Nevermind: the definitive authorised story of the album…

Nevermind: the definitive authorised story of the album…

Seattle --> Sub Pop

Dave Grohl: “We had that sort of DIY punk rock ethic that we all shared”.

Producer: Butch Vig

Dave: “Van Nuys in the Valley: ‘Sound City’”.

Krist Novoselic: “I just see the progression of Nirvana when it just started offas this kind of whack dissonance punk band, it was a dissonant punk… and it evolved and moved towards a more pop music”.

Butch Vig: “… he know the songs were really hooky, really poppy, lots of pop melodies”. “He didn’t want to come across as sounding too poppy”.

“A lot of them were about what he felt about life”.

Dave: Kurt’s focus was the melody” “The songs were intended to be as simple as possible”.

Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): “Without that voice I’m suspect that the band wouldn’t have been as great as what it was”.

Chris Montgomery: (Sound Engineer): “…rocked so much harder than the other bands that take it seriously”. “… pretty much taking the piss out of rock ‘n’ roll and rocking way harder than anyone else.” “It felt like the centre of the universe at the time…”.

Krist: “You smash your gear and it’s a stellar ending to the set”.

Charles R. Cross: “It’s a universal truth… I think we all feel alienated from each other and from our own beings at times.” “He just cut to the core and put it right there in his music”.

“Kurt was attractive to a lot of people, to a lot of young people who were confused about their place in the world.” “… they heard somebody that was equally confused”.

“He made it sound like he was singing about you”.

Smells like Teen Spirit:

- Sam Bayer, Director; “Nirvana hired me because my reel was so bad…”

“It was all there and there was literally nothing else on television like it”.

Amy Finnerly (MTV programming): “It changed the entire look of MTV.”

“… made MTV very successful, … a new platform, … a whole new generation to sell to…”

“It wasn’t cynical, …it was a shot of life..”

“It was just one of those things that happens maybe once every generation…”

“This roll, this momentum, word of mouth.” “You must hear this band Nirvana”.

“… in terms of who knew them at one point and how everyone knew them at the next one, it was literally overnight”.

Gary Gersh: “Kids weren’t reacting to it like a normal record”. “They were reacting to it like a movement”.

Dated: Jan 12^th 1992- Nirvana no #1

Thurston Moore: “not only reached no# 1… just broadened out.. completely changed the demographic of what the rock audience was… USA… then it went global. Crazy.”

“Kurt or Nirvana’s greatest legacy was to bring the underground… overground”.

Charles:

“It wasn’t that the kids from the wrong side of the tracks got it. Everybody got it”.

“He was right… he knew all along”.