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Haunting.
After a long search for the proper adjective to describe "Something In the Way" by Nirvana, lyrics by Kurt Cobain, I found haunting to be descriptive of both the man and the music. This song claims nowhere near the attention that Smells Like Teen Spirit demands or saw. Listening to it, I can understand Kurt's frustration in his "fame". The man poured his emotions out through his guitar strings and strained vocal chords, and though million of albums sold, still nowhere heard his words.
The song itself is a parallel to Kurt's youth in several ways. In Aberdeen, Washington where Kurt was born and raised, he found himself living from couch to couch, place to place, even going as far as to sleep in a hospital waiting room because "nobody would ever wake someone up sleeping in a hospital waiting room...". He claims to have slept under a specific bridge in his hometown one night while homeless. "Underneath a bridge, tarp has sprung a leak" is really about him.
He speaks next of animals that he has trapped, and they'll become his pets. Kurt was an animal lover- he wrote in his diaries about them and is seen in pictures playing with cats. He had a rat once. When it got sick I believe, Kurt had to stomp it's skull to put it out of it's misery, or so his diary said. He was devastated and wrote very eerie things about this event. Kurt did this often. He was particularly obsessed with the fetus, embryo and birth. Many believe this was morbid, but Kurt found it to be a miracle and fascinating. Back to the rat, though he knew he had to kill it, the rat was still his friend. Hence, the lyrics. He also doesn't mind eating the fish 'cause they don't have any feelings. Typical of Kurt- over sensitive to others' feelings before his own- an animals feelings over starvation. Kurt would rather die than hurt someone, yet he's still under a bridge.
It all seems so romantic until one discovers that Kurt never in fact stayed under this bridge. If he had, according to his family and friends, it wasn't for lack of a couch or friend's floor to sleep on. They always made sure he was never homeless they all say in interviews, and that Kurt tended to exagerate things.
Great. The song has lost all meaning, right? Just like the media says- Nirvana is over rated.
Watch the making of "Nevermind". The producer of the album talks about Kurt recording Something. The band tried it all together but Kurt insisted it was wrong. He made everyone stop and came into the booth and explained it needed
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Haunting.
After a long search for the proper adjective to describe "Something In the Way" by Nirvana, lyrics by Kurt Cobain,
Kurt Cobain was full of great musical potential, but in the end, his life never amounted to near what it could have. The
by Ethan Womack
Kurt Cobain was, even until this day, one of the last of music's greats.
Many people state that he was nothing more than a
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