In 1989, Nirvana's Bleach helped put a face on the Seattle music scene, and give a voice to a generation.
Kurt Cobain. The very words now seem sacrosanct, spoken in hushed reverential whispers or wistful ruminations on what might have been: perhaps rightfully so. After all, when, in 1991, flannel-clad rockers from the logging towns of the Pacific Northwest bum-rushed the music scene and broke the stranglehold of the hair-metal demigods, Cobain and his band, Nirvana, led the charge. "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the lead-off single from their second record, Nevermind, with it's rallying cry of "Here we are now, entertain us!" brought alternative rock to the mainstream and set off a youth-quake whose aftershocks took years to die out.
Within weeks, Cobain, who only a short time before couldn't get a job cleaning kennels, was hailed as a musical messiah. A post-modern Jim Morrison whose fractured poetry and volatile songwriting style channeled the angst of Generation X and plugged it into the outlet of public awareness. Sadly, the revolution of "grunge rock", as the Seattle sound came to be known, never materialized. Instead, it came to an end with a bang and a whimper in April of 1994 when Cobain shot himself in his Washington home.
Still, his legacy remained intact. Nevermind went on to topple Michael Jackson from the Billboard charts, and went platinum eight times over. Even today it's remembered as one of the most pivotal albums ever released, the Never Mind the Bollocks . . . of the '90s. Equally brilliant, if not as lauded, was the band's first release, Bleach. Recorded for $600 for Sub Pop, Bleach skulked into stores in June of 1989 unheralded outside of the Seattle alternative scene. Now, nearly 14 years hence, the album proves to be a fascinating listen. On the surface, it's a groundbreaking rock record, fused with energy and intelligence. But, beneath its roiling sea of screams and feedback, is a Rosetta Stone, revealing the cracks in Cobain's already crumbling psyche.
Olympia
By 1988, Cobain had permanently left behind his childhood town of Aberdeen, Washington and embraced the burgeoning music scene in Olympia. At the time, the city, along with Seattle, was a hotbed of new bands, all clamoring to get on the Sub Pop label. Sub Pop was seen at the time as the breeding ground for new bands. Soundgarden and the Pearl Jam prototype Green River had already been signed to the label, and their strictly indie roster appealed to young bands looking for any way to break in. Cobain had been playing guitar for some time, and had been composing songs for years, writing about anything from television to masturbation. Drawing on influences ranging from the Knack to Queen to local music heroes the Melvins, Cobain began assembling a band of his own while swimming against the competitive tide in Olympia.
At times, Cobain felt as if he was back in high school, following the trends as best he could while trying to make some headway with has own band. He, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dale Crover had cut a ten-song demo for $150, which began to garner some attention on the local scene. Additionally, the band's live shows were becoming increasingly popular. After Crover's departure (he was replaced by Chad Channing), Sub Pop co-owner Jonathan Poneman began expressing interest in the band. He approached Cobain, asking to record the band's strongest live song, a cover of Shocking Blue's "Love Buzz", and release it as a single.
Cobain was hesitant, believing that a cover song should not be the way the world first heard Nirvana. Nonetheless, for someone who'd lived and breathed music for the past decade, the prospect of having a single, moreover a single on Sub Pop, was to tempting to ignore. Released in 1988, "Love Buzz" sold out its first pressing, and continued to do well on college and local radio. The first steps in Nirvana's long road to success had been taken. The single's success led to talks with the label about recording a full-length album. Cobain immediately began compiling songs for the record.
Originally titled Too Many Humans, Cobain changed the name after seeing an AIDS ad that read "Bleach Your Works". The phrase intrigued Cobain and he used it for the album's name, after shortening it to one word.
Bleach
For all the sound and fury that would later emanate from the Nirvana camp, Bleach begins on a quiet note. "Blew" starts off with a somber, growling bass line from Novoselic, before Channing and Cobain kick in with measured ferocity. Already the listener gets a hint of Cobain's musicianship, as evidenced in the solid guitar solo. After the Mayberry meets bizzaro-world head trip of "Floyd the Barber", "About a Girl" serves to silence the critics who often tried to paint Cobain as merely a logging-town redneck, and reveals an accomplished songwriter with something meaningful to say. From the catchy, Beatles-esque guitar riff to the soulful lyrics, this was Cobain's first attempt at writing a love song, and it remains one of his best songs. Written for Tracy Marander, his then-girlfriend, the lyrics reveal honest emotion:
I need an easy friend
I do . . . with an ear to lend
I do . . . think you fit this shoe
"About a Girl", almost more than any other Nirvana song, makes you wonder what might have been.
"Love Buzz" reveals some of Nirvana's musical influences. Replacing the original's neo-psychedelic sitar riff with fuzzed-out guitars and a wah-wah drenched solo, it's a smoldering rock number that could easily be mistaken for a Nirvana original.
While Cobain often dismissed his lyrics as simply being "cool things to sing" Bleach proves to be a revealing look into Cobain's mindset at the time. "School", Cobain's wry comment on the Olympia music scene, speaks to anyone who's ever tried, without success, to fit into some prescribed social format. Over a raging sea of guitar, bass and drums, Cobain laments, "Won't you believe it, it's just my luck / No recess." As the song churns on, it builds to a roaring emotional climax with Cobain shouting "You're in high school again" to anyone who can hear him. The lyrics to "Scoff" reveal some of the self-loathing that haunted Cobain.
In my eyes, I'm not lazy
In my face, It's not over
In your room, I'm not older
In your eyes, I'm not worth it
"Negative Creep", is one of Bleach's strongest tracks, and one of Nirvana's best songs. The meat-grinder of a guitar riff clashes with Novoselic's and Channing's thundering rhythm section to give the song the momentum of a runaway train. Cobain's vocals, with lyrics like "I'm a negative creep and I'm stoned", soon devolve into a bone-shaking primal scream. Heard then, it could almost be thought of as a rallying cry for the underground movement. Now it has an eerie resonance as a disembodied voice shouting from the grave.
"Downer", the album's closing track, is a blistering rant with lyrics that sound almost like an experiment in automatic writing. As the band thrashes onward, Cobain recites in an almost mumbling cadence of vitriol. Much of it reveals his anger, frustration and overall confusion about the world around him, as evidenced by the lyrics:
Thank you, dear God, for putting me on this Earth
I feel very privileged, in debt for my thirst.
Nirvana
Bleach was released on 9 June 1989, just as the Seattle scene was beginning to get noticed by the British press. By the end of the year, the record had landed in the top 10 on the British charts. It wasn't long before the major labels started courting Nirvana. Within two years of Bleach's release, Nirvana was on MCA, Nevermind was on the charts and teenagers all over the world were tossing out their Ratt and Warrant CDs in favor of Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Screaming Trees.
The rest of the story has been told and retold so many times that it has transcended rock history and become something more akin to myth. A hazy fever dream that makes one shake their head and say "Did it really happen that way?" After all, looking at the world of music today, it's not all that different from the world Nirvana barnstormed into a dozen years ago. Like the Beatles in the '60s, the Pistols in the '70s, and Nirvana in the '90s, let's hope there's another musical revolution waiting in the wings.
Here we are now: entertain us.
