May 062011
Courtesy of ladymisskirroyale.
Are you happy now? Is this an example of the continuing triumph of punk rock or a sign of the coming apocalypse?
Kurt, your thoughts?
Courtesy of ladymisskirroyale.
Are you happy now? Is this an example of the continuing triumph of punk rock or a sign of the coming apocalypse?
Kurt, your thoughts?
I’m a little bit appalled but not surprised. Nothing is sacred. I discovered that when I heard Muzak versions of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and Led Zep’s “What Is and What Should Never Be” at the supermarket. I knew punk was in trouble when I saw a Time Life Sounds of the Seventies: Punk And New Wave CD in the early ’90s. It actually was a pretty good collection with decent notation. But it definitely was not in the professed anti-commercial spirit of the artists.
I assume Courtney Love still owns most if not all of Kurt’s music. Wonder what she thinks of this?
Yeah, this is just the latest example of what happens after the code is cracked.
This isn’t any worse than kids wearing CBGB shirts with no idea of what CBGBs was. I’m not offended because 1) the bigger battle was lost long ago (something cool being watered down, co-opted and over-saturated by mass marketing) and 2) I don’t particularly care about Nirvana (I only own one album by them and it’s a vinyl copy of In Utero that I’ve never opened out of some misguided notion that it might be worth something to someone someday). Nirvana was a decent enough band and have some cool tunes but they seem to have been randomly picked by the public to be the underground/alternative band that broke through.
Why should this song be any different to the kids today than say, Satisfaction, or Revolution, or Taking Care of Business for that matter?
If it ends up being a gateway drug and they discover cool bands because they follow the thread, all the better. Most will not. They’ll hear that song at a Miley concert and maybe download it afterward only to be disappointed that the original version isn’t as fun as Miley’s was. But a few might actually check out Nirvana and then be curious enough to explore things further. Maybe they’ll eventually discover bands like the Velvet Underground and the Replacements and the Buzzcocks. And then maybe that will lead them to a lifetime of being perplexed because the masses just don’t “get it” and they’ll wind up posting on a blog like this.
But the billboards I’ve seen recently say the End of Days is May 21. This arrived too early.
Most covers of this song prove two things (1) the song itself is not that good on its own and (2) 100% of the charm of the original recording of this song was Kurt’s personality.
Rolling Stone has a feature on thier website of ten artists covering SMTS and they are all pretty bad. At least Tori Amos’ verison is kinda sultry.
I used to agree that even a bad cover was a “gateway drug” towards the original band and maybe some new discoveries. Will a 22 year old check out Nirvana now? Maybe.
I know in my youth that Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood, Dave Edmunds, Stray Cats etc led me to check out Gene Vincent, Duane Eddie, Little Richard, Buddy Guy, Hank Williams and others.
Did the 40 year olds in 1985 think that SRV and Stray Cats were rip offs or Gateway Drugs?
“Is this an example of the continuing triumph of punk rock or a sign of the coming apocalypse?”
Hmm…is the assumption that it can’t be both?
Yeah, there’s a church in Akron that’s been flogging that one for a year. I want to see what happens on the 22nd. He better give them all their money back!
That song works a lot better on a much smaller stage and with the lyrics (especially the mulatto, albino verse) much more garbled. I thought Miley’s band sounded good in the way that the Dancing With the Stars or American Idol bands sound good. Everything is perfect, and that in itself shows that not a single person on the stage has any idea what they’re doing.
I just heard The Pogues “If I Should Fall From Grace With God” in a commercial for Subarus. Nothing means nothing anymore, although I will add that wasn’t it in the mid-90s that Subaru ran the ad campaign with some gen-x doof proclaiming “This car is like punk rock!”? This is just product and maybe shifts the perception of Miley Cyrus from purveyor of lightweight pop crap to lightweight pop crap purveyor who can’t choose appropriate cover songs…
OMG it’s better than Party in the U.S.A.!
When I heard London Calling in Jaguar commercial — I thought it was the apocalypse, but then I realized how many people were probably hearing it for the first time, and thought, that’s a triumph for The Clash!
When I first heard that Buzzcocks song in an AARP commercial I thought, “Jesus H Christ I’m getting old.”
I commented on this on some other blog, so I’ll say the same thing I did there:
Considering that I didn’t give a shit for Nirvana the first time around, this is neither good nor bad. I do wonder, though, how many of Miley’s fans know that band anyway?
I take a slightly less hard line than konajinx, but basically, I think to feel outrage one has to have a level of investment in the original that is being (presumably) travestied, and I don’t have that level of investment here. Still, I’d be happier, in general, if it were a Pearl Jam cover instead, since I think they deserve it.
only the beginning of what Kurt deserves for setting Courtney loose on the world.
At least your memory is good.
Amen. Never really cared about Nirvana, so this doesn’t irk me as much as when she covered The Runaway’s “Cherry Bomb”.
Still, as has been stated here already, there really isn’t anything sacred these days…I’m not even sure that’s such a bad thing, but it doesn’t really matter, because that’s the way it is. It’s an age where new acts have their music licensed to sell consumer products as part of their contracts, so whaddya gonna do.
It’s actually not that different from the original! Her voice is close enough and she only yodels a couple times. The musicians are the best that money can rent, I’m sure. I really can’t stand the “microphone finger-tap” that all the stage-managed people do these days. I have to think it’s a left over habit from having to be taught to sing and keep a beat at the same time. A training artifact.
Hardly any Nirvana fans cared about the Vaselines, Metallica fans still really don’t listen to Diamond Head, and the attendees here were singing along to this song, though that certainly could have just been the parents. This should simply tell people that if their taste hasn’t evolved since 1994, this is a signal that you are becoming uncool.
Sounds like this is the path Miley takes to become Avril Levigne or P!nk instead of Katy Perry. Good choice among limited options.
And I’m surprised to hear that Jungleland takes this to mean the original song was no good. Even played by this hired-gun backup band the thing still jumps right out at you. I’m not a huge Nirvana fan but this song deserved to be the big “alternative” breakthrough. Folks that spend a lot less time obsessing about music than the gang here get that without over-theorizing.