is where the band was originally started.  His father got a new job as a lumber mill.  He counted logs while Kurt’s mother stayed at home and looked after the children.

At the early age of 2, Kurt started to show an interest in music. His mother not surprised, because her side of the family were musically talented. Kurt's aunt Mary tried to teach him to play guitar, but he couldn’t stay still for a long time, because he was too hyper. The doctors prescribed a drug called Ritalin for Kurt but it would keep him awake till 4 in the morning sometimes.  Kurt’s mother decided to get him a drumset.  Every day after school, Kurt would come home and beat the drum to a pulp.  One day the drumset just broke.  After that Kurt would go over to his uncles and be given a microphone.  He would then be taped while he was singing in the basement.

Kurt’s family were poor, but tried to hide it.  Kurt’s mum always made sure that he and his sister had brushed teeth, combed hair and wore the most expensive clothes they could afford.  Kurt’s mum used to tell him and his sister not to hang round with the poor kids because then people would also think they were poor, but Kurt used to insist on picking up this kid which smelled like pee.  

Kurt’s house was in the middle of one of the worst looking neighbourhoods around, but it was the nicest looking house in the area, Kurt’s father made sure of that.  He installed wall-to-wall carpeting, a fake brick fireplace, and he made sure the outside looked just as good.  Kurt said his house looked like “white trash posing as middle class”.

When Kurt was around 7 or 8 his idol was Evel Knievel. He too wanted to be a stuntman when he grew up. While going through this phase Kurt would often go inside and take all the blankets and pillows he could find, take them outside and spread it out on the deck. He would climb onto the roof and jump off onto the padded platform he had made. Once he found a piece of metal, attached firecrackers to it, duct-taped it to his chest, and then lit the firecrackers off. He soon realized he didn't want to be a stuntman anymore.

When Kurt was 8, his mother decided to get a divorce.  She said she wanted this because Kurt’s father was never at home, but away coaching or refereeing sports fixtures.  His mother got remarried to a man called Pat O’Conner.  His dad also got remarried. The woman he got married to had kids of her own.

While Kurt was staying with his father, he didn't get along with the others. Especially his new step mum. He soon realized that his father was paying more attention to his step kids than he was to his own son. Don had made Kurt join the junior high wrestling team. Kurt liked it a little and he was good at it too. During a championship match, to get back at his dad, and annoy him, he would let his opponent pin him. Then he'd look at his dad and give him a smile. His dad left immediately. Kurt had embarrassed him. His little plan worked.

Kurt's teenage years consisted mostly of moving back and fourth from his mother's house to his father's house constantly. He even had lived at some of his uncle's and aunt's houses and he even lived with his grandparents for a short time. This meant he had to keep switching schools. Kurt would get into trouble for vandalism, into trouble with his mom for drugs, into trouble with the police for spray-painting God is gay on the side of a truck. He was fined $180.

While Kurt lived with his mum, he found a friend.  His name was Myer Loftin.  They would often sleep at Kurt’s house at the weekends and have parties.  One time, Kurt’s mum came home from a party of her own and found Myer and Kurt smoking pot.  Trying to scare them out of smoking pot in the future, she smoked their stash. She was high and sick the rest of the night. (It didn't scare them, cause they kept smoking it).

After a while, Myer told Kurt that he was gay. IT didn’t bother Kurt until he started to get beaten up in the locker room.  He took the beating for a little while, but finally gave up and told Myer that they couldn’t be friends anymore.  Myer accepted this but was a little hurt.

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During Kurt's high school years he became a stoner. Every day after school he would get stoned. This continued all through his high school career. One reason why he became a stoner was, because he was always around them. He didn't like the jock type, so he'd hang around the stoners instead, even though he didn’t like them that much. The jocks were always trying to get Kurt to join their little group, but Kurt wouldn't. The only reason they wanted to hang around him was because all the girls thought Kurt was cute and the jocks figured if ...

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